# WooHoo! Third book in a series, used to be the trick. Thread ended.



## AltMe

**** The contents of this thread, while being a good journey read, is now well and truly out of date. Use any recommendation made during the thread at your own risk. ****

I released my 3rd novel in my first series yesterday.
Today I found a spike in my sales, to 16 units sold !!! My biggest day ever.  
And its still the 12th in the US.

What I found interesting, is that in several cases, all 3 books sold, suggesting that the 3rd book has flowed backward to the first 2.

I also had my first sales in Canada, being all three, and the 3rd book sold in .de for the first time, with reads of the other 2 showing. (First 2 are on KU, but the third wont be until just before the 4th comes out.

My reads also skyrocketed yesterday. From the 800 mark, up to just under 3k.

What may be a factor, is the 3rd cover is a lot better than the first 2. imo.

The marketing I did was to my Facebook page (45 saw it, the page has only 32 likes), my first mailchimp email (which I stuffed up) to only 4 people, updating my thread and signature here, and updating my series domain front page.

On Facebook, one of my fans posted this: "*An absolutely first class read. Thoroughly captivating with almost continual battles. Can't wait for book 4.*"   

Now it will be interesting to see what reviews come in, and if the momentum actually increases now.


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## Susanne123

TimothyEllis said:


> On Facebook, one of my fans posted this: "*An absolutely first class read. Thoroughly captivating with almost continual battles. Can't wait for book 4.*"


Congratulations! That's a wonderful comment from your fan.


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## geronl

That is great news, I am actually very jealous


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## riffelbooks

Way to go! The best part of the comment was "can't wait for book 4."


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## Seshenet

Congrats! No better comment than that!


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## YoMama

"Hunted Hero Hunting"

I LOVE IT


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## TheIndieEditor

Congratulations! Series often sell better overall than single novels do, which is probably why you're seeing the sales from the third flow back to the original two: "Well, I have to get the other ones..." I'm glad your success is an example of that, and I hope it keeps up!


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## AltMe

Now 18 sales for the 12th.   (This smiley doesn't have a wide enough grin.)

Send in the Hero is ranked 48,844, which is my highest rank for any book so far. The other 2 are both in 68,000 range. Hero at Large has just shot up again, due to flow back sales.

<<<<< Happy writer!


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## Abderian

Congratulations! Third time's the charm, eh?


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## AltMe

> #43,439 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
> #98 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Metaphysical & Visionary*


I broke into the 100 in a sub-category !!!!!


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## Clementine

Awesome news! Congrats. I loved the comment about book four.


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## noob

awesome! congrats!


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## ThatYiGuy

Congrats!  a good cover makes a world of difference


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## AltMe

TimothyEllis said:


> I broke into the 100 in a sub-category !!!!!


And its #10 on the hot sales list in the same sub-category !

The buzz keeps getting bigger.


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## AA Dawn

Yaaaaaaay!!! Congrats!


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## Marilyn Peake

Congratulations! Time to celebrate!


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## AltMe

Not so much celebrating, but a definite buzz.

4 sales for the 13th so far.

Before now, 5 a day was my highest, only happening twice, with an average of 1-2 since I launched the 2nd novel 6 weeks ago. So 4 on the second day is also encouraging, and its not long started in the US. That average was across 15 titles too. My month to date is all across 5 titles.


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## AltMe

18 on day 1.
13 on day 2.
2 so far on day 3.

But there are also 3 returns, on 2 books. It looks like the red line is the books sold, not sold less returns. So its a bit deceptive.

Still, 18+13+2-3=30, in 2 and a bit days, across 5 books. When my normal is 0-2.

Its a start.


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## Aderyn Wood

Congrats, Timothy! And thanks for sharing this great info


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## Guest

Yay!! Congrats!!!


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## AltMe

It's definitely the 3rd book in the series making the series more credible. And quite possibly the fact the cover is better. I was lucky getting it. The first 2 were put together. The 3rd was a single image I just needed to crop into shape. Makes a lot of difference.

Now I have to start worrying about the cover for the 4th. It starts on a cliffhanger, so the cover has to have more bang.


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## PearlEarringLady

Congrats! It's lovely to hear your success story. I've definitely found that more books=more sales, and yes, the third does seem to put things on a different level. Long may it continue for you.


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## AltMe

18 on day 1.
13 on day 2.
9 on day 3.
2 so far on day 4.

Slow decline, but I can see what people mean by a tail now.   

Plus 8919 pages read so far this month. 

So in 3 months time, I will be able to officially buy lunch.


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## PearlEarringLady

TimothyEllis said:


> So in 3 months time, I will be able to officially buy lunch.


That's the spirit.


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## HN Wake

Congrats!!  Great to hear these stories!  Keep us posted.


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## AltMe

Something else I noticed happened today.

The first book in the series came out as the header book on a multi-book email from Amazon!   
I've no idea how many people got the same one I did, but it looks like at least one more of the 1st book has sold so far today.


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## Guest

congrats. 

Yes, the 3rd cover looks good. Perhaps you could find something like that for the first 2.
Also, how do you decide on fonts. That can help too. Trying out a few different fonts and titles sizes and sharing it here. We had a designer on our team who specialized in fonts and I learnt a lot from him. So if you post a thread here I can give you feedback on fonts.


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## geronl

Something for us to aim for.


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## AltMe

Overnight result:

18 on day 1.
13 on day 2.
9 on day 3.
9 on day 4.

And reads spiked significantly as well, from none the previous day. Also was interesting to note that in Germany, I sold a second 3rd book, several days after the first 2 were read, as if someone had hung out for the 3rd to enter KU, and then given up waiting and bought it. I hope so anyway.

I've now passed last months total, half way through the month.


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## clavers

Congrats!! I am only on book one ... baby steps. Thanks for the encouraging post


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## AltMe

clavers said:


> Congrats!! I am only on book one ... baby steps. Thanks for the encouraging post


Baby steps is right. Its a good way of looking at it.

Edit: Oooo, I have a new review from overnight as well!


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## Julz

Congratulations!! And sounds like you've got a fan for life there


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## AltMe

Julz said:


> Congratulations!! And sounds like you've got a fan for life there


Actually, I wrote my first fan into the series. What was supposed to be just an introduce someone else character, is now an important sub-character.

Day 4 is still going, it seems. Now 10.


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## AltMe

Day 5 in progress.

18 on day 1.
13 on day 2.
9 on day 3.
10 on day 4.
8 so far on day 5.

The tail is still wagging! I am really hoping now that this continues and becomes my new baseline.


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## AltMe

My third novel has moved a bit in the right direction. 

#35,406 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store) 
 #83 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Metaphysical & Visionary* 
 #153 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Space Exploration* 
 #158 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Exploration* 
All 3 of those are improvements.


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## TechnicianCerberus

Congratulations!


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## Nadia Nader

Congratulations!


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## Carol M

Congrats! That's great to hear!


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## Dana Masting

Congratulations! I like the cover on the 3rd book. Are you thinking about maybe updating the covers for the first two installments? Loving your success!


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## AltMe

Dana Masting said:


> Congratulations! I like the cover on the 3rd book. Are you thinking about maybe updating the covers for the first two installments? Loving your success!


Yes, and no. 

The first 2 represent my attempt to patch together a cover from different images. I still need to learn more about doing that. I also need to learn about how to lighten up the images, as they turned out darker than I wanted. One of the reasons the third one is better, is the ship is much better lit, which was a choice of where to do it, within the game it was taken within. Those good at taking images know how to take them with the sun in the right place. Mine were not so well placed.

Also, when I can afford it, I will get them professionally done. But this is quite a ways off now, especially given the A$ at the moment.

On the other hand, I'm hoping the game company from which the images are taken, will feature my books on their next newsletter, in which case using the game images is important.

Day 6 : 6 so far.


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## AltMe

18 on day 1.
13 on day 2.
9 on day 3.
10 on day 4.
10 on day 5.
9 on day 6.
1 so far on day 7, but its only 3.39am in NY.


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## AltMe

Is this a tail that keeps wagging, or I have I really moved up a level?

18 on day 1.
13 on day 2.
9 on day 3.
10 on day 4.
10 on day 5.
9 on day 6.
14 on day 7.
1 so far on day 8, but day 7 isn't finished in the US yet.

Send in the Hero - still advancing!
#30,358 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store) 
 #79 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Metaphysical & Visionary* 
 #134 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Space Exploration* 
 #138 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Exploration*


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## R.U. Writing

This is so awesome. Keep the updates coming!


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## AltMe

Wilden Turk said:


> This is so awesome. Keep the updates coming!


I'm glad I'm not the only one fascinated by this.

Day 7 just clicked over to 15.

But the month so far stats are so far behind, I cant tell what the last 4 purchases were yet. But it's pretty obvious the 3rd book is pushing sales of the first 2.


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## AltMe

I just had a serious choke episode. I looked up my author stats.

#10,484 in Kindle eBooks
# 5,302 in Literature and Fiction
# 1,478 in Science Fiction and Fantasy
# 715 in Science Fiction


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## Abderian

Awesome, Timothy. Long may the rise up the ranks continue!


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## Overrated

Congratulations! Keep updating. I like seeing your results.


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## AltMe

Damn, just had my 4th refund.   

Now 15 on day 7, -1.


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## AltMe

Abderian said:


> Awesome, Timothy. Long may the rise up the ranks continue!


And so it does. 

#29,249 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store) 
 #79 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Metaphysical & Visionary* 
 #138 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Space Exploration* 
 #141 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Exploration*


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## KitSarge

Congrats Timothy! This is really inspiring/motivating!


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## PreppedForAction2

Seems like youre doing it right. i am liking the success youre seeing. so i guess the moral of the story is to keep on writing huh?


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## AltMe

PreppedForAction2 said:


> Seems like youre doing it right. i am liking the success youre seeing. so i guess the moral of the story is to keep on writing huh?


Indeed yes. Most of what people are saying seems to bare fruit. Write a series. Write a good story people will want to read. Proofread all the bugs out of it. Have it edited for sentence construction and basic story hanging together, including 'who said that?' and 'who was this character again?' problems. Get them out on a regular schedule.

So far, none of my 3 novels have had more than 3 typos pointed out to me, which I fixed immediately. (And they tended to be difficult ones to spot too).

Things took off with the 3rd in the series being released, as if the 3rd one gets you perceived as a serious writer, or people like to see the first trilogy finished before trusting the story will be completed. In my case, this is partly true, because the 3rd ends in a cliffhanger.

18 on day 1.
13 on day 2.
9 on day 3.
10 on day 4.
10 on day 5.
9 on day 6.
15 on day 7.

Edit: 17 on Day 8.
2 so far on Day 9.


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## AltMe

18 on day 1.
13 on day 2.
9 on day 3.
10 on day 4.
10 on day 5.
9 on day 6.
15 on day 7.
17 on Day 8.
10 so far on Day 9.

Some interesting stats. (I think).
Month to date is double previous month.
Book 1: 39 previous + 20 = 59
Book 2: 32 previous + 20 = 52
Book 3: 00 previous + 65 = 65
This ignores KU, where both 1 and 2 are in it, but 3 is not. These are sales, not rentals.

So I think I can safely say, those who read the early books have also now read book 3.
Which suggests that all sales happening now are new readers.
But, it perhaps also suggests that some people are starting with book 3, and going back after, as I'm still getting more book 3 sales than 1 & 2. Or it means that there is spill over from KU to sales, given #3 isnt in KU.


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## rolandogomez

Congratulations! The key to writing is to keep writing. I'm personally thinking about switching from nonfiction to fiction novel writing reading all these success stories! Though I must admit, I did well with my first four photography books which were published with a traditional publisher before i went self-published, and they were printed books. However, today, ebooks seem to out pace printed books in some areas. Thanks and good luck! I wish you the best in publishing success!


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## AltMe

18 on day 1.
13 on day 2.
9 on day 3.
10 on day 4.
10 on day 5.
9 on day 6.
15 on day 7.
17 on Day 8.
15 on Day 9.
2 so far on day 10.


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## AltMe

Edit: 19 on Day 10.   New high!!!   
1 on day 11 as well.


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## PearlEarringLady

You're doing so well! Congrats!  Long may it last.


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## AltMe

PaulineMRoss said:


> You're doing so well! Congrats! Long may it last.


Thanks. And thanks to everyone who has expressed similar comments so far.

I'm very surprised this wasn't a new book blip, but is settling down to be a new normal. It's focused me on completing book 4 now, so that is ready within the 4-6 week timetable I've been keeping since the first one was released.

In 3 months time, I'll get my first decent payday from Amazon. 

Its actually worth the effort now, to get the US tax number, so they don't take out so much tax. I've asked them for the letter, but so far got the usual non-answer, pointing out I don't really need one. However, the difference in tax is significant now. I'd rather have it in my pocket, and not claiming it back next July.

Edit: I took the time today to try and improve my first 2 covers. The first one hasn't come up much, but the second one should be a lot better, as soon as they are approved.


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## AltMe

I just received a mail-out from Amazon, with the latest in Sci-Fi books, based in Space Opera genre.

Of the 12 listed, 2 of them are mine, and my 3rd book is the one the mail is using as a title and first book! The other listed is the first book in the series.

I wonder how many others are getting the exact same email?


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## Marina Finlayson

TimothyEllis said:


> Its actually worth the effort now, to get the US tax number, so they don't take out so much tax. I've asked them for the letter, but so far got the usual non-answer, pointing out I don't really need one. However, the difference in tax is significant now. I'd rather have it in my pocket, and not claiming it back next July.


Actually, you don't need one, Timothy. You can use your Aussie TFN if you're publishing as an individual or, if you're set up as a company, you use the company's ABN. There's a section in the form that gives you the option to enter your own country's tax number instead of an American one.


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## AltMe

Marina Finlayson said:


> Actually, you don't need one, Timothy. You can use your Aussie TFN if you're publishing as an individual or, if you're set up as a company, you use the company's ABN. There's a section in the form that gives you the option to enter your own country's tax number instead of an American one.


I think I tried that, and it wouldn't accept it. I'll have another go.

Edit: Done!

Thanks for letting me know. That was quick and painless.


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## Helen Bright

Congratulations


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## Guest

From your initial struggles, to where you are now, is an amazing achievement! Congratulations and long may your career grow!


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## AltMe

Thankyou 

So close to being top 100 in 3 categories. And the interesting thing is, 1st novel buys are accelerating now. 2nd one is lagging, but still keeping pace. This is happening in the last couple of days, as all three have been in and out of top 100 in the first sub-cat for 10 days now, and in it solidly for nearly a week.

I hate to say, the KDP report has me addicted at the moment. 

1st novel: #18,829 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store) 
 #57 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Metaphysical & Visionary* 
 #108 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Space Exploration* 
 #111 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Exploration* 
2nd Novel: #31,215 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store) 
 #82 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Metaphysical & Visionary* 
 #153 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Space Exploration* 
 #158 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Exploration*
3rd Novel: #29,373 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store) 
 #79 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Metaphysical & Visionary* 
 #147 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Space Exploration* 
 #152 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Exploration*


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## Adair Hart

Congratulations man! This gives newbies like me motivation to keep trucking.


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## cherryhips

Congrats, you're doing things right. Keep on writing!


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## AltMe

Adair Hart said:


> This gives newbies like me motivation to keep trucking.


I hope so.

Last year I watched someone check their sales report the day she made it into the next league. She was totally amazed, and had no idea what happened to push her sales up. We never did find out. She made it in the UK market, and now sells 20-30 a day there, without any advertising. It spikes up and down, but her average is still above 20. At that time, I was lucky getting a sale a week, but I had nothing out capable of any momentum. Now I know how she felt.

You just have to keep at it, until something works for you.


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## AltMe

YES! 

18 on day 1.
13 on day 2.
9 on day 3.
10 on day 4.
10 on day 5.
9 on day 6.
15 on day 7.
17 on Day 8.
15 on Day 9.
19 on Day 10 (New record). 
17 on Day 11 so far.

Top 100 in 3 sub-categories this morning.

Hero at Large: #15,019 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store) 
 #49 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Metaphysical & Visionary* 
 #89 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Exploration* 
 #89 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Space Exploration*
Broken the 50 mark for the first time too.


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## R. M. Webb

Absolutely outstanding! So happy for you!


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## Abderian

Awesome. Go you!


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## TromboneAl

Congratulations!

I actually like cover #2 the best, so I wouldn't think that the cover explains the big improvement.

I find blurb #3 to be the most engaging: Long way from home, trying to get back.

Any other guesses as to what's happening? Maybe people are more likely to try a new book if there are two others that they can read if they like it.


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## AltMe

TromboneAl said:


> I actually like cover #2 the best, so I wouldn't think that the cover explains the big improvement.
> I find blurb #3 to be the most engaging: Long way from home, trying to get back.
> Any other guesses as to what's happening? Maybe people are more likely to try a new book if there are two others that they can read if they like it.


Cover 2 was updated yesterday. Before, it was too dark. The ship and station didn't stand out like they do now. I made an effort to learn some new things in photoshop, to get it looking better. Cover 1 was also changed, but it hasn't come through yet.

As far as I can see, as you go down the rankings, Amazon starts adding your books to more emails. I received an email with 2 of my books on it yesterday, and this morning I find 17 sales already. So the email must have found some new interested people.

I also think that readers do expect you to have demonstrated you are going somewhere with the series. Once you have 3 out, and the same person has raved about all 3 in reviews, it seems to boost your credibility.

I think its helping having 2 reviews where people say they cant wait for book 4. And I've posted on a comment that 4 should be out in August.


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## SunshineOnMe

Wooohooo! congratulations!


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## AltMe

Jeff Tanyard said:


> Just wanted to say "congratulations" again, Timothy. I'm really happy for you, man.
> As far as your covers go, I think the third one conforms to some of the "rules" of cover design more than the first two. The title is at the thirds, for example. Read this article and see if you agree:
> http://www.coverdesignstudio.com/layout-rule-of-thirds-diagonal-scan-and-more/
> That might have something to do with it. *shrug* Anyway, just a thought.
> By the way... do you have any plans for a box set? Just curious. That seems to be the thing to do at some point.


Thanks for the link. I've bookmarked it for reading when my brain isn't in the 27th century.

I'll likely do a box set of the first 4, once the 5th one is released. But as I'm considering doing a series of novellas in the same universe before book 5, there will be a lag time. In any case, there is no point in doing a box set until the tail stops wagging after book 4. But sometime, yes.


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## AltMe

OMG! 

27 on Day 11 -









19 on Day 10.
15 on Day 9.
17 on Day 8.
15 on day 7.
9 on day 6.
10 on day 5.
10 on day 4.
9 on day 3.
13 on day 2.
18 on day 1.

I decided to reverse the order.

There seem to be 2 things happening at the moment.

1. The email out late last night my time, seems to have paid off nicely today.

2. The first 2 books are in KU, and my KU reads spiked to a new high today as well. But the surprising thing is, I think readers are buying the 3rd book since its not in KU yet. I'm beyond the original number of buys for books 1 and 2, before the release of book 3, and yet book 3 is still selling well above the other 2. As both 1 and 2 have 30+ full reads, this could account for the higher 3 sales.


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## Cxxxxxxx

Wow, congratulations! It's great to see all of those two-digit numbers in the rankings. As a very new series-writer (1 book out, the second at 60%, 5 books planned), this is super-motivating. Thanks for sharing!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## AltMe

christinick said:


> Wow, congratulations! It's great to see all of those two-digit numbers in the rankings. As a very new series-writer (1 book out, the second at 60%, 5 books planned), this is super-motivating. Thanks for sharing!


Its keeping me on target too. I have a month to get book 4 out now.

Glad its motivating others.

At first I thought it was just a spike for the 3rd book. But that spike was enough to generate momentum. While one day it will flatline as people say, for now its like surfing a big wave. And I hope by the time this wave passes, the next book will be out and it will do a much larger spike and the new wave will be bigger again.

At least, that's the theory. As long as people dont get bored with the thread, I'll keep going with it, so those starting out their own series, can see the progression.


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## TromboneAl

TimothyEllis said:


> I received an email with 2 of my books on it yesterday, and this morning I find 17 sales already. So the email must have found some new interested people.


Is the following correct?

Books appearing in those emails are tailored to you. That is, your books may be appearing because you have viewed them a lot. They might not be appearing in other customers' emails.


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## L.B

Please keep the thread going Timothy, it's great to see sales progress with releases like this.

Congratulations on moving up a level!


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## AltMe

TromboneAl said:


> Is the following correct?
> 
> Books appearing in those emails are tailored to you. That is, your books may be appearing because you have viewed them a lot. They might not be appearing in other customers' emails.


Who actually knows? You might be right.

However, the 24 hour period beginning with that email saw a big spike in sales and readings. New records for both, on the same day. Co-incidence?


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## Genevieve Mckay

That's fabulous! Congratulations


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## AltMe

33 on Day 12 -









27 on Day 11
19 on Day 10.
15 on Day 9.
17 on Day 8.
15 on day 7.
9 on day 6.
10 on day 5.
10 on day 4.
9 on day 3.
13 on day 2.
18 on day 1.

All 3 books are now top 100 in all 3 showing sub-categories.
All 3 books are in the top 50 of 1 sub-category.

There was a resurgence of the 2nd book today, which seemed to be falling behind, as if a lot of people finished reading the 1st one, and bought the 2nd.

My author rank went up to 9,690 in all books, 840 in science fiction & fantasy, and 362 the day before in science fiction.
1st book made 13,380, 2nd is currently 13,991, 3rd made 15,476.

Interestingly, the 3rd book is still outselling the first 2, but has a lower rank. However, both the first 2 books are in KU, and reads yesterday were yet another daily high.

Well on track for my first goal.  In 3 months when I get paid for the first time, a lot of things will start to change for me. 

Oh, edit: Several things that might be adding to the momentum. 1 I stuffed the keywords, adding in all the ones I couldn't use when I thought we were limited to 7 words. So the books should be appearing in more subcategories now. I had KDP add them to several other categories outside of sci-fi. I also spent some time tweaking the first 2 covers, so the ships and stations stand out better. It makes them better looking covers. I redid keywords on all my books, and covers on 5 others. No change in the comatose state of the others however, but they are not novels.


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## geronl

I want to borrow your readers!


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## AltMe

geronl said:


> I want to borrow your readers!


Someone already did. Huge drop in reads yesterday, and the day before, like 70% down on 3 days ago. Sales remained strong though.

25 on Day 13. Sorry, forgot to update last night. Very slow start to the day though.
33 on Day 12 
27 on Day 11
19 on Day 10.
15 on Day 9.
17 on Day 8.
15 on day 7.
9 on day 6.
10 on day 5.
10 on day 4.
9 on day 3.
13 on day 2.
18 on day 1.


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## Salvador Mercer

P2F, congrats!


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## geronl

TimothyEllis said:


> Someone already did. Huge drop in reads yesterday, and the day before, like 70% down on 3 days ago. Sales remained strong though.


I need to figure out how to grab your cape!


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## danielsolomonkaplan

Great job! That's just the motivation I needed to get back to working on my third book.


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## AltMe

geronl said:


> I need to figure out how to grab your cape!


Didn't you watch the Incredibles? Capes are out.


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## Marseille France or Bust

That is an awesome review and sales bump. Congrats! Hope you are working on Book 4 for your fans!



TimothyEllis said:


> I released my 3rd novel in the Hunter Legacy series yesterday.
> 
> Today I found a spike in my sales, to 16 units sold !!! My biggest day ever.
> And its still the 12th in the US.
> 
> What I found interesting, is that in several cases, all 3 books sold, suggesting that the 3rd book has flowed backward to the first 2.
> 
> I also had my first sales in Canada, being all three, and the 3rd book sold in .de for the first time, with reads of the other 2 showing. (First 2 are on KU, but the third wont be until just before the 4th comes out.
> 
> My reads also skyrocketed yesterday. From the 800 mark, up to just under 3k.
> 
> What may be a factor, is the 3rd cover is a lot better than the first 2. imo.
> 
> The marketing I did was to my Facebook page (45 saw it, the page has only 32 likes), my first mailchimp email (which I stuffed up) to only 4 people, updating my thread and signature here, and updating my series domain front page.
> 
> On Facebook, one of my fans posted this: "*An absolutely first class read. Thoroughly captivating with almost continual battles. Can't wait for book 4.*"
> 
> Now it will be interesting to see what reviews come in, and if the momentum actually increases now.


----------



## AltMe

PatriceWilliamsMarks said:


> That is an awesome review and sales bump. Congrats! Hope you are working on Book 4 for your fans!


Yes. I'm trying to figure out exactly where it end though. I'm already well past the previous longest book, and not anywhere close to where I want to end it. So I'm trying to figure if I can end it about 20k ago. If I do, I need to add some more in somewhere to make it a bit longer, but I have some ideas for places where I scrimped on possible description at the time, not wanting to be too long winded. Ironically, I was thinking of doing novellas in both the main areas, so I can rethink it and add them in as a sub-character telling what happened, while the MC was doing something else.

In any case, I want the next book out in 4 weeks time, max. 3 is better. I'm looking at a maximum of 6 weeks between releases. If I cut where I'm thinking, the edit process can begin now. And after, I'm a good 20% into the 5th book already.


----------



## AltMe

Hero at Large is now:

#10,917 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store) 
 #39 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Metaphysical & Visionary* 
 #76 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Exploration* 
 #76 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Space Exploration* 
The other in the same ballpark, but lagging a bit behind.


----------



## AltMe

34 on Day 14.
25 on Day 13.
33 on Day 12.
27 on Day 11.
19 on Day 10.
15 on Day 9.
17 on Day 8.
15 on day 7.
9 on day 6.
10 on day 5.
10 on day 4.
9 on day 3.
13 on day 2.
18 on day 1.


----------



## JoshuaFinancial

Congrats!  Great to see your sales trending up up up! Long may they continue


----------



## AltMe

26 on Day 15.
34 on Day 14.
25 on Day 13.
33 on Day 12.
27 on Day 11.
19 on Day 10.
15 on Day 9.
17 on Day 8.
15 on day 7.
9 on day 6.
10 on day 5.
10 on day 4.
9 on day 3.
13 on day 2.
18 on day 1.


----------



## AltMe

4 days to the end of the month. Last 5 days have all been 25 or higher.

The big question is: *drumroll*

Will I double my previous past sales, in just this one month?


----------



## Nathan Van Coops

Thanks for sharing this information, Timothy. Great to see your ongoing success. Have you given any thought to going permafree with book one to drive sales to the rest of the series? Since you have three books and the fourth coming, you are in a prime position for it. I only have two books and use permafree on book one. It does nothing for royalties obviously but it sure pays off in visibility due to sales rank. Just a thought you might want to consider now that your other sales are climbing organically anyway. Could be a good complimentary boost.


----------



## AltMe

Nathan Van Coops said:


> Thanks for sharing this information, Timothy. Great to see your ongoing success. Have you given any thought to going permafree with book one to drive sales to the rest of the series? Since you have three books and the fourth coming, you are in a prime position for it. I only have two books and use permafree on book one. It does nothing for royalties obviously but it sure pays off in visibility due to sales rank. Just a thought you might want to consider now that your other sales are climbing organically anyway. Could be a good complimentary boost.


I've been thinking about it. Ultimately I probably will. But to do so, I'll need to put it on another site, which means going through the sign up process and then converting the book. Unless its free somewhere else, Amazon wont match it.

The other issue is, I'm doing very well off it in KU. For now, its worth more to me in reads, than as a promotional tool. I'll have to figure out the balance of it some time, but for now, I'm too focused on writing. Book 4 is in editing, and I'm trying to stuff a few thousand more words in it to bring it up to a decent length, and book 5 is already in progress as well.

Several of my fans keep asking when the next one comes out, so writing is my focus now, not marketing.

But eventually, yes, I'll need to address making the first book permafree. That might help me get a foothold in the Aussie market too, which the books generally are too expensive for at the moment.


----------



## PearlEarringLady

This is a fascinating thread. I'm so happy for you, watching your sales go steadily upwards without any effort on your part. That's just brilliant! Long may it last.


----------



## AltMe

Thanks to those continuing to congratulate me. 

23 on Day 16.



PaulineMRoss said:


> This is a fascinating thread.


I'm glad you think so. I've been feeling the last couple of days like I'm boasting now or something. So I'm glad to see its still being considered as a good documentation thread.


----------



## Abderian

No, please keep posting. I'm interested in your results and it's nice to read a success story.


----------



## Elizabeth Barone

Congratulations! It just keeps getting better. I'm so excited for you!

This also gives me hope, as I'm getting ready to release the first in my new series.


----------



## AltMe

18 on Day 17, but a new KU total reads record. So money wise, it was right up there. (in theory).
23 on Day 16.
26 on Day 15.
34 on Day 14.
25 on Day 13.
33 on Day 12.
27 on Day 11.
19 on Day 10.
15 on Day 9.
17 on Day 8.
15 on day 7.
9 on day 6.
10 on day 5.
10 on day 4.
9 on day 3.
13 on day 2.
18 on day 1.


----------



## AltMe

23 on Day 18.


----------



## Salvador Mercer

Just to clarify, these numbers are for the series or for all sales of yours?  I read on page 1 that you mentioned like 5 books, but I think I saw 3 in the series and more than 5 in your sig line so I'm a bit confused.  I love the bump in numbers after the first week, that was definitely cool  

Congrats, I know it's a wonderful feeling to see some kind of movement, hell, any movement when you've seen your KDP graph look like a dead man's ekg line


----------



## stevenremington

This is good news! Congrats! It's nice to read something like this especially now that I plan to release my 3rd book in my series before the end of the year if all goes well!!


----------



## Ed M.

Great to hear! Hope to replicate your success (once I can wrap up that damn third book . . .).


----------



## AltMe

Salvador Mercer said:


> Just to clarify, these numbers are for the series or for all sales of yours? I read on page 1 that you mentioned like 5 books, but I think I saw 3 in the series and more than 5 in your sig line so I'm a bit confused.


All sales.

For July, the current totals are 369 sales, of which, 18 are not my 3 novels. Of the 18, 12 of them are the newly released X3 Handbook for AP. The rest are a 2 and 1's across the rest of my books.

I put covers and links to all my books in the back of all 3 novels, and since the other books haven't moved in months, the extra sales seem most likely to be coming from the backs of the novels. If so, then they are flow on from the series' success.


----------



## Salvador Mercer

Gotcha!  Nicely done!


----------



## AltMe

23 on Day 19, and yet another new KENP record.

The momentum seems to be holding. So far, there is no sign of a tail. *touch wood*


----------



## AltMe

Yes!


----------



## Julz

Amazing!! Looks like you've got a new norm


----------



## Overrated

I don't see this as boasting at all. I've been following this thread, watching to see what happened. I LOVE reading about others doing well. One of the things I enjoy immensely about this community is the willingness to share numbers.

I have fingers and toes crossed for you that this is the first of many steps upward.


----------



## AltMe

Lisa Manifold said:


> I have fingers and toes crossed for you that this is the first of many steps upward.


Thanks.

The above 'yes' was me reaching another personal milestone.

I've officially sold more books in July, than all the previous sales combined.


----------



## PearlEarringLady

Congrats! That's a great milestone! Now on to next month...


----------



## AltMe

PaulineMRoss said:


> Congrats! That's a great milestone! Now on to next month...


Indeed. 

The plan is to release book 4 within 10 days, being a month after 3. Its in editing now and on track. It will be interesting to see what happens then. Book 5 is 30k in and rollicking along nicely.

So I'm planning to keep the momentum going. 3 ended on a cliffhanger, so I'm hoping that converts into instant sales for 4 in 10 days time.


----------



## AltMe

End of July Stats.

29 on Day 20
23 on Day 19
23 on Day 18
18 on Day 17
23 on Day 16.
26 on Day 15.
34 on Day 14.
25 on Day 13.
33 on Day 12.
27 on Day 11.
19 on Day 10.
15 on Day 9.
17 on Day 8.
15 on day 7.
9 on day 6.
10 on day 5.
10 on day 4.
9 on day 3.
13 on day 2.
18 on day 1.

10 for the first 11 days of the month.


----------



## AltMe

Something going on today. New record established, and the day isn't finished yet.

My author rank is now 7001.

Hero at Large is now:
#8,714 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store) 
 #39 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Metaphysical & Visionary* 
 #59 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Space Exploration* 
 #59 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Exploration*


----------



## JeanetteRaleigh

YAY! That's awesome!


----------



## AltMe

Drum roll please :

*47 on Day 21.*
Now someone please explain it to me.


----------



## Adair Hart

TimothyEllis said:


> Drum roll please :
> 
> *47 on Day 21.*
> Now someone please explain it to me.


It's simple, you're a machine, man! Excited for you!  Keep it rolling!


----------



## CDM

It doesn't seem your 3rd book is in kindle unlimited. Was that on purpose?


----------



## AltMe

CDM said:


> It doesn't seem your 3rd book is in kindle unlimited. Was that on purpose?


Yes. I put the first in just for the wider exposure, and at first, it was hardly read at all. When I released the 2nd, sales spiked to 5 a day for several days, and the 1st got a few more reads. When I released the 3rd, I put the second into KU. And bear in mind, this was 12 days after KU2 started and everything was controversy at the time. It wasnt until sales of the third, spiked interest in the first 2, that KU reads even began. And I'm pretty sure I'm getting book 3 buys from some KU readers.

I plan to put book 3 into KU at the same time 4 is released. This should be within 10 days.


----------



## SunshineOnMe

I'm so happy for you!!!!!!


----------



## AltMe

55 on Day 22.









Weekend sales, or have I just gone up another level?


----------



## AA.A

A rolling snowball..... Congrats!


----------



## AltMe

Ahmad_Ardalan said:


> A rolling snowball..... Congrats!


Yes, that's a gif I want to put in my signature! Pebble becomes a huge snow boulder as it rolls down the hill. It must be out there somewhere. If you see it, send me a link.


----------



## Doril

You are doing great. Congratulations. Wishing you many more sales.


----------



## KReadnour

Holy Crap! I just read all these post to get to the end. Results are fantastic! I'm late for work now, but it was worth it. A huge Congrats! Keep up the success!


----------



## egcamby

I've been following this thread and I LOVE it.  I don't see it as boasting at all!  I'm so happy for you and I hope your success continues.  Thanks for being so open with your stats--it really gives me hope!


----------



## AltMe

KReadnour said:


> Holy Crap! I just read all these post to get to the end. Results are fantastic! I'm late for work now, but it was worth it. A huge Congrats! Keep up the success!


Thanks.

I hope you have an understanding boss.



egcamby said:


> I've been following this thread and I LOVE it. I don't see it as boasting at all! I'm so happy for you and I hope your success continues. Thanks for being so open with your stats--it really gives me hope!


Thanks for the support.

One thing that keeps me posting is it's interesting to watch what happens as sales drive more sales. When I first started, I had no idea this was even possible. So I'm watching it as avidly as apparently you and others are.

I'm happy to be giving hope to others as well. Everyone can do this. Its just a matter of writing until it happens. (I think)


----------



## Julz

Just keeps getting better and better!! And that dancing banana makes me happy every time


----------



## AltMe

Julz said:


> And that dancing banana makes me happy every time


I nicked it off another forum, a long time ago. Its one of a few on my own site now so I can link to it. Where it came from originally, I've no idea.


----------



## AltMe

Jeff Tanyard said:


> "Achievement Unlocked"


----------



## Kylo Ren

TimothyEllis said:


> I nicked it off another forum, a long time ago. Its one of a few on my own site now so I can link to it. Where it came from originally, I've no idea.


I believe this is what the dancing banana is from:






But I think I prefer the Family Guy version:


----------



## AltMe

Be afraid. Be very afraid.   

First one looks like its the same gif blown up to far.


----------



## AltMe

68 on Day 23.







And yet another substantially higher KU value.

55 on Day 22.
47 on Day 21.
29 on Day 20.
23 on Day 19.
23 on Day 18.
18 on Day 17.
23 on Day 16.
26 on Day 15.
34 on Day 14.
25 on Day 13.
33 on Day 12.
27 on Day 11.
19 on Day 10.
15 on Day 9.
17 on Day 8.
15 on day 7.
9 on day 6.
10 on day 5.
10 on day 4.
9 on day 3.
13 on day 2.
18 on day 1.

10 for the first 11 days of the month.


----------



## L.B

Wow congratulations!


----------



## Matthew Stott

This is great stuff. Have you been seeing an increase in sign ups to your list yet?


----------



## AltMe

Matthew Stott said:


> This is great stuff. Have you been seeing an increase in sign ups to your list yet?


I'm getting about 1 every 1 1/2 days. So far 10.

38 on Day 24. The roller coaster ride look to the red line, just intensified.


----------



## AnaJ

Awesome! Thank you for posting this. It's been very inspirational!


----------



## AltMe

36 on Day 25.

The boost into the 30 range seems to be holding in the midweek time zone.


----------



## Salvador Mercer

vlmain said:


> I love seeing threads like this. Congratulations again, and may this be only the beginning of a very long and prosperous career.


Agreed.

Fun to watch!


----------



## S.R. Booth

Great numbers! Keep posting!


----------



## AltMe

40 on Day 26.


----------



## HN Wake

Stupendous!!


----------



## AltMe

And so we move to the next stage in the cycle. 
Yes dear saga watcher, I just now pushed the button to release book 4, Make or Break the Hero.

58 on Day 27. (less than 3 hours to go in Hawaii)
40 on Day 26.
36 on Day 25.
38 on Day 24.
68 on Day 23.  
55 on Day 22.
47 on Day 21.
29 on Day 20.
23 on Day 19.
23 on Day 18.
18 on Day 17.
23 on Day 16.
26 on Day 15.
34 on Day 14.
25 on Day 13.
33 on Day 12.
27 on Day 11.
19 on Day 10.
15 on Day 9.
17 on Day 8.
15 on day 7.
9 on day 6.
10 on day 5.
10 on day 4.
9 on day 3.
13 on day 2.
18 on day 1.

10 for the first 11 days of the month.


----------



## AltMe




----------



## AltMe

Jeff Tanyard said:


> In all seriousness, Timothy, I couldn't be more pleased for you. It's very encouraging to see indie stuff in my genre doing well.


Thanks. I appreciate the encouragement. 

I don't know how long this snowball will keep running downhill, but if it keeps up, in 3 months I can kiss my pension restrictions goodbye, and start considering myself a real person again.

Another interesting thing is I just put book 3 into KU as well, so it will be fascinating to see if its sales drop at all, as the reads start.


----------



## AltMe

Jeff Tanyard said:


> What does the "sales vs. borrows" breakdown look like across the series? I know you just have info about pages read, not discrete borrows, but I'd still be curious to see.


My reads are so close to being full book reads, that I can track them pretty well.

Month to date, 195 sales of the first 2 books, with equivalent of 170 fully read books (of the same 2).

Actually much higher than I thought it was.


----------



## Abderian

Did you have book 4 on pre-order, Timothy?


----------



## AltMe

Abderian said:


> Did you have book 4 on pre-order, Timothy?


No, sorry. I wasn't exactly sure when it would be ready. As it happened, if I hadn't just had a 30 hour migraine, it could have gone up yesterday.

I must look into pre-orders for book 5. I haven't done one so far, but now I have a definite rhythm going, I should be able to do it next time.


----------



## Abderian

Thanks. I was just wondering if might have had an influence on your success - if the readers were more enticed to buy because they could see there was another book out soon.


----------



## AltMe

Abderian said:


> Thanks. I was just wondering if might have had an influence on your success - if the readers were more enticed to buy because they could see there was another book out soon.


On each book so far, I've made a point of listing the entire series, with the next one showing *forthcoming*.

So today, I updated the first three, removing the forthcoming tag from the 4th one, and adding in the name of the 5th with the tag.

Once I have the book url, I'll be updating the back-matter of each book to include the link to the 4th, and adding in the forthcoming 5th.


----------



## Abderian

Thanks, that's interesting and probably useful to know.


----------



## geronl

Slow down. You make me feel really slow.


----------



## C. Gockel

Congrats!


----------



## AltMe

78 on Day 1 for book 4.

Exactly half was for book 4 sales. But a third in terms of day's monetary value. Book 3 now being read in KU.

As far as I can tell without any sales info in author central yet, Book 4 debuted around 18,000 and is now in the 14,000's.

My author rank is now 4,214, which is the best yet.


----------



## Paul K

Man, you're kicking arse! Well done.


----------



## geronl

I would congratulate you and all that.

but I am too jealous.


----------



## AltMe

geronl said:


> I would congratulate you and all that.
> 
> but I am too jealous.


You need this smilie then.


----------



## Marilyn Peake

Wow, you are on a roll! How wonderful! Congratulations!


----------



## AltMe

67 on Day 2.


----------



## MyraScott

Way to go Timothy! So inspiring.


----------



## AltMe

MyraScott said:


> Way to go Timothy! So inspiring.


Ooooo, I like your smiley. That would be nice to actually do.


----------



## MyraScott

It's easy!  Get a bunch of bags of chips (or crisps, depending on your locality) and pour them all around you on the floor.  Then scoop up handfuls and toss them in the air!


----------



## AltMe

MyraScott said:


> It's easy! Get a bunch of bags of chips (or crisps, depending on your locality) and pour them all around you on the floor. Then scoop up handfuls and toss them in the air!


But...

Gold coins has a better symbolism. As my Feng Shui teacher once demonstrated, symbolism is everything.

Chips just doesn't have the same ooomph as gold coins do.


----------



## AltMe

An observation I just made:

Sales of books 1 to 3 are holding steady in the 10-15 range per day.
Book 4 is outselling them, as people who bought the previous 3 find it.

It looks like at the rank I am now, each book puts you into the next higher 10 as a base level, with spikes up and down for day of the week and what else is happening. Friday seems to be the top of the week, with tues/wed the bottom.

Current rank btw is now 2,919 !!! It looks like I jumped about 2000 the day after book 4 was released.

The whole process is fascinating to watch.

Edit: Current ranking in Science Fiction is 136.
Current rank in Science Fiction and Fantasy is 304.
These are US rankings.


----------



## jillb

Too awesome. Congrats!


----------



## AltMe

77 on Day 3.
67 on Day 2.
78 on Day 1, Book 4.


----------



## CM Raymond

TimothyEllis said:


> 77 on Day 3.
> 67 on Day 2.
> 78 on Day 1, Book 4.


Nice work Timothy.

Can you remind me/us, did you do any paid promos or is this just the momentum of multiple books in the series (I don't want to wade through the pages).

Thanks


----------



## AltMe

CM Raymond said:


> Can you remind me/us, did you do any paid promos or is this just the momentum of multiple books in the series (I don't want to wade through the pages).


This is just the momentum of adding books to a series.

There has been no paid advertising of any kind. I did a few Facebook group posts early on, which failed, so I haven't bothered since book 2. I have them all listed with bookpromocoop.com. A new release beta test of a new promotion site failed. I have them in my signature here, and the first one listed on a games forum signature. I have a series website, but haven't checked if it has any traffic yet. I have a Facebook page with 35 likes, and a mailing list with 14 subscribers, up 4 since the new book release.

As far as I can see, it's pure momentum from adding the 3rd book in a series where each book covers about one to three weeks of time, day by day. Book 3 was the real start the ball rolling event, as it really does become a roller coaster ride after a dramatic start and then a slow build up. Once the brakes come off, the story really becomes "Buckle up, lock and load", which book 4 continues from the moment book 3 ends. Book 5 also continues on from the moment book 4 ends, so I'm now on the clock to have that one out in a months time.


----------



## AltMe

54 on Day 4.


----------



## CM Raymond

TimothyEllis said:


> This is just the momentum of adding books to a series.
> 
> There has been no paid advertising of any kind. I did a few Facebook group posts early on, which failed, so I haven't bothered since book 2. I have them all listed with bookpromocoop.com. A new release beta test of a new promotion site failed. I have them in my signature here, and the first one listed on a games forum signature. I have a series website, but haven't checked if it has any traffic yet. I have a Facebook page with 35 likes, and a mailing list with 14 subscribers, up 4 since the new book release.
> 
> As far as I can see, it's pure momentum from adding the 3rd book in a series where each book covers about one to three weeks of time, day by day. Book 3 was the real start the ball rolling event, as it really does become a roller coaster ride after a dramatic start and then a slow build up. Once the brakes come off, the story really becomes "Buckle up, lock and load", which book 4 continues from the moment book 3 ends. Book 5 also continues on from the moment book 4 ends, so I'm now on the clock to have that one out in a months time.


OK, that makes this even more interesting to follow. Thanks and keep up the posting.


----------



## AltMe

84 on Day 5.









Two things happened today. 
The message about the release Amazon lets you send a couple of days after, arrived in the emails today. So anyone following me, would have received a nudge to buy the new book. All I said on it was "Buckle up, lock and load."  
The second arrived a few hours later, and was a more general email with suggestions based on my viewing history, which had the first and third books in the series on it.
Given the number of 1st book buys today, I assume a lot of people received the same email as I did.

The other thing of note was another new record for Reads.

The thing which gets me though is, this was Wednesday in the US, which is usually my lowest day in terms of sales each week. It just shows the power of Amazon mail outs, once you attract enough attention to be featured in them.

I hit 113 in Science fiction and am currently 114, on author rankings. Oh so close to my next goal of cracking the top 100 in the science fiction category.


----------



## danielsolomonkaplan

This thread is so motivational to me. Getting my third book out next month.


----------



## AltMe

I've made it into the top 100 authors for Science Fiction !!!

#96









Science fiction & fantasy - #236

Kindle ebooks - #1369


----------



## geronl

I sold 2 or 3 this month.

I should probably just quit


----------



## AltMe

geronl said:


> I sold 2 or 3 this month.
> I should probably just quit


Up until a month ago, I might have said the same thing.

I didn't, because I had this story inside of me I had to get out, so sales at that point wasn't really an issue. I figured, get it out of my head and onto the screen, and see what happens after. If no-one buys it, well at least its not haunting me anymore.

Well look what happened!

Its like everyone keeps saying - keep writing, releasing and then writing more. Sometime along the way, something will hit the right spot, and it all takes off for you.

Something about my 3rd novel really worked, and that's all it takes. And you know what? What I think worked wasn't part of my original stuff to get out of my head. The story just went there, and I ran with it. One book turned into 3, with the third one still in progress, being 5 in the series.

So while more than half of my sales at the moment are book 4, as people catch up, I still get a good chunk of 1st book buyers and readers each day, which keep the ball rolling. I can see the flow along each book, day by day.

So no negative thought processes. The cosmos brings you what you dwell on, so keep positive. If you cant stay positive, distract yourself so you dont think about it at all. Writing is a good distraction.


----------



## AltMe

Something else different, I just noticed:

One of my sub-categories just changed on my 1st in series:

#3,317 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store) 
 #15 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Metaphysical & Visionary* 
 #30 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Space Exploration* 
 #32 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Military > *Space Marine* 
I've not seen the 3rd listing before.

Makes me wish it was easier to see all the sub-categories my books are in, and what their rank is.

Edit: And I just saw this:

Amazon Author Rankbeta (What's this?) #96 in Books > *Teens* #98 in Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > *Science Fiction









*


----------



## SunshineOnMe

I'm so freaking excited for you!!


----------



## geronl

Would it still be considered "space marine" if the main character is the worst acting-quartermaster the fleet ever had...


----------



## AltMe

geronl said:


> Would it still be considered "space marine" if the main character is the worst acting-quartermaster the fleet ever had...


I'd give that a yes. Especially if he has to pick up a gun and fire it an enemy once in the book. Marine could cover any infantry based rank, not just "marines".

A quartermaster viewpoint would be quite different I would think. Worst one or otherwise.


----------



## AltMe

What a day! 

I shamelessly admit to cheering my stats on to new heights today. About five times as I recall.

At the end of July, I doubled all my previous sales in one month.
Today, 13 US days into August, I doubled all previous sales again.









105 for Day 6.























63 of them were book 4, but 20 were book 1, which hopefully flow into the other books in the next few days.

Consequently, a new money high for a day as well.

Stats watching is exhausting enough, without me writing battle scenes at the same time.


----------



## CM Raymond

danielsolomonkaplan said:


> This thread is so motivational to me. Getting my third book out next month.


You should do a similar thread when you get number three out.


----------



## AltMe

CM Raymond said:


> You should do a similar thread when you get number three out.


It certainly would be interesting to see someone else doing the same. If more people can do it, it gives so much more hope that everyone can.


----------



## geronl

TimothyEllis said:


> It certainly would be interesting to see someone else doing the same. If more people can do it, it gives so much more hope that everyone can.


Maybe eventually. I need focus. I need motivation. I need peace & quiet. I need time. I need $$$. I dunno.... counseling maybe... lol


----------



## AltMe

This will be my last post of numbers, as it's been a high-low day for me, and the cosmos obviously has a message for me. I left the house this afternoon on a high with a new highest sales figure, and a few minutes later, in the course of 2 seconds, I went from really high to really low. A dog ran in front of my car. There was nothing I could do, and I didn't know what had hit me until I stopped and looked back. The dog later died. I love all animals, and dogs love me. Being empathic, I felt its pain, and still do. So my new high is at a time when I'm at a very deep low.

The whole roller coaster ride is listed here, so it can be seen at a glance.

The message as far as writing is concerned seems to be:
-series are good for incremental reader gains. Each new release boosts you to a higher level, as long as you can hold them with you.
-the beginning of each should have something really gripping to hold the reader with, and make them buy.
-if you cant do it with all the books in the series, make sure one of the first three does have it. It only takes one 'cant put it down' book in the series to sell the series as a whole. As long as each new book continues to hold them somehow. If you can do it with the first book, all the better. Mine was number three, which had a better cover, goes into high gear about a quarter in with no warning, and a first chapter written last, to add exactly the grab em it was lacking to start with. Its also why its a good idea to have an editor, or someone, read your first draft, precisely to point out the book has no reader hook, or what you have wont work.
-release on a schedule, 4-6 weeks is my suggestion. You have to keep the momentum going. Once you lose the traction, you have to start promoting to keep the numbers. And there is a lot of benefit in keeping a book in the new release list all the time.
-Make sure the readers know the next book is coming. Name the next book in your backmatter - "Batman will return in 'Holy underwear on the outside.'"
-List the series titles at the bottom of each book's blurb, and update them all as you release the new one. Don't blurb them, just a subtle list.
-Don't expect sales to take off immediately, but work on the basis that one of your books should hit the jackpot for you. If they dont, move on to the next series. When one finally does, it will trigger sales across your whole portfolio.

That's all I can think of for now, and why this worked for me. 

I've no idea how long this momentum will last, but third book kicked it off for me, and 4th book kicked it to another level. 5th book in progress and more planned. How long the series will be is an unknown, but the readers seem to like this.

Oh, and something I've noticed with the 4th book, the reviews are coming faster now. Some interesting points being made too, several of which have given me ideas for the future.

144 on Day 7. No bananas today. The cosmos sends you a lesson when you use too many.
105 for Day 6.
84 on Day 5. 
54 on Day 4.
77 on Day 3.
67 on Day 2.
78 on Day 1, Book 4.
58 on Day 27.
40 on Day 26.
36 on Day 25.
38 on Day 24.
68 on Day 23.  
55 on Day 22.
47 on Day 21.
29 on Day 20.
23 on Day 19.
23 on Day 18.
18 on Day 17.
23 on Day 16.
26 on Day 15.
34 on Day 14.
25 on Day 13.
33 on Day 12.
27 on Day 11.
19 on Day 10.
15 on Day 9.
17 on Day 8.
15 on day 7.
9 on day 6.
10 on day 5.
10 on day 4.
9 on day 3.
13 on day 2.
18 on day 1.

10 for the first 11 days of the month.


----------



## Salvador Mercer

Thanks for sharing and I can empathize.  We have a shih tzu that was lost for only a day and my boys cried.  I can imagine losing one for good and feel for the owner and of course yourself as the accident happened.

You're keeping it in perspective so that is good imho.  Maybe you can post weekly or some other schedule once you feel better.  I was following you daily 

All our best to you and yours!
SM  

edited for poor grammar


----------



## geronl

I hope you'll feel better soon.


----------



## Lady Q

Happy for your success (yay!), but sad about the dog.


----------



## AltMe

Feeling better today, and even got a chapter written last night. Although who knows if its even legible or not.

I'm ranking #92 in science fiction today, and #235 in sc-fi and fantasy.

Once you hit the top 100 as an author in a major category, it seems the breaks/brakes come off even more.

The spiral really shows on my red line, although it wonks all over the place at times.

With the first book, no traction, no momentum. 
Much the same with 2nd book, but the release spiked me to 5's a day for a few days, but with no momentum.
But...2 months sales of the first 2 books at 1 or 2 a day, meant when book 3 came out, I had an immediate spike to 18, and the momentum held me above ten for several weeks.
About 2 weeks of tens and suddenly I spike up into the 20's, as my rank improves and so does visibility.
About 12 days later, this ramps up into the 30's, and hovers between 25 and 35 for a week, before the rank catches up, the next lot of emails go out, and then...
the 4th book releases, and it spikes into the 60's, drops back to the 40 level for a few days, and then goes ballistic. 

I now have the number of first book buys each day, which I used to have for the first 3 combined. While this varies a bit, I can see the sales numbers flowing along the books, as people buy them one at a time.

Each time you go up a level with the release of a new book, you spike from all the previous readers buying the new one, and the spike improves your rank to get you seen by a whole new group of people, who start reading your first book. The process then feeds itself.

Its all about momentum. It can take months and several books to make any traction with a new release, but it all builds on itself. You just have to keep the momentum going.

Today is another 100+ day, so its looking like I may now have cracked this level. I'll know for sure when I see what next Tuesday does.

Its a roller coaster ride for sure. But the backbone of it is - Have the next book in the series ready on time, as close to 30 days as you can get. Holding the momentum is very important, and being slow to release the next book could start the spiral going down instead of up.

These are just my observations anyway.

I'm totally blown away by how my series is doing now.


----------



## geronl

You have plans for that $$ I bet.


----------



## AltMe

geronl said:


> You have plans for that $$ I bet.


Car repairs. 

July's payout will be nice, but wont buy a new big screen tv. August though, is looking like I can update the tv and blue-ray player for Xmas! Nice feeling.

Actually, July's will let me upgrade my phone.


----------



## geronl

TimothyEllis said:


> Car repairs.
> 
> July's payout will be nice, but wont buy a new big screen tv. August though, is looking like I can update the tv and blue-ray player for Xmas! Nice feeling.
> 
> Actually, July's will let me upgrade my phone.


If you want to send me a Christmas gift just PM me. lol.


----------



## PearlEarringLady

Timothy, I'm so sorry about your bad day. I'm glad that the books are still doing fine, though. There does seem to be a point where the algos kick in and momentum builds up. I'd just love to get to that point! Mine do fine when I promote, but then... they just slide and slide. So I'm enjoying watching your upward trajectory!


----------



## AltMe

Finished the day at :

#84 in Books > *Teens* #85 in Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > *Science Fiction* 
Lost a couple of pegs in SFF itself, must be a fantasy book around my level doing slightly better.

Book 1 is :
#3,132 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store) 
 #12 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Metaphysical & Visionary* 
 #33 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Space Exploration* 
 #36 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Military > *Space Marine* 
Book 4 is :
#3,385 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store) 
 #14 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Metaphysical & Visionary* 
 #34 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Space Exploration* 
 #37 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Exploration* 
So 2 in the top 15 of M-V.

My decision to include the spiritual side to the character of the MC, seems to be paying off with this sub-category.


----------



## lilywhite

PaulineMRoss said:


> Mine do fine when I promote, but then... they just slide and slide.


Same. But I think if we just keep plugging away ...


----------



## AltMe

Yesterday, I put book 4 into KU, after getting a 1 star review by a KU reader annoyed it wasn't in. But since the KU payout came in at the same time, I did the Math, and found it was worth putting the book in immediately.

This morning I find this:
#61 in Books > *Teens* #79 in Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > *Science Fiction* 
So entering the current book into KU had an immediate effect on my author rank. Down 6 in SF, Down 23 in Teens.
And this is with lower book sales today over the last 2 days. There are reads on book 4 now, but not significant enough to suggest why the rank improvements. Have to wait and see for a full day all in KU, to see if book 4 is read there as much as book 3.

I've always wondered if I was getting sales for the current book, because it wasn't in KU. While its hard to know anything, the way the red line bounces around, it should be interesting to see the next few days.


----------



## AltMe

Another KU effect. Book 4 has changed rank dramatically. The best its been so far, was about 3500, normally around the 5000 mark.

#1,684 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store) 
 #7 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Metaphysical & Visionary* 
 #18 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Military > *Space Marine* 
 #20 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Space Exploration* 
Author rank:
#63 in Books > *Teens*
#78 in Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > *Science Fiction*

Book 1 continues to improve:

#2,344 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store) 
 #9 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Metaphysical & Visionary* 
 #26 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Military > *Space Marine* 
 #29 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Military > *Space Marine*


----------



## ufwriter

Your books are doing so well. Can't wait to see what the release of book 5 does for you!


----------



## AltMe

CadyVance said:


> Your books are doing so well. Can't wait to see what the release of book 5 does for you!


I have to admit to a lot of curiosity on that as well.  Another 3 weeks or so to find out though.

Today the roller coaster headed down sales wise. KU inclusion of book 4 might have something to do with it, as it was a new record for reads. But somehow, it doesn't feel like it. Every time I've had a new high in sales, its been followed by a major dip for a few days before rising again, same as a roller coaster ride does the highs followed by lows. Have to see what the next few days do. Sunday seems to be an odd day, where Friday and Saturday are the peaks of the week. (normally, without email promotions going on)

Sales were down, but money wise, my second best day ever. With KU2, its getting harder and harder to judge a day based on sales alone.

End of day results:

Book 4 is : #1,902 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store) 
 #7 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Metaphysical & Visionary* 
 #20 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Military > *Space Marine* 
 #22 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Military > *Space Fleet*
Author rank is: #1,563
#151 in Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy 
#57 in Books > *Teens* 
#70 in Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > *Science Fiction* 
#97 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > *Action & Adventure* 
#100 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > *Science Fiction*


----------



## schweinsty

Congratulations! This thread is so inspirational-thank you for sharing so much! I'm curious as to how many words you write per day, if you don't mind sharing?


----------



## AltMe

schweinsty said:


> I'm curious as to how many words you write per day, if you don't mind sharing?


It varies a lot. Some days just several thousand. But on such a day, I might also be editing back up the book a way, and add another thousand somewhere other than bottom.

I guess I average 3000-5000 a day. (So 15-25 days for a 75k book, plus editing once complete.)
But I have done as many as 20,000 words in a 24 hour period, when I was on fire doing battle chapters, early on. The time I did that, I typed pretty well from 10am through to 3am, with only an hour or so break for meals. I didn't get much done the next day at all. But this was all stuff I'd had floating around in my head for so long and once it started coming out, I had to keep going until it was all out. I've never done it since. 
Some days are chapters which just flow out of me, and I let the flow go for as long as it wants me to. Other days, the flow isn't there, so I peck out what I can, while giving the characters time to tell me what comes next. Once they do, I can type for 6 hours straight, with only short breaks. (Mind you, I'm not a fast typist, just consistent. I correct as I go.)

But as you might guess, I dont really have a life at the moment. My writing is interrupted by daily migraines. The cycle is erratic, so I don't really go out much any more. I gave up on a social life a long time ago.

My writing time is now replacing my reading/dvd/computer games time. I watch something or read while I eat twice a day, but all the other time I once used for RDC stuff, now is put into writing. Much of what I write about comes from my computer game playing over the decades, but since I started writing full time, I've not even started a computer game for anything except checking a few things, or taking screen images. I've stopped reading much, since I edit so much now I've become too critical of other books to enjoy them. I have read a few samples while eating recently, but none of them have enticed me to buy.

So out of a day, I have a lot of time to write, assuming my head lets me.


----------



## Briteka

Hey Timothy, congrats on your success!

I see you have other books outside of your well-performing series. Have you seen any movement on those books since your new series became a hit?


----------



## AltMe

Briteka said:


> I see you have other books outside of your well-performing series. Have you seen any movement on those books since your new series became a hit?


A little bit.
A few odd sales, a few reads. It is however obvious there is a flow on happening, even if its just a trickle. Some of them hadn't had a read or sale in months. My game Handbooks seem to be picking up the most. Not everything is seeing a flow on, but its encouraging.


----------



## schweinsty

Oh, wow-sounds like your hard work and dedication is finally paying off. Thanks for sharing such a detailed answer .


----------



## AlexStiner

TimothyEllis said:


> It looks like the red line is the books sold, not sold less returns. So its a bit deceptive.


Yep, that takes the wind out of your sales (awful pun intended) the first time you realize that. Good momentum for you, though. Congrats!


----------



## AltMe

Its 10 days since the release of book 4.

Today I noticed something I suspected yesterday.

Book 1 is now outselling book 4.

The conclusion is - The catchup for book 4 by those waiting for it is now almost complete, and its sales are now primarily flow through from all the people who found book one after its release.

But book 4 still has the best rank.

Already today, a new high for reads! Just coming on 9pm in NY, 11am here at home. Evening time in the US always seems to boost sales and reads for me, so I'm wondering where the day will go to from here.

Just to emphasize momentum again. If catchup takes less than 10 days after releasing a new book, then the next 3-4 weeks before your next one is the momentum created by the spike in sales of the release. The idea is, you get the next book out, before the momentum starts to decline. Where is that decline point? I'm hoping not to find out for a good while yet.


----------



## geronl

What really burns my biscuits is that my ebook does show up on the "also boughts"!!


----------



## geronl

Jeff Tanyard said:


> What does that mean? Are you not seeing the sales on your dashboard? I'd think if it's an also-bought somewhere, then someone must have purchased a copy at some point. Right?


I think it means the people who bought his book did not buy mine. (very few bought mine, that's the joke)


----------



## geronl

Jeff Tanyard said:


> Regardless, just keep writing, man. Tim's stuff didn't take off until book 3 of his series was out. And it's not his first series. So have patience, and keep the faith.


Little by little. I have to re-evaluate a lot of stuff though


----------



## AltMe

geronl said:


> Little by little. I have to re-evaluate a lot of stuff though


That's part of the process. Part of learning the craft.


----------



## AltMe

I'm going to go out on a limb here, and make a claim. Its only been for the last 6 days, so it may be premature, but here goes:



In terms of sales, I'm now at the bottom of this level. But when I add in aggregated Reads, I'm solidly in the middle to upper range. On some days my KU2 Reads when converted to books read, exceed my sales.


----------



## Cxxxxxxx

These numbers are incredibly exciting! Now I'm super-motivated to get this series done asap and maybe spend less time obsessing about the promo stuff. Which is hard to do when reading these boards. I want to try every new shiny thing! 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## AltMe

Book 4: #1,459 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

#1 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Metaphysical & Visionary 
*
*New Releases.
*

 #8 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Metaphysical & Visionary*
The books are #8, #11, #13, #14.


 #15 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Military > *Space Fleet* 
 #17 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Military > *Space Fleet*
 Amazon Author Rank 

#53 in Books > *Teens* 
#61 in Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > *Science Fiction* 
#81 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > *Action & Adventure* 
#91 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > *Science Fiction*


----------



## Kate.

This has been hugely motivating. Thanks for updating us, Timothy! I can't wait to see what happens when book #5 comes out!


----------



## T.J. Mason

Seeing you reach new heights thanks to your perseverance and hard work is a big inspiration. Congrats and way to go!


----------



## CM Raymond

christinick said:


> These numbers are incredibly exciting! Now I'm super-motivated to get this series done asap and maybe spend less time obsessing about the promo stuff. Which is hard to do when reading these boards. I want to try every new shiny thing!
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


My thoughts exactly. Here's my takeaway:

Shut out the distractions.
Write more.
Have a great SERIES (for some)
Get to #3 ASAP.
Repeat.

I have decided to hold both my serial and series until Books 1 and 2 are completely done and produced. Number three is near the end of draft 1. Release the first two within 15 days of each other. Release 3 BEFORE the 30 day cliff.
Then, without obsessing, sprinkle in a wee bit of paid promotion (even if it is just BKnights or similar).

Timothy, may I ask why you stopped the running total of sales? That was more motivating for me than rank...


----------



## AltMe

CM Raymond said:


> Timothy, may I ask why you stopped the running total of sales? That was more motivating for me than rank...


A combination of things.

The main one was the dog. Before I left home, I'd checked my sales. I was driving full of myself and how well I was doing, and suddenly I hit a dog. I'll never know if I'd been less full of my sales at that moment, if I'd have seen the dog a few seconds earlier and could have changed the result. In any case, the cosmos gives you warnings when your going the wrong way, and a dead dog for me, is a major one. The whole cheering on the sales, died right then.

Another thing is I was increasingly feeling like I was boasting. Early on, it was different, because the numbers were still small. But when I hit 100, that changed.

The other thing is that sales are only half the equation. My reads on some days are more than my sales. The total money I'm earning now, is at a level now where giving it out in a public forum may come back to bite me somehow. I know some people do post their earnings, but I cant say I'm comfortable doing so at the moment. Its all too new to me.

Also, I think this thread has achieved what people wanted from it. Its documented the early process of moving from zero to doing very nicely thank you very much.

Once you hit the 100 sales a day, with a similar level of reads, I think its safe to say, you can seriously consider giving up the day job. Maybe wait a few months to see if you lose the momentum before you actually quit, but it can now be considered seriously. I dont have a day job, so you wont be seeing that decision from me. But once you crack 100 sales a day with a similar level of reads, you've made it to the self-supporting author level. I have now, so documenting things in such detail is no longer necessary I feel.

I will keep up a basic commentary. My focus now has shifted from sales, to Dollars per day, and Rank. I turned the ca-***** off, and check it when I feel the need. There's only really a few times in the day when there is much point checking, so I check then. Looking at money is now a matter of, can I really earn that much this month, and is this going to continue the way it is or not?

The Rank is now my main interest. The payout for August when I get it, is a life changer for me already, so I'm now more fixated on the possibility of getting down into the top ten of a major category like Science Fiction, where this morning I'm 51. There's also the interest now of how well I'm doing against books like Dune by Frank Herbert, 3 spots ahead of me on one sub-category, and Foundation by Isaac Asimov, now 3 behind my worst performing book, and Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut, 4 behind. I've seen Hyperion (Hyperion Cantos, Book 1) by Dan Simmons mentioned on this forum a few times as a very good read, and in the same sub-category, its 2 spots behind me now. Its heady stuff to have books showing on the same page as authors like these.

I'll let you know if something happens which is newsworthy. For now though, each time my rank betters, you know the sales and reads went up, or the pattern stabilized at a new point. The same roller coaster pattern is continuing, its just the numbers are in 3 digits now.

If I cross into the realm of the next forum badge, I'll post it.

I was thinking of going back through the posts, and posting the badges where they should be. I'll look at doing it when I get a spare moment. It'll give people a visual queue, as they read through.


----------



## AltMe

Darcy said:


> This has been hugely motivating. Thanks for updating us, Timothy! I can't wait to see what happens when book #5 comes out!


I cant wait either. 

There's just the small detail of finishing it.

The catch up period for book 4 sales, definitely only lasted 10 days. I'm seeing more book 1 sales now, and its becoming obvious that a lot of people are buying book 1 and not continuing on. However about 3/4 are, and that's holding all 4 books in the rankings.

In reads, it seems different. All 4 books are reading fairly evenly. It looks like 95% of people who start the series, keep reading it all the way through.

In dollar terms, all 4 books are contributing at a similar level, although book 2, with the smallest sales, and highest KENPC, is the clear highest earner.

The implication is obvious. If you're writing 90k+ novels, and can hold the readers interest, KU2 is your best friend.


----------



## AltMe

Something I forgot to mention for book 4.

I changed one of the categories for book 4. 

All 4 are in space opera, but the first 3 are in action and adventure.

Book 4 I put into military instead. The book is basically military based rather than adventure based.

But the whole idea was to give the series an anchor in a different category.

So keep an eye on the progression of your series. If it wanders into another realm during one book, consider the category change to widen the base your series is seen in. And dont forget your keywords. If something new is added in one book, add the keywords for it. Book 4 for me, also has a time travel reference, so I added the keyword for it.


----------



## CM Raymond

Fair enough!

You should know I find myself smiling every time you post, so I do hope you keep it up. It is inspiring for me, but also a nice celebration of good hard work paying off for you.

CM


----------



## AltMe

The last 3 days have been about the same. Be interesting to see what Friday does.

Rank continues to improve slowly day by day.

#39 in Books > *Teens
* #45 in Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > *Science Fiction
* #61 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > *Action & Adventure
* #69 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > *Science Fiction
* #83 in Books > Literature & Fiction > *Action & Adventure
#102 in Science fiction & fantasy
#640 in Kindle Ebooks
#1219 in All books

Mailing list now has 30 subscribers.
*


----------



## Guest

Very inspiring.


----------



## Adair Hart

TimothyEllis said:


> Something I forgot to mention for book 4.
> 
> I changed one of the categories for book 4.
> 
> All 4 are in space opera, but the first 3 are in action and adventure.
> 
> Book 4 I put into military instead. The book is basically military based rather than adventure based.
> 
> But the whole idea was to give the series an anchor in a different category.
> 
> So keep an eye on the progression of your series. If it wanders into another realm during one book, consider the category change to widen the base your series is seen in. And dont forget your keywords. If something new is added in one book, add the keywords for it. Book 4 for me, also has a time travel reference, so I added the keyword for it.


Perfect timing! I was thinking about that yesterday when looking at my outline for book 3. It will have different keywords that will place it in additional categories I am thinking from the first two books. Based on your sales and rank for book 4, that approach appears to be ok.

Congratulations again on your success, man! It's been enjoyable reading up on your progress from the bleachers!


----------



## AltMe

Adair Hart said:


> Congratulations again on your success, man! It's been enjoyable reading up on your progress from the bleachers!


I appreciate the congrats. From everyone.

Its something amazing to be happening to. Since 2002, with the exception of 1 year, I've been living on a pittance. I learned how to live on a pittance. But I'm on track to earn in August, half of what I lived on for last year. I'm having trouble wrapping my head around it.

But my daily mantra, with head tilted upwards, is, THANK YOU!

Now, if the cosmos could only send me some romance to go with the money, my life will be complete.


----------



## AltMe

Today was a weird day. Sales tanked somewhat, especially for a friday which is usually better than midweek. But reads were up by a more than compensating amount. So money wise, right ballpark for where the red should be. But the while the blue line put a booster pack on, the red line nose dived.

Weird.

I wonder what happened?


----------



## D-C

TimothyEllis said:


> Today was a weird day. Sales tanked somewhat, especially for a friday which is usually better than midweek. But reads were up by a more than compensating amount. So money wise, right ballpark for where the red should be. But the while the blue line put a booster pack on, the red line nose dived.
> 
> Weird.
> 
> I wonder what happened?


Have any of your books started rolling out of the 90 day boost? You could be experiencing the 90 day cliff (where you drop off the Hot New Release list).


----------



## JalexM

TimothyEllis said:


> Today was a weird day. Sales tanked somewhat, especially for a friday which is usually better than midweek. But reads were up by a more than compensating amount. So money wise, right ballpark for where the red should be. But the while the blue line put a booster pack on, the red line nose dived.
> 
> Weird.
> 
> I wonder what happened?


KU happened


----------



## AltMe

D-to-the-C said:


> Have any of your books started rolling out of the 90 day boost? You could be experiencing the 90 day cliff (where you drop off the Hot New Release list).


Book 4 is still on the hot releases list.



JalexM said:


> KU happened


In what context?

KU2 has been very good for me. But in the last week, its jumped from being about 50% of sales, to being about 150% of sales. I'm not aware of anything which changed.

Money wise, I'm probably better off.

If you are suggesting that KU is stealing sales, there was no evidence of that up until a week ago.

Although I did suspect a while ago, that it was going the other way. When the new book wasn't in KU, I think it might have been adding to sales, where people decided to buy rather than wait. Hard to know though.

All I do know is that KU has become more important than sales now. I just wish I knew why.


----------



## barbie888

High School Friday Night Football!


----------



## AltMe

barbie888 said:


> High School Friday Night Football!


Did that just start up yesterday?


----------



## barbie888

Yes, first scrimmage game. But, this is Texas so it's really important...  

Timothy, I clicked on your author page and none of your links are working.


----------



## AltMe

barbie888 said:


> Timothy, I clicked on your author page and none of your links are working.


Sorry, I just saw your edit now.

Yes, one problem I haven't found a way around yet.

Amazon wont allow their site to open inside iframes. As my site is built with it, nothing opens. Its something I need to address, but had actually forgotten about. I've had a difficult week head wise, and haven't been getting a lot of anything done. So its still on my todo list. As its not linked from much at the moment, it didn't get a high priority.

On the Series site, I got around the problem by adding buy links for each book on the left side of the page.

Checking in regarding trends with my series -

The last 5 days have been almost a straight line for sales, after dropping a bit. Seems that once people had caught up with book 4, sales stabilized at a level up from where they had for book 3.

Reads spiked and then stabilized at twice the number of sales (reads divided by kenpc), varying a bit day to day. On the month total, reads has just passed sales, but over the last 10 days or so, reads are running at double sales.

I'm picking up more reviews now. Each book has 8 to 10 now.
I'm also getting new people to the mailing list and facebook page, almost daily.

One review compared me to E. E. Smith. I had to look him up as it was a name I didn't know. Nor have I ever seen any of his books, so maybe they were never published in Australia, or were out of print by my time. Apparently he's credited as being the writer who began the Space Opera genre. So being compared to him is a huge buzz, even though the review was 2 star, presumably indicating the writer doesn't like that style of writing. All the same, being compare to one of the original greats is a big deal for me. 

Ranks wise, I've started sliding a bit. Books seem to be holding their ranks, but the author ranks are sliding a little bit each day. As its day 18 on book 4, it seems to indicate that after you plateau from the release of a new book, the ranking algorithm doesn't work so well in your favour, even if you hold onto a steady level of sales. I;ve stopped paying as much attention to it now. Will see what happens when #5 comes out.


----------



## JRHenderson

TimothyEllis said:


> My writing is interrupted by daily migraines.


Tim, fellow sufferer here. May I ask a few questions?

Do you eat anything with high levels of dairy fat (cheese, cream, chocolate)?
Are you drinking a lot of pure orange juice?
Do you let yourself get dehydrated?
I can give myself a 36-hour stinker by doing any of these three. Another KB regular (TexasGirl?) also suffers with migrane if she eats bacon. Again, it's that high fat content which seems to kick it off.

Anyway, sorry to derail your thread; just thought I'd mention a few things that might end your migrane misery.


----------



## AltMe

JRHenderson said:


> Tim, fellow sufferer here. May I ask a few questions?
> 
> Do you eat anything with high levels of dairy fat (cheese, cream, chocolate)?
> Are you drinking a lot of pure orange juice?
> Do you let yourself get dehydrated?
> I can give myself a 36-hour stinker by doing any of these three. Another KB regular (TexasGirl?) also suffers with migrane if she eats bacon. Again, it's that high fat content which seems to kick it off.
> Anyway, sorry to derail your thread; just thought I'd mention a few things that might end your migrane misery.


Bacon is lethal. So is anything with vinegar in it, or comes from a grape.
I'm allergic to dairy (nose bleeds), but can manage a small amount of some cheeses. Doesnt seem to be a migraine trigger.
Chocolate used to be a big thing, but I'm not eating any at the moment. It actually works both ways.
No orange juice. But every few days I have a high concentration Vit C supplement, I'm testing for my GP.

GP wants me to test Vit C injected straight into the vein. On the list of things to do once I get August's money.

I've tried Botox. I have no lines on my forehead now.  It worked as advertised, but the pain simply moved to where they couldn't inject.

36 hours is major. Those put me in hospital, and like you said, always have a trigger. Fortunately, the ones I'm getting now, are not in that category. I lose a few hours a day to pain and fuzzy head, and a day or two a week to no-brain. Side effect of the drugs I take, but its better than constant pain.

You learn to live with it though. But it is a little frustrating when you're trying to finish book 5, and you aren't getting much writing time each day. Last couple of weeks has been worse than the previous months. I'm still on track, but I had hoped to be in editing by now.


----------



## Kate.

JRHenderson said:


> Tim, fellow sufferer here. May I ask a few questions?
> 
> Do you eat anything with high levels of dairy fat (cheese, cream, chocolate)?
> Are you drinking a lot of pure orange juice?
> Do you let yourself get dehydrated?
> I can give myself a 36-hour stinker by doing any of these three. Another KB regular (TexasGirl?) also suffers with migrane if she eats bacon. Again, it's that high fat content which seems to kick it off.
> 
> Anyway, sorry to derail your thread; just thought I'd mention a few things that might end your migrane misery.


Mine aren't daily (thankfully), or anywhere near as horribly long as yours, but they're connected to barometric pressure changes. If there's rain on the way, I can expect a headache that will last until the change passes, and a migraine that starts half a day before the rain and lasts until the next morning. The weather seems to affect my cat, too. She always sleeps with her head upside-down (chin facing the ceiling) the day before it rains.

(Sorry to derail the thread, too. Migraines are such bizarre things.)


----------



## AltMe

Hmmm, Wednesday, coming in to the end of August. That must be it.

After ten days of fairly consistent sales and reads, today saw a big nosedive in sales, and down also in reads.
I cant complain with the day's dollars though. 
Actually, I'm on cloud nine for the whole month.

If what some people are saying about August usually being a bad month, then a good month will see me floating off the ground without needing a stimulant of any kind.


----------



## geronl

You still did really well.


----------



## AltMe

geronl said:


> You still did really well.


Indeed yes. 

This end of the month is really weird. Thursday recovered, but Friday really tanked on sales, but was better on reads. Whatever happens, the money is still there.

One good thing about Bookreport, you see the true state of things. Where you might be panicking about sales dropping, the value of the reads sits there where you can be reassured all is well. Why would I panic? This is too new for me to really grasp.

Surreal moment to come - when the August payment actually hits my account.


----------



## AltMe

I thought I'd better give you all an end of August summary.

Total Sales : 2,495
Total Pages Read : 1,364,521
Total Reads: 2,983  (Reads = pages read divided by Kenpc.)

Total paid books : 5,478 (Sales + Reads)

Book 1: Sales 656 Reads 890
Book 2: Sales 527 Reads 802
Book 3: Sales 566 Reads 702
Book 4: Sales 722 Reads 589 (Wasn't in KU until the 16th)

Other Books : Sales 24, with smattering of read pages.

The interesting thing is, for the first half of the month, sales were much higher than reads. But half way into the month, reads went past sales, and for the last 10 days or so, were double sales.

If this isn't a WooHoo Thank you Thank you Thank you moment, I dont know what is.  

So WooHoo Thank you Thank you Thank you !!!

Book 5 is now in editing. Stay tuned.


----------



## Abderian

Wow, congratulations! Still going from strength to strength I see. I wonder if the reads exceed the sales towards the end of the month because people are budgeting to make their pay cheques last to payday, but KU subscribers can read for free?


----------



## AltMe

Abderian said:


> Wow, congratulations! Still going from strength to strength I see. I wonder if the reads exceed the sales towards the end of the month because people are budgeting to make their pay cheques last to payday, but KU subscribers can read for free?


Sounds like a theory. Sales went wonky in the last week, but reads held up pretty well. August might be something to do with it, as the majority of my sales are in the US, and August there is an expensive month for families I gather, and has less time for reading if I read that right in other threads.

Overall, I stopped looking at sales as much, and started paying attention to the overall money for each day. With a few odd spikes and lows, after the middle of the month, it rose to a point where it became fairly consistent, regardless of what sales were doing.

One thing was obvious though. After 3 weeks from the release of book 4, things stabilized. Ranks have been slowly going backwards, although that is a bit up and down as well. But ranks peeked at 3 weeks into book 4, once the buyers of book 3 had found and caught up with book 4. I'll be interested to see if this happens again with book 5.


----------



## AltMe

Big drop in sales and reads over the last few days.

What happened? Book 4 dropped off the New Releases page, where it had been 1 or 2 for the last month.

Emphasizes the need to continually release.

All ranks, books and author, nose dived almost overnight. The books doubled, and the author ranks by half.

Time to get book 5 out. Its in its last edit, but I'm hoping for a better cover than it has now.


----------



## Marilyn Peake

TimothyEllis said:


> And so we move to the next stage in the cycle.
> Yes dear saga watcher, I just now pushed the button to release book 4, Make or Break the Hero.
> 
> 58 on Day 27. (less than 3 hours to go in Hawaii)
> 40 on Day 26.
> 36 on Day 25.
> 38 on Day 24.
> 68 on Day 23.
> 55 on Day 22.
> 47 on Day 21.
> 29 on Day 20.
> 23 on Day 19.
> 23 on Day 18.
> 18 on Day 17.
> 23 on Day 16.
> 26 on Day 15.
> 34 on Day 14.
> 25 on Day 13.
> 33 on Day 12.
> 27 on Day 11.
> 19 on Day 10.
> 15 on Day 9.
> 17 on Day 8.
> 15 on day 7.
> 9 on day 6.
> 10 on day 5.
> 10 on day 4.
> 9 on day 3.
> 13 on day 2.
> 18 on day 1.
> 
> 10 for the first 11 days of the month.


Very exciting and inspirational! Thanks for sharing these details!


----------



## Abderian

TimothyEllis said:


> Big drop in sales and reads over the last few days.
> 
> What happened? Book 4 dropped off the New Releases page, where it had been 1 or 2 for the last month.
> 
> Emphasizes the need to continually release.
> 
> All ranks, books and author, nose dived almost overnight. The books doubled, and the author ranks by half.
> 
> Time to get book 5 out. Its in its last edit, but I'm hoping for a better cover than it has now.


Do you promote at all? Sorry if you already mentioned that in the thread. I was just wondering if that might help with visibility now you can no longer rely on New Releases on Amazon.


----------



## Daniel Zellar

Congrats, Timothy!

Several pages back in the thread (from around mid-July) you mentioned a few emails that went out from Amazon. 

Could you elaborate more on that?


----------



## geronl




----------



## AltMe

Abderian said:


> Do you promote at all? Sorry if you already mentioned that in the thread. I was just wondering if that might help with visibility now you can no longer rely on New Releases on Amazon.


No promotion so far. Until recently, I've not had enough reviews to even think about a Bookbub or anything similar. Nor was there any point in making the first book permafree. So all options still open.

For now, Book 5 is days away! 



Daniel Zellar said:


> Several pages back in the thread (from around mid-July) you mentioned a few emails that went out from Amazon.
> Could you elaborate more on that?


After you release a new book, Amazon adds your book to its email out of new releases for people who are actively buying in the same sub-categories. It also goes out to "people who bought" something similar.

Several days after release, Amazon now offers you the chance to email a message about the book to everyone who follows you.

Obviously, the better placed you are for each release, the more people get to see the email outs.

I cant say for sure, but during the month the book is on the new releases list, several emails go out to people buying similar books. I saw several spikes. One was just after release of book 4, and the other was several weeks on, after which the tail started to wag a bit, and decline.

It will be interesting to see what happens now with book 5.

Several things I recommend you do: Look at your own books - this should ensure that when an email for your new release goes out, you should get a copy of it, so you know it happens. Follow yourself - so you receive anything sent out to those who follow you.


----------



## Daniel Zellar

Thanks, Timothy! 

I'm brand new at this and who knows how long it would've taken me to "follow" my own author page without your response. 

Have a good weekend!


----------



## AltMe

Book 5 was just submitted to kindle. Its going straight into KU as well.

I've timed it so that sales of book 5 should start on a new US day.

Sales since book 4 fell off the new releases pages, went down by about a third. Reads went down about the same as well. It was still at a level where it was a nice income though.

Now to see what the 5th book does to sales, reads and rank!   

Edit: Its been 5 weeks since the release of book 4.


----------



## AltMe

And book 5 is now available. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B015AYA7CG

8 sales before I even had the email!


----------



## geronl

TimothyEllis said:


> And book 5 is now available. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B015AYA7CG
> 
> 8 sales before I even had the email!


Congrats



Spoiler



*hides urge to smack Timothy*


----------



## Marilyn Peake

TimothyEllis said:


> And book 5 is now available. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B015AYA7CG
> 
> 8 sales before I even had the email!


This is a really exciting thread! Congratulations and wishing you many more sales!


----------



## AltMe

One of my Facebook fans posted he was already reading it, before I knew it was available as well.

Gives you a warm glow!


----------



## Marilyn Peake

TimothyEllis said:


> One of my Facebook fans posted he was already reading it, before I knew it was available as well.
> 
> Gives you a warm glow!


That is fantastic.


----------



## AltMe

Hail the Hero debuted at:

#2,768 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store) 
 #14 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Metaphysical & Visionary* 
 #26 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Military > *Space Marine* 
 #28 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Military > *Space Marine* 
#2 on the bestsellers list for Metaphysical and Visionary.

First days sales _*do*_ depend on the size of your mailing list. The day isn't not over yet, but I'm very happy with it. This time I had 80 on the mailing list, and 61 on the FB page. The FB page was announced first, and the mail-out was an hour or so later. Both were during the middle of the night sat-sun for the US.

One comment about day 1 for a book - your sales can be down simply because you tweak the blurbs and back matter of each book in the series, to include the new book. I've done it 3 times today. First time to tweak the blurbs (and made a mistake), second to upload the new back matter which includes the links to the new book, and third time to correct the mistake. So the rest of the days sales are down, but the new book has spiked them anyway, so I'm pretty happy. 

End of day results later, when the day ends in Hawaii.


----------



## Bill Vaz

The book five cover is stunning! The best one so far, in my opinion.

Congratulations on your success


----------



## AltMe

BillVaz said:


> The book five cover is stunning! The best one so far, in my opinion.


LOL

Actually, its the one I've been least happy with myself. I only went with it because I didn't have something better.

It works, but dont look too closely at it.


----------



## AltMe

First day for book 5: 69 sales and 15 reads. Which is pretty close to the number of unique people on the mailing list and Facebook page. Just goes to show that your mailing list is essentially a guide to how well the book will do on launch.

Its showing up on the lists now. Just a matter of how long it takes for Amazon to include it on the email outs, and for people who read the previous 4 to find 5 is out.

Really good first day though. It put me back to the level before 4 dropped off the new release lists.


----------



## C. A. Mitchell

This is so inspiring! Congratulations, and thank you for taking the time to share your data. I'm currently writing the first book in a series, and your posts have given me a wee boost of motivation


----------



## AltMe

C. A. Mitchell said:


> This is so inspiring! Congratulations, and thank you for taking the time to share your data. I'm currently writing the first book in a series, and your posts have given me a wee boost of motivation


Motivation is a big thing. It keeps you moving forward, even if the words come slowly at times. As long as you keep writing regularly and steadily, it will all happen.

My problem at the moment is the motivation burned out. I started writing a trilogy and ended up with a trilogy in five parts! By the time I'd finished, I'd used up most of the ideas kicking around in my head. I've had a couple of weeks off writing now, and am trying to re-engage the motivation to continue with book 6. The ideas are coming, but so far, the writing keeps stalling. Its probably what people call burnout. So I'm not pushing myself. Enough ideas will come in to get going again soon, I'm sure of it.


----------



## AltMe

Jeff Tanyard said:


> I'm still trying to figure out what it is. All I've got so far is "plasma doughnut."


That's pretty close 

The game the image comes from has a lot of different weapons in it, and they all have different effects when they hit.

I have a couple of new images to play with now, so it will probably be changed. Both the new ones have the same effects as this one.


----------



## AltMe

Jeff Tanyard said:


> Gotcha.
> 
> So is the ship on the cover taking damage or dishing it out?


Well now, that would be giving it away wouldn't it! 



> What game does the graphic come from? (Send me a message if you don't want to post it publicly.)


'X3 Albion Prelude', by Egosoft. Not their current game, but still actively played by the fanbase.



> Also, on a sort-of-related note, have you heard there's going to be a new Master of Orion game? It was announced in June, but I just found out. The original remains my favorite game of all time. Love that Mauler Device..."cruel, brutal damage."


No, I hadn't heard that. I preferred 3 myself. I modded it to extinction. Alas, there were a few game limitations which couldn't be overcome. The worst was going bankrupt through variable overflow error, not long after you reach 100+ planets. Mind you, my mods did tend to make that problem worse.


----------



## AltMe

Day 2 of book 5 has been interesting.

Increase in sales of the other 4 books, back to several weeks ago levels. Double that for book 5.

So far, the series details haven't been updated yet, and its not listed on the people who bought this also bought lists for the other books yet either.

So sales of book 5 seem to be purely from the new release list today, with a definite flow back to the earlier books, even though there are no direct links. However, my blurb has all the books listed, so they are easy to look up.

Reads of book 5 though are well up on yesterday. Money wise, my 3rd highest day. And this is without any kind of promotion yet, other than the new release lists. Very promising !

The other thing I did with the release of book 5, was to follow Kboarder advice and raise the prices of books 2 and 3 to $3.99, making the first book at $2.99, and the rest $3.99. It doesn't seem to have made any difference to sales at all. I'm not ready for the $4.99 price, but maybe with book 6 I will be.


----------



## Rachel Anne

I am currently in the process of writing, and trying to glue my eyelids open and take every bit of information I can on kboards and wanted to say this is not only very informative, but also super inspirational!
Thank you for sharing your story and congratulations on everything that is happening for you right now! Very well deserved.


----------



## AltMe

Rachel Anne said:


> I am currently in the process of writing, and trying to glue my eyelids open and take every bit of information I can on kboards and wanted to say this is not only very informative, but also super inspirational!
> Thank you for sharing your story and congratulations on everything that is happening for you right now! Very well deserved.


You're welcome, and thank you. 

I'm glad its helping people.


----------



## Steve Shelley

Awesome thread, what an inspiration.

I've just released my second SF space opera so I'm watching sales closely  

I'll start a thread with my own numbers as soon I get a few minutes peace  

It's been four days and so far I've been averaging seven sales (not including borrows) a day.

The first in my series is perma-free.

Onward and upward Timothy, well done mate!


----------



## KL_Phelps

TimothyEllis said:


> First day for book 5: 69 sales and 15 reads. Which is pretty close to the number of unique people on the mailing list and Facebook page. Just goes to show that your mailing list is essentially a guide to how well the book will do on launch.
> 
> Its showing up on the lists now. Just a matter of how long it takes for Amazon to include it on the email outs, and for people who read the previous 4 to find 5 is out.
> 
> Really good first day though. It put me back to the level before 4 dropped off the new release lists.


congrats!


----------



## AltMe

The new cover just went active, and the also bought section just replaced the who also viewed section, so now all my other books in the series are now visible to anyone coming in through the new release pages.


----------



## AltMe

Day 4, and I get up to find the Amazon email asking if I want to send out an email to my followers. Now done. I've no idea how many followers I have, which I feel is something Amazon should be telling us. Alas, it's using the original cover. No matter, I've told everyone to put their belt back on, shift into 'slinky red', and buckle up again.


----------



## Lady Q

Congrats! Looks like things are going very well for you.


----------



## Bill Vaz

How many words do you average per book?


----------



## geronl

How many books is this series going to be... will there be a "Red Shifting the Hero" or a "Hero and the Wormhole"


----------



## AltMe

Bill Vaz said:


> How many words do you average per book?


67k, 87k, 82k, 72.5k, 85.5k = Avg 78.8k

I aim for 75k to 85k, but the book tells me where to end.

Technically, it was 67k, 87k and 240k.  Book 3 took on a life of its own and became a trilogy in its own right.



geronl said:


> How many books is this series going to be... will there be a "Red Shifting the Hero" or a "Hero and the Wormhole"


Seriously, I've no idea at this point.

The next story arc is planned as a trilogy as well, but it might only be 2 books, or it might be more again. Wont be any unless I get past my semi-burnout and get writing properly again. I've had a few weeks off. I wrote a short story for release in about 3 weeks, but that's all I've done recently, other than editing. Five books released in 5 months has taken its toll, and I've needed to recharge. I've also found I've exhausted most of the ideas, and needed time to let new ones come forth. They are assembling now, so hopefully the writing will begin again shortly.

The last arc is concept only at this point. I know where its going, but how fast it gets there is unknown at this time.

One of my fans asked if the series will go 10 books, and all I can say is, it could well do.

'Red shifting the Hero' sounds like a good book name. As for wormholes, there are none, so far. But rumour has it the Sirius system has a wormhole in it. Wont know until we go there.


----------



## Lady Q

TimothyEllis said:


> One of my fans asked if the series will go 10 books, and all I can say is, it could well do.
> 
> 'Red shifting the Hero' sounds like a good book name. As for wormholes, there are none, so far. But rumour has it the Sirius system has a wormhole in it. Wont know until we go there.


You're going to need a lot more Hero titles. Crank up Bonnie Tyler's "I Need a Hero" and start brainstorming.


----------



## Marilyn Peake

TimothyEllis said:


> Day 2 of book 5 has been interesting.
> 
> Increase in sales of the other 4 books, back to several weeks ago levels. Double that for book 5.
> 
> So far, the series details haven't been updated yet, and its not listed on the people who bought this also bought lists for the other books yet either.
> 
> So sales of book 5 seem to be purely from the new release list today, with a definite flow back to the earlier books, even though there are no direct links. However, my blurb has all the books listed, so they are easy to look up.
> 
> Reads of book 5 though are well up on yesterday. Money wise, my 3rd highest day. And this is without any kind of promotion yet, other than the new release lists. Very promising !
> 
> The other thing I did with the release of book 5, was to follow Kboarder advice and raise the prices of books 2 and 3 to $3.99, making the first book at $2.99, and the rest $3.99. It doesn't seem to have made any difference to sales at all. I'm not ready for the $4.99 price, but maybe with book 6 I will be.


Congratulations! And thanks so much for sharing this information! I recently released the second book in a series. I'm planning to release one book per month at least through Book 5 in December. Your post gives me hope.


----------



## AltMe

Day 5 and I must have some followers. Sales of 5 are doing nicely, beginning to spike with the first Amazon email out to followers. Not up to the level of book 4's spikes though, but its still early. Hopefully at least 1 more email out from Amazon still to happen.

All the same:

Hail the Hero:
#831 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store) 
 #5 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Military > *Space Fleet* 
 #6 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Metaphysical & Visionary* 
 #6 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Military > *Space Fleet* 
My best result yet!

It just goes to show you, that email list release boost does a lot for you.

And encouraging people to hit the follow-me on your authorcentral page. I have that image and button copied into my backmatter in all the books, with link, along with each of the book links. It's obviously paying off.


----------



## geronl

That is just awesome, I am now a Jelly factory.


----------



## AltMe

Hail the Hero : #724 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store) 
 #4 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Military > *Space Fleet* 
 #5 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Military > *Space Fleet* 
 #6 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Metaphysical & Visionary*
 Amazon Author Rank
#36 in Books > *Teens*
*#*40 in Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > *Science Fiction*
#61 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > *Science Fiction*
#96 in Kindle eBooks > *Science Fiction & Fantasy*
My highest ranks to date. Really chuffed to make it below 100 in Sci-fi and fantasy!
The interesting thing is, I dont think the sales of 5 have peaked yet. Also interesting is the number of sales of 1 at the moment, so its flowing backwards nicely.


----------



## geronl

wow

Do you have any idea why your books are so popular...?


----------



## AltMe

geronl said:


> wow
> 
> Do you have any idea why your books are so popular...?


All I can think of is they are a rollicking good yarn, enough so that any technical issues are being forgiven by most people.

One day I may ask on my FB page and see what comes back.


----------



## geronl

I am very happy to see you becoming successful so quickly


----------



## AltMe

geronl said:


> I am very happy to see you becoming successful so quickly


Thankyou. 

Day 6.

Something odd going on at the moment. Book 5 sales are good, but they are not as good as book 4 sales were at the same time. However, book 5 reads are really good, and I probably shot myself in the foot by not putting 4 into KU immediately. The really odd thing is how many book 1 and 2 sales and reads there were today. 3 and 4 were about normal.

End of the day, 1 sale below my highest ever, and equal to 4th highest reads. In money terms, best ever. And that is using .005 as the calculator value for reads.

Book 5 is #674 in paid store - my best ever.

Author rank - 
1037 All Books
598 Kindle eBooks
87 SF&F
34 Science Fiction

All best ever.

Hooley Dooley, but I'm now ranked above some of the Sci-Fi greats!!! Temporary I know, but incredible.


----------



## L.B

Amazing. Well done Timothy, fantastic achievement.


----------



## Guest

I remember having a discussion with you when you were not really selling on another thread. And now look at you, so great man! You are an inspiration.


----------



## AltMe

Andrew Murray said:


> I remember having a discussion with you when you were not really selling on another thread. And now look at you, so great man! You are an inspiration.


Its amazing how things can change unexpectedly, just by doing the work and keeping going regardless.


----------



## Bill Vaz

TimothyEllis said:


> Its amazing how things can change unexpectedly, just by doing the work and keeping going regardless.


I'm actually curious about those darker times. How bad were they? Did they just suddenly changed when you published your 3rd book in the series? Or was there other move that you might think that increased the sales so greatly?


----------



## AltMe

Bill Vaz said:


> I'm actually curious about those darker times. How bad were they? Did they just suddenly changed when you published your 3rd book in the series? Or was there other move that you might think that increased the sales so greatly?


It was purely the 3rd book. Up until releasing it, I was averaging a sale every couple of days. The only thing which changed, was that 3rd book release. What helped was it had a substantially better cover, and began with a much better hook chapter.

My dark times pre-date my writing. Once I began writing, it was just a matter of not getting any sales traction for so long.


----------



## AltMe

Huge spike in Reads overnight. It had this result:

Amazon Author Rank 
#21 in Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > *Science Fiction* 
#27 in Books > *Teens* 
#42 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > *Science Fiction* 
#65 in Kindle eBooks > *Science Fiction & Fantasy* 
#77 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > *Action & Adventure*

Hail the Hero improved marginally, but my author rank has substantially improved. Still selling a lot of book 1, which could have something to do with it.


 
#776 in paid books
#475 in Kindle


----------



## AltMe

The US day finished on a new high. Equal to highest number of sales, new highest total of reads, and the best money day ever.

Hail the Hero still improving rank. #639 Paid in Kindle Store

Amazon Author Rank 
#20 in Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > *Science Fiction* 
#26 in Books > *Teens* 
#40 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > *Science Fiction* 
#58 in Kindle eBooks > *Science Fiction & Fantasy* 
#69 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > *Action & Adventure*


----------



## C. A. Mitchell

Go you!

Also interesting to see that your first book isn't free. Is that something you'd consider (or have tried in the past)?


----------



## AltMe

C. A. Mitchell said:


> Go you!
> 
> Also interesting to see that your first book isn't free. Is that something you'd consider (or have tried in the past)?


I've not needed to consider it so far. It's still selling well. In fact, I'm surprised how well it is selling. It could be that with book 5 I put in the author comments that it was the end of this arc of the story, and so a lot of people who wanted to know the series had an end before buying or reading, are now taking it up.

At some point in the future, the next step is a bookbub with #1 at 99c. Its getting reviews steadily now, so by the time sales dwindle to very little, it should be ready for bookbub.

After that, I might consider it being free. It depends a lot on where the series goes in the meantime. In theory, until I finish it, each new book will keep bringing more people into the first book. So needing to think about making it free will keep getting pushed back as long as the series keeps growing.


----------



## C. A. Mitchell

TimothyEllis said:


> I've not needed to consider it so far. It's still selling well. In fact, I'm surprised how well it is selling. It could be that with book 5 I put in the author comments that it was the end of this arc of the story, and so a lot of people who wanted to know the series had an end before buying or reading, are now taking it up.
> 
> At some point in the future, the next step is a bookbub with #1 at 99c. Its getting reviews steadily now, so by the time sales dwindle to very little, it should be ready for bookbub.
> 
> After that, I might consider it being free. It depends a lot on where the series goes in the meantime. In theory, until I finish it, each new book will keep bringing more people into the first book. So needing to think about making it free will keep getting pushed back as long as the series keeps growing.


Cool. Thanks for sharing.


----------



## Salvador Mercer

My wife asked me why I looked like the HULK.  I told her I was just GREEN with ENVY hehe  

Congrats on your success, may you have many more!


----------



## AltMe

For those who were following the numbers, yesterday saw me reach a milestone.

Sales + (Pages read/KENPC) = *10,000* books sold or fully read.









Reads are running a bit higher than sales, so its not an even split.

Hooley Dooley!

Ranks held pretty well over night.


----------



## geronl

OKAY, we need  a green, envious smiley


----------



## AltMe

geronl said:


> OKAY, we need a green, envious smiley


meet Mr. Green.


----------



## AltMe

Book 5 slipped back slightly today, but maintained its sub-genre rankings.

But.....

Amazon Author Rank 
#18 in Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > *Science Fiction* 
#24 in Books > *Teens* 
#38 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > *Science Fiction* 
#54 in Kindle eBooks > *Science Fiction & Fantasy* 
#55 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > *Action & Adventure* 
18 in Sci-Fi ?  









Oddly, book 1 is now selling just behind book 5. In fact, book 5 is under-performing to what I expected, and book 1 is over-performing.









No sign of a proper Amazon email out yet, and the book series section doesn't show the 5th book yet either.

All the same, new record for daily sales and total reads = new record for daily money.
*shakes head in amazement and rubs finger against lips making weird sounds.*


----------



## geronl

TimothyEllis said:


> Oddly, book 1 is now selling just behind book 5. In fact, book 5 is under-performing to what I expected, and book 1 is over-performing.


Not that odd, your books are getting attention and new readers, some of who will want the other books too


----------



## AltMe

Email out from Amazon just now, with Hail the Hero in the title, and 1st and 4th books also included. It will be interesting to see if 5 spikes now. Just before 7am in NY, so it's hit the inbox's as people are getting up. Seems to have been a couple of days later than for 4. Have to see what happens now.


----------



## Salvador Mercer

Congrats Timothy!  Fun watching your wild ride!


----------



## RN_Wright

Very inspiring! Thanks for sharing with us.


----------



## AltMe

For the moment, I'm going to claim this badge. It likely wont last beyond 5 falling off the new release list, but for now, its holding nicely above the bottom end.


----------



## suliabryon

I am pretty new, which badge is that again Tim?


----------



## AltMe

suliabryon said:


> I am pretty new, which badge is that again Tim?


250-1000 a day.

Its made up of sales and full book reads, in about 45-55 percentages.

I'm using a spreadsheet to track this now. At the end of the US day, I enter the sales and the reads values, and it converts the reads into full book reads and adds to the sales to get a total books for the day. Has to be done with each book, adding to a grand total for the day.

Book 5 pushed me up several levels, after 4 falling off the new releases lists dropped me a level for about a week.

Interestingly though, still no book 5 spike. 3 and 4 both had big spikes after the Amazon emails went out. 5 doesnt seem to be doing this, although it could just be that the emails went out mid-week, and the spikes wont happen til friday. Have to wait and see.


----------



## geronl

.... ever talked about personal loans.... lol


----------



## AltMe

geronl said:


> .... ever talked about personal loans.... lol


Not since I paid mine back a few years ago, when I was lucky enough to convert a "hobby" into a decent income for a year. It only lasted a year, but it paid off all my loans. I haven't needed one since.

If your hinting at will I loan to you, I would point out I haven't actually received anything except small change from Amazon so far. The July payment will be my first big payday, but that was only the beginning, so its not that big.

Mind you, I am looking forward to getting the payment this month. It will be the first thing which makes all this completely real for me.


----------



## Kate.

Re: no spike on book five - I don't know if it applies to your series, but I've heard that longer series don't get the same promotional love as shorter ones. One author on Kboards (wish I could remember who) was planning to create multiple series of three and four books (rather than one long 20+ book series) to take advantage of this.

I think it's because Amazon realises that promoting long series to new readers can seem daunting. If the reader sees it's book 10, the amount of time they'd need to spend reading through the first nine novels can seem overwhelming, and there's a lower buy rate than if Amazon promoted book #2 or #3.

Of course, don't change anything if your current set-up is working for you! I just wanted to share some (very limited) guesses about why Zon might not be pushing book #5 like it did with the earlier ones.


----------



## AltMe

Darcy said:


> Re: no spike on book five - I don't know if it applies to your series, but I've heard that longer series don't get the same promotional love as shorter ones. One author on Kboards (wish I could remember who) was planning to create multiple series of three and four books (rather than one long 20+ book series) to take advantage of this.
> 
> I think it's because Amazon realises that promoting long series to new readers can seem daunting. If the reader sees it's book 10, the amount of time they'd need to spend reading through the first nine novels can seem overwhelming, and there's a lower buy rate than if Amazon promoted book #2 or #3.
> 
> Of course, don't change anything if your current set-up is working for you! I just wanted to share some (very limited) guesses about why Zon might not be pushing book #5 like it did with the earlier ones.


That makes quite a bit of sense actually.

Makes me think that bundling 1 & 2, and 3, 4 & 5, might be an idea once 6 is out. Its a thought anyway. For now, it seems to be working just fine, even if it isn't the way I was expecting from the past 2 releases.


----------



## geronl

TimothyEllis said:


> Mind you, I am looking forward to getting the payment this month. It will be the first thing which makes all this completely real for me.


I wonder what you will post that day, or maybe you will be too busy doing a happy dance. (Remember Snoopy)


----------



## AltMe

geronl said:


> I wonder what you will post that day, or maybe you will be too busy doing a happy dance. (Remember Snoopy)


Its not that big. August's maybe.


----------



## AltMe

Jeff Tanyard said:


> Just in time for Christmas. *making my list*
> 
> Seriously, though, congratulations again. Hang on to that bank statement when it arrives--you might want to frame it or something. (I know I would.)


That's a thought!


----------



## E.M. Cooper

Congratulations, Timothy. Your story is like a fairytale ... a good one.


----------



## EmparentingMom

TimothyEllis said:


> Makes me think that bundling 1 & 2, and 3, 4 & 5, might be an idea once 6 is out. Its a thought anyway. For now, it seems to be working just fine, even if it isn't the way I was expecting from the past 2 releases.


That's an interesting idea. But how do you bundle without losing the momentum from the existing titles? Do you simply make the bundles available in addition to the individual books?


----------



## Dhayaa Anbajagane

Hey Timothy,

Congrats on the success! I've just got a new release out (Book 2), and thanks to you I feel like I'm on the threshold of a big change in my writing career 
Also, I was curious; do the books in your Hunter Legacy series have to be read in order? (Like a serial) or can be they be read in any order?
Just wondering if serials and series perform in similar ways


----------



## AltMe

EmparentingMom said:


> That's an interesting idea. But how do you bundle without losing the momentum from the existing titles? Do you simply make the bundles available in addition to the individual books?


Yes, you would put the bundles out as an addition to the singles. And yes, they would take away from the singles.

Bundles I think are what you do when the singles start to wane. Hard to know yet when I'd do it.

But 6 is going to be delayed, so I'll see what happens when 5 drops off the new release lists.



Dhayaa Anbajagane said:


> Also, I was curious; do the books in your Hunter Legacy series have to be read in order? (Like a serial) or can be they be read in any order?
> Just wondering if serials and series perform in similar ways


2, 3 and 4 all have enough back story in the front of them, they can be read stand alone. In fact, I think a lot of people came into the series with 3 and 4, and then went back.

5 doesn't have any back-story at all, so needs to be read after 3-4. I'm wondering if this is why its not doing as well as the previous books.

Having said that though, the series as a whole is doing really well with the release of 5. But the expected spike of people buying/reading 5 hasn't happened.

Its best being read as a series in order, and feedback tells me people are re-reading it in order between each book release.

It was written to be read in order, as a serial. I've been criticized for including too much back looking as it is, so people must consider it more of a serial than a series.

3-5 was supposed to be 1 book though. It turned into a trilogy quite unexpectedly. The original trilogy idea was supposed to be 3 series books, which could be read independently. It just didn't turn out that way.


----------



## AltMe

Another mail out last night. 2nd on the list after Constitution.

Sales today are flat across the series. 5th book advertised, all books selling equally. The reads look a bit wider though. Looks like the only spike for book 5 is in reads.

3 and 4 were not put into KU immediately, 5 was. 3 and 4 had big sales spikes after the Amazon emails, 5 hasn't.

It looks like KU has indeed been stealing from sales. But at my prices, it doesn't really matter, as a full read is about the same as a sale.

Series wide, continuing a rollercoaster ride, but still maintaining the initial level rise from the release.


----------



## Salvador Mercer

My book briefly got within orbital range of your book before plummeting, I did however wave hello at my perigee


----------



## AltMe

Salvador Mercer said:


> My book briefly got within orbital range of your book before plummeting, I did however wave hello at my perigee


 

I've been tracking the same way against some of the other high flyers in the genre. Some of them sell so well so consistently, it seems impossible to get a number 1 spot away from them in any of the sub-categories.


----------



## Salvador Mercer

TimothyEllis said:


> I've been tracking the same way against some of the other high flyers in the genre. Some of them sell so well so consistently, it seems impossible to get a number 1 spot away from them in any of the sub-categories.


Haha, well you got a shot eventually, keep up the good work, love the posts!


----------



## AltMe

Salvador Mercer said:


> Haha, well you got a shot eventually, keep up the good work, love the posts!


Best I've been is 18 in Sci-Fi, and 5 in Mystical and Visionary. Wont be this book to get higher, as its slowly skidding back now.

Still, anything is possible with a book release in say a year from now. Hard to compete with books which have been around for years and consistently selling, and authors who have been around since the year dot.


----------



## AltMe

I just did sell through rates on my series for another thread.

Figures include sales and full reads.

Book 2 is 84.5% of book 1.
Book 3 is 94% of book 2.
Book 4 is 94% of book 3.
Book 5 is 61% of book 4. But its only been out for about 2 weeks, so it hasn't caught up yet. Although I am a little worried about it. 

Still no sign of a spike for book 5 to show people catching up. But on the other hand, sales of the full series seem to be high, in so far as those reading from book 1 now, are predominantly reading right though.

But I worry the cliffhanger at the end of book 4 put a lot of people off, or they are slow catching up to 5 being out.


----------



## Max China

Thrilled for you. There definitely seems to be some merit in releasing a series! Hope the success continues!


----------



## AltMe

Max China said:


> Thrilled for you. There definitely seems to be some merit in releasing a series! Hope the success continues!


Yes, series seem to be the way of keeping a continuing sales and reads stream going, as long as you are regular about releases.

Update: 2 weeks in and book 5 still isn't listed as part of the series, so isn't appearing on the series page, or the first 4 product pages. This appears to be a serious problem with the series feature recently introduced. Amazon promised me it would be fixed inside 7 days. 8 days later, still no sign of a fix, so I've contacted them again.

In the meantime, sales are continuing along at the level I jumped to with the book 5 release, with the usual roller coaster ride from top to bottom of the level and back. Still no major spike in book 5 sales, only a subtle increase over sales and reads of the other books. Series as a whole is still doing well.

Alas, book 6 isn't going anywhere at the moment, as I've had to take some serious time off writing. Mixture of burnout and health issues. I'm working on getting back to work as soon as I can.


----------



## AltMe

24 days after release, Amazon finally added book 5 to the series page, and had the series show up on the book 5 page.

*sigh* I wonder what took them so long?


----------



## geronl

Wow, that did take a while


----------



## AltMe

geronl said:


> Wow, that did take a while


And 2 messages to KDP.


----------



## Briteka

TimothyEllis said:


> 24 days after release, Amazon finally added book 5 to the series page, and had the series show up on the book 5 page.
> 
> *sigh* I wonder what took them so long?


Their series feature is completely broken. I *think* there's a sales flag they use to decide if it's worth creating a series page or adding your new book to it. Still, I would think your fifth book hit that at some point. Still, mine are all a mess, and I should really send Amazon a message to fix them.


----------



## AltMe

Book 5 dropped off the new releases today, but sales so far are up to the last few days.

There has been a steady decline over the last 2 weeks. The last few days, book 1 has been outselling book 5, so obviously those who were going to buy book 5, must have already. It shows book 5, although being the end of the first part of the series, losing people along the way. Not sure why, as its reviews are better on average than the previous books.

Tomorrow will be interesting, to see what happens without a book in the new releases.

A short story in the same universe is almost ready to go, and that will be an interesting test to see if a short story will flow into the main series or not. Good experiment anyway, given book 6 is not a happening thing at the moment due to health issues.

Summary for the end of book 5 first month - There was never a good spike for 5, just steady sales of the series. Sales and reads went up 2 levels in the first week, and have since slid down 1 level in the last 2 weeks. All in all, still performing at the bottom of the eagle badge level. Next few days will see if I drop back a badge or not.


----------



## AltMe

Ok, interesting.

1969 debuted at #8,243 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store) 
 #1 in Kindle Store > Kindle Short Reads > 45 minutes (22-32 pages) > *Teen & Young Adult* 
 #3 in Kindle Store > Kindle Short Reads > 45 minutes (22-32 pages) > *Literature & Fiction* 
 #4 in Kindle Store > Kindle Short Reads > 45 minutes (22-32 pages) > *Science Fiction & Fantasy*
It's also #4 in the hot new releases in Metaphysical and Visionary, which is my usual best performing sub-category. #39 in the category itself.
Sales and reads are holding, but my author rank is tanking badly, now fallen out of the 100 in Science Fiction.
The experiment here was to see if a short story would hold my ranks up to keep sales of the main series ticking over while the next book in the series is delayed. It also is listed in different sub-categories as well, so hoping it will bring in new people who haven't seen the main series yet.
Too early to draw any conclusions yet, but its promising.

Edit: 1969 is a 5k very short story, set in the same universe as my series, but 650 odd years earlier. Its the first in a series of short stories which will cover the back history of the main series.

The purpose in releasing it now, is because I've been unable to write much recently, and book 6 is going nowhere at the moment. It's an interesting test if the main series will get follow on from a short. Its also my first short release, so I'm interested to see how shorts in sci-fi will go.


----------



## Salvador Mercer

Tim, I am really liking your experimentation and sharing.  Good data to know and I hope you do well with the short.  Keep posting!


----------



## JalexM

TimothyEllis said:


> Ok, interesting.
> 
> 1969 debuted at #8,243 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
> #1 in Kindle Store > Kindle Short Reads > 45 minutes (22-32 pages) > *Teen & Young Adult*
> #3 in Kindle Store > Kindle Short Reads > 45 minutes (22-32 pages) > *Literature & Fiction*
> #4 in Kindle Store > Kindle Short Reads > 45 minutes (22-32 pages) > *Science Fiction & Fantasy*
> It's also #4 in the hot new releases in Metaphysical and Visionary, which is my usual best performing sub-category. #39 in the category itself.
> Sales and reads are holding, but my author rank is tanking badly, now fallen out of the 100 in Science Fiction.
> The experiment here was to see if a short story would hold my ranks up to keep sales of the main series ticking over while the next book in the series is delayed. It also is listed in different sub-categories as well, so hoping it will bring in new people who haven't seen the main series yet.
> Too early to draw any conclusions yet, but its promising.


I think it could help if you mentioned that it was a short story somewhere on your page.


----------



## AltMe

JalexM said:


> I think it could help if you mentioned that it was a short story somewhere on your page.


Sorry where ?

I've not added it to any of my sites yet. Just an ad on the FB page for the main series, and the mail out. I'll edit the last post to be more explicit about that.


----------



## Abderian

Salvador Mercer said:


> Tim, I am really liking your experimentation and sharing. Good data to know and I hope you do well with the short. Keep posting!


Ditto.


----------



## JalexM

TimothyEllis said:


> Sorry where ?
> 
> I've not added it to any of my sites yet. Just an ad on the FB page for the main series, and the mail out. I'll edit the last post to be more explicit about that.


On the product page.


----------



## AltMe

JalexM said:


> On the product page.


Its my first short - what do you recommend?

The Amazon page count shows pretty clearly its a short story.


----------



## JalexM

TimothyEllis said:


> Its my first short - what do you recommend?
> 
> The Amazon page count shows pretty clearly its a short story.


Some of people could over look the page count, which could lead to bad reviews. I suggest putting it at the end of your blurb, on your book cover or title.


----------



## AltMe

JalexM said:


> Some of people could over look the page count, which could lead to bad reviews. I suggest putting it at the end of your blurb, on your book cover or title.


I added a section to the blurb. Should be on there in about 8 hours or so.


----------



## AltMe

Interesting day 1 for 1969. Only a dozen sales with 2 hours left for Hawaii. So not exactly a big splash. 

But the interesting thing is, total sales has spiked, by more than the 12. All but one of the series books picked up from the last few days, which had slumped. 

Still too early to tell, but it looks like releasing a short story as an interim measure, might actually work.

Beginning of the day, my Sci-Fi ranking was 100+, now at the end of the day, it's back at 93.


----------



## martyns

Wow, congratz.

I am close to releasing my book 4, I'm actually thinking of changing my strategy though as at the moment I'm getting solid read through from 2 but not from perma-free 1. I suspect it's a possible side-effect of perma-free.

I agree with the thought of many short series rather than one long one. I know I'd be really cautious about starting a series which had 20+ books in it. At the same time though I'd be a bit nervous about starting a series when it's unfinished. I'm purposefully holding off reading 'A Song of Fire and Ice' because the last two books aren't out!

I suppose it's hard to experiment with, but I can't help but feel 4 - 8 books is the ideal series length and actually having a series declared as complete will help to tempt some readers.


----------



## AltMe

martyns said:


> Wow, congratz.
> 
> I am close to releasing my book 4, I'm actually thinking of changing my strategy though as at the moment I'm getting solid read through from 2 but not from perma-free 1. I suspect it's a possible side-effect of perma-free.
> 
> I agree with the thought of many short series rather than one long one. I know I'd be really cautious about starting a series which had 20+ books in it. At the same time though I'd be a bit nervous about starting a series when it's unfinished. I'm purposefully holding off reading 'A Song of Fire and Ice' because the last two books aren't out!
> 
> I suppose it's hard to experiment with, but I can't help but feel 4 - 8 books is the ideal series length and actually having a series declared as complete will help to tempt some readers.


From what I've read, the read through from perma-free isnt that good from 1 to 2. I've not been tempted to go that way yet. The first book is still selling quite well.

Good call on SOFAI. I wish I had waited too. The cliffhanger at the end is nasty.

You could be right about 4-6, although I think I'm seeing a problem with so being at 5, which is a complete story arc, but perhaps isn't being perceived as such, since people see it as 2 trilogies wrongly. I guess I find out if being 6 makes a difference when I finally get it out.

Ideally, I think you need to think in terms of number of trilogies. So 3, 6 and 9 books. Seems to be what people expect. Anything non-standard throws them. Or so it seems.


----------



## AltMe

Odd. I had a spike on day 1 of 1969, followed by 2 days which you could loosely call "who turned out the lights?". 

Definite drop to a lower level occurring, especially since its been on a friday and saturday. 
Another couple of days of this and I'll have to post the diamond badge.   

Not unexpected though. Seems shorts in sci-fi are not a happening thing. Good test, but seems they are not worth it. The odd thing is, those who have read 1969, are eagerly awaiting the next one.


----------



## AltMe

Bit of an update for anyone still reading.

The short story hasn't really caught on. Its best day so far was 12 sales and full reads.

The series itself has settled down after its dropping a couple of levels, after 5 fell off the new release chart. Sales and reads are wobbling along, but overall performing at a reasonable level. 

Each book in a series increases the overall sales/reads a day, so the more you have, the higher is your 'settle to' level after your last book falls off the new releases lists.

Book 5 hasn't performed up to the previous ones. It looks like the cliffhanger on the end of 4 caused about 800 people to give up on the series. So think twice about using cliffhangers. I'm going to try and avoid them from now on.

Book 6 is still on hold, while I battle my health issues. But I'm part way into another short story which is going to bridge 5 and 6, while being something completely different - a horror-erotic-detective mix. Stretches new writer muscles for me, while staying in my current universe.


----------



## Matthew Stott

The cover for your short is quite different to the other books you have in that world, perhaps that's an issue?


----------



## AltMe

Matthew Stott said:


> The cover for your short is quite different to the other books you have in that world, perhaps that's an issue?


Could be, but its also a very short short. And I'm sure that's putting people off.

The cover had to be different, because the story isn't set in space, and a long long time before the main series. The follow on stories will have more of a space setting, but not the same as the series.


----------



## PearlEarringLady

I just want to say thank you for sharing all this data in so much detail. It's been awesome to follow along as your books shot into the stratosphere. I hope you soon feel well enough to carry on with the series.


----------



## CatParker

I heard your interview on Simon Whistler's Rocking Self Publishing podcast today, Timothy. It was great to hear your whole story. Thanks for sharing all this information on here and on that show; it's very inspiring for the rest of us.

x


----------



## AltMe

CatParker said:


> I heard your interview on Simon Whistler's Rocking Self Publishing podcast today, Timothy. It was great to hear your whole story. Thanks for sharing all this information on here and on that show; it's very inspiring for the rest of us.
> x


I didn't know it had gone out. It was supposed to be a week earlier.

Glad you liked it. My first podcast ever, and it was a lot of fun.

For anyone who wants to listed : http://rockingselfpublishing.com/


----------



## CatParker

Congratulations on your current number 1 in young adult short stories too.


----------



## AltMe

CatParker said:


> Congratulations on your current number 1 in young adult short stories too.


Thanks. 

I'm going to have to check that out, since sales are not really very good. Makes me wonder if it's a very small sub-category.

Mind you, being #1 in any category is gratifying.


----------



## AltMe

Officially dropped back a badge level now.


----------



## Salvador Mercer

TimothyEllis said:


> Officially dropped back a badge level now.


Yeah, but what a ride!


----------



## AltMe

Salvador Mercer said:


> Yeah, but what a ride!


Indeed. 

And after years of existing on very little, even dropping back like this is still a very good income by my standards.

So my only words at the end of each US day are still "Thank You!"


----------



## Ron Tucker

CatParker said:


> I heard your interview on Simon Whistler's Rocking Self Publishing podcast today, Timothy. It was great to hear your whole story. Thanks for sharing all this information on here and on that show; it's very inspiring for the rest of us.
> 
> x


Dito.

I just caught up on some of the podcasts I listen to. Thanks very much.


----------



## G. G. Rebimik

Hard work pays off, and that brings a very rewarding feeling.

Nice going.


g.g.


----------



## James1273

Very cool story and will definitely listen to the podcast. Big fan of that site.


----------



## geronl

> Interesting day 1 for 1969. Only a dozen sales with 2 hours left for Hawaii. So not exactly a big splash.


That is good for a short, but then again you have a bigger fan base now.


----------



## AltMe

geronl said:


> That is good for a short, but then again you have a bigger fan base now.


All the same, 1969 hasn't sold very well. Mind you, as I just found out, a lot of people haven't seen it.


----------



## AltMe

Book 6 is out now, being an interlude novella between parts 1 & 2.

Initial sales seem to be quite good. 25 on the first day without any form of advertising other than a 'its coming' post on FB.

It will be an interesting test. Its from a different POV, 1st person from a new character, with a 3rd person prologue. While it is SO, its not in my usual sub-categories, and its 2nd category is fiction-thrillers-crime. So its advertising the series to a whole new audience.
Only 17,000 words, but I've priced it at $2.99 regardless, given what other people who write shorts recommend. At some point I'll raise the prices on my novels to compensate. (All but #1 is $3.99now.)

I sent the email out to 191 this morning, before caffeinating, and had to send out a second one with the direct link on it. 

Just as some interesting side news, I did my month statistics last night.

My spiritual books and Guides are picking up sales and reads from being listed in the back matter of each novel. In July, I sold 18. In Sept it was 42, and only 1 book didn't have a sale. The really interesting thing is my spiritual MC and the in book references I've made to one of my spiritual books, does seem to flow on, when you have the links at the back.

If you look at my author site, this is exactly what I have in the back of each novel.

Series wise, total sales and full reads has just passed 21,000!   Since the beginning of July. Across the 5 novels.

I received my first decent royalties payment yesterday. Que the happy dance.


----------



## Salvador Mercer

Congrats!  Very nice and enjoy that royalty payment


----------



## AltMe

Things are really odd now.

I gather there was a time change in the US over the weekend, but not in Hawaii.

All of a sudden, in the last 2 days, sales have crashed, while reads remain about the same, even though a new book is in the mix.

All my books have dropped 1-2000 in ranks, and my sci-fi ranking is oscillating between early 70's and dropping out of the 100, without any apparent cause.

Doesn't anyone read during US winter?   

An email came out about 1969 today, apparently to followers. A full 2 weeks after release, when they used to do this several days after release.

Burnside's Killer is doubling my other books at the moment, but one could hardly call it a spike. The email list seems to have been really disappointing. I guess that says something about less than novel length in the sci-fi genre.   All good lessons though. And I cant complain about the income.

For now, concentrating on book 7. Not doing the November book thingy. I've actually committed myself to writing 60-70k words this month, so I can have 7 out for early December.


----------



## Salvador Mercer

I'd agree with the email list.  I have an organic list of about 50 and only managed six sales of my latest release and this was in addition to Patty J's first in free, so I'm not sure how many I can contribute to my list and how many to organic buy through.  Even if I give all six to my list that is only about a 12% click/buy on my mailing list.  To be fair, it's only been 24 hours, but I'm wondering if these lists need to be in the 10k+ range to get that kind of traction to launch a book, day 1 into 200+ sales?


----------



## J.A. Cipriano

Salvador Mercer said:


> I'd agree with the email list. I have an organic list of about 50 and only managed six sales of my latest release and this was in addition to Patty J's first in free, so I'm not sure how many I can contribute to my list and how many to organic buy through. Even if I give all six to my list that is only about a 12% click/buy on my mailing list. To be fair, it's only been 24 hours, but I'm wondering if these lists need to be in the 10k+ range to get that kind of traction to launch a book, day 1 into 200+ sales?


Yes. Baring those crazy people who have lists that jump at everything, I think that's true. Mark Dawson has like 30k people on his list. Jana De Leon has like 15k. Some others I've spoken to have lists in that range. Not all, but most.

I mean think about it. A good rule of thumb (trending lower) is for every 4 clicks in your email you get 1 sale. What you need is people clicking and buying. There are two ways to get that, volume and engagement. Some people have both. Either way, even with a 5% click rate on 10k people you're still selling over a hundred books with that one email on the low end.


----------



## Salvador Mercer

I like your math JA


----------



## Nathan Van Coops

Enjoying your interview with Simon Whistler. Very interesting. I hadn't been on this thread for a while and when I tuned into the podcast I thought, "Wait a minute, I know this story..."

Congratulations on getting on the podcast and on your success. Quite a fascinating path you've had. 

-N


----------



## AltMe

Nathan Lowell has a list around 2000, and he manages a very good spike for each new release. In fact, he commented that the spike didn't do him much good in the long run, because he went up the ranks in one hop, and then
slid back down steadily, without being able to hold the position very long.

My guess is, its being short that is my problem at the moment, in a genre which likes its books long.

Re the podcast, how did people find the quality of it?

edit: Opportunity to send out to the Amazon followers came in overnight, announcing Burnside's Killer. This at least seems to be on almost normal timing.


----------



## Steve Shelley

man, i love this thread


----------



## AltMe

Steve Shelley said:


> man, i love this thread


Thanks Steve.

An update is probably appropriate now.

Burnside's killer is doing ok. Not well, but ok. However, the rankings of the rest of the series continue slowly falling, along with sales, and very slowly after, reads.

Moral is, keep your series in the same sub-categories where you do best. BK couldn't go into my best sub-cats, and this is hurting. Yes, picking up people from the new cat its in, but, not enough to offset the loss from where the series was performing well in.

So while mixing genres is good for wider exposure, you need to make sure you keep the new book in the existing sub-cats as well.

The other thing is being a novella in the sci-fi genre. Not a happening thing! And because its got a small KENPC, each read isn't paying very well.

All good lessons.

Back to normal with book 7, and I'm going to make sure there's a solid back mention to BK in the new blurb.

I'm still not back to full speed writing, but at least the book is moving forward each day.


----------



## AltMe

Today was a weird day.

Books 1, 2, 3, and 6 all sold the same amount, while 4 and 5 were the same 1/3 higher. Really weird, especially as 6 is usually the highest at the moment. At the same time, reads were well down. Overall, average day in money terms.


----------



## Salvador Mercer

Tim, your first big mistake... trying to make sense of Amazon and anything to do with their algos  

Six books, very nice!


----------



## AltMe

Salvador Mercer said:


> Tim, your first big mistake... trying to make sense of Amazon and anything to do with their algos
> 
> Six books, very nice!


True. Although its less trying to make sense of it, and more documenting the thought processes of it. As far as I can see, all authors go through what I'm seeing at the moment, at some stage. Having interrupted my book flow, I'm seeing what happens as a result.

Book 7 is on the way now. I was as sick as a dog yesterday, and so had the most productive writing day in a long time. Go figure.  Approaching the half way mark, and on track for an early December release.


----------



## Salvador Mercer

Hope you feel better and if this helps, at least your books are in one series, unlike someone I know who wrote three book one's in three different series


----------



## ShariLTapscott

That's great! It's great to hear about books taking off!


----------



## Abderian

I think there comes a stage when it's impossible to tell why sales are moving up and down. Some things aren't within a writer's control, such as other books being published at the same time, current events or media causing a waxing or waning of interest in a genre, the weather.


----------



## AltMe

Abderian said:


> I think there comes a stage when it's impossible to tell why sales are moving up and down. Some things aren't within a writer's control, such as other books being published at the same time, current events or media causing a waxing or waning of interest in a genre, the weather.


I gather its also Friday and Saturday night sport. Both used to be the best days of the week. Suddenly they became the worst.

What was interesting for me was watching Nathan Lowell. He released a long awaited sequel, starting a new series from the end point of a previous one. As he is in some of the same categories as me, I was pushed down by his new book, and the resurgence of his series. He's also just done a Bookbub, with similar results. He rose to #2 in Sci-Fi on the strength of it.


----------



## AltMe

Jeff Tanyard said:


> Are a lot of your sales coming from Australia? What's the breakdown by country? Just curious.


I cant say I've been paying attention.

Let me look.

Roughly 90% US, 5% UK, 2% AUS, 3% everywhere else.

So no, not much in Australia. Problem here is my books are too expensive for an unknown author. Our exchange rate is so bad against the US, it adds about a $1.50 to the price here. Over $5 in sci-fi in Australia, is a bit much, unless you are very well known, which I'm not. Took a long time to get any traction in Australia at all. From memory, it was book 4 before I made any real sales here.

I've told Amazon we need to be able to price differently here, so $3.99 is $3.99 here as well, but they don't want to know. India they deliberately price slash, but not Australia.


----------



## AltMe

Jeff Tanyard said:


> Thanks for checking.
> 
> I just looked up the chart for the currency pair. It doesn't look good:
> 
> http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/AUD%3D
> 
> AUD has lost about a third of its value against the U.S. dollar over the past three years. That definitely sucks for Australians wanting to buy goods from an American company.


It happened faster than that. We went from parity to -30% within the first year of the current government. It was so predictable, I dont know why it surprised anyone. We went straight back to what it was the last time the Libs were in govt.

The up side is the bonus the exchange rate generates on my Amazon payouts.  Mixed blessing though.


----------



## AltMe

Now you got me looking prematurely.....

Several days ago, Amazon gave me the email link to announce Burnside's Killer to my followers. I received the email this morning. 

So far today, BK is well up on sales, definite minor spike. Interestingly, Book 5 is well up on reads as well, although not on sales. 

Suggests 2 things.
1. The follow list includes people who are not on my mailing list or FB.
2. My speculation that book 5 was flat because people were waiting for book 6 to complete the trilogy, might be correct.


----------



## Dhayaa Anbajagane

TimothyEllis said:


> I cant say I've been paying attention.
> 
> Let me look.
> 
> Roughly 90% US, 5% UK, 2% AUS, 3% everywhere else.
> 
> So no, not much in Australia. Problem here is my books are too expensive for an unknown author. Our exchange rate is so bad against the US, it adds about a $1.50 to the price here. Over $5 in sci-fi in Australia, is a bit much, unless you are very well known, which I'm not. Took a long time to get any traction in Australia at all. From memory, it was book 4 before I made any real sales here.
> 
> I've told Amazon we need to be able to price differently here, so $3.99 is $3.99 here as well, but they don't want to know. India they deliberately price slash, but not Australia.


Pardon me if I'm wrong, but I thought you could set different prices for different regions if you chose to do so. Is that not the case for everyone?


----------



## AltMe

Dhayaa Anbajagane said:


> Pardon me if I'm wrong, but I thought you could set different prices for different regions if you chose to do so. Is that not the case for everyone?


Only within set parameters.

The problem is when you want to set it below the minimum US price. It wont let you, except for places like India, where the minimums are redone for the local currency.

I must admit, I raised the prices a while ago, without checking if I could set Aust prices lower. Next time I submit a change, I'll look a that.


----------



## AltMe

I was doing a routine checking of my latest books performance, and ....

WooHoo!!!

1969 has hit Number 1 in 45-Minute Teen & Young Adult Short Reads.

My first number 1 ever !!! 

Mind you, it has to be a small category though. Yesterday saw 8 sales, and 11 full reads. Highest yet for this very short story. But obviously enough to propel it to the top of the list.

More realistically, it looks like this:
#12,655 Paid in Kindle Store
#1 in Kindle Store > Kindle Short Reads > 45 minutes (22-32 pages) > *Teen & Young Adult*
#5 in Kindle Store > Kindle Short Reads > 45 minutes (22-32 pages) > *Science Fiction & Fantasy*
#10 in Kindle Store > Kindle Short Reads > 45 minutes (22-32 pages) > *Literature & Fiction*

Its also number 1 on all 3 New releases lists.

Now if Burnside's Killer could do this good as well, I'd be really happy. 

Its:
#2,434 Paid in Kindle Store 
#14 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Space Exploration*
#15 in Kindle Store > Kindle Short Reads > Two hours or more (65-100 pages) > *Science Fiction & Fantasy*
#15 in Kindle Store > Kindle Short Reads > Two hours or more (65-100 pages) > *Mystery, Thriller & Suspense*


----------



## CatParker

If it's not too rude to ask, Timothy, what sales did Burnside's Killer do to reach those numbers? 

x


----------



## AltMe

CatParker said:


> If it's not too rude to ask, Timothy, what sales did Burnside's Killer do to reach those numbers?


Highest day so far has been 34 sales and 38 reads.

But its averaging half that.

That was the day my following list got its email. And it was a 1 day spike. But it did a lot for my ranks.


----------



## CatParker

Thanks for being so generous sharing those numbers, Timothy. It's fascinating to see the difference in ranks in the various categories of short fiction. At the moment one of my books is at:

#42 in Kindle Store > Kindle Short Reads > 90 minutes (44-64 pages) > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

That's with an overall ranking of 15,833

That's from about 8 sales and 4 full reads.

x


----------



## AltMe

End of November update:

Book 7 still isn't complete yet, so the slide still continues. Very close now to sliding back to the Platinum Eagle rank badge.

Most of the books in the series are now ranked around 10,000, and my author rank has now slid out of the top 100 sci-fi on a more permanent basis. 

At this point, its about 2 and a half months since the last novel was released. 

Very jeckle and hyde feeling at the moment. Bookreport isn't quite as much fun as it was, but I was paid for September today, and that was a huge buzz!   

The short and the novella are selling, but not as well as the novels did. And neither of them are boosting sales of the rest of the series. This is what happens when you write short all of a sudden, and they are not in your mainstream sub-categories. Tick, learned that lesson.

I'm concentrating on writing book 7 now, and coming to the end of it. With luck, I'll have it out in time to stave off the 90 day cliff which people keep talking about, which is about 2 weeks away now. But as far as I can see, once you're past 2 months between series novels, your on the steep slope down anyway.

Oh, and I've had my first Bookbub refusal too this month. But haven't done anything else, publicity wise.

Just reporting in. Now where was I? Of yes, all the stuff which kept me awake last night after I stopped writing to try to get some sleep. Usual night, you know how it goes - you go to bed, toss, turn, stuff pours in, and about 2 hours later you get up, fill your whiteboard with notes, and then go back to bed. Now all I have to do is make some sense of it all.


----------



## Salvador Mercer

Thanks for the monthly update.  It was a very wild ride and imho, one of the most interesting facts, is how you keep the ball moving forward.  Your lessons about publishing on a schedule, in a series and keeping some sort of identifiable branding, is huge for me.  10k ranks from where you were sitting may not be as much 'fun' to use your word, but it's a very nice place to be from a newbie perspective.

So, other than publishing book 7, do you have any plans to revive your series to 4 digit (or even 3 digit) ranking territory?  I also get the idea thing, I got an epiphany on one of my books and had to stop my WIP to get it down before it left the fleeting marble in my skull  

Looking forward to seeing what book 7 does for your series.


----------



## AltMe

Salvador Mercer said:


> Thanks for the monthly update. It was a very wild ride and imho, one of the most interesting facts, is how you keep the ball moving forward. Your lessons about publishing on a schedule, in a series and keeping some sort of identifiable branding, is huge for me. 10k ranks from where you were sitting may not be as much 'fun' to use your word, but it's a very nice place to be from a newbie perspective.


It is. In money terms, its still turning over twice what I used to live on in a fortnight, each week. So for now, I'm still in what I call "a damn good income" territory. The only thing about it is, the slide is ongoing if you do nothing, and give it another 6 months, money would be becoming a serious issue again.



> So, other than publishing book 7, do you have any plans to revive your series to 4 digit (or even 3 digit) ranking territory?


I'm now on the Bookbub hunt. While I only have a single book to submit, so can only do it monthly, I will now be doing that from now on. Once 7 is out, I may think about other avenues as well.



> I also get the idea thing, I got an epiphany on one of my books and had to stop my WIP to get it down before it left the fleeting marble in my skull
> 
> Looking forward to seeing what book 7 does for your series.


I am too. It will be the first real test of if the series has passed its use by date or not. I lost a lot of people with the cliffhanger at the end of 4, and its been a long wait for many since 5.

On the other hand, I'm picking up a handful of email list, and FB likes each week, so in theory, 7 should hit the lists with a nice blip. I can expect a couple of dozen day one sales as soon as I mention it's been uploaded, on FB, some the next day from the mailing list, and then we'll see if its enough to make it soar, or pancake.

I'm also interested to see if a series really can maintain momentum into a book 7, or effectively 3rd trilogy territory. I know several series which had me waiting impatiently for 7's, so I know they work for the hooked, but from a writers income perspective, one has to wonder if going the 3rd trilogy is really effective, or should one have taken a new direction completely? On the other hand though, my story is anything but complete, and this trilogy to come will end with some serious questions answered.

On the gripping hand though, I'm also caught between two conflicting things. I've committed to writing a series, and taking it to its conclusion. But I've also committed to being a writer and making a living at it.

It remains to be seen if both of these are compatible.


----------



## Salvador Mercer

Hehe, I think you're well on your way to both of those goals.

A fantasy genre writer, who is pretty successful, has like 17 books in her first series despite the first book having a 3.6 average rating.  That is a lot of books in a series so you'll be fine at 7, 8 or 10 even LOL.

I think the Bookbub hunt is the next big thing for you (and the rest of us).  I've been watching their daily listings and trying to look for trends in what they accept and they pretty much do what they say they will do.  One submission tip says that books that reference say a hundred or more five star reviews has like a 14% higher download rate than books that don't.  Add in the other factors and us newbie authors need to find a way to be competitive against our fellow authors who routinely are accepted.

To me, this means either high number of reviews with preferably a good rating (not necessary as the 3.6 rated book gets in quite a lot of the time as a perma-free).  A good discount or value ratio will also help.  I learned this lesson from Mr. Ploof when he  posted his USA Today run, stating that he was denied more than once till he put his four book, box set up at 99 cents.  I think if you can box a few volumes, price it nicely (high) then run a 99 cent promo, you may get a Bookbub.  The visit early this year on Kboards by Bookbub demonstrated that it's easier to get accepted for a free promo than a paid one.  That is another option I guess.

At any rate, I think to be sustainable as a living a writer must continue to produce in this climate or become irrelevant.  Just my opinion.  FWIW, I've been following your thread very closely since you started it   Good info and keep it updated please.  I'm very interested in seeing book 7 come out.


----------



## AltMe

I uploaded book 7, Hire a Hero just now.

Yesterday was a disaster - doesn't anyone in the US read on Sundays anymore?

Author ranks have slumped dramatically over the last couple of weeks, as a consequence of the slide off the book ranks after almost 2 months without a novel release.
All books: 6,343
eBooks: 2,889
Fantasy & Sci-Fi: 397
Sci-Fi: 209

At this point, last 4 out of 5 days have dropped me down into the platinum badge, which almost had me ready to show it here. And yesterday was a shocker, for no known reason.

So, tomorrow will show what happens when you do get the 2 month waited novel out. 

I had 2 people yesterday and another 2 today on FB asking when 7 was coming out. 

FB Page has 129 likes.
FB Group has 21 members.
Mailing List is 239.

Now the waiting begins to see how the first day goes.


----------



## AltMe

In roughly an hour I had someone comment on FB that the book was there and they had it already. There was also some comment about insomnia for some reason.   

So a very fast put up from FB, even though I dont officially know it yet.


----------



## Steve Shelley

hey nice cover dude!


----------



## AltMe

Steve Shelley said:


> hey nice cover dude!


Group effort from the kboards team. Thanks to those who helped get it right.


----------



## AltMe

27 sales of Hire a Hero, before I received the notification it was live. Its still 7am in NY.   

And I know at least one Brit who wont be getting any work done this afternoon.


----------



## Bbates024

Congrats on the new release. I love watching this thread and the numbers as well. (it does the mind good)

Now that you released book seven have you thought about bundling books 1-3 in set for a lower price of even free. Apparently that has been working for a lot of other authors as a nice in for new readers. I was thinking about doing it once I get book four out in mine but hey let's not jump to far ahead of ourselves I still need book two to come out...

You could also say do books 1-3 for 4.99 so it's a deal and then toss it to bookbub as .99 and see how they feel about it. Just some things I have been thinking about trying in 2016.


----------



## AltMe

End of day 1:

132 sales
29 full reads.

Just goes to show, the mailing list has power once you get over 200, and when you engage with your readers on a Facebook page and in a Facebook group, you get eager readers who buy before the ink is dry on the product page.

 

Highest rank I saw during the day was 975 in the Paid Kindle store. It made it to 7 in the Visionary sub-cat and 13 in 2 others. Its slipped back a bit now though. Currently on 1400, 7, 14, 16.

#2 in the Hot new releases for Visionary, 5 for the next one, and 7 for the other.

My author rank has only just started to adjust upwards, from the depths it was in yesterday. I guess it depends how things go for the next week as to if my ranks improve much overall.


----------



## Chinese Writer

I also recently booked an ad with them. He got back to me within two days. Maybe try to contact him again.


----------



## AltMe

My sci-fi ranking went from 205 to 72 while I was asleep. 

Hire is currently :
#1,021 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
#7 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Metaphysical & Visionary*
#13 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Military > *Space Fleet*
#13 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Space Exploration*

Sales not so good today, but the KU reads are really going today.


----------



## geronl

Good for you!


----------



## Jacob Stanley

I love this thread. One of the most inspiring things I've ever seen on Kboards. Reading it helps keep me going.

Congrats man, and good luck going forward.


----------



## Salvador Mercer

Great run, love following you Tim, keep it up!


----------



## AltMe

Day 4, and the Amazon announcement email arrived today, the one they invite you to send out.

Big spike in both sales and reads. And my best money day in months.

This announcement email is well worth sending out, in case anyone is wondering.

Certainly helped my rankings. 

#713 Paid in Kindle Store 

 #5 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Metaphysical & Visionary* 
 #8 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Military > *Space Marine* 
 #8 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Military > *Space Marine*
I'm not sure, but I think this is the best I've done in these sub-cats.
#49 in Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > *Science Fiction*


----------



## AltMe

scicop said:


> Awesome results! Great to hear your book is doing well. I suspect the backlist will continue to pick up as well.


It is. Book 1 is doing a lot better again now, with the usual flow through.

Oooo, rankings this morning are really good. Hire a Hero is now:
#500 Paid in Kindle Store 

 #5 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Metaphysical & Visionary* 
 #6 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Military > *Space Marine* 
 #6 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Military > *Space Fleet* 
And my Author ranks have improved a lot overnight too.

#34 in Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > *Science Fiction* 
#72 in Kindle eBooks > *Science Fiction & Fantasy* 
#78 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > *Science Fiction* 
#79 in Books > *Teens*


----------



## geronl

#72 in all of sci-fi fantasy is insanely good


----------



## JRHolmes

Congratulations on getting the book out and all the success with sales. Looks like a great start for that book and a goodly bump to all the previous ones.


----------



## AltMe

I think its helping that this book starts with a bang. Literally. 

#469 Paid in Kindle Store 

 #4 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Metaphysical & Visionary* 
 #6 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Military > *Space Marine* 
 #6 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Military > *Space Marine* 
I think this is the best any of my books has done.

Now if I can only outsell Constitution, The Atlantis World, and Warrior, I could make number 1 in M&V.


----------



## AltMe

Day 6 set new records. 

Best ever sales in a day.
Best ever reads in a day.
Most money in a day. (And that's with the discounted KU value)

I'm firmly back in the Star Badge range again, after dropping for one day down into the Eagle range, 8 days ago.

Rankings haven't changed much though.

For the first time ever though, I've had a book line up. Book 7 was first of course. But Bookreport then listed 1 to 6 in order. The number of new readers staggered me. I sold more copies of book 1 today, than a week ago I was selling in total across 5 novels, 1 novella and a short story.

And I'm not even number one anywhere. Even on the New Releases lists, the best I'm doing is number 2.

I think I can afford Christmas this year.


----------



## AltMe

And the rankings catch up!

#392 Paid in Kindle Store 

 #3 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Metaphysical & Visionary* 
 #3 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Military > *Space Marine* 
 #3 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Military > *Space Marine* 
Amazon Author Rank 
#27 in Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > *Science Fiction
*#61 in Kindle eBooks > *Science Fiction & Fantasy*
#67 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > *Science Fiction*
#88 in Books > *Teens

    *


----------



## geronl

#27 in sci-fi... that is awesome


----------



## AltMe

Amazon Author Rank 
 #18 in Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > *Science Fiction* 
 #37 in Kindle eBooks > *Science Fiction & Fantasy* 
 #45 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > *Science Fiction* 
 #48 in Books > *Teens* #93 in Books > *Science Fiction & Fantasy*
*


*#388 Paid in Kindle Store 

 #3 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Military > *Space Marine* 
 #3 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Military > *Space Marine* 
 #3 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Metaphysical & Visionary* 
 

Also #6 in Space Opera.


----------



## Matt Ryan

Been following this thread since the start and have been rooting for you the whole way. So cool you are continuing to find success. I find it so rare to see a series organically grow and expand without much advertising. Very nicely done and thanks for sharing the journey.

Here's to hoping you have an amazing 2016!


----------



## AltMe

Matt Ryan said:


> Been following this thread since the start and have been rooting for you the whole way. So cool you are continuing to find success. I find it so rare to see a series organically grow and expand without much advertising. Very nicely done and thanks for sharing the journey.
> 
> Here's to hoping you have an amazing 2016!


Thanks. 

I was really worried about how book 7 would be received, but I guess I shouldn't have been.

I'm amazed at how fast the rankings turned around as well. With book 5, I managed to get to 18 in Sci-fi, and its been slowly eroding in the 3 months since them. Suddenly, 7 days of sales of a new book and I'm back to where book 5 took me.

I cant help it though. Now I'm looking to see if my rank goes better than 18 in Sci-Fi.


----------



## AltMe

Amazon Author Rank 
 #18 in Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > *Science Fiction* 
 #37 in Kindle eBooks > *Science Fiction & Fantasy* 
 #54 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > *Science Fiction* 
 #58 in Books > *Teens* 
 #95 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > *Action & Adventure*
The last one is new today, and I dont think I've ever seen it listed before.
Another great day 7, but I cant tell how great as Bookreport isn't working properly.


----------



## Abderian

Wow, that's fantastic. Keep posting. It's really heartwarming to see your results.


----------



## geronl

These results are incredible


----------



## J.T. Williams

I am in awe of this. I've read from page 1 on and have to say both congratulations and that I hope my "book three release" comes within 1/8 of this success!


----------



## Salvador Mercer

J.T. Williams said:


> I am in awe of this. I've read from page 1 on and have to say both congratulations and that I hope my "book three release" comes within 1/8 of this success!


I can name that tune in only 1/10th of these sales 

Let the bidding begin!


----------



## J.T. Williams

Salvador Mercer said:


> I can name that tune in only 1/10th of these sales
> 
> Let the bidding begin!


On that note, 1/11th! LOL


----------



## AltMe

Day 7 was new records all round, but Day 8 did better again !    

This is much different to book 5, which by day 8 was starting to slip already.

Interestingly, the flow back to book one remains strong, and while not flowing through the series quite up to the percentages I was getting, is still very encouraging.

Amazon Author Rank 

 #18 in Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > *Science Fiction* 
 #35 in Kindle eBooks > *Science Fiction & Fantasy* 
 #42 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > *Science Fiction* 
 #47 in Books > *Teens* 
 #77 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > *Action & Adventure* 
95 down to 77 in LitFic Action-Adventure !!!  Small improvements in the others, except for Sci-Fi - Something needs a push to break me through to 17 there. 18 is as high as I've been able to get so far, with books 5 and 7. Still, putting it out to the cosmos to give me a shove in the right direction !


----------



## benjclark

Bookmarked -- What a fantastic (and encouraging!) thread!  Thanks Tim for sharing with everyone.  Onward and upward!


----------



## AltMe

Day 8, new highs again! I'm caught between mystified and delighted. At this point after book 5, things had started to decline. Instead, book 7's series wave is continuing on.

And !!!

Amazon Author Rank 

 #16 in Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > *Science Fiction* 
 #32 in Kindle eBooks > *Science Fiction & Fantasy* 
16








My best ranking so far. My birthday cake wish has come true!


----------



## Matthew Stott

TimothyEllis said:


> Day 8, new highs again! I'm caught between mystified and delighted. At this point after book 5, things had started to decline. Instead, book 7's series wave is continuing on.


Well done! Perhaps it's down to the cover? It's your best one in the series so far, so perhaps its catching the eye of more passing buyers whilst it's up high in the ranks. So more click and investigate.


----------



## AltMe

Matthew Stott said:


> Well done! Perhaps it's down to the cover? It's your best one in the series so far, so perhaps its catching the eye of more passing buyers whilst it's up high in the ranks. So more click and investigate.


Its possible. Ironically, its the simplest cover too. Simply a background, with the ship on top. It did take some time to get the ship design right, but the actual cover was easy to make once I learned a new trick. (Thanks to kboarders for the help.)

The other part is possibly the opening scene in the book. As a hook, I think its one of my best.

The really interesting thing is how many first book sales and reads I'm getting now. So whatever is right about this book, its bringing a lot of new people into the series as a whole.

I was worried there during the 2 month slump, if the series had run its course already. It had occured that writing a book 7 for a series which was past its use by date maybe wasn't such a good idea. But it just goes to show. In scifi, novellas and short stories are not what people want. Keep the full novels coming! It was an interesting period, showing me what happens when you stop writing, even though it wasn't by choice.


----------



## AltMe

Jeff Tanyard said:


> What was the new trick?


Photoshop - the button that lets you move something on a different layer. Without knowing that, I was stuff with where PS stuck it when I did a paste.



> They're browsing the Most Popular Authors in Science Fiction page, seeing a bunch of established guys they've already read, clicking on page two, seeing some new guy they've never heard of but who must be good since he's the #16 author, and deciding to give your work a try. Success begets success.


Oh. I hadn't thought of that.

And its #15, as of a little while ago, which is odd since sales eased off a lot today. But the author rank seems to lag the sales by a day or so.


----------



## AltMe

Day 14 - Book 7 dropped off a bit, and then recovered a bit, so still selling and reading well. And to my surprise, a new set of records today. I'm finding it hard to believe that what I expected to last about 5 days before it started dropping, is now 14 days old and still riding the wave.   

Seems about 65% of Book 1 reads are going to book 2, and from there its about 95% follow on to each next novel.

So on a day where I sell 40 book 1, I'm seeing 20-25 of each of the other books in the series. That's ignoring KU reads.

I'm still top 20 in sci-fi authors, and top 40 in scifi and fantasy, and this seems to be holding me up. 

Also, I released "Jane's Christmas" for free to Mailing List, FB and here followers; yesterday. 139 downloads so far. 
Tomorrow it goes into Kindle and KU.


----------



## AltMe

Jane's Christmas is now out on Kindle.   

Now if only I could get back to book 8!


----------



## Salvador Mercer

How many books are you planning for in this series or is it like Seinfeld?


----------



## AltMe

Salvador Mercer said:


> How many books are you planning for in this series or is it like Seinfeld?


Original plan was 9. Revised plan is 10-12. Actual? Not sure at all.

There is also potential for a sequel series, but it would be a new name and theme.


----------



## AltMe

Christmas day didn't do me any favours. After 2 weeks between 15 and 20 in Sci-fi, suddenly in one day I dropped to 33, and now back at 29.

Not sure if it was Christmas day slow down because everyone had too much family stuff to do, or if it was my own fault for belatedly updating my back-matter in all my books, which for some unknown reason always seems to have an effect on the day it happens.

Whichever, I dropped down a level.  Net effect was to drop 7 out of the top 10 in Visionary and Metaphysical. But the interesting thing is, all 6 of my novels are between 11 and 20 in that sub-category. So while I'm not ranking in the top ten now, 7 is number one on the New Release List, and out of 20 books at the top, 6 of them are mine!   

I cant complain with the money either, even if it has dropped a level. After a very slow start after 3 months of dropping out, this is now my best month yet money wise, and 2 weeks in the top 20 of Sci-Fi was a lot longer than I expected.

Now, if I can only shuck xmas distractions finally and get back to writing 8, maybe I can repeat this in a months time.

One of the distractions was my christmas story, and while its selling slowly, I did give 169 away before uploading it to kindle. Hence it got no blast off, so no real rank or momentum. However, sales were up today after I updated back-matter and blurbs to include it, so it might sell ok in the long term. Whos to know, and I did only write it for fun, and for something to give to my fans. The one thing I've learned in the last 3 months is short stories dont sell on their own, not like novels do.

So, 8. Better get back to it.


----------



## Salvador Mercer

That  is always the key, keep on writing!  Sounds like you got a flow with the book numbers, so congrats and good luck next year!


----------



## AltMe

Slowly seeming to come back from the xmas day plunge. Its taken a few days of steady gains to return to about the level of the 24th. Ranks haven't caught up yet though.

Big surprise today was Jane's Christmas. Day 6 and it had its best day, going from about 15k in the list up to:

#5,818 Paid in Kindle Store 

 *#1* in Kindle Store > Kindle Short Reads > 90 minutes (44-64 pages) > *Teen & Young Adult* 
 #9 in Kindle Store > Kindle Short Reads > 90 minutes (44-64 pages) > *Science Fiction & Fantasy* 
 #31 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Metaphysical & Visionary* 










edit: Hire a Hero and Jane's Christmas are 1 and 3 on the Hot New Releases list for Met and Vis.

In that category, all 6 novels are in 11-20, with Jane's Christmas at 31.

(Book 6 novella isn't listed only because it was a different kind of book, so in different categories, in hindsight probably a mistake.)


----------



## benjclark

Fantastic!


----------



## AltMe

I dont know if if its a holiday thing, but the 30th and 31st Dec were both on par with the 25th. IE. well down on normal.

Both 7 and the xmas story are still doing reasonably well, but the rest of the series has slackened.

Month money, KU dependent of course, is a new record for me.

Woohoo what a roller coaster ride this is.


----------



## JRHenderson

Hi Tim. I struggle to find stuff to do on a Sunday morning when it's chucking it down outside, so I sat on my new sofa and re-read this whole thread. It's so cool to look back and see you getting excited about 19 sales per day, knowing what your sales would become 3 months later.



TimothyEllis said:


> I sent the email out to 191 this morning, before caffeinating, and had to send out a second one with the direct link on it.


I'm afraid that when I listed my migraine triggers, I forgot to mention that caffeine kicks me off as well. Instead of coffee, I drink this stuff: http://www.avogel.com.au/food/bambu-instant-coffee-substitute-alternative/ It's not as bitter as coffee, so it doesn't need as much sugar to sweeten it.

Of course, caffeine might not affect you -- but I just thought I'd mention it in case you wanted to try abstaining for a few days to see if it improves matters.

Anyway, sorry once again for derailing your thread and keep the updates coming!


----------



## AltMe

JRHenderson said:


> Hi Tim. I struggle to find stuff to do on a Sunday morning when it's chucking it down outside, so I sat on my new sofa and re-read this whole thread. It's so cool to look back and see you getting excited about 19 sales per day, knowing what your sales would become 3 months later.


I assume you meant not knowing, as I certainly had no idea. Wait, you meant you knowing. 

If anything, I think I was more enthusiastic about those sales per day than the ones I get now. It was heady stuff then, but you do seem to get used to it, although the roller coaster ride has highs and lows. I just came off a big low, going up to a new high, and now on the backslide again. You get used to it after a few times.

There have been 2 major milestones though. The first was when I earned more in 1 month than the whole of the previous year. And the 2nd was this last month, when (KU dependent) I think I've just earned more in 1 month than the last year I was in paid employment. Mind you, that was well over a decade ago now, so its nothing near what people earn now for what I did then. But all the same, to earn in a month what I used to earn in a year, is heady stuff. Depends a bit on KU as I said, and also the exchange rate at the time I get it. But its in that ballpark.



> I'm afraid that when I listed my migraine triggers, I forgot to mention that caffeine kicks me off as well. Instead of coffee, I drink this stuff: http://www.avogel.com.au/food/bambu-instant-coffee-substitute-alternative/ It's not as bitter as coffee, so it doesn't need as much sugar to sweeten it.
> 
> Of course, caffeine might not affect you -- but I just thought I'd mention it in case you wanted to try abstaining for a few days to see if it improves matters.
> 
> Anyway, sorry once again for derailing your thread and keep the updates coming!


I cant stand coffee in any form. Makes me throw up if I get it accidentally, like in chocolate selections.

Caffeine doesn't seem to be an issue for me as far as migraines go. In fact, its added to one of the drugs I used to take to make it be absorbed better. The sugar is an issue, but I can definitely say: "Red Bull gives you writers wings".

I'm still trying to find out what causes my migraines, and the Christmas period wasn't good for avoiding triggers. I'm still trying to settle down again to start writing again. Book 8 isn't going to write itself, worst luck.


----------



## AltMe

Day 32 for Hire a Hero, and its now dropped off the New Releases list. Sales and reads have leveled off now in the same basic proportion to the rest of the series. It's still hanging at 16 in Visionary and Metaphysical.

Jane's Christmas is still #1 on the same New Release list, and in its Teen slot in the fast reads section.

So a month after book 7 was released, the drop offs have been regular.

It goes like this:

Day one is a big spike from the mailing list. Day 2 is a big drop. Day 3 is when the rankings kick in and rise up the levels over the next few days. You get it to the top by the end of week 1. In this case, I stayed there for a 2nd week, quite unexpectedly. Then there was a bad day (Dec 25th) and I dropped a level immediately. It picked up a bit, but the end of year did the same drop off, and this time it didn't come back.

So now its in the normal slide period after the deletion from the New Releases lists. Tuesday seems to be my worst day, where each one drops me a level, and the rest of the week hovers around that level. Then rince and repeat. 

So a month after book 7 rockets me to #15 in scifi (after having dropped right out of the 100), I'm down at #33, and sales, reads and money is about 1/3 of what it was about 10 days after release of 7. 

Roller-coaster ride! Woohoo!

Couple more weeks before my christmas short drops off as well, and then I start the slide properly until I can get 8 out. That's the way this goes. But in the meantime, the mailing list gets bigger, more people join the Facebook page, and a few more join the group.

It's not yet a year since I released book 1. If anyone had told me all this would have happened back then, I'd have laughed at them.


----------



## Salvador Mercer

I'm liking your productivity!   That, perhaps, plays a key in your success this last year, no?


----------



## AltMe

Salvador Mercer said:


> I'm liking your productivity!  That, perhaps, plays a key in your success this last year, no?


Definitely. The faster you release, the more momentum you hold onto.

I'm failing a bit at this at the moment, but once you have the series firmly in place, the spikes are bigger on each release.


----------



## AltMe

I was just advised I'm getting an all-star bonus for December!


----------



## angela65

Yeehaw! Awesome.


----------



## Adair Hart

TimothyEllis said:


> I was just advised I'm getting an all-star bonus for December!


Congratulations Tim!


----------



## MelodieRochelle

congratulations! I hope that the sales climb even higher.


----------



## AltMe

MelodieRochelle said:


> congratulations! I hope that the sales climb even higher.


Well and truly on the way down at the moment. Its a ragged sine curve. Rapid rise with a new release, hold at the top for a bit, then down you go, until you bottom out. Rince and repeat. At a guess, I'm past the half way down point now.

But in the meantime, the mailing list is now over 300, and the FB page and group slowly pick up people as well. Which translates into a larger spike for the release of 8. Re the mailing list, 7 has added around the 100 mark to it, so in theory, the first days sales for 8 should be larger than for 7, which was much larger than for 5. And that should make the month I release 8 into an even better one than December was for 7. In theory. Have to wait and see.

But overall, yes, I hope it does.


----------



## PearlEarringLady

TimothyEllis said:


> I was just advised I'm getting an all-star bonus for December!


Congrats! Awesome news!


----------



## vkloss

How many page reads qualified you for the bonus?


----------



## AltMe

vkloss said:


> How many page reads qualified you for the bonus?


3.3 mil in total, of which 1 mil was for book 7 alone. Could be the latter which the bonus is for. I'm not really sure what it was for.


----------



## BlinkFarm

Congratulations! You're a testament to the write, publish, repeat philosophy. Well done!


----------



## JVRudnick

I too say Kudos, Tim!

As every time I check my own rankings, there's all these "hero" books ahead of me...

Well done! And you willingness to talk on your marketing efforts has not gone un-noticed either!


----------



## benjclark

Congrats Tim!  Thank you for sharing your experience and for the series case of FOMO I've developed reading this.


----------



## AltMe

JVRudnick said:


> As every time I check my own rankings, there's all these "hero" books ahead of me...


The thing that blows me away, is how well the flow through is happening through the series. While the individual rankings fluctuate, having the whole series within 10 to 20 places of each other is mind boggling. Even when not in top 10, having 6 books (all the novels) in the 11-20 slot is nothing short of amazing! (Talking about my top sub-cat)

But it is interesting that those who join my FB page and group tend to comment they just finished reading all the books, and more than a few of the reviews on the most recent books say the same.

Interesting you should say that though. There's a number of books I say the same thing about.  
I know how I'm selling, but the ones ahead of me, which consistently stay top-5 in my best sub-cats - they must be making a serious killing as an author. And in one case, with only 2 books.


----------



## AltMe

Jeff Tanyard said:


> Is that just for December? That's 15,000 bucks. And that doesn't even include sales.


I released book 7 on the 8th, so it wasn't even a full month, given the first week was the end of the 90 day slide into oblivion, given I hadn't released a novel in that time.

But yes, December was just crazy! 

Depending on what the exchange rate is, I think I made more in one month, than I used to make in a whole year in the corporate world. Mind you, that was 15+ years ago and salaries have gone up from then. But its what I was used to.

But to add some perspective, 2 months ago was a slide from the high of book 5, and last month was the slide into obscurity.

So if you are releasing 3 monthly, you can expect a really good month, then a major down month, then a really down month, and when you release again, another good month.

Each good month seems to be built on your mailing list and social media contacts. So each one seems to be bigger, because of the initial first day spike being higher. The following month is a fall off month, the one after that is fall into obscurity month. Any others after that are sort of like flatline months.

It all seems to show that the more often you can release, the more building good months you can have.

Its all accumulative over the whole year of course, but its becoming a very good year for me. (Talking Aus financial year, which is July to June.)

The thing about December, was I made it to #15 in sci-fi, and held around the 15-25 mark for several weeks. Heady stuff! Then the fall off began. But those 2 weeks were incredible!


----------



## AltMe

Clarification:

The bonus is for the UK store. 

I just noticed it on the email heading, where its not mentioned in the body at all.

Smaller store, easier to do? I dont know. All the same, still feels good to get it.

No idea at this point what the UK only reads were.


----------



## AltMe

Steady progress down the other side of the hump since I last posted. 

The KENPC recalculation on Feb 1 did me no favours, carving about 15% off the size of each of my books in KU, and thus carving roughly 15% off my daily income. (Its pretty obvious in Bookreport.)

In 2 days, I crashed down a level, reflected in rankings, and are about to be ejected from the top 100 in Sci-fi. The best of my books is now in the mid 30's in my top sub-category, although they are still grouped reasonably well. The series is rising and falling as a series, although only books 1 and 7 are shining above the rest. I'm still picking up new readers for the series, and conversion to the rest of the series is holding like it has been. Book 7 still seems to be picking up catchup people, who hadn't noticed it until now.

The sine curve holds steady, and until I can get book 8 complete, the slide down continues.

The mailing list continues to grow slowly, as does Facebook page likes.

So in spite of Amazon gut punching us all yesterday, and the roller coaster giving a very rude bump, the ride continues in a normal fashion.


----------



## jlstovall4

TimothyEllis said:


> But yes, December was just crazy!
> 
> Depending on what the exchange rate is, I think I made more in one month, than I used to make in a whole year in the corporate world. Mind you, that was 15+ years ago and salaries have gone up from then. But its what I was used to. ... So if you are releasing 3 monthly, you can expect a really good month, then a major down month, then a really down month, and when you release again, another good month.
> 
> Each good month seems to be built on your mailing list and social media contacts. So each one seems to be bigger, because of the initial first day spike being higher. The following month is a fall off month, the one after that is fall into obscurity month. Any others after that are sort of like flatline months.
> 
> It all seems to show that the more often you can release, the more building good months you can have.
> 
> Its all accumulative over the whole year of course, but its becoming a very good year for me. (Talking Aus financial year, which is July to June.)
> 
> The thing about December, was I made it to #15 in sci-fi, and held around the 15-25 mark for several weeks. Heady stuff! Then the fall off began. But those 2 weeks were incredible!


It's threads like this that keep me going. I'm so happy for you Tim. You're doing it. Living the dream and quieting anyone who dares say anything bad about indie publishing.


----------



## Writer&#039;s Block

Way to go Tim. Thanks for posting the gritty details or your roller-coaster ride. It keeps many of us inspired and motivated.


----------



## Talbot

I'm certainly inspired. Thanks!


----------



## AliceS

Very informative! Thanks for sharing all your details. I will have my 3rd book in a series out in October. It will be my 7th book because I've got other series in the works. I know that by jumping genres I have probably lost some momentum, but that's the way my brain needed to do it. 

I will be very interested to see how book #3 affects sales in that series and if it translates over to any of the others.


----------



## C. Rysalis

Congrats, Timothy! And thanks for sharing. Success stories like yours inspire hope in us.


----------



## Salvador Mercer

Let's see what the payout for KU is for January, I wonder if we'll get less pages read, but more pennies per page   You're still doing well in your series, anything sub 5 figures (or 6 for some of us prawns) is good.


----------



## AltMe

There's a song going through my mind at the moment - "Its been the worst day, since yesterday!" Not sure where it comes from, but it was on an episode of Stargate Universe.

For those wondering about the 90 day cliff, I fell off it a couple of days ago. Sales down 50% one day, and just as bad the next. Oddly, the KU reads have held so far. But they'd been dropping slowly for weeks.

Light at the end of the tunnel though - book 8 is now in final editing ! Fans go wild!   

Hopefully I'll have it out in about a week. What I plan to do is record all the ranks before release, and see where they go after release. I've never looked at it across the whole series before, so it might be interesting.

Post again when 8 is out.


----------



## CM Raymond

TimothyEllis said:


> There's a song going through my mind at the moment - "Its been the worst day, since yesterday!" Not sure where it comes from, but it was on an episode of Stargate Universe.
> 
> For those wondering about the 90 day cliff, I fell off it a couple of days ago. Sales down 50% one day, and just as bad the next. Oddly, the KU reads have held so far. But they'd been dropping slowly for weeks.
> 
> Light at the end of the tunnel though - book 8 is now in final editing ! Fans go wild!
> 
> Hopefully I'll have it out in about a week. What I plan to do is record all the ranks before release, and see where they go after release. I've never looked at it across the whole series before, so it might be interesting.
> 
> Post again when 8 is out.


Feast or famine.

Timothy, often you compare your earnings with your old day job. Is life after the 90 day cliff still more than your old day job?

Thanks,

CM


----------



## T S Paul

As a fan of your books, the "roller Coaster" ride is fun to watch. I read you books on KU and purchased them. Fun stuff. My own first book went live last week. The ride for me is beginning. Sold (total) 50 bks last night.


----------



## CM Raymond

scott2218 said:


> As a fan of your books, the "roller Coaster" ride is fun to watch. I read you books on KU and purchased them. Fun stuff. My own first book went live last week. The ride for me is beginning. Sold (total) 50 bks last night.


That's a pretty great launch, Scott. I guess the Space Opera genre is pretty damn popular.


----------



## AltMe

CM Raymond said:


> Timothy, often you compare your earnings with your old day job. Is life after the 90 day cliff still more than your old day job?


Yes it is, but its a slow curve to oblivion. I'd guess that by 5 months, it would be less than the old day job. Its a guess though, I hope to not get that far down.



scott2218 said:


> As a fan of your books, the "roller Coaster" ride is fun to watch. I read you books on KU and purchased them. Fun stuff. My own first book went live last week. The ride for me is beginning. Sold (total) 50 bks last night.





CM Raymond said:


> That's a pretty great launch, Scott. I guess the Space Opera genre is pretty damn popular.


That was a great launch! Well done!


----------



## FionnJameson

Wow. 

What an awesome, thrilling thread. I've been reading the entirety of this thread on and off for the past few days and it has been one of the most inspiring threads on this board. 

Thank you so much for posting your experience. I look forward to seeing more of your writing career!


----------



## Salvador Mercer

Do update once Book 8 goes live, I'm following this closely.


----------



## AltMe

Salvador Mercer said:


> Do update once Book 8 goes live, I'm following this closely.


There will be a flurry of activity around then. 

I'll post when it goes live, and my sig will change then. I'll post with how the mailing list does, and when the ranks change, and follow what happens after.

I'm really interested to see if 8 duplicates what 7 did, or surpasses it.

I finished the first full edit last night, doing covers this afternoon, and will start the first kindle read tonight.



FionnJameson said:


> Wow.
> What an awesome, thrilling thread. I've been reading the entirety of this thread on and off for the past few days and it has been one of the most inspiring threads on this board.
> Thank you so much for posting your experience. I look forward to seeing more of your writing career!


Thanks for the encouragement, including everyone who has been and I may not have responded at the time. I never expected it to go this long or be received the way it has.



TimothyEllis said:


> Yes it is, but its a slow curve to oblivion. I'd guess that by 5 months, it would be less than the old day job. Its a guess though, I hope to not get that far down.


I thought I should clarify this a bit. Back when I had a full time job last, I was on 35k a year. My sister thinks double that is not enough to survive on these days, so everything is relative. But for most of the last 12 years (1 exception), I've been living on less than 20k a year. So for me, 35k a year is what I was used to.

At a guess, 50k is needed to live these days. And post 90 day cliff, I'm still making enough to pass that, if it held constant for a whole year.

I think this is where have a back library comes into its own. I've got 6 novels, 1 novella, and 2 short stories out there now, and even if they only sell/read 7 a day, that's still a 50k income a year. Might not be enough for a lot of people to give up their day job over, but its enough for me to live on at the moment.

As the back library grows, so does the residual income.

The fly in the theory is, if you stop writing, eventually the algorithms will drop you so low, you wont sell/read more than 1 or 2 a day, and at that point, you need a huge back library to still support a living income.

Hence as everyone says - be writing the next book now!


----------



## Tommy Donbavand

Tim...

Another vote of thanks for this thread!  Being so open has really helped me to focus on where I need to go, and how to get there.  After over 90 traditionally published children's books here in the UK, I'm making the jump to indie for my 'grown-up' books - and, thanks to you and other great posters on this board - I'm looking forward to the adventure.

Cheers

Tommy


----------



## T S Paul

TimothyEllis said:


> The fly in the theory is, if you stop writing, eventually the algorithms will drop you so low, you wont sell/read more than 1 or 2 a day, and at that point, you need a huge back library to still support a living income.
> 
> Hence as everyone says - be writing the next book now!


My mentor has told me the same thing. I intend to try and write at least something once a month. Book 2 should go live by next weekend, giving me the month to work on bk 3. I came up with a title and plot for it this morning while picking up my wife from work.


----------



## AltMe

Tommy Donbavand said:


> I'm looking forward to the adventure.


Good attitude. 



scott2218 said:


> I came up with a title and plot for it this morning while picking up my wife from work.


I find that a lot too. I seem to come up with a lot of ideas while driving in the car. Scares the hell out of me when I get somewhere and cant remember going through the major intersections in between. But the ideas are all great.


----------



## batmansero

TimothyEllis said:


> I find that a lot too. I seem to come up with a lot of ideas while driving in the car. Scares the hell out of me when I get somewhere and cant remember going through the major intersections in between. But the ideas are all great.


It's much safer to have ideas in the shower


----------



## T S Paul

TimothyEllis said:


> I find that a lot too. I seem to come up with a lot of ideas while driving in the car. Scares the hell out of me when I get somewhere and cant remember going through the major intersections in between. But the ideas are all great.


Yeah, I carry my tablet with me everywhere now, pull over and write myself a note. My wife says it's the best money spend. It was an xmas present from her.


----------



## batmansero

Jeff Tanyard said:


> That's precisely why I hate driving. I tend to get distracted too easily.


I don't know how to drive and because of that I get to sleep in the car


----------



## T S Paul

Jeff Tanyard said:


> When they perfect the robot cars, then we'll _all_ get to sleep in the car. I can't wait.


I saw a Flying car promo on Youtube, that will just make it even harder to make and take notes


----------



## AltMe

Comment from Facebook:



> Let me tell you how my week will go, I am now checking my email multiple times a day. Waiting for the post or email that is announcing the release of book 8 is worse that trying to fall asleep Xmas eve.


----------



## T S Paul

I get that. I'm waiting to hear from one of my editors. I really want to post book 2 soon. Going to put it up wed night regardless. Sales have really increased at least 5 a day. Not much true but the book has been up 10 days. Today, so far, 11 sales. Everyone who has read book 2 says it is better, so we will see.


----------



## AltMe

Pre-release of 8 Rankings check:

*Author Ranks:*
All Books #3684
Kindle eBooks #2289
Science Fiction & Fantasy # 341
Science Fiction # 165

*Books Sorted by Release Date - newest to oldest.* 






 
Kindle Edition
Current Sales Rank: #24,964 in Kindle Store
 Average Review:







(8 reviews) 
 





 
Kindle Edition
Current Sales Rank: #15,921 in Kindle Store
 Average Review:







(26 reviews) 
 






 
Kindle Edition
Current Sales Rank: #22,274 in Kindle Store
 Average Review:







(13 reviews) 
 





 
Kindle Edition
Current Sales Rank: #41,213 in Kindle Store
 Average Review:







(2 reviews) 
 





 
Kindle Edition
Current Sales Rank: #14,231 in Kindle Store
 Average Review:







(30 reviews) 
 





 
Kindle Edition
Current Sales Rank: #14,120 in Kindle Store
 Average Review:







(31 reviews) 
 





 
Kindle Edition
Current Sales Rank: #20,110 in Kindle Store
 Average Review:







(31 reviews) 
 






 
Kindle Edition
Current Sales Rank: #23,070 in Kindle Store
 Average Review:







(36 reviews) 
 






 
Kindle Edition
Current Sales Rank: #17,278 in Kindle Store
 Average Review:







(60 reviews) 


Within Top 100 of Metaphysical Science Fiction eBooks:

4 is #59
5 is #60
7 is #65
1 is #69
3 is #76
2 is #85
JC is #91

6 is #97 in Kindle Store > Kindle Short Reads > Two hours or more (65-100 pages) > *Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

*So even though I'm past the 90 day cliff, all Hunter Legacy books are still in the top 100, somewhere.


----------



## jlstovall4

TimothyEllis said:


> Pre-release of 8 Rankings check:
> 
> *Author Ranks:*
> All Books #3684
> Kindle eBooks #2289
> Science Fiction & Fantasy # 341
> Science Fiction # 165
> 
> *Books Sorted by Release Date - newest to oldest.*
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Kindle Edition
> Current Sales Rank: #24,964 in Kindle Store
> Average Review:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> (8 reviews)
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Kindle Edition
> Current Sales Rank: #15,921 in Kindle Store
> Average Review:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> (26 reviews)
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Kindle Edition
> Current Sales Rank: #22,274 in Kindle Store
> Average Review:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> (13 reviews)
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Kindle Edition
> Current Sales Rank: #41,213 in Kindle Store
> Average Review:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> (2 reviews)
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Kindle Edition
> Current Sales Rank: #14,231 in Kindle Store
> Average Review:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> (30 reviews)
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Kindle Edition
> Current Sales Rank: #14,120 in Kindle Store
> Average Review:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> (31 reviews)
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Kindle Edition
> Current Sales Rank: #20,110 in Kindle Store
> Average Review:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> (31 reviews)
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Kindle Edition
> Current Sales Rank: #23,070 in Kindle Store
> Average Review:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> (36 reviews)
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Kindle Edition
> Current Sales Rank: #17,278 in Kindle Store
> Average Review:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> (60 reviews)
> 
> 
> Within Top 100 of Metaphysical Science Fiction eBooks:
> 
> 4 is #59
> 5 is #60
> 7 is #65
> 1 is #69
> 3 is #76
> 2 is #85
> JC is #91
> 
> 6 is #97 in Kindle Store > Kindle Short Reads > Two hours or more (65-100 pages) > *Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
> 
> *So even though I'm past the 90 day cliff, all Hunter Legacy books are still in the top 100, somewhere.


Cool info.


----------



## AltMe

jlstovall4 said:


> Cool info.


I was amazed that worked. The main chunk was copied from authorcentral, with the links deleted.

Book 8 is now live!
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01CECMA90


----------



## Abderian

Congrats! I wish you continued success.


----------



## AltMe

Abderian said:


> Congrats! I wish you continued success.


Thanks. 

Facebook Group and Page notified. First sales comments already posted.
Mailchimp just activated to 368 + Moi. And just hit my inbox.

And now there's pressure.  Will it fly or flop?


----------



## T S Paul

Already added it to my KU list. Thanks..    My new book goes up tomorrow


----------



## AltMe

scott2218 said:


> Already added it to my KU list. Thanks.. My new book goes up tomorrow


Is it visible there already? I usually dont see any reads on a new book for several days.


----------



## T S Paul

It's showing up on my tablet, It's up on KU. I'll read it later. I'm hip deep into write my book 3 and the internet just keeps calling me.


----------



## AltMe

In some ways, I hate release day.

Nice sales spike happening, but ALL my author ranks have tanked badly, instead of getting better. *sigh* Just have to wait now for the ranks to catch up.

Its 6.35pm now in New York (9.35am in Oz)

#1,026 Paid in Kindle Store 
 #5 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Time Travel* 
 #6 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Metaphysical & Visionary* 
 #11 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Military > *Space Marine* 
Not bad.  And the evening is still to come.


----------



## AltMe

So, end of day one for book 8. What a day! Internet tanked here for a good part of it, and I had to access the stats tonight using my 4G instead. General performance today can best be described as "Who turned out the lights!". Worst day since July last year I think. My author ranks continued to tank, with my overall rank loosing 1000 in one day.

However, book 8 did 145 sales, and 36 full reads, so a new day one record, although not by a lot.

#790 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store) 
 #4 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Metaphysical & Visionary* 
 #4 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Time Travel* 
 #8 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Military > *Space Marine* 

Day 2 I expect to be a complete disaster, usually is. Ranks won't catch up til day 3 I expect.

Early reads seem to be good for day 2 though. Passed day 1 already, so it probably means they updated after midnight New York time.

2 early reviews. Both 5 star. One saying it wasn't what was expected, but it was still good.

Which might make a difference with how it performs. This book is starting preparation for the long range story to start, moving ahead rather than just doing the same things again a different way.


----------



## AltMe

Rankings kicked in overnight.
Amazon Author Rank 
 #61 in Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > *Science Fiction* 
 
 #73 in Books > *Teens* 
 
 #82 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > *Action & Adventure* 
 
 #100 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > *Science Fiction* 
 *
Overnight Author rank changes after day 1.*
All books - 4714 shoots up to 1600
Kindle Eb - 2574 shoots up to 956
SF&F - 392 becomes 146
Sci-fi - 172 becomes 61

And miracle of miracles, they connected it up to the series page already!


----------



## batmansero

TimothyEllis said:


> And miracle of miracles, they connected it up to the series page already!


Unheard of! I've had to poke and prod them to get that to happen.

Congrats on everything else though. It's been quite interesting following your progress. Keep it coming


----------



## Salvador Mercer

The wild ride continues


----------



## PearlEarringLady

TimothyEllis said:


> And miracle of miracles, they connected it up to the series page already!


Oh, hello, dancing banana! I've missed you.  And congrats on book 8 - you're really motoring along!


----------



## AltMe

Thanks for the congrats messages. All appreciated.

Day 3 report, mid way through.

Day 2 followed the same as for book 7. Way down on day 1 sales, but way up on Reads. Although a bit better on the sales part than 7.
Day 3 is shaping much the same as 7 as well, being a bit of an improvement on day 2. Have to wait and see if the sales make it though. The reads are getting there, but the sales are lagging. Oi! You lot out there in the US reading land. Buy my books! lmao.
Sci-fi rank holding, but the others have slipped a bit. 
Also-boughts now showing. 
Amazon question to email followers received and sent.
5 reviews, all 5 star. One gives away a major plot twist though, so not too happy about it, but on the other hand, it might give me some cred in the time travel category. The last time I keyword-ed for that category, I got a raspberry for it. So hopefully this time they accept it as a genuine TT story.
No real flow on to the rest of the series so far. Other series sales were up a bit from the previous few days disasters, but its hard to tell if it was a good day, or if it was the beginning of flow on.

I've got the distinct impression I have some real 'competition' this time. Looks like some other really good books were released around the same time. And we are all jockeying for the top spots in the same categories.


----------



## JayBrenham

I don't think it matters if you have competition in the categories. You might have some competition right now but you are a content producing machine and I'm sure you'll complete your next book before they do.


----------



## AltMe

Day 3 ended with a whimper, not as good as for 7. Probably about the same over the 3 days, which is a little disappointing.

So I have that, "sinking feeling" at the moment, that maybe I took too long to get 8 out. 

Still, no mail-out from Amazon yet, so followers still haven't heard its out yet. And the algorithms didn't kick in until day 4 last time either.  

So I'm sitting here all jittery, ranks falling still, rest of the series vanishing into the murk. 

"Get a grip!" BA yelled at me. "Or I'll come over there, and smack you one."


----------



## batmansero

Are you doing a promo for Book 1?


----------



## AltMe

batmansero said:


> Are you doing a promo for Book 1?


No. I've not done any promos yet.

With 7, the flow on to the series was better than a lot of the promo data I've seen here. But 7 took me to #15 in sci-fi. So far, the rank algos are not kicking in for me yet.

If the flow on hasn't happened in a week, then I may need to start thinking about it. I just haven't needed to so far.


----------



## FionnJameson

Thanks for update! I follow this thread breathlessly.


----------



## AltMe

Day 4. Slight improvement on day 3. Minor increase in book 1, so might be the beginning of some flow through. Rest of the series is still in freefall down the cliff.
No Amazon following email yet. 
All the ranks fell again today. Although 8's rank went up a bit. No sign of any real boost from algorithms yet.
Still too early to tell if 7 was a fluke because of christmas or not.
But still too early for anything really. The first few days are all about your efforts, not Amazons. I did all I could, so just got to ride the wave until ..... well until.


----------



## AltMe

Day 5.

Amazon email to followers was in the inbox when I woke up, so went out sometime mid US day.
Amazon email to those subscribed to new releases arrived this evening, so late night US time.

Big spike in KU, followed slowly by a big spike in sales.

I think the followers email resulted in the KU spike, as when I first saw it, sales were lagging behind.
I likewise think the subscribed email jumped the sales.

Definite flow through to the series now. Especially 1-3, although 6 and 7 also boosted somewhat. Not major yet, but boosted the series sales out of the doldrums.

8 is now: #541 Paid in Kindle Store 

 #4 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Time Travel* 
 #5 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Metaphysical & Visionary* 
 #6 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Military > *Space Marine*
9 5 star reviews so far.

Author Category ranks: 
 #49 in Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > *Science Fiction* 
 
 #58 in Books > *Teens* 
 
 #65 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > *Action & Adventure* 
 
 #90 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > *Science Fiction* 
 
 #93 in Books > Literature & Fiction > *Action & Adventure*
*Author ranks, 5 day progression:*
All - 4714 - 1600 - 2208 - 2291 - 1341
Kindle - 2574 - 988 - 1258 - 1308 - 770
SF&F - 392 - 153 - 176 - 180 - 105
SF - 172 - 183 - 78 - 80 - 56 and currently on 49.

Its interesting to see the progression. Big jump up from the first days mailing list sales spike, then it settles for 3 days, until the Amazon emails go out to followers and subscribers, when you get a big spike in sales and reads.
Fascinating stuff.

The main things are:
1. Mailing list is everything on release.
2. Amazon followers and subscribers are the second wave.
Once you have a decent following in both, releases can be successful.

Comment on my mailing list, it is all gathered from book backmatter signups. So its fully interest based, and seems to be primarily buyers. Mailing lists from promotions, might behave differently to what I'm seeing.


----------



## PearlEarringLady

TimothyEllis said:


> Amazon email to followers was in the inbox when I woke up, so went out sometime mid US day.
> Amazon email to those subscribed to new releases arrived this evening, so late night US time.


I'm a little confused about what emails Amazon sends out, so forgive me if this is a stupid question, but what's the difference between followers and people subscribed to new releases?


----------



## AltMe

PaulineMRoss said:


> I'm a little confused about what emails Amazon sends out, so forgive me if this is a stupid question, but what's the difference between followers and people subscribed to new releases?


I'm not sure.

But the first one was the message I sent in response to the email asking if I wanted to let people know. The second was generated independent of that.

The first was prompted by Amazon asking if I wanted to send a message to followers.
The second says "You have subscribed to new release emails for Timothy Ellis. You won't want to miss this new book."

Maybe someone knows the distinction from the Reader end.


----------



## PearlEarringLady

TimothyEllis said:


> The first was prompted by Amazon asking if I wanted to send a message to followers.
> The second says "You have subscribed to new release emails for Timothy Ellis. You won't want to miss this new book."


Right, that makes sense. I think that both are sent to people who've clicked the 'Follow' button, but one is triggered by the author's message, and the other is a more general one, unrelated to the message. I've seen both kinds. Some books seem to get both kinds, but some just get one or the other (no idea why).


----------



## Carolinepeckham

Congrats! I'm hoping the third one does it for me too! Fingers Crossed!


----------



## Bbates024

I just was going back to the beginning of this thread for fun, it's amazing to see the progress that you have made so far.

Remember this. "Send in the Hero is ranked 48,844, which is my highest rank for any book so far."

And now your in the 500's

That is awesome! Just a rather inspiring story!


----------



## AltMe

Day 6 held the gains of day 5, but only just. More reads, less sales. All the sales flattened a bit, except for where 1-3 spiked yesterday, it was 4 spiking today. 

*Author ranks, 6 day progression:*
All - 4714 - 1600 - 2208 - 2291 - 1341 - 1012
Kindle - 2574 - 988 - 1258 - 1308 - 770 - 604
SF&F - 392 - 153 - 176 - 180 - 105 - 81
SF - 172 - 183 - 78 - 80 - 56 - 40

In case anyone is wondering why I'm comparing ranks so much, I managed to get to #15 in Sci-Fi with book 7. Can this be repeated or was it a Christmas only one shot? Stay tuned.


----------



## barryjhutchison

TimothyEllis said:


> Day 6 held the gains of day 5, but only just. More reads, less sales. All the sales flattened a bit, except for where 1-3 spiked yesterday, it was 4 spiking today.
> 
> *Author ranks, 6 day progression:*
> All - 4714 - 1600 - 2208 - 2291 - 1341 - 1012
> Kindle - 2574 - 988 - 1258 - 1308 - 770 - 604
> SF&F - 392 - 153 - 176 - 180 - 105 - 81
> SF - 172 - 183 - 78 - 80 - 56 - 40
> 
> In case anyone is wondering why I'm comparing ranks so much, I managed to get to #15 in Sci-Fi with book 7. Can this be repeated or was it a Christmas only one shot? Stay tuned.


Great to follow along with your progress, Tim. Keeping everything crossed for you to hit #1!


----------



## AltMe

barryjhutchison said:


> Great to follow along with your progress, Tim. Keeping everything crossed for you to hit #1!


#1 in Sci-Fi is my goal, but the shock of achieving it might be fatal.


----------



## barryjhutchison

TimothyEllis said:


> #1 in Sci-Fi is my goal, but the shock of achieving it might be fatal.


Better get the crash-cart on standby, because I've got no doubt you'll get there!


----------



## AltMe

Day 7 : More sales, less reads - about the same as the last 2 days.

8 is #470 Paid in Kindle Store
 #4 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Metaphysical & Visionary* 
 #4 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Time Travel* 
 #5 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Space Exploration* 
13 reviews now, 11 5 star and 2 4 star. *

Author ranks, 7 day progression:*
All - 4714 - 1600 - 2208 - 2291 - 1341 - 1012 - 1072
Kindle - 2574 - 988 - 1258 - 1308 - 770 - 604 - 598 but this is odd, since its now showing 544 2 days ago.
SF&F - 392 - 153 - 176 - 180 - 105 - 81 - 84
SF - 172 - 183 - 78 - 80 - 56 - 40 - 41

So while the results are good, they are not really advancing any further.

One good thing today was a big spike in Book 1. Stay tuned to see if this actually translates further up the series, and continues. Or not.


----------



## AltMe

Day 8: Slightly less sales, but a lot more reads. Big spike up in fact.

Book 1 holding on yesterdays spike, while book 2 was only a marginal increase. Book 7 on the other hand had a big spike, almost as if some people who missed 7, found it by seeing 8.

8 is now 491, and 4,4,6 in the sub-cats.

But....
*Author ranks, 8 day progression:*
All - 4714 - 1600 - 2208 - 2291 - 1341 - 1012 - 1072 - 1010
Kindle - 2574 - 988 - 1258 - 1308 - 770 - 604 - 598 - 564
SF&F - 392 - 153 - 176 - 180 - 105 - 81 - 84 - 79
SF - 172 - 183 - 78 - 80 - 56 - 40 - 41 - 39

Be interesting to see what happens with the ranks, when they catch up to the big read spike of today.

Edit: There must be a big lag with the presentation of the author ranks, as yesterday shows as 38 in SF.

Just looking at the comparison with 7, and 7 boosted my SF rank into the top 20 in 6 days, where its taken 7/8 days to get into the top 40 this time. December vs March? Different algo's? Who knows.


----------



## Matthew Eliot

Timothy, as many have done before, I'd just like to thank you for sharing the details of your publishing journey with us.

It's an inspiring, exciting and informative read.

Thank you and congratulations on your well-deserved success.


----------



## RinG

Congrats on your release and sales.

I had a new release about 5 days ago too, and I'm seeing similar. It isn't as big a bump as my last one in January. Ranking didn't get quite as high, despite more sales/page reads, so I'm guessing it's time of year. 

Looks like yours is picking up nicely now though. Hope you have a long tail!


----------



## AltMe

Matthew Eliot said:


> Thank you and congratulations on your well-deserved success.


Thankyou 



Rinelle Grey said:


> Hope you have a long tail!


 

I always did like wagging the dog.


----------



## AltMe

I'm obviously checking author ranks too soon after the end of the sales day.

4.15am Hawaii time - after midnight for me:

Amazon Author 
 #35 in Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > *Science Fiction* 
 #43 in Books > *Teens* 
 #49 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > *Action & Adventure* 
 #59 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > *Science Fiction* 
 #62 in Books > Literature & Fiction > *Action & Adventure* 
So an improvement in SF since I checked 4 hours ago.


----------



## AltMe

And then eveything drops dead for no apparent reason. Yes folks, the mysterious 5 to 7 day drop for no reason has hit, only on day 9. Minor drop in reads, but major drop in sales. Who know why it happens, but it always does, as if for 1/3 of the day, none of my books was visible, or buyable. Weird.

Anyway, expect some drops in the ranks.

*Author ranks, 9 day progression:*
All - 4714 - 1600 - 2208 - 2291 - 1341 - 1012 - 1072 - 1010 - 1040
Kindle - 2574 - 988 - 1258 - 1308 - 770 - 604 - 598 - 564 - 564 (but now showing 534 for yesterday)
SF&F - 392 - 153 - 176 - 180 - 105 - 81 - 84 - 79 - 77
SF - 172 - 183 - 78 - 80 - 56 - 40 - 41 - 39 - 39 (but now showing 35 for yesterday)

Maybe obsessing over ranks is not a good idea after all. Its just doing my head in.


----------



## AltMe

Day 10......









The day itself was about on par with yesterday. Sales up, reads down, averaged out about the same.

But.....8 has dropped by half in 2 days. But.....1-3 spiked today, with the rest doing better.

So overall, 8 is losing ground now already, but my author ranks are hanging in there for the whole series.

Beginning to wonder if 8 is going to flop overall. 16 reviews now. 13 5's, 2 4's, 1 3.

#819 Paid in Kindle Store 

 #6 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Metaphysical & Visionary* 
 #6 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Time Travel* 
 #10 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Military > *Space Marine*
 Amazon Author 

 #37 in Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > *Science Fiction* 
 #39 in Books > *Teens* 
 #50 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > *Action & Adventure* 
 #53 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > *Science Fiction* 
 #63 in Books > Literature & Fiction > *Action & Adventure*


----------



## Matthew Stott

TimothyEllis said:


> Beginning to wonder if 8 is going to flop overall. 16 reviews now. 13 5's, 2 4's, 1 3.
> 
> #819 Paid in Kindle Store
> [


#819 seems a loooooong way from a flop at the moment...!


----------



## AltMe

Matthew Stott said:


> #819 seems a loooooong way from a flop at the moment...!


Everything is relative. 

Its dropped about 300 in 2 days, making me wonder if its already peaked and now sliding.

Its hard to know what is going on. None of my releases have had much similarity with each other. Maybe that's normal.


----------



## Salvador Mercer

Relative is correct, anything in the three digit ranks is awesome. Even with massive promotions I've only managed 1.4k at 99 cents ever so briefly 

Great updates, you found a stride and it's working for you.  Hope your wild ride continues.


----------



## AltMe

Day 11 on par with 10. 

Definite flow through happening, book by book down the series. But 8 is still losing ground slowly, as is my Sci-Fi rank, although at the moment, its holding at 39. 

I'd say its now pretty obvious book 7 had a huge benefit from being an early December release. 

Still, as a month, its going to be a nice little earner, and gives me incentive to get on with 9. 

Grindstone, meet nose.   

Edit: Interesting comments on some reviews. Several people have said they are still not bored with the series, and to bring on 9 asap. It's also been said that while 8 wasn't what they expected, and was a bit short, it was a good continuation of the story.  At 69.5k, it was the 2nd shortest novel in the series. But like 6, which was a novella length, it was influenced by bad health. All the same, I was pretty happy with the way it turned out, and it seems a lot of reader feel the same. And that's what its all about.


----------



## AltMe

Day 12, showing the start of the slide down now for sure. Not major, just ice on the path. Was #38 in scifi when I looked late in the day, but its #40 now.

Had my first 2 star review today, from someone who obviously didn't like the lack of space battles, and who hasn't a clue of the difference between religion and spirituality. Could be a hint I need to define that in some dialog somewhere. 

Its funny how some of my series fans really love the spiritual aspect of my MC. One person commented in a review it was great to see something not done before. On the other hand, the diehard Space Opera readers just want bang for their buck, and spirituality and cats dont fit their idea of the genre. But that is what I'm writing. My MC is a spiritual (without religion) cat lover, who engages in space battles. Its deliberately different. But you cant please everyone.

Now, where was I? Oh yeah, back to the battlefield.


----------



## Inglath Cooper

Congratulations! Enjoy! This is the part of writing I think we forget to appreciate when we're concerned more with the destination than the journey. Each response from a reader who enjoyed the book is a cause for celebration and affirmation that you're on the right track!


----------



## AltMe

Inglath Cooper said:


> Congratulations! Enjoy! This is the part of writing I think we forget to appreciate when we're concerned more with the destination than the journey. Each response from a reader who enjoyed the book is a cause for celebration and affirmation that you're on the right track!


There is a lot of satisfaction in a reader announcing she is in series withdrawal already, and is about to start reading the entire series again for the eleventh time! I've had other people say they have read all 8 books in a week, and plan on doing it again.

I never had this level of satisfaction from working a day job.


----------



## Salvador Mercer

Can't wait for your tenth book when you introduce a space captain with a were-shifting billionaire from an exotic planet!  

You'll have no where to go soon when you hit #1 with that, hehe!


----------



## AltMe

Salvador Mercer said:


> Can't wait for your tenth book when you introduce a space captain with a were-shifting billionaire from an exotic planet!
> 
> You'll have no where to go soon when you hit #1 with that, hehe!


Is that what it takes? 

Does give me ideas though, for the next series.


----------



## AltMe

Day 13 was a bit down once again, but still managing to stay under 40 in Sci-Fi. 

First group email from Amazon came out a few hours ago, with Rescue as book 2 on it. No obvious effect yet, but it is only 8am in NY at the moment. The mix of books this time was much wider than I usually get.


----------



## AltMe

Things that make you facepalm.

Reads were up. Sales dropped like a stone. Money was about the same as yesterday.









Ranks dropped. Went from 38 to 45 in sci-fi, and the drop in teens was bigger.

Makes me wonder if Amazon have changed the algos again, to redress the inequality between reads and sales. Big sales drop, big rank drop. Mind you as people keep saying, you dont know when the borrows were done, so could have been as big a drop in borrows today as sales, but the books from past days were heavily read. So money comes in, but no rank from it.

Facepalm.

Incidentally, I missed the opportunity to show how the series books changed with the rise in author rank. All dropped a lot again, so I missed the chance to show how much a single release helps each book in the series. Sorry about that.


----------



## AltMe

Definitely on the way down now. Reads down a little. Sales fell off a cliff. Sci-fi rank down to 50.

The high for 8 lasted 6 out of 9 days (with 2 and 3 not high). 

22 reviews now, with 77% being 5 star.

From here its all down hill slowly, until 9 is released. Unless something amazing happens.

In spite of the good reviews, the change in pace for this book seems to not have been received too well. Need to fix that with 9, and I think I have.


----------



## Salvador Mercer

TimothyEllis said:


> Definitely on the way down now. Reads down a little. Sales fell off a cliff. Sci-fi rank down to 50.
> 
> The high for 8 lasted 6 out of 9 days (with 2 and 3 not high).
> 
> 22 reviews now, with 77% being 5 star.
> 
> From here its all down hill slowly, until 9 is released. Unless something amazing happens.
> 
> In spite of the good reviews, the change in pace for this book seems to not have been received too well. Need to fix that with 9, and I think I have.


Awesome stats and 77% for 5 stars is uber!

My genre's author rank for ebooks is 653 as of right now. Just need to move up 600 spots to be near you on the other side of the dark


----------



## AltMe

From my Amazon forum:

*Amazon Customer says:
Very good series, looking forward to book 9 and 10. Am a X-Series junky and love how you incorporate it.

James Zegel says:
Yup - I'm ready for 9 thru 30

Scot says:
wait.. what?? 30 is the end?? *SIGH* *

If I'm still on this series at 30 books, I'm going to need a damn good analyst by then. Where's the facepalm smilie?


----------



## jaehaerys

Just finished reading this entire thread. What a great and inspiring journey you're on, Timothy! Thank you for sharing your progress!


----------



## AltMe

Ken Ward said:


> Just finished reading this entire thread. What a great and inspiring journey you're on, Timothy! Thank you for sharing your progress!


You're welcome. 

Today seemed to be holding. Sales up, reads down. Sci-fi rank at 45, even though it was 51 earlier. Must have been some late sales.

Just resubmitted Rescue for the 2nd time today, after 2 lots of proofreading goofs came in from readers. The 2nd lot included a classic miss, where the reader found 1, but there were actually 4 of them.   
But I love we can make the changes and submit, but its a pity Amazon dont push the changes through automatically.


----------



## AltMe

Interesting comparison....

I was just looking at the all graph in BookReport. 

8 failed to eclipse 5, in terms of number of days in the money, and how much.  And 5 was well down on 7. 7 of course was pre-christmas December sales.

So the order of best to worst is 7, 5, 8, 4, 3, 2, 1. 
6 doesn't get a mention as it was a novella, and flopped pretty badly.


----------



## Ann H

TimothyEllis said:


> So the order of best to worst is 7, 5, 8, 4, 3, 2, 1.
> 6 doesn't get a mention as it was a novella, and flopped pretty badly.


I assume you are applying some sort of formula that takes into account the days and the money,,and maybe the cost of promos etc.

But in terms of UNITS, am I correct to assume that number 1 sold/ borrowed more copies than, say, number 7? Because surely everyone who reads number 7 will read number 1, but not vice versa. Or is that not how it worked out for you?


----------



## AltMe

TimothyEllis said:


> So the order of best to worst is 7, 5, 8, 4, 3, 2, 1.
> 6 doesn't get a mention as it was a novella, and flopped pretty badly.





Ann H said:


> I assume you are applying some sort of formula that takes into account the days and the money,,and maybe the cost of promos etc.
> 
> But in terms of UNITS, am I correct to assume that number 1 sold/ borrowed more copies than, say, number 7? Because surely everyone who reads number 7 will read number 1, but not vice versa. Or is that not how it worked out for you?


No, actually its a visual thing. The graph which BookReport generates, shows every day since April 23, when I released book 1. You can see each spike as a book is released. This is in money terms, and not in sales or reads terms.

And its a day to day thing, comparing the total money earned each day. So over all books, but spiking on release days.

Overall comparing books, yes you're right.

1 has the biggest sales and full reads.
2 is a drop down.
3 is close behind 2.
4 is close behind 3.
5 drops down. I lost some 800-1000 readers with the end of 4 cliffhanger, and they were never recovered.
7 drops again, as it was 3 months before it came out. I've been picking up a few of them with 8 being out I think.
8 is still less than a month old, so hasn't been out long enough to see the effect of another 3 month wait.

The short story I wrote before 6 flopped, but it sells and reads a few a day.
6 flopped, since its a novella, and a different sub-genre, and R-rated. But it does sell and read more than the short story does.
The Christmas story also flopped, but it was a freeby for the first 2 days, so never had a spike to get it going. It also sells reasonably, although not up to novel rates.

What amazes me is how many of the people reading 1 these days, continues through the whole distance.


----------



## Antara Mann

Congrats and keep up the good work!


----------



## JRHenderson

TimothyEllis said:


> What amazes me is how many of the people reading 1 these days, continues through the whole distance.


Just curious, Tim: Would dropping the price of Book 1 down to 99c lure more readers onto "the conveyor belt"? Or would that just put a dent in your income?

P.S. My own books are doing so poorly that my writing has ground to a halt. My only real interaction with the KBoards these days is stopping by to read your thread. So keep the updates coming, fella!


----------



## AltMe

JRHenderson said:


> Just curious, Tim: Would dropping the price of Book 1 down to 99c lure more readers onto "the conveyor belt"? Or would that just put a dent in your income?
> 
> P.S. My own books are doing so poorly that my writing has ground to a halt. My only real interaction with the KBoards these days is stopping by to read your thread. So keep the updates coming, fella!


There seems to be very little indication price has anything to do with things. I recently upped Jane's Christmas from 1.99 to 2.99 (to get the 70%), and sales didn't change.

For now, if I get a bookbub I'll drop which book it is to free for a few days, but otherwise, dropping 1 isn't on my radar.

The best thing as far as a sales goes, is to keep releasing. As sales drop between books, I find it motivates me more to keep writing. My main problem is my migraine cycle which often stops me writing completely, and this gets frustrating. I should be twice as far along with 9 as I am, but I keep plugging away hoping for a good day when I can make a real advance on it.

So my suggestion for you is - Write. Ignore sales completely, Just write, and keep writing.


----------



## JalexM

TimothyEllis said:


> There seems to be very little indication price has anything to do with things. I recently upped Jane's Christmas from 1.99 to 2.99 (to get the 70%), and sales didn't change.
> 
> For now, if I get a bookbub I'll drop which book it is to free for a few days, but otherwise, dropping 1 isn't on my radar.
> 
> The best thing as far as a sales goes, is to keep releasing. As sales drop between books, I find it motivates me more to keep writing. My main problem is my migraine cycle which often stops me writing completely, and this gets frustrating. I should be twice as far along with 9 as I am, but I keep plugging away hoping for a good day when I can make a real advance on it.
> 
> So my suggestion for you is - Write. Ignore sales completely, Just write, and keep writing.


Some people have had new cover updates add a few sparks in their sales, couple with a bookbub and it can add back in a spark.
I think Patty did something like that without the bookbub.


----------



## JRHenderson

TimothyEllis said:


> My main problem is my migraine cycle which often stops me writing completely, and this gets frustrating. I should be twice as far along with 9 as I am, but I keep plugging away hoping for a good day when I can make a real advance on it.


Thanks for the reply, Tim. I would have responded before now, but -- somewhat ironically -- I spent Monday evening and most of Tuesday with a low-grade thumper stretched around my left eyebrow, left temple and above my left ear. Staring at computer screens wouldn't have helped.



TimothyEllis said:


> So my suggestion for you is - Write. Ignore sales completely, Just write, and keep writing.


Thanks for the encouragement Tim, I do appreciate it.

That's the funny thing about writing. Even when you've "had enough" and decided that "it's just not worth it anymore", the ideas don't stop coming into your head.








At the moment, I've got a rag-tag first draft for a comic book that teaches algebra. In all honesty, I'll be amazed if it sells 10 copies. But uploading it will give me a short-lived burst of satisfaction, a feeling that I've created something of value during my short time on this planet, and -- if nothing else -- it'll be something to put on my resume (CV) for my inevitable and imminent job-hunt.


----------



## AltMe

end of month update:

Rescue drops off the new release lists in a day or so, but its already sunk to the same level of sales as the rest of the series, and reads are getting there as well. 

Compared to 7, 8 was a disappointment. But considering its a different kind of book, without all the bang bang, I guess I should have expected it.

Once again, my head isn't letting me write often enough, and so 9 is way behind schedule. Instead of it being in editing, its nowhere near.

So the abyss, here I come again.

All the same, the income from this month is paying me to Brazil for spiritual healing in less than 2 weeks now. Business class flights and 4 star hotel stopovers. With luck, given the outgoing flight is all daytime for me, I'll be able to get some writing done on the plane.


----------



## Salvador Mercer

Enjoy your break!


----------



## geronl

This thread makes me feel like a loser.


----------



## AltMe

geronl said:


> This thread makes me feel like a loser.


           

There are 2 ways of looking at things.

1. Nothing works, so you must be a loser. Being a loser means nothing works. Cycle forever.

2. This didn't work. Thanks for the learning experience. Lesson applied to next thing. Onward and forwards.

The thing is to keep writing. Apply what you learn as you go. At some point, something will have mass appeal. In the meantime, just write.

It took me a long time to get something which worked. I started writing game fan stuff in 2004. When I discovered Kindle, I did a fan guide for it. Then I wrote spiritual books. None of which average 1 a day sales or reads. It was only book 3 of my series which took off, and I was writing that to get it out of my head, more than anything else.

So it takes time to hone the craft. And as people here keep pointing out, you never know when something will take off when you least expect it.


----------



## geronl

I'm still writing. I got an idea and put down 4k. Not my WIP, but I can always put it away for later now.


----------



## AltMe

geronl said:


> I'm still writing. I got an idea and put down 4k. Not my WIP, but I can always put it away for later now.


4k is better than I'm managing at the moment.


----------



## geronl

TimothyEllis said:


> 4k is better than I'm managing at the moment.


I put the first chapter on my blog to see anyone reacts to it. Nobody ever leaves comments it seems.

http://flscifi.blogspot.com/2016/04/a-child-of-pink-moon-chapter-one-rough.html


----------



## AltMe

I just finished doing a skype session with Brandon Courcy, which will be a blog post in several weeks time. I'll post the link when I get it.


----------



## AltMe

Heady stuff. 

Review for book 1, done yesterday.



> I haven't enjoyed a book as much since I first read Starship Troopers. Plus, the inclusion of elements without context that later are so obvious that you are embarrassed at missing them. Try book ranks with the early greats of SF, E.E. Doc Smith, Heinlein and Asimov. Now if the second book is as good.


----------



## AltMe

Book 9, Hero at the Gates, was released to Kindle last night.

Debuted around 860 in the paid Kindle store. #5 in *Metaphysical & Visionary

*Not yet 24 hours old, so no author rank change yet. But first day sales will be split between 2 days. I'll check at about the 24 hour mark, and compare to the last 2.

2 months for this one, but just as well, as just before 60 days, things started tanking really fast. Its been an odd month actually. Just when I though I was in freefall, things stabilized and went up a bit, and then stayed there for weeks. Then it was like, "Who turned out the lights?" (if you know your Doctor Who).

I've been in Brazil for the last 3 weeks, hence my lack of activity here. Leaving for home tomorrow, so having finished packing, I finally have some time to spend catching up here.

In spite of not as many days to write in, I've been far more productive here than I was at home. But healing my head is what I came here for.


----------



## AltMe

For those who didn't see it, Brandon Courcy did an interview with me just before I left for Brazil.

Part 1: http://www.buildyourauthorcareer.com/one-years-salary-in-one-month-an-interview-with-full-time-author-timothy-ellis-part-1/

Part 2: http://www.buildyourauthorcareer.com/one-years-salary-in-one-month-an-interview-with-full-time-author-timothy-ellis-part-2/

Thread here: 
1. http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,234636.0.html
2. http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,234636.0.html


----------



## AltMe

New record for the first 24 hours sales. And I think reads are up too, since they seem to have kicked in a lot faster than previous books.

Substantially up on book 8, nicely up on 7.

#793 Paid in Kindle Store 

 #3 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Metaphysical & Visionary* 
 #11 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Space Exploration* 
 #14 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Exploration*


----------



## Lisa Blackwood

Congrats. I enjoyed reading your interview btw. (I'm another sufferer of Migraines. Mine aren't too bad as long as I never eat MSG or any of its friends. Weather changes and driving more than a 1/2 hour in any direction are my two main triggers. Since horse and buggy is not really an option now days, legal drugs and darkness it is. Sigh. (I'm probably going to kill my liver before I'm 50.) Hate migraines. I feel your pain. (literally) You must have an inner steel core to keep writing through a migraine. Shudders.

I hope your new release continues to do great!


----------



## CM Raymond

[email protected], T-Dog (may I call you T-Dog), I've been following this thread for coming up on a year. So inspirational.

Congrats on your success! Keep it up.


----------



## Sasha Clementine

Congrats on your success! I'm marveled by how you found the time to write and publish a full-length book almost every month. That's some serious dedication!


----------



## AltMe

Lisa_Blackwood said:


> Congrats. I enjoyed reading your interview btw. (I'm another sufferer of Migraines. Mine aren't too bad as long as I never eat MSG or any of its friends. Weather changes and driving more than a 1/2 hour in any direction are my two main triggers. Since horse and buggy is not really an option now days, legal drugs and darkness it is. Sigh. (I'm probably going to kill my liver before I'm 50.) Hate migraines. I feel your pain. (literally) You must have an inner steel core to keep writing through a migraine. Shudders. I hope your new release continues to do great!


You get used to almost anything. Migraines are not the worst aspect of it. Its the way the drugs for them mess up your brain function that's the worst.

Re liver - Its never too early to start a liver detox. Read Doctor Cabot. I take both her detox capsule and her one a day tablet each day now, having completed a full detox, just to keep the liver good. I freely admit my diet isn't very liver supportive, so use the detox for ongoing maintenance.

Its odd how sometimes I can write through a migraine. But what I cant write through is the mind numbing fatigue the drugs sometimes induce.


CM Raymond said:


> [email protected], T-Dog (may I call you T-Dog), I've been following this thread for coming up on a year. So inspirational.
> 
> Congrats on your success! Keep it up.


T-Dog? Would prefer T-Cat myself. 



Sasha Clementine said:


> Congrats on your success! I'm marveled by how you found the time to write and publish a full-length book almost every month. That's some serious dedication!


It helps if you dont have any other sort of commitment to side track you.

It also helps when your brain is so full of book, you desperately want to get it out!


----------



## AltMe

Day 2 slowdown seems to be on schedule. 

Minor miracle seems to have happened already though.
The books has been added to the series page already, and the series page is showing on the book page already. Its less than a day since I put in the request, and was told they'd pass it on to technical support and get to it in about 10 days. 

 

Backmatter is done for the rest of the series, but I'm close to leaving Brazil now, the actual changes will have to wait until I'm home. And all the rest of the things I have to do with a new book.

9 has slipped a bit in terms of rankings, but only to be expected with the day 2 slump. Its day 3 which really counts, as the algorithm starts to kick in.

10 is underway. It has the benefit of using an existing story as a base, and I completed the second story a short time ago, and began on the third. Something different, as I take the opportunity to cover some backstory for the series, while properly introducing a new character.


----------



## AltMe

Day 6 update:

Traveling over, and now dealing with jetlag. But in the meantime, 9 has been doing very well.

#450 Paid in Kindle Store 

 #2 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Metaphysical & Visionary* 
 #4 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Military > *Space Marine* 
 #5 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Military > *Space Fleet* 
And its #1 on New Releases for Metaphysical & Visionary.

Amazon Author Rank 
 #35 in Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > *Science Fiction* 
 
 #42 in Books > *Teens* 
 
 #50 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > *Action & Adventure* 
 
 #69 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > *Science Fiction* 
 
 #70 in Books > Literature & Fiction > *Action & Adventure* 
 7 boosted me to #15 in Sci-Fi. 8 got me to 34. 9 so far to 35.

Interestingly, so far there is almost no flow through this time. Seeing some in 1 and 2 today, but the rest of the series its like nothing has happened.

Makes me ponder if 9 in a series has crossed the threshold of "omg, there's too much to read now" putting off new readers. Just a ponder though. Lets see how the 2nd week goes.


----------



## AltMe

The new release email from Amazon was received a bit over 12 hours ago.

Looks like the day is going to spike. 

Quick peek with day unfinished, and my Sci-Fi rank is now 29.


----------



## AltMe

Not as big a spike as it could have been, but still, was better than release day.

Now seeing some flow through to the rest of the series.


----------



## geronl

good work


----------



## dragontucker

This thread gives me hope. I released book two in my fantasy series about 20 days ago and it is already dropping into high ranks. I had about 100 sales before it crashed  Now, I pray, book 3 will make all of the difference  I sure hope so!! Congrats on your success. Maybe I will open a thread like this when I release book three and see how it goes  I realize publishing quickly is important too. This thread explains a lot on how series feed themselves


----------



## geronl

By this time next year this thread will make you start drinking


----------



## FFJ

Jeff Tanyard said:


> Just wanted to say "congratulations" again, Timothy. I'm really happy for you, man.
> 
> As far as your covers go, I think the third one conforms to some of the "rules" of cover design more than the first two. The title is at the thirds, for example. Read this article and see if you agree:
> 
> http://www.coverdesignstudio.com/layout-rule-of-thirds-diagonal-scan-and-more/
> 
> That might have something to do with it. *shrug* Anyway, just a thought.
> 
> By the way... do you have any plans for a box set? Just curious. That seems to be the thing to do at some point.


Thanks for sharing the link


----------



## FFJ

TimothyEllis said:


> Thanks Steve.
> 
> An update is probably appropriate now.
> 
> Burnside's killer is doing ok. Not well, but ok. However, the rankings of the rest of the series continue slowly falling, along with sales, and very slowly after, reads.
> 
> *Moral is, keep your series in the same sub-categories where you do best. BK couldn't go into my best sub-cats, and this is hurting. Yes, picking up people from the new cat its in, but, not enough to offset the loss from where the series was performing well in.*
> 
> So while mixing genres is good for wider exposure, you need to make sure you keep the new book in the existing sub-cats as well.
> 
> The other thing is being a novella in the sci-fi genre. Not a happening thing! And because its got a small KENPC, each read isn't paying very well.
> 
> All good lessons.
> 
> Back to normal with book 7, and I'm going to make sure there's a solid back mention to BK in the new blurb.
> 
> I'm still not back to full speed writing, but at least the book is moving forward each day.


Thanks so much for taking us on the ride with you, Timothy! Continued success.


----------



## FFJ

TimothyEllis said:


> This will be my last post of numbers, as it's been a high-low day for me, and the cosmos obviously has a message for me. I left the house this afternoon on a high with a new highest sales figure, and a few minutes later, in the course of 2 seconds, I went from really high to really low. A dog ran in front of my car. There was nothing I could do, and I didn't know what had hit me until I stopped and looked back. The dog later died. I love all animals, and dogs love me. Being empathic, I felt its pain, and still do. So my new high is at a time when I'm at a very deep low.
> 
> The whole roller coaster ride is listed here, so it can be seen at a glance.
> 
> The message as far as writing is concerned seems to be:
> -*series are good for incremental reader gains. Each new release boosts you to a higher level, as long as you can hold them with you.
> -the beginning of each should have something really gripping to hold the reader with, and make them buy.
> -if you cant do it with all the books in the series, make sure one of the first three does have it. It only takes one 'cant put it down' book in the series to sell the series as a whole. As long as each new book continues to hold them somehow. If you can do it with the first book, all the better. Mine was number three, which had a better cover, goes into high gear about a quarter in with no warning, and a first chapter written last, to add exactly the grab em it was lacking to start with. Its also why its a good idea to have an editor, or someone, read your first draft, precisely to point out the book has no reader hook, or what you have wont work.
> -release on a schedule, 4-6 weeks is my suggestion. You have to keep the momentum going. Once you lose the traction, you have to start promoting to keep the numbers. And there is a lot of benefit in keeping a book in the new release list all the time.
> -Make sure the readers know the next book is coming. Name the next book in your backmatter - "Batman will return in 'Holy underwear on the outside.'"
> -List the series titles at the bottom of each book's blurb, and update them all as you release the new one. Don't blurb them, just a subtle list.
> -Don't expect sales to take off immediately, but work on the basis that one of your books should hit the jackpot for you. If they dont, move on to the next series. When one finally does, it will trigger sales across your whole portfolio.
> *
> That's all I can think of for now, and why this worked for me.
> 
> I've no idea how long this momentum will last, but third book kicked it off for me, and 4th book kicked it to another level. 5th book in progress and more planned. How long the series will be is an unknown, but the readers seem to like this.
> 
> Oh, and something I've noticed with the 4th book, the reviews are coming faster now. Some interesting points being made too, several of which have given me ideas for the future.
> 
> 144 on Day 7. No bananas today. The cosmos sends you a lesson when you use too many.
> 105 for Day 6.
> 84 on Day 5.
> 54 on Day 4.
> 77 on Day 3.
> 67 on Day 2.
> 78 on Day 1, Book 4.
> 58 on Day 27.
> 40 on Day 26.
> 36 on Day 25.
> 38 on Day 24.
> 68 on Day 23.
> 55 on Day 22.
> 47 on Day 21.
> 29 on Day 20.
> 23 on Day 19.
> 23 on Day 18.
> 18 on Day 17.
> 23 on Day 16.
> 26 on Day 15.
> 34 on Day 14.
> 25 on Day 13.
> 33 on Day 12.
> 27 on Day 11.
> 19 on Day 10.
> 15 on Day 9.
> 17 on Day 8.
> 15 on day 7.
> 9 on day 6.
> 10 on day 5.
> 10 on day 4.
> 9 on day 3.
> 13 on day 2.
> 18 on day 1.
> 
> 10 for the first 11 days of the month.


Again, thanks for being so sharing! (Sorry about the dog incident, though this was several months ago).

Does the advice you gave above (I bolded it) still apply now so many months later?

TIA


----------



## AltMe

FFJ said:


> Does the advice you gave above (I bolded it) still apply now so many months later?


Yes, it holds up pretty well.

The thing which could be added is that as the series grows, the bottom point on the slide before the next release, seems to be a bit higher with each book. So even if you slump to just a few books a day between releases, each new book adds the few extra sales each day, which collectively keeps you a bit higher. The more books you have, even if only selling a few a day, the better your residual income is between releases.


----------



## geronl

Wow, good stuff


----------



## ScottFish

Just read through this thread.  It was time well spent!!  Thank you for being so transparent in sharing.  It is an inspiration to see what you have done.


----------



## FFJ

TimothyEllis said:


> Yes, it holds up pretty well.
> 
> The thing which could be added is that as the series grows, *the bottom point on the slide before the next release, seems to be a bit higher with each book*. So even if you slump to just a few books a day between releases, each new book adds the few extra sales each day, which collectively keeps you a bit higher. The more books you have, even if only selling a few a day, the better your residual income is between releases.


Thanks for the reply and for continuing to share your knowledge.


----------



## AltMe

I had my first "I'm giving up" review overnight.

I cant say its not unexpected. The original plan was 9 books, and I'm at 9 and still haven't reached prophesy yet. It seems to indicate series should have a specific end point within 10 books. Not for everyone, as I have lots who are thrilled its going more than 10, but for some people, 9 is about their limit in any one series.

The pity is, the answers start coming now, and someone is going to miss out. I can only hope they pick the series back up later on.

Been an interesting few days for 9. At day 10, reads shot up, and sales dropped about a third. I'm not sure what that suggests, except perhaps by day 10, everyone who was going to buy had, and it entered the stage of everyone reading and buying was new to the series. Hard to tell, but that could be it.

24 was the best author rank I managed in Sci-Fi. It went to 35, but has been fluctuating and is now at 29.


----------



## geronl

TimothyEllis said:


> I had my first "I'm giving up" review overnight.


You are having a great run.


----------



## MarsDorian

Congrats for that epic success, Timothy. I've found you via the Rocking Self-Publishing podcast and checked out your first book "Hero At Large", and this thread.
My first books bombed abysmally, making me around 50$ in HALF A YEAR. Then I learned more about marketing and genre-writing, and created a decent success (about $5000 in five months) before it too, drowned into Amazon's oblivion. So, I'm still learning about the process, and threads like yours INSPIRE me to go on and work my face off.  

(I just published my newest sci-fi book two weeks ago and it's my best going ever. Up to 10K KU reads a day, 14-26 sales a day. Maybe I should write a thread someplace here and share my tips. If someone cares, that is.)

Keep on writing, keeping on sharing. The world needs more indie success stories.


----------



## Matthew Eliot

MarsDorian said:


> Maybe I should write a thread someplace here and share my tips. If someone cares, that is.)


I'm interested


----------



## julieannlevin

That's great! Congrats!!


----------



## spellscribe

MarsDorian said:


> Congrats for that epic success, Timothy. I've found you via the Rocking Self-Publishing podcast and checked out your first book "Hero At Large", and this thread.
> My first books bombed abysmally, making me around 50$ in HALF A YEAR. Then I learned more about marketing and genre-writing, and created a decent success (about $5000 in five months) before it too, drowned into Amazon's oblivion. So, I'm still learning about the process, and threads like yours INSPIRE me to go on and work my face off.
> 
> (I just published my newest sci-fi book two weeks ago and it's my best going ever. Up to 10K KU reads a day, 14-26 sales a day. Maybe I should write a thread someplace here and share my tips. If someone cares, that is.)
> 
> Keep on writing, keeping on sharing. The world needs more indie success stories.


Please do. Today is one of those days and I need a big fat injection of hope!


----------



## angela65

MarsDorian said:


> (I just published my newest sci-fi book two weeks ago and it's my best going ever. Up to 10K KU reads a day, 14-26 sales a day. Maybe I should write a thread someplace here and share my tips. If someone cares, that is.)





Matthew Eliot said:


> I'm interested


Me too!


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## AltMe

Ummm, please dont highjack the thread. Support for other authors should be done in private messages, or on their own threads.

Update:
Still hovering around the 50 mark in Sci-Fi. Reads are still fairly consistent, with sales fluctuating a lot more. But overall, the money situation is reasonably constant. A bit more stable than for 8 which made it higher, but sloped out faster.

Seeing flow-through into the middle part of the series now. Not much to the end though, yet. 9 is going down steadily now, but the flow-through to the early books in the series is keeping sales and reads up.


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## MarsDorian

Hey Timothy, 

You said somewhere earlier that being exclusive to KDP and being enlisted in KU was earning your the majority of your money, it's the same case for me (I also write sci-fi in space). But aren't you afraid of putting your eggs in one basket? Doesn't Amazon become the sole platform of your entire revenue?

Many authors say you should diversify (Kobo, iBooks etc), but can I also see that it will result in a drop of ranking because many reads a day can skyrocket your position.


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## geronl

MarsDorian said:


> (I just published my newest sci-fi book two weeks ago and it's my best going ever. Up to 10K KU reads a day, 14-26 sales a day. Maybe I should write a thread someplace here and share my tips. If someone cares, that is.)


If you write it, tell me. I could use all the help I can get.


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## AltMe

MarsDorian said:


> You said somewhere earlier that being exclusive to KDP and being enlisted in KU was earning your the majority of your money, it's the same case for me (I also write sci-fi in space). But aren't you afraid of putting your eggs in one basket? Doesn't Amazon become the sole platform of your entire revenue?
> 
> Many authors say you should diversify (Kobo, iBooks etc), but can I also see that it will result in a drop of ranking because many reads a day can skyrocket your position.


At this point, KU accounts for about 65% of my income. So even though they mess around with the payout, for now, its too big a slice of what I'm making to throw away.

Not only would my income drop, but so would the ranking the borrows give me.

I've seen it said that it can take 6 months or more to get any traction wide, and I find that more scarey than being all in with Amazon.

I'm not wide for the reason I chose Kindle first, since it was the ebook format I was familiar with, and having heard some stories about Smashwords which put me off. Co-incidentally, KU2 started as book 3 began to take off. Since then, I've had some concerns, but no real reason to consider going wide.

Now if Amazon shoot themselves in the foot with KU changes, I'll consider it. For now though, I'm happy with what I'm making, and trying to concentrate on writing rather than marketing (which I'm not really doing at all.)

As other people have said, put aside a portion of what you make, for when the tides change and Amazon lose it, so when income drops as you have to change strategy, you still can live comfortably.


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## geronl

SO, do you have plans for what happens when the series ends...


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## AltMe

geronl said:


> SO, do you have plans for what happens when the series ends...


Yes.

There is another book that's been kicking around in my head for 20 years as well. Not sure if its 1 book in 3 parts, or a trilogy. Probably wont know until I start writing it. The length of part 1 will determine if its 1 book or 3.

I also have the germs of an idea for a new series. But I need to write the other book idea first, in order to get enough experience, before the new series will flesh out properly. Lot of disjointed ideas at this point. With this one though, I'll try and plot it better to start with, so its 9 books long, which I'm thinking is the best series length.


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## AltMe

Update:

At 19 days, that weird Amazon thing kicked in, and suddenly you get a day with a good 1/3 less than the normal sales for the day, for no apparent reason. The ranks drop. The next day, Reads drop. And suddenly your down a whole level.

And the slide into the abyss begins once again.


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## MarsDorian

> And the slide into the abyss begins once again.


Dude, Timothy, you had/have an amazing run. Like you said earlier, publishing more books seems to be the key. Authors with big backlists make tons of money and sales--indie author Lindsay Buroker comes to mind. She's got over 30 books out in both sci-fi and fantasy, and she's killing it, even though she's not a star in the traditional sense.

One book of mine was sort-of successful for a month and then it flatlined. The same will eventually happen to my current "Vanguard Galaxy",
so I'm writing like crazy to build that portfolio.

Keep up the good work and keep posting, even the 'downsides'
(And thanks for answering my question about KU exclusivity versus going wide)


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## AltMe

It certainly has been amazing.   

My only regret at the moment is I can't duplicate the speed of writing books 2 to 5. The last 2 weeks has been hopeless for writing due to family problems, after my dad passed away while I was in Brazil. Neither my Mum or I have been able to write much at all due to stress and too much on our minds.

So while I should have book 10 half written or more by now, its barely 20%.

Still, these things are sent to ........I dont know. lol

It will be nice to be able to get back to 27th century reality, instead of 21st century ...... stuff.

Fortunately, I do have forgiving fans. On my FB Group, I've given them the chance to ask about some part of the back-timeline, since 10 will be covering some of it. So with luck, there will be a few suggestions which add a few words to the end result. I've been hinting at back-time line since the beginning, and 10 being an interlude book between parts 2 and 3  of the series, its from a different POV, and has a completely different feel to it. The first interlude book added a new character, and was more detective-horror-R-rated. This next one is something completely different again, based on a short story I wrote last year, as was the first interlude.

Keeps me fresh, and gives me a break from the main narrative, while also getting me to use some new writing skills, which I will need later on.


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## AltMe

End of book 9 month 2 observations:

What used to be a 3 month downward spiral is now a 2 month spiral, mainly driven by KU reads. Not sure if the algorithms changed this year or not, but the 2nd month for 9 dropped far more rapidly than for 8 and 7. 7 though its hard to tell, being christmas and new year.

One thing I noticed was although reads slowly dropped consistently, and sales were all over the place, actual money was pretty consistent for almost 3 weeks, before the last week in June started crashing badly.

10 is now in editing, and due for release shortly. But its an Interlude novel, so I'm not sure how it will be received. And its a short novel, just under 50k words. Its a very different style of book this time, being like a set of short stories with an ongoing theme, but it also broadens the whole context of the series, now that the climax is almost upon us.


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## AltMe

The Long Road to Gaia, book 10, has just been released to Kindle. 

It ended up being a Novel length, about 18k words short of book 1, but well over double the length of my first interlude novella.

Totally different approach to a book this time. As someone suggested from what I said on my FB group, its a bit like Ender's Shadow is to Ender's Game.

I've no idea how it will be received, but I'm glad its done, and I can get back into the main story now.


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## AltMe

Time to pull this little fellow out again....










Gaia debuted well and is sitting at 1038 in the paid Kindle store.


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## BeMyBookBaby

Personally, as a reader, I would probably hate you by now.  Ten books and you still haven't "hit prophesy"?

Can you explain what you mean by that? Do you mean that your Story Arc hasn't hit climax or...?

What do you think you're doing right? Because you are obviously writing some great stuff, if your readers are still following you ten books in! I think you should have a whole crew of dancing bananas, not just one! People always talk about how important it is to be always moving forward with the book... do you feel you've done that, or have you lost way a bit as you've discovered new ARCs as you go?

Sorry for all the questions, but I'm not a SciFi reader so I haven't read your books, but I am so impressed by the consistency of your releases and readers! I know you previously mentioned that this story had been sitting in your head, percolating like an expensive French Press brew, but I don't think you realised the sheer volume of it either? (Or maybe you did, and I am remembering wrong.)


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## angela65

TimothyEllis said:


> Gaia debuted well and is sitting at 1038 in the paid Kindle store.


Wow. Congratulations!


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## AltMe

Aine Crowley said:


> Personally, as a reader, I would probably hate you by now.  Ten books and you still haven't "hit prophesy"?
> Can you explain what you mean by that? Do you mean that your Story Arc hasn't hit climax or...?
> What do you think you're doing right? Because you are obviously writing some great stuff, if your readers are still following you ten books in! I think you should have a whole crew of dancing bananas, not just one! People always talk about how important it is to be always moving forward with the book... do you feel you've done that, or have you lost way a bit as you've discovered new ARCs as you go?
> Sorry for all the questions, but I'm not a SciFi reader so I haven't read your books, but I am so impressed by the consistency of your releases and readers! I know you previously mentioned that this story had been sitting in your head, percolating like an expensive French Press brew, but I don't think you realised the sheer volume of it either? (Or maybe you did, and I am remembering wrong.)


My original thoughts was for a 6 book series.

But 3 things happened.
0. I wrote the first 5 books on a daily life basis.
1. The first trilogy became 5 books, which only covered 3 months of time.
2. I made it clear nothing could be found out about prophesy for a year.

So suddenly at 5 books in, I still had 9 months to go.

Then I had some serious health issues which stopped me writing, and book 6 came out as a novella from a different POV.

7,8,9 was the actual second trilogy, and I wrote a novella length story in the middle of them as a christmas story after the idea hit me after my december release of 7.

So having done 6 as an interlude, I set myself up to do a second interlude. And while it had a good first day, its gone flat since.

Now I'm effectively at where I expected the last book of the second trilogy to be, but still have at least a trilogy to go.

I guess this is what happens when you pants your way through, knowing where your going, but not having plotted it out properly first. Still, next series I'll try to plot a bit better first.

Day 3 for 10: well day 2 was the expected drop from day 1, but day 3 wasn't any better.

KDP came back to me and refused to add 10 to my series because they thought it was a novella. 48.5k from what I see around is a novel. Now they are looking into it, and expect to hear in a week. Even Goodreads added it as a novel, and they are usually the difficult ones.

Also day 3, and no also US also boughts yet, although UK and Aus have them now. Not sure what the hold up there is, but its certainly cut day 3 down from the usual upswing.

So huge spike on the author rankings, followed by a major fall. I might need a parachute this time.

Anyway, regardless of if this one tanks like 6 did, it needed to be written, and now I can really get into prophesy itself.


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## Salvador Mercer

TimothyEllis said:


> Time to pull this little fellow out again....
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Gaia debuted well and is sitting at 1038 in the paid Kindle store.


Nice to see the lil guy again! 

Sorry for your loss. Hope you enjoyed your tenth in series. Not sure how you do it. I have planned 5 in mine and it's a challenge much less 10. Glad you're updating this thread.


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## AltMe

Salvador Mercer said:


> Nice to see the lil guy again!
> 
> Sorry for your loss. Hope you enjoyed your tenth in series. Not sure how you do it. I have planned 5 in mine and it's a challenge much less 10. Glad you're updating this thread.


Thank you.

There hasn't been a lot to say which hasn't already been said, so I've been leaving the thread for when something noteworthy happens.

Its actually helping that I broke the story down into parts. So 1-5 was part 1, and 6-10 was part 2. Part 3 begins now, and at the moment is either 3 or 4 books, depending on how things develop. So in part, its like writing 3 series, except they follow on from each other immediately.


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## AltMe

Thoughts after a week:

The good start didn't go on. At best, 10 returned me to where I was just before dropping off the 30 day cliff last time.
10 is currently 3,069 in the paid store, and 12 in my usual visionary sub-cat. The drop happened on day 2, and didn't get any momentum.

Part of the reason I think is the book wasn't added to the series page. So there is no direct link to the start of the series. Consequently, as 7-9 are the only ones showing on page 1 of the also-boughts, the only flow through going on is to the latter books in the series, as if some people who stopped reading, have decided to pick back up again.

So where each release in the past has boosted the start of the series, and then flowed through, that isn't happening this time.

Other possible reasons: Its shorter than normal, being 18,000 words shorter than my book 1. Its also a different POV, and something of an Ender's Shadow type book. So as such, its not attracting new readers at all.

Conclusions? If your series is 1st person, think very hard about introducing other POV within the series. And if you're writing a standard sort of length, keep writing it, regardless.


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## Abderian

TimothyEllis said:


> Thoughts after a week:
> 
> The good start didn't go on. At best, 10 returned me to where I was just before dropping off the 30 day cliff last time.
> 10 is currently 3,069 in the paid store, and 12 in my usual visionary sub-cat. The drop happened on day 2, and didn't get any momentum.
> 
> Part of the reason I think is the book wasn't added to the series page. So there is no direct link to the start of the series. Consequently, as 7-9 are the only ones showing on page 1 of the also-boughts, the only flow through going on is to the latter books in the series, as if some people who stopped reading, have decided to pick back up again.
> 
> So where each release in the past has boosted the start of the series, and then flowed through, that isn't happening this time.
> 
> Other possible reasons: Its shorter than normal, being 18,000 words shorter than my book 1. Its also a different POV, and something of an Ender's Shadow type book. So as such, its not attracting new readers at all.
> 
> Conclusions? If your series is 1st person, think very hard about introducing other POV within the series. And if you're writing a standard sort of length, keep writing it, regardless.


Hi Timothy

Another factor with book 10 is that it doesn't have a spaceship on the cover. Do you think that might have an influence on lower-than-expected sales?

I also wanted to ask, do you know what demographic your readers are? Just curious.


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## AltMe

Abderian said:


> Another factor with book 10 is that it doesn't have a spaceship on the cover. Do you think that might have an influence on lower-than-expected sales?
> 
> I also wanted to ask, do you know what demographic your readers are? Just curious.


It is possible no ship makes a difference. I will ponder that.

As far as I can tell from my FB group and page, the series is appealing to most age groups. And a lot more women are reading than I expected.


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## AltMe

Not sure if this is happening to everyone, but it definitely seems to be happening to me.

From another thread:



Donna White Glaser said:


> I think there was. I've heard similar results from others too. Something about pushing older books down despite their selling abilities. Ah well. Gotta stay flexible but that one was particularly discouraging and I still haven't recovered from it.


This explains whats been happening to me. All of a sudden, the first half of my series sank from 20,000's to 100,000's, almost overnight. As a result, the 30 day cliff has become 30-60-90 combined cliff. There is almost no flow through with my current book, because none of the first books in the series are visible any more. I get a bit of flow through to the last part of the series from people catching up, but only because the last 3 books are on the 1st page of the also-boughts.


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## AltMe

Comments from 10:

10 flopped the same way 6 did, so it seems length wasn't an issue for 6 after all.

Barely 10 days after release, and things were back to where they were previously. And that took 2 months for 9. 
There was no flow-on at all from this book, which is the first to have this effect.

There is something else happening though. While the series remains in the 20k-30k range in the paid store, all of them have tanked down towards the 100 mark in my best sub-categories. Algorithm change I suspect. With no flow on from the new book to boost them, they continue to drop.

Conclusion: When you're writing a 1st person POV series, stay in that POV, no matter what. Both alternate POV books failed.

There is also a possibility that number 10 also isn't a number people want to see. They expect things to complete by 9, in three neat trilogies.


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## FFJ

Thanks for the continued sharing of insight. I might have missed this, but, whats your next move? New series in the same genre?


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## Steve Vernon

Not knowing a thing about the books, I noticed right off that there wasn't a ship on that new book. AND, I figured that must mean it is a different series or a stand-alone book.

That said, ten books is a lot of books. Might be time to think about starting another series and easing off a bit on the Hunter Legacy. Might be you've milked the cow to death.


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## AltMe

FFJ said:


> Thanks for the continued sharing of insight. I might have missed this, but, whats your next move? New series in the same genre?


Still have this series to complete. 3 more books at least, possibly 4.

But moves wise, I'm doing a companion book, which explains all the references I used. And currently working on the first Omnibus edition, which I'm also thinking will be released in print at the same time. Brand new covers for both.

I have a stand alone idea for the next project. Then a second series which follows my current one. At the end of that, I'm thinking of setting up for yet another idea, just putting it in my existing universe instead of creating a new one. But this is a ways down the track yet.



Steve Vernon said:


> Not knowing a thing about the books, I noticed right off that there wasn't a ship on that new book. AND, I figured that must mean it is a different series or a stand-alone book.
> 
> That said, ten books is a lot of books. Might be time to think about starting another series and easing off a bit on the Hunter Legacy. Might be you've milked the cow to death.


I've been thinking about that lack of a ship. It is possible.

Also, it could well be over-milked. But this is the problem with not having planned it enough to begin with. The most important thing for now, is completing the series, however long that takes.

One idea at the moment, is to try and make sure the last book in the series is an early December release, with paperbacks available as well. Then I start next year with a standalone new idea.


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## Kate.

I feel the same way about the cover. It's a cool image--a person walking along stars--but if I wasn't familiar with the rest of your series, I wouldn't know what to expect. Campfire stories? Native legends? New age? Possibly even non-fiction?

Because of that, it's probably not picking up new readers like your other books do. Readers have shown a very strong preference for sci-fi books with spaceships (and possibly also planets and explosions) on covers.

Another (small) hang-up might be the title. All of your other books have Hero in the name, which creates branding. Some of your existing readers might think this new book is a side story or an unrelated novel and not realise it's part of the Hero series. *shrug*

Even with this release not doing as well as we'd like, you're still ranking fantastically, and you'll probably see things pick up again with the next book. Try not to let it get you down. =)


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## AltMe

Darcy said:


> I feel the same way about the cover. It's a cool image--a person walking along stars--but if I wasn't familiar with the rest of your series, I wouldn't know what to expect. Campfire stories? Native legends? New age? Possibly even non-fiction?
> 
> Because of that, it's probably not picking up new readers like your other books do. Readers have shown a very strong preference for sci-fi books with spaceships (and possibly also planets and explosions) on covers.
> 
> Another (small) hang-up might be the title. All of your other books have Hero in the name, which creates branding. Some of your existing readers might think this new book is a side story or an unrelated novel and not realise it's part of the Hero series. *shrug*
> 
> Even with this release not doing as well as we'd like, you're still ranking fantastically, and you'll probably see things pick up again with the next book. Try not to let it get you down. =)


All good points. I might try removing the subtitle from it, which could be part of the confusion. I'm trying to think how I can put a ship on the existing cover.

Rankings wise, the series is still doing well, but this isnt translating into visibility anymore. Where I used to have all the books inside the top 40 of Visionary, now they are all mostly down near 100. So the series itself is nowhere near as visible as it was. I think this must be an algorithm tweak. As someone suggested recently, Amazon are now pushing down older books in the sub-cats for some reason.

11 is on the way, but I've another bad week head wise, and another death in the family, this time the last of my uncle's on one side of the family, who also has passed very unexpectedly.


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## Steve Vernon

Then too, it might just be a side effect of a summer slump.


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## AltMe

Interesting test:

I added a small ship to the cover, underneath the walker, as if he was standing on it.

I changed the blurb around, so it starts off about the MC, and not the new character.

I removed the subtitle, so the book will now read with the series title instead of the subtitle. I did the same with book 6 as well.

It will be interesting to see if it makes any difference.


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## AltMe

TimothyEllis said:


> Interesting test:
> I added a small ship to the cover, underneath the walker, as if he was standing on it.
> I changed the blurb around, so it starts off about the MC, and not the new character.
> I removed the subtitle, so the book will now read with the series title instead of the subtitle. I did the same with book 6 as well.
> It will be interesting to see if it makes any difference.


Well something worked. Instant jump in sales for 10. Not quite triple, but the day hasn't ended yet.

At a guess, its the removal of the sub-title, which made the series title become visible on the book name.

Edit: Triple sales for the previous day. Double combined sales and reads. But zero flow back. Still interesting immediate result.


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## J.T. Williams

TimothyEllis said:


> There is something else happening though. While the series remains in the 20k-30k range in the paid store, all of them have tanked down towards the 100 mark in my best sub-categories. Algorithm change I suspect. With no flow on from the new book to boost them, they continue to drop.


I suspect there was an algorithm change. My book that has set in the 2000 to 3000 for the past 8 weeks suddenly stop selling as well... I'm past the 90 day mark too, so I don't suspect it was a cliff.

I'm hoping the August release of book three will push the series back up. Though, I can't really complaint I guess, the books have remained below 12k for a good long while...


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## AltMe

Just released - The Hero's Companion - a reference book for the series to date.

And the first of new covers by Kalen O'Donnell. The next new covers will be for the new Omnibus editions.

Just my luck to release just before Amazon goes crazy on their back end. Instead of taking 2 hours to load, it took 15. 

I'm not expecting this book to do much, given only die-hard fans are going to be interested in it. All the same, it has a lot of answers to potential questions people asked while reading along the lines of "WTF did that mean?". 

In some ways, this is showing just how 'completely gorked' my mind is, and what goes into an author's mind before a series comes out.


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## vws

Awesome cover and interesting concept. I hope it works well! 

Are you going to redo all the covers or just the omnibus editions?


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## AltMe

vaughanwsmith said:


> Are you going to redo all the covers or just the omnibus editions?


Not sure yet. I haven't discussed the next part of the series with Kalen yet. It is possible he may do the covers for the the remainder of the series. Or not. I'll see when I get closer.

For the moment, he is doing the 3 Omnibus covers, and will do the 4th when the series is complete. This cover was an extra, we decided to do after he'd started on the first Omnibus cover.

Sometime down the track, the originals may get new covers, but I guess it depends what happens once the Omnibus editions are out.


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## T E Scott Writer

Just read this whole thread and wanted to say thanks for taking the time to write it all. I kept thinking, oh he'll stop with the next book and not bother updating but you never did. Brilliant information, best of luck for your future releases (of which I'm sure there will be plenty!)


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## AltMe

Interesting....Amazon sent out an email to Followers yesterday, and today's sales were a significant spike, almost up to day 2's mailing list spike. 

But it was all in my current 2 books, and reads went down. 

But its nice to know Amazon is still sending out to the Followers list.


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## Salvador Mercer

TimothyEllis said:


> Interesting....Amazon sent out an email to Followers yesterday, and today's sales were a significant spike, almost up to day 2's mailing list spike.
> 
> But it was all in my current 2 books, and reads went down.
> 
> But its nice to know Amazon is still sending out to the Followers list.


Any Amazon help is always welcome, or at least almost always, hehe. Glad to see your progress so far.


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## dragontucker

J.T. Williams said:


> I suspect there was an algorithm change. My book that has set in the 2000 to 3000 for the past 8 weeks suddenly stop selling as well... I'm past the 90 day mark too, so I don't suspect it was a cliff.
> 
> I'm hoping the August release of book three will push the series back up. Though, I can't really complaint I guess, the books have remained below 12k for a good long while...


I think the 90 day cliff is real. My book pretty much stopped selling after 90 days was reached. Right around the 90 day mark anyways. I sale maybe a copy every other day and my KU reads have gone down to all 0's. LOL. My plan to combat this is to release a new book every 45-60 days.


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## AltMe

Update time!   

Bad News first: Since I've not had a main line book out in over 3 months, sales and reads have been tanking badly, and August will be my worst month since September last year (which was my first real sales month). Book 10, being an interlude, and a short novel (in comparison to my others), hasn't done very well. Hero's Companion also hasn't done very well, but this was expected. Today's sales/reads are a total shocker. "Its been the worst day, since yesterday!"

Good News: I just released Jonathon Hunter, The Hunter Legacy Omnibus One. It combines books one and two, and is a re-edit of both, especially removing all the back story and repetitions in book 2. Flat launch though, as Amazon took an age to get it up, and so I went to bed without a link, and so the mailout was more than 18 hours later than normal. (Just done in fact). So its debuted in the 50k range, which is the worst launch yet. One reason for doing this book, is to try for a Bookbub, with a larger book, an artist done cover, and hopefully mainly good reviews. 

Coming news: The Omnibus was just sent off to be formatted for paperback. And I'm looking at the possibility of doing several formats, so readers can choose what size they prefer. I'm planning the second Omnibus for a month or so's time, and want both paperbacks available for Christmas this year. Third Omnibus on the drawing board as well.

My health is coming good again finally, so its on with 11.

The big lesson in all this, is when your doing a series, 6 week releases are a necessity to keep the momentum going.


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## JVRudnick

spot-on great thread Tim....loved it over the past few months....

and the help with the marketing is muchly appreciated too!


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## Bbates024

TimothyEllis said:


> My health is coming good again finally, so its on with 11.


That is good to hear!


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## AltMe

Here's an interesting observation from having released the first Omnibus:

The BACK end of the series has picked up.

 

I hope that doesn't mean there are pissed off readers who thought the series had ended and decided to finish, only to find its only the end of part 2?


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## AltMe

Pre-11 Update time.

11 went into editing mode today.

Its about 2 weeks short of 3 months since 10, which flopped due to being both a interim alternate POV, and way short of my readers length expectations. 

So at the moment, my series has fallen into the deep dark pit, along with money. Don't get me wrong, its still very livable at its current levels, but its edging down near what I consider to be borderline on the simulator territory. My ranks are so bad at the moment I dont even want to look.

11 is the book with the answers to most of the questions, so I'm hoping it will do great things. And hopefully I can get it out soon, and save the month.

Then I dive into 12 and 13. This is what everyone has been waiting for, including me, and should make everyone happy. 

That's the plan anyway.

*Changes writers hat for editors hat*


----------



## AltMe

Book 11, Home is where the Hero is, became available on Kindle about an hour ago.










I am so glad to have this one out.

The beginning of the next one came to me during final editing as well, so 12 is now underway as well.

Just gone 8am in New York, and the email should be getting to people as they have their morning coffee. The FB group are already reading.

This ones been an interesting book to write. Bad health and too much happening slowed it down, but its a mix of original 20 year old ideas, and where the characters wanted to go.

And finally, the revelations of Prophesy are out there. Including why I used the verb instead of the noun.

And now, with 12 underway, DARKNESS IS COMING.


----------



## Lisa Blackwood

Good luck and happy sales.


----------



## AltMe

Lady Gargoyle said:


> Good luck and happy sales.


Thank you. 

I'm hanging out for a new record first days sales.

And on a different note, I was updating all the backmatter in the series books, and I thought of a completely new spinoff series.


----------



## suliabryon

Hoping for a great launch for you!


----------



## Salvador Mercer

Sub 1k ranking, very nice.


----------



## AltMe

Not quite end of first day, still 8.35pm in NY, but a nice debut rank for 11.

#622 Paid in Kindle Store
 #3 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Metaphysical & Visionary* 
 #6 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Military > *Space Fleet* 
 #7 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Military > *Space Fleet*


----------



## T C Edge

TimothyEllis said:


> Not quite end of first day, still 8.35pm in NY, but a nice debut rank for 11.
> 
> #622 Paid in Kindle Store
> #3 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Metaphysical & Visionary*
> #6 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Military > *Space Fleet*
> #7 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Military > *Space Fleet*


Brilliant stuff Tim, congrats. I've lurked around these boards for a while now, and have only recently dipped my toe in the water. I have to say your journey has been very inspiring for me. Here's to many more successes


----------



## AltMe

Salvador Mercer said:


> Sub 1k ranking, very nice.


I have to admit to being very happy at the moment. Its launched really well. 



T C Edge said:


> Brilliant stuff Tim, congrats. I've lurked around these boards for a while now, and have only recently dipped my toe in the water. I have to say your journey has been very inspiring for me. Here's to many more successes


Thank you.


----------



## Salvador Mercer

Tim, did you say this is open ended or do you have an idea of how many volumes will be written in your series?


----------



## AltMe

Salvador Mercer said:


> Tim, did you say this is open ended or do you have an idea of how many volumes will be written in your series?


I'm on 12 at the moment, but just started. The plan is to end on 13, which ironically also matches something within the series.

However, I have plans for 3 more in a follow on series. And I thought of yet another spin off series a couple of days ago.

The other thing I'm thinking of doing, follows on from a group of us getting together last year to explore the possibility of a shared universe. I'm pretty sure I can set up the basis of that universe at the end of my second series. If so, there will be a huge scope for follow ons of all kinds, set in the same galaxy.


----------



## Bookread

Congratulations on the new release!


----------



## AltMe

Bookread said:


> Congratulations on the new release!


Thanks.

Now if I could only make #1 in Space Opera like Glynn Stewart just did, I'd be floating 50 feet off the ground in happiness.


----------



## AltMe

I just got this from Bookbub.



> Your new release, Home is where the Hero is (The Hunter Legacy Book 11), has been confirmed for a New Release Alert scheduled to go out 2016-09-22. Your new release alert will be sent to your BookBub followers. You currently have 12 in the US.


Which just goes to show why I cant get a BB. No followers there. I'm damned sure they introduced this so they could check before accepting new authors.
Oh well, I needed the laugh.


----------



## Salvador Mercer

TimothyEllis said:


> I just got this from Bookbub.
> Which just goes to show why I cant get a BB. No followers there. I'm damned sure they introduced this so they could check before accepting new authors.
> Oh well, I needed the laugh.


Hehe, I have two and I found out that one was from my audio publisher who thought I was accepted for a Bookbub.


----------



## AltMe

Day 5 update which creates the Mickey Mouse ears on the graph....

This surprised the hell out of me. Not sure why, but it did.

#600 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store) 
 #3 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Metaphysical & Visionary* 
 #8 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Military > *Space Marine* 
 #8 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Military > *Space Marine* 
*Amazon Author Rank* 
 #52 in Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > *Science Fiction* 
 #75 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > *Action & Adventure* 
 #75 in Books > *Teens* 
 #93 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > *Science Fiction* 
 #98 in Books > Literature & Fiction > *Action & Adventure*
I've jumped from 387 to 52 in 5 days, in Sci-Fi.
There are 3 factors involved.[list type=decimal]
[*]Mailing List
[*]Facebook Group and Page
[*]An also bought which is doing better ! 
[/list]


----------



## AltMe

Day 7 update:

#400 Paid in Kindle Store
#2 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Metaphysical & Visionary* 
 #5 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Military > *Space Fleet* 
 #5 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Military > *Space Marine* 

#10 in Space Opera
Interesting that the #1 in space fleet and marine sub-cats, isn't in meta/visionary. So I'm seriously hoping I might be able to crack the #1 there if things keep up. I've been #1 twice before with shorts, but not in a main sub-cat.

*Amazon Author Rank *

#31 in Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > *Science Fiction* 
#38 in Books > *Teens* 
#49 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > *Action & Adventure* 
#55 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > *Science Fiction* 
#61 in Books > Literature & Fiction > *Action & Adventure*
Cracked the 34 barrier again.*phew* Been up to 14 in Sci-Fi, but that was a long time ago now, and Xmas boosted.

Something really interesting going on here this time. I think it's the first time I've been #1 also-bought on a book which is doing better than mine. Being even visible on a #1 book in my sub-cats I don't think has ever happened for me before.

Which is raising some interesting speculations about Amazon advertising, to get on the sponsored books first page. When I work it out and try it, I'll post about it.


----------



## angela65

Thanks for keeping us updated and congratulations!


----------



## AltMe

The day 7 update was as good as it got, and I think this was the boost from the Amazon Followers email. Now for the slow slide until 12.

The first Paperback was released today.

Jonathon Hunter, The Hunter Legacy Omnibus One, now available on Createspace as a 6"x9", 350 pages Paperback.
https://www.createspace.com/6420627


----------



## AltMe

Day 14 and things are slowing for #11.

But for now, the flow back to #1 is happening.

Interesting thing is, the cheaper Omnibus is being ignored compared to #1 and #2. I'm still wondering why this is, considering the Omnibus is listed on every book page now. It might be the price is too high for a taste test, and people dont mind paying a bit more for #2 when they decide to continue.

Anyway, #11 is getting flow back, where 10 didn't.

Edit: And Yay! My first paperback sale showed up on CS.


----------



## Reveries

I started doing some serious lurking around Writers' Café in about June 2015 when I was getting ready to try self-publishing for the first time. I learnt a lot of useful information, and really appreciate the helpfulness of all the experts who post here. In July 2015, I caught the start of this thread. Ever since then, I've been following all the ups and downs, and it's been a source of both information and encouragement. I just wanted to say how pleased I am that book 11 is doing well for you.


----------



## AltMe

Reveries said:


> I started doing some serious lurking around Writers' Café in about June 2015 when I was getting ready to try self-publishing for the first time. I learnt a lot of useful information, and really appreciate the helpfulness of all the experts who post here. In July 2015, I caught the start of this thread. Ever since then, I've been following all the ups and downs, and it's been a source of both information and encouragement. I just wanted to say how pleased I am that book 11 is doing well for you.


I'm glad people are still reading.

10 definitely flopped, but interestingly, its now picking up a bit. Its like people have read 11, and then decided they needed to go back to 10 to understand a few things. Which of course I was hoping for.

The really odd thing was the flowback from 11, started at 8, not 1. Its only just gone back to 1. So its like a lot of people who dropped off the series, have started to catch back up.

The 3 months between books were a killer though. At least for now, I'm back on track, and hoping 12 will be out very soon after 11 drops off the new release list. *knocks on wood*


----------



## Salvador Mercer

TimothyEllis said:


> I'm glad people are still reading...


Oh yeah, still reading each of your updates, but too lazy to post most of the time. Well, not always lazy, just damn tired with my day job and three boys.


----------



## AltMe

Interesting looking at the figures for the series at the moment.

11 is on the slow decline.
But 8, 9, and 10 are outperforming 1-7 by 3 to 1 (meaning where for each 1 sale/read of book 1, there is 3 of book 7) . So it looks like with the announcement that the long awaited prophecy is about to happen, is spurring people to catch up, having dropped off along the way.


----------



## FFJ

Good to know book 12 is coming along. Continued success!


----------



## AltMe

Book 12, Hero in Darkness, was released a couple of hours ago.

An off hand comment to a cover artist, and this was the result:










Now to see if the book hits the spot (or not).


----------



## vws

Looks fantastic mate good luck with the release!


----------



## MCwrites

Nice! Good luck with #12!


----------



## JVRudnick

Tim....you go lad, go go go!!!

(hoping too that the current spate of KU reads etc will NOT rear it's head with this release...!!)


----------



## NoBlackHats

Good luck!


----------



## MattGodbey

Very nice cover on 12. Good luck.


Matt


----------



## Mhod

That cover is great! Who is your designer?


----------



## AltMe

Mhod said:


> That cover is great! Who is your designer?


Kalen O'Donnell.

I emailed him asking if he could do a small pic of the MC wielding his sword which I could paste onto the cover I was doing.

That came back a few days later. 



JVRudnick said:


> Tim....you go lad, go go go!!!
> 
> (hoping too that the current spate of KU reads etc will NOT rear it's head with this release...!!)


KU reads so far are very disappointing, but its only 5.30pm in NY. I was watching the number of 1 pages being added before I went to bed last night, and it was up to 42, showing downloads, but no actual reading yet. So hopefully that will convert into some actual pages before the end of the first day.

First day is never good for KU, used to take too long for them to connect it up. Now I suspect most people take a day to read and the pages hit on day 2. Have to wait and see.

Its 7.30am for me at the moment - middle of the night for me usually - but cant sleep.

2 5 star reviews already, 1 in each of Uk and US stores.

Debut Rank
#921 Paid in Kindle Store 

 #4 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Metaphysical & Visionary* 
 #16 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Military > *Space Marine* 
 #16 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Military > *Space Marine* 
Not bad for under 18 hours in. #3 on the New Releases list so far in Met/Vis.

Evening is my strong time in the US, so now to see what happens for the remainder of the day.

Do I go back to bed or not?


----------



## AltMe

End of Day 1.

 

35% down on 11. KU was 50% down.

So, lesson in series writing. 
1. Don't write too long. Stop at 9 books. Need more? Start a new series.
2. Don't write too far out of the primary genre. 
3. Put a warning message on your mail list signup telling people not to use a gmail/hotmail/yahoo account. (Just about all the unopened emails in my mailout are these 3 - which are obviously spamblocking Mailchimp. People never get the emails, and have no idea they are not getting them.)

Best book I've written since 3-4, best cover I've ever had, and the last book seems to have killed the series for it. Worst first day since book 6, which was justifiably bad.
Cue a mild depressive episode.   

Oh well. Wait a week now for the Amazon notifications to go out. And start on the last book. After that, I'll need to start something completely new.


----------



## NerdyWriter

TimothyEllis said:


> End of Day 1.
> 
> 
> 
> 35% down on 11. KU was 50% down.
> 
> So, lesson in series writing.
> 1. Don't write too long. Stop at 9 books. Need more? Start a new series.
> 2. Don't write too far out of the primary genre.
> 3. Put a warning message on your mail list signup telling people not to use a gmail/hotmail/yahoo account. (Just about all the unopened emails in my mailout are these 3 - which are obviously spamblocking Mailchimp. People never get the emails, and have no idea they are not getting them.)
> 
> Best book I've written since 3-4, best cover I've ever had, and the last book seems to have killed the series for it. Worst first day since book 6, which was justifiably bad.
> Cue a mild depressive episode.
> 
> Oh well. Wait a week now for the Amazon notifications to go out. And start on the last book. After that, I'll need to start something completely new.


On point number 3 I don't see people not using their gmail/Yahoo email accounts. How about one of those text blasts? I have never done it, but I read about people using it to send book release blasts via text. The spam blocking of Mailchimp messages does suck! I use them too.


----------



## AltMe

Greggy said:


> On point number 3 I don't see people not using their gmail/Yahoo email accounts. How about one of those text blasts? I have never done it, but I read about people using it to send book release blasts via text. The spam blocking of Mailchimp messages does suck! I use them too.


That's a good point. Most of the spam these days is a single big photo. So maybe doing that is what Gmail is filtering. Worth a test.

Edit: I've done a test. Some half of my list didn't open the 12 email, so I've created a segment of only those, and sent them a pure text email instead. Now to wait and see if these are opened or not.


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## AltMe

And finally!

On Day 20, Amazon sends out the new release email.

Like thanks, but wtf?


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## RinG

Glad it got sent out finally. Hope you see a nice bump from it!


----------



## AltMe

Rinelle Grey said:


> Glad it got sent out finally. Hope you see a nice bump from it!


I received it about 10pm LA time, so it cant have had much effect on the day. All the same, while reads were down a bit, sales did rise to compensate, so the day finished about on par with yesterday.

Have to wait and see what tomorrow brings.


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## AltMe

TimothyEllis said:


> Have to wait and see what tomorrow brings.


And .... huge jump!

Day isn't over, but I've gone from 173 in sci-fi to 72.

Which just goes to show - that followers announcement is hugely important, as is encouraging people to click the Follow button on your Amazon author profile.

Who knows what might have happened if this email had gone out 2 weeks ago like it 'should' have?


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## David Blake

TimothyEllis said:


> That's a good point. Most of the spam these days is a single big photo. So maybe doing that is what Gmail is filtering. Worth a test.
> 
> Edit: I've done a test. Some half of my list didn't open the 12 email, so I've created a segment of only those, and sent them a pure text email instead. Now to wait and see if these are opened or not.


Did they open it? I'm very curious.

Thanks


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## AltMe

David Blake said:


> Did they open it? I'm very curious.


13% both opened and clicked. So another 33 out of 200+. Interestingly, there was a mix of gmail and hotmail in the group too, so they must have gone through. Seems to indicate a lot of people dont check their online mail very often, or it get spammed once it hits their account anyway.

But it does seem to indicate, you do a 2 tier mailout. Full picture version to everyone, then a few days later, a text only to those who didn't open it.

Update:
The followers email did generate a nice blip, but it was a 1 day wonder. However, reads are holding at about the same level the follower email generated, while sales went back to the dismal level of before. Ranks followed the sales, as if the reads were not contributing to ranks much at all. Still, I cant complain about the income.


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## AltMe

New Series banner:


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## AltMe

Hero to the End, Book 13 of the Hunter Legacy series, was just uploaded to Kindle.

This is the final book in this series, and brings to the end a 2 year story arc, which has taken me more than 2 years to write.










Cover again by Kalen O'Donnell.

Calling on the book launch angels to help launch this book out of the solar system.


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## Lauren P.

Wow! What a fabulous cover--the colors, the imagery, title, and overall impact!

Good luck with your launch.


----------



## AltMe

3am.   

Backmatter finally updated for the entire series, while at the same time, redoing all the series blurbs, and checking all the keywords (since they are not allowing as many words now). 

I've also attempted both FB and Amazon ads for this launch to see if it makes any difference. Give the flat launch last time, I thought it worth trying this time.

Sleep.  I need sleep. ZZZzzzzzzzzzzZZZZzzzzzZz.


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## dragontucker

TimothyEllis said:


> 3am.
> 
> Backmatter finally updated for the entire series, while at the same time, redoing all the series blurbs, and checking all the keywords (since they are not allowing as many words now).
> 
> I've also attempted both FB and Amazon ads for this launch to see if it makes any difference. Give the flat launch last time, I thought it worth trying this time.
> 
> Sleep. I need sleep. ZZZzzzzzzzzzzZZZZzzzzzZz.


Wow. You are 989 in the entire paid store while priced at $4.99? How did you get such a good rank? Why did you not promote with the price at 99 cents? I just launched my 3rd book in my fantasy series and am doing no where as well as you. I am hovering in the 10-20k paid store. Got a freebooksy ad coming up Monday to push my permafree in the series. How did you achieve such an amazing rank? LOL....I have a lot to learn.


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## Fel Beasley

Awesome! How do you feel hitting publish on the last book of the series?

I got to say, I love the covers for 12 and 13 (not that your other covers were bad or anything. Those two just pop more.) Were you planning on redoing the covers for 1-10 (can't imagine the cost ) or maybe just book 1 and see if it lifts the series? Or are you happy with where things are at?

Do you know where you're going next career wise? New series? 

Best of luck. Have had a lot of enjoyment following this thread


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## AltMe

dragontucker said:


> Wow. You are 989 in the entire paid store while priced at $4.99? How did you get such a good rank? Why did you not promote with the price at 99 cents? I just launched my 3rd book in my fantasy series and am doing no where as well as you. I am hovering in the 10-20k paid store. Got a freebooksy ad coming up Monday to push my permafree in the series. How did you achieve such an amazing rank? LOL....I have a lot to learn.


Looks like 13 has launched about the same as 12 did, which is disappointing, but hey, its a long series now, and I lost a lot of people around 10. I used to launch around 600, get down below 500, and then float from there. All the more reason to end this series and do something new.

My initial sales come mainly from my Facebook group, who are all diehard series fans now. So they buy as soon as they see the book is released. There is a larger group on the Series FB page, but not all of them buy immediately. I also Mailchimp to 500+ with a 60% open rate.

Also given its late in a series, the people most interested in it simply cant wait for it, so quite a few of them were looking for it on Amazon before it was even listed.

I've never discounted one of my books on release. So far I've not needed to. Nor have I dont a permafree on book 1 yet. I'm considering it, but so far haven't needed to.



Felicia Beasley said:


> Awesome! How do you feel hitting publish on the last book of the series?


The last book was hard to write at times, as part of me didn't want to finish it. It was also a matter of needing to finish the series because its run on too long, and so I skipped over nearly 2 books worth of material. But some of that will still be useful in the future.

So mixed feeling at the moment. Relieved its finally finished, but also scared of what I do next.



> I got to say, I love the covers for 12 and 13 (not that your other covers were bad or anything. Those two just pop more.) Were you planning on redoing the covers for 1-10 (can't imagine the cost  ) or maybe just book 1 and see if it lifts the series? Or are you happy with where things are at?


There is a new series cover in development at the moment. It started as being a new one to help entice bookbub, and then went from there. So at the moment, 1-11, and the Xmas story are all planned for new covers. The plan is to have a cover which is basically the same, but retaining the central theme from each original cover.



> Do you know where you're going next career wise? New series?


Several ideas to choose from.

I have a spin off series in the same universe in mind, using one of the characters which feedback has suggested is well loved.
I have a sequel series in mind already, starting with using some of the material I didn't use. This would be either a deliberate trilogy, or written in the style of Reacher and Pitt novels.
I have a standalone to write as well, which like my original book, has been cluttering up my head for 20 years.
And I have a completely different idea percolating as well.

At the moment, I'm not at all sure whats coming next.


----------



## geronl

congrats!


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## AltMe

Day 1 results are not particularly encouraging. 20% down on #12's first day.   

Highlights the need to time the pacing of a series. 13 is too long, especially when its a serial.

Still, now its complete, and I'm free to start a new project, having learned what not to do.


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## AltMe




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## geronl

TimothyEllis said:


>


cool cover


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## AltMe

Milestone: 100,000 !!!

*That is Sales and Full Reads over an 18 month period.*






















































































































































Sales was 37%.
Reads was 63%.

This doesn't include a couple hundred of Omnibus sales and reads.


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## BlinkFarm

Well done


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## Andrei Cherascu

TimothyEllis said:


> Milestone: 100,000 !!!
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Congrats, brother! As a guy who just published his third book I have to say I find this thread most satisfying.  I've been following it for a while and thinking about it when I needed a bit of encouragement to finish the damned thing. I've got a whopping twenty sales so far but, in truth, I haven't really pushed it at all aside from my mailing list which stands at a proud 40 subscribers ). I'm currently working on a story to give away to subscribers and don't really plan to do much marketing on any of the books until the story is out.


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## Reveries

Congratulations!


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## tvnopenope

Congrats! That's amazing!


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## geronl

congratulations!


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## Chinese Writer

Woohoo!  Congrats on hitting this milestone.


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## AltMe

So book 13 is now out of the new release list, and slowly sinking.

However, the whole series seems to be picking up readers now its complete. Not a lot, and the sales line is all over the place day to day, but today it looked like multiple people bought the whole series at once, while the last 4 books are still picking up people who may have dropped out a while ago, and now deciding to find out what happened after all.

So there's a lot to be said for complete series. And as far as the stats go, 9 books is as high as you should go on a serial. I'm convinced of that, since the stats are very clear about it.


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## jlstovall4

TimothyEllis said:


> Milestone: 100,000 !!!
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That's super awesome! Major Congrats!!!!!!!!!!!


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## Abderian

TimothyEllis said:


> So book 13 is now out of the new release list, and slowly sinking.
> 
> However, the whole series seems to be picking up readers now its complete. Not a lot, and the sales line is all over the place day to day, but today it looked like multiple people bought the whole series at once, while the last 4 books are still picking up people who may have dropped out a while ago, and now deciding to find out what happened after all.
> 
> So there's a lot to be said for complete series. And as far as the stats go, 9 books is as high as you should go on a serial. I'm convinced of that, since the stats are very clear about it.


Thanks for posting your journey, Timothy. It's been interesting and enlightening to follow.


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## Talbot

Woo hoo!


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## AsianInspiration

Grats... but 100k what? books sold? profit? o_o


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## Becca Mills

AsianInspiration said:


> Grats... but 100k what? books sold? profit? o_o


Book sales and reads. It's up just a few posts -- Reply 703.


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## AsianInspiration

Becca Mills said:


> Book sales and reads. It's up just a few posts -- Reply 703.


I saw, but I was wondering, how do you know how many people read your book? Or do you just divide total reads by KENP, ignoring people who might've read parts of the book?


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## AltMe

AsianInspiration said:


> I saw, but I was wondering, how do you know how many people read your book? Or do you just divide total reads by KENP, ignoring people who might've read parts of the book?


I use Bookreport, which tells me sales and reads for each day. I transfer the figures to a spreadsheet each day, which calculates full reads based on KENPC, and adds them to sales to give sales and full reads per day. The total then adds into a grand total.

I also do this with monthly figures, so I can see at a glance how each month performed against the others.


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## AltMe

And the new cover for Book 1 is finally up!



Now, am I game to submit to Bookbub, or not?









Edit: Step 1, get them to update the cover.


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## AltMe

So, first Free promotion for book 1.

Freebooksy, my FB timeline, group and Page.
Picked up by eBookDaily.

#91 Free in Kindle Store
 #1 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Metaphysical & Visionary* 
 #1 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Space Exploration*
*#2 in Military*
*#2 in Military Space Fleet*
*#2 in Military Space Marine*
*#3 in Space Opera*
*#4 in Adventure*
*#5 in Science Fiction*
*#10 in Science Fiction & Fantasy*
*







*
Will post downloads when the US day ends. (Still 3 hours to go before LA midnight)


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## RinG

Nice, Timothy!


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## AltMe

2020 for the day. Reached 88 on Kindle Free for a short time.

I've now reset the price to 99c for a while, in case anyone missed out.


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## lincolnjcole

Congrats, some cool information! I'm just launching the third book if my series in March, and can't wait!


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## AltMe

The day after the promo: Interesting. Sales continued on 1 at 99c, small flow through into 2, and a smaller flow into 3.

1 is back below 7000 in rank, which is a huge jump. Also has 5 sub-cats below 100 again. And 3 new 5 star reviews.
2 is back below 10,000, with 1 sub-cat below 100.
3 is back below 14,000.
4 is still out above 28,000, but hasn't really seen any flow through yet.

So very promising. It will be interesting if the flow through continues as people read.


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## AltMe

Definite flow through from the promo happening.

Not anything major, but book 1 continues to pick up sales at 99c, and its reads has gone up as well. The flow through has reached book 5 now. But all the books are now showing a slight increase in sales, as if people who dropped out along the way, have now seen the series again, and are picking back up where they left off.

Overall though, doing a free promo when your in the 60-90 slump while your next book is running late, is a good idea to keep things ticking over.


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## mmflores

TimothyEllis said:


> Milestone: 100,000 !!!
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Congrats! And not to be that crass person... but how much is that in terms of earnings?


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## AltMe

mmflores said:


> Congrats! And not to be that crass person... but how much is that in terms of earnings?


Let me put it this way...... the first financial year (July to June here), was low 6 digits. While year 2 is down, its still shaping the same way.

Its been 17 years since I held down a normal job, but last year I paid more tax than I earned in that last year of full time employment. Granted things have changed a lot since then, but all the same, its a good feeling.

*Notes about doing Freebies:*

The tail is wagging still, since my first one. It solved my temporary income slump, and while sales are up and down like a yoyo, reads have recovered and are fairly stable.

So, when to do a Freeby?

When your book 1 flatlines for both sales and reads.
When your book 1 passes beyond 100 in your best sub-category.
I've noticed the freeby has brought book 1 back below 100 in my best sub-cat, and its making a difference about visibility. Added to changing it to 99c, its holding some traction again, and feeding through into the rest of the series.
Several of the other books are doing well again too, and they too have dropped back below the 100 in the best sub-cat.

Visibility is the thing. If this first Freeby test is any indication, its a valuable tool for keeping your series visible, when for any reason your release schedule is interrupted so the next release is delayed past the point where you drop off the radar completely.
Big thanks to those who told me to do a Freeby in general, and those who suggested Freebooksy in particular.
I do have to say I was a bit disappointed with the number of free downloads, (having no actual reference to judge by), but the effect on my income has been great, and its giving me the space to complete the next book without as much worry as I was in.


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## AltMe

Book 1 of the A.I. Destiny series, Admiral Jane, is now out on Kindle.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XKWC3BQ










Edit: Trying some FB and AMS advertising to see if I can boost day one beyond the mailing list.


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## Bec

Good luck with the new release! Although, you're currently at #1510, so you don't really need it!  

How did the AMS ads go, d'you think?


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## AltMe

Bec said:


> Good luck with the new release! Although, you're currently at #1510, so you don't really need it!
> 
> How did the AMS ads go, d'you think?


Not real sure yet, and they haven't run for a full day yet either. Showing 50,000 impressions so far, but only 90 clicks. No sales, but I noticed the KU reads shot up since I last looked, so a lot of it will be in that.

FB didn't deliver the numbers they promised, but it was an interesting test. AMS is running for a week, as my aim is not so much to add to day 1, but to level up days 2 and 3 better. It will work or not, but its worth a try.


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## AltMe

Almost end of first day:

*Admiral Jane (A.I. Destiny Book 1) Kindle Edition *
Publisher: Self-Published - Author: Timothy Ellis - Size: 2552 KB - ASIN: B06XKWC3BQ
Book Rank: #1,388 - Tier IV? - NovelRank - KP - TCK - Rating: 0 - Reviews: 3 - Age: 0 weeks - Ratio: 7.87?

Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Alien Invasion - BS #27 - HNR #15
Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Colonization - BS #15 - HNR #11
Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Exploration - BS #14 - HNR #11
Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > First Contact - BS #22 - HNR #14
Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Galactic Empire - BS #13 - HNR #10
Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Military > Space Fleet - BS #23 - HNR #14
Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Military > Space Marine - BS #22 - HNR #14
Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Space Opera - BS #35 - HNR #23
Books > Teen & Young Adult - BS #>100 - HNR #23
Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Alien Invasion - BS #17 - HNR #8
Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Colonization - BS #15 - HNR #11
Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > First Contact - BS #16 - HNR #10
Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Galactic Empire - BS #17 - HNR #10
Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Metaphysical & Visionary - BS #10 - HNR #6
Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Military > Space Fleet - BS #26 - HNR #14
Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Military > Space Marine - BS #20 - HNR #12
Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Space Exploration - BS #11 - HNR #9
Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Space Opera - BS #33 - HNR #19
Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Teen & Young Adult - BS #>100 - HNR #21
Not bad, but not up to previous launches by any means. HNR is the New Release Rank for the sub-cat. So in the top 10 for quite a few.

At this point, I'd say the FB advertising was pointless, and the AMS ad only generated a small amount of reads.

Odd thing though, is the rear end of my first series had a big boost. All but one of the last 5 books spiked in sales, but not in reads.

So day 2 is KU kick in day, so hopefully those ads might flow through to keep some sales going as well, as I wait now for Amazon and BB to poke followers.


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## RinG

A new series, even if it's a spin off, is always going to start out slower than another book in an existing series. However, I've found that once they start to take off, they do so faster. Hope that's the case for you!


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## AltMe

Rinelle Grey said:


> A new series, even if it's a spin off, is always going to start out slower than another book in an existing series. However, I've found that once they start to take off, they do so faster. Hope that's the case for you!


3 5 star reviews on day 1, is certainly different. Usually I have to wait a few days for them. You could be right.


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## AltMe

Interesting. On FB, there are additional likes of my series page from people in India. One word comments Indians. 2 attempts to piggyback spam onto my ad, from Indians.

But 0 sales, 0 reads, from India.

Kind of puts a perspective on FB. You can waste literally thousands of views to an audience who are interested, but wont buy or subscribe.

So, note for next time: Remove India from the country list. 

Edit: Double checked - A very high proportion of the likes were Indian names. Its obviously a huge potential, but not yet a viable market.


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## AltMe

And this is what writing is all about!


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## AliceS

What a great review. That must have really cheered you up!


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## AltMe

AliceS said:


> What a great review. That must have really cheered you up!


Yes, really made my day!


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## 262Runner

wheew.

I just spent the last two days reading every post in this thread. I just discovered it a few days ago when you posted about the new book Admiral Jane.

I must say this is the most informative, most inspirational, and most motivating thread I have ever seen on kBoards.

It has been fun watching a time-lapsed version of your journey so far. Seeing the excitement of have a dozen books sold per day grow into the excitement of hundreds of books sold per day was fascinating.

I also like that you continually updated through the series with real world times and events such as holidays and weekends so you could speculate on how various things effected your sales. 

I can't say it enough...this was an amazing journey. I am shell shocked a bit from reading nearly two years worth of publishing in the last two days, but it made it even more exciting to immediately see the progress.

And it comes at the perfect time. In January I decided that 2017 needed to be the year to make real progress as a writer. I needed to see some level of moderate success this year. So I planned out the year, setting goals and milestones and worked through what I needed to do and the deadlines I needed to do them in so that I would see that success. As we speak I am working on the first three books (book 1 is already published) of a character series that will hopefully help me achieve my goals and have a breakthrough this year. If that breakthrough is even a fraction of what you have accomplished I will be happy.

Thank you very much for taking the time to post and update and show us your progress along the way. I will be following this thread for as long as you post to it.


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## AltMe

billdowis said:


> I must say this is the most informative, most inspirational, and most motivating thread I have ever seen on kBoards.
> 
> It has been fun watching a time-lapsed version of your journey so far. Seeing the excitement of have a dozen books sold per day grow into the excitement of hundreds of books sold per day was fascinating.


Thanks 

I guess it has become a time-lapse of the last 2 years, hasn't it. I hadn't actually looked at it that way before.

Good luck with your own books.

Update: Day 1 of Admiral Jane was well down on previous books. But day 2 in comparison wasn't the huge drop, but the KU reads made it up nearly to day 1. So instead of a big spike, big drop, small recovery, and climb, it had 2 relatively good days in a row. Day 3 is down a bit on sales again, but the reads are already at yesterday level, with 3 hours to go in NY. Rank has basically held around the 2500 mark, and early 20's in my best sub-cat.

I tried something different on FB last night too. I boosted the review post to just page likes and their families and friends, for $2. Like the first try, it seems to have reached a good 30% less than the lower figure FB promised, so take those numbers with a lot of salt. But it looks like a lot of single targeted ads for small amounts is going to be more worthwhile than large targets for big amounts. Speculating, but the big one just attracted looky-loos, not serious readers.


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## AltMe

Day 3 saw a drop from the first 2 days, but overall, the day was the same. Seems the new series is flowing people back into the first series at both ends. Seeing an increase in people starting the series, so new readers. And seeing the last few books increasing as well, so people who dropped out, or weren't getting the notifications they used to, are finding the end of the series again.

No page count yet. Let along also-boughts. Nothing from Amazon yet either.


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## AltMe

For what its worth, I think both AMS and FB ads are completely and totally worthless.

The FB ad seems to have ended up mainly in front of people who dont buy ebooks.

The AMS ad had a 0.001% conversion into clicks, and 0% into sales. How much went into KU is impossible to know, but I doubt very much.


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## 262Runner

TimothyEllis said:


> For what its worth, I think both AMS and FB ads are completely and totally worthless.
> 
> The FB ad seems to have ended up mainly in front of people who dont buy ebooks.
> 
> The AMS ad had a 0.001% conversion into clicks, and 0% into sales. How much went into KU is impossible to know, but I doubt very much.


I don't know about AMS, but Facebook ads are a very tricky thing to master. If they can be mastered at all.


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## Kate.

Yeah, Facebook ads are growing increasingly competitive, and you have to know what you're doing to make a profit with them. From what I've heard it can take hours of split-testing to find an image, copy and audience arrangement that converts. 

AMS won't give a sudden spike of sales, but it's a good passive form of advertising. You just have to check the ads every day or two to make sure the ACoS isn't rising too high. It takes time, but the performing ads' clicks and sales will gradually trickle in.


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## AltMe

And Amazon strikes again. One moment Admiral Jane has 8 reviews, all 4 & 5 star, the next it has 1 4 star.

Bad start to the day.


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## Goulburn

Congratulations, fabulous to hear of your success.


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## AltMe

Thanks Ryn.

Update on the review situation. I msged KDP, no response yet. But now the book has 13 reviews.


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## AltMe

Day 5 update, and the also-boughts are kicking in.

The lost ranks of the last 3 days have been picked up and its now slightly better than launch day. 14 reviews now, all 4 & 5 star, which is pretty well unheard of for me, since reviews have always come hard before.

One thing it's really good to have happen, is to be #3 on the also-boughts of a book which is #1 in most of its sub-categories, and is #84 in the Kindle store, #1 in Space Opera, and #6 in Science Fiction.   #1 and #2 on the also-boughts are also the authors books, so I'm the first cab off this rank for next reading. (Talking about Glynn Stewart's Judgement of Mars.)

I'm also getting a feed back into book 1 of the first series as well.

So Yee-hah! on the roller-coaster we go.


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## jlstovall4

Congrats!!! Sounds like things are really taking off!


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## AltMe

jlstovall4 said:


> Congrats!!! Sounds like things are really taking off!


I was about to say - taking off like a ship with the rockets all wrongly installed.

But then I checked again, and my author rank has jumped in the last day significantly.

In Scifi it went 239 - 84 - 92.
In SF&F it went 442 - 398 - 171.



I'd ask what happened, but I think I know. I have 3 #1 books listed on my also-boughts at the moment, where I had 1 a day ago.

The book itself is hovering between 1300ish and 1100ish, being 1308 right now, as NY goes past 9am, and LA 6am.

I was honestly beginning to think I wasn't going to get back in the 100 for scifi again, as the best my last 2 books did was 130 (I think).

Not sure how long this lasts, but I dont think an Amazon followers email has gone out yet. So maybe, ........


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## AltMe

I'm somewhat amazed at the moment. There are now 4 #1 sub-category books on the first page of my also-boughts. 

AJ is hanging around 1300, and 8-11 in Meta/Vis.

But Series 1 book 1 HaL has come back from somewhere over 100,000 to just under 8,500. And 100+ in Meta/Vis to 59.

Very good flow back happening to the first series at the moment. First 5 books performing a lot better, increasing by a book every day or 2, as people read through.

And my author rank is now #76 in science fiction, coming up rapidly from around 400.

So, for those studying the art - Second series spin-offs, do flow back to the original series.


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## AltMe

Admiral Jane, continuing to hang in there, and slightly improving, while I watch the flow back, flow through the series. Now starting into book 7, although 6, the novella, seems to be being ignored.

Author rank is down to 65!  (in sci-fi)

*Admiral Jane (A.I. Destiny Book 1) Kindle Edition *
Publisher: Self-Published - Author: Timothy Ellis - Length: 530 pages (~132,500 words)? - Size: 2556 KB - ASIN: B06XKWC3BQ
#65 in Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > *Science Fiction* 
#82 in Books > *Teens* 
#95 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > *Science Fiction* 
Book Rank: #1,071 - Tier IV? - NovelRank - KP - TCK - Rating: 0 - Reviews: 25 - Age: 2 weeks - Ratio: 16.39?

Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Alien Invasion - BS #19 - HNR #11
Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Colonization - BS #14 - HNR #12
Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Exploration - BS #12 - HNR #9
Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > First Contact - BS #16 - HNR #9
Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Galactic Empire - BS #12 - HNR #9
Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Military > Space Fleet - BS #18 - HNR #13
Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Military > Space Marine - BS #20 - HNR #14
Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Space Opera - BS #32 - HNR #22
Books > Teen & Young Adult - BS #>100 - HNR #19
Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Alien Invasion - BS #14 - HNR #8
Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Colonization - BS #15 - HNR #12
Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > First Contact - BS #13 - HNR #7
Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Galactic Empire - BS #13 - HNR #9
Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Metaphysical & Visionary - BS #9 - HNR #7
Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Military > Space Fleet - BS #20 - HNR #14
Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Military > Space Marine - BS #18 - HNR #13
Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Space Exploration - BS #9 - HNR #7
Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Space Opera - BS #27 - HNR #17
Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Teen & Young Adult - BS #88 - HNR #18


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## Mindflutters

I love happy author stories!

Jen


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## Author A.C. Salter

wow! Congratulations from the Cotswolds.

My third book 'Ethea', is due to be released in the next two weeks. I only hope I have your success.

All the best my friend


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## AltMe

The Amazon new release email has gone out, and Admiral Jane got a big boost from followers. I'm sure most of them are on the mailing list, but since the mail out gets spam blocked so often, its the follower email which gets to a lot of them.

So boost on day 1, followed by boost a week later.

*Admiral Jane (A.I. Destiny Book 1) Kindle Edition *
Publisher: Self-Published - Author: Timothy Ellis - Length: 530 pages (~132,500 words)? - Size: 2556 KB - ASIN: B06XKWC3BQ

 #50 in Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > *Science Fiction* 
 #65 in Books > *Teens* 
 #80 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > *Science Fiction* 
 #91 in Kindle eBooks > *Science Fiction & Fantasy* 
 Book Rank: #877 - Tier III? - NovelRank - KP - TCK - Rating: 0 - Reviews: 29 - Age: 2 weeks - Ratio: 15.02?

Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Alien Invasion - BS #19 - HNR #10
Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Colonization - BS #13 - HNR #11
Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Exploration - BS #10 - HNR #7
Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > First Contact - BS #14 - HNR #8
Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Galactic Empire - BS #11 - HNR #8
Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Military > Space Fleet - BS #16 - HNR #12
Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Military > Space Marine - BS #18 - HNR #13
Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Space Opera - BS #26 - HNR #19
Books > Teen & Young Adult - BS #67 - HNR #13
Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Alien Invasion - BS #14 - HNR #9
Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Colonization - BS #13 - HNR #11
Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > First Contact - BS #12 - HNR #8
Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Galactic Empire - BS #11 - HNR #8
Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Metaphysical & Visionary - BS #8 - HNR #6
Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Military > Space Fleet - BS #17 - HNR #13
Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Military > Space Marine - BS #17 - HNR #13
Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Space Exploration - BS #8 - HNR #7
Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Space Opera - BS #23 - HNR #17
Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Teen & Young Adult - BS #67 - HNR #15


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## AltMe

Things holding on nicely at the moment. Flow back to first series continues, and current book is holding on as well, still riding the Amazon followers email wave.

One of my more recent fans sent me a present the other day: A new cover for book 2. 










Its uploaded and I'm waiting for it to filter through the system now.


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## 262Runner

Nice looking cover!


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## 262Runner

Just thought I would drop by and let you know that I got an email from Amazon with recommendations based on my browsing history and Admiral Jane is at the top of the list...

EDIT: I tried to include a screen shot, but the image is waaaay too big and I can't seem to figure out how to resize it using BBC code. Here is the screenshot if interested:

http://i.imgur.com/U93v8ty.jpg


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## AltMe

262Runner said:


> Just thought I would drop by and let you know that I got an email from Amazon with recommendations based on my browsing history and Admiral Jane is at the top of the list...


Its great to know its getting out there on emails. Thanks for letting me know.


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## AltMe

Update time: Admiral Jane just hit the 30 day cliff, and while sliding, is still holding well.

The really interesting thing is, the flowback into the first series has been really good, and is holding fairly well.

So, observations:

Completing your first series gives you something complete for the readers who like to read the whole thing in one go, or hate reading at the slow pace of writing, or hate it when a series isn't completed.
Completing the first book in a spin off series, shows your first series wasn't a once-of thing.
The longer series, while you lose traction after 9 while writing it, gives you a much longer tail when its complete and people are reading it after finding something else first.
I've noticed a big improvement of the last 6 books, as if people are now noticing the series ended, and decided to find out what happened.

I've noticed a big improvement in book 6, which is the interlude novella, which I think a lot of people ignored because its a different POV.

The new series first book started slowly, built with the Amazon Followers email, and then has hung in there quite well ever since. Which is completely different to what I'd come to expect as normal. It never got up to where my earlier books debuted at, but its held below 2500 for a lot longer than any of the others.

On a completely different subject, I now have a fan doing graphic design on the series. Its very promising. If nothing else, I'm hoping we can put out a joint images book. But he is also talking YouTube videos. 

Also, a fan pointed me to a merchandising site. https://society6.com/hunterlegacy The stuff is expensive, but I've had several sales from it already. Its a bit like getting royalty for books, but an extra sale is an extra sale. I'm still thinking how to make this work, but its a start.


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## AltMe

Thanks to a fan, I now have a YouTube vid for my first series.


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## Mike Stop Continues

TimothyEllis said:


> The Amazon new release email has gone out, and Admiral Jane got a big boost from followers. I'm sure most of them are on the mailing list, but since the mail out gets spam blocked so often, its the follower email which gets to a lot of them.
> 
> So boost on day 1, followed by boost a week later.


How did you get in so many print book categories? I know how to do it with Kindle categories, but not those...

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk


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## AltMe

Mike Stop Continues said:


> How did you get in so many print book categories? I know how to do it with Kindle categories, but not those...


No idea. I use the keywords, and they all seem to put you in both kindle and books. Has always been that way since my first book.


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## Mike Stop Continues

TimothyEllis said:


> No idea. I use the keywords, and they all seem to put you in both kindle and books. Has always been that way since my first book.


Thanks. I didn't realize the keywords did that!

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk


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## Benjamin Douglas

TimothyEllis said:


> Thanks to a fan, I now have a YouTube vid for my first series.


Fun, Tim! I was waiting for the cat, and then... huzzah!! Lol.

Let us know how you use the vid. I'll be curious to hear if it seems to boost eyes on your books. Here's hoping!


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## AltMe

Benjamin Douglas said:


> Fun, Tim! I was waiting for the cat, and then... huzzah!! Lol.
> 
> Let us know how you use the vid. I'll be curious to hear if it seems to boost eyes on your books. Here's hoping!


That is the next question, yes. How do you use the video?

I'm concentrated on editing the next book at the moment though, so the question will have to wait a bit. But in theory, this is the exact thing you boost on facebook. Something to try when my head returns to the mundane.


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## AltMe

Update on AJ at 6 weeks: 

The tail wagged really long, but yesterday started going limp. Its not so much the flowthrough back to the first series slowed down, its more the algorithms are pushing everything back deliberately now. 1 bad day, which I think is deliberate Amazon policy to move older books back, and suddenly your down a level and cant get back up without advertising.

Time for the next book!


----------



## AltMe

Released Queen Jane a couple of hours ago now. It was up on Kindle and in KU inside an hour.   

Link in Signature.

Since the Amazon outages sent my sales into freefall, and KU started following, now is a good time for a new book out.


----------



## AltMe

A mini summary of my journey so far, what I learned, and how it might help new or struggling writers, here is my next foray into Blogdom:

Blog Post


----------



## Benjamin Douglas

TimothyEllis said:


> A mini summary of my journey so far, what I learned, and how it might help new or struggling writers, here is my next foray into Blogdom:
> 
> Blog Post


This is great, Tim--thanks for sharing. My favorite moment comes in the wrap-up: "At some point, something has to work." 
Cheers!


----------



## AltMe

Update time:

Its been over 3 months since my last novel, and I'm still unable to write properly.

But I did get 2 good days in a row, and wrote the short story "Was that you?"

Today, I released the first in what I hope is a long line of co-authored books in my universe. Snark's Quest came about after talking about one of the new characters, and a new trilogy was born. The story is all by Elspeth Anders, while I added in the universe specific stuff, the battle scenes, tech etc.; and edited the whole story, adding in bits and pieces all over the place.

The result is a true co-authored book, which follows straight on from my last novel, and will be a trilogy within a trilogy, ending with the last book in my original trilogy. (Yes, that's enough to make any brain hurt.)

So the timeline in my second galaxy is now this:

*Hunter Legacy Gaia galaxy Timeline:*
Admiral Jane (A.I. Destiny 1)
Queen Jane (A.I. Destiny 2)
Snark's Quest (Snark's Quest 1)

*Forthcoming:*
Snark's Quest 2
Snark's Quest 3
A.I. Destiny 3

If any authors are reading, and are interested in co-authoring a book/trilogy/series in my universe, please contact me.

I now have species in 2 galaxies, and situations where you can make up a species and feed them into my situations, or spin them off from them.

Genre isn't important, although the series is Space Opera based. But there are plenty of ways we could do Fantasy, Horror, Urban etc crossovers.


----------



## AltMe

Its been a while since anything really noteworthy has happened. Other than book launches.

But the KU debacle since Aug 2, has had me rethink Amazon completely, and I'm now going wide.

Books all came out of KU on 28th Aug. Started adding them in to Draft2Digital the next day, and its taken 3 days to get it right.

D2D notes from another thread:


Remove any links to Amazon, including to your author central page. (Apple are rabid about Amazon.)
Remove the word Amazon. (I dont know what you do if a character is an Amazon, but Apple will still reject the book most likely just for using the word.)
Remove any other links to any other platform. I've removed Bookbub and Goodreads as well. (Amazon own Goodreads)
They allow 5 categories, but put the ones you really want first, as only 2 might be used on some platforms.
Check the chapters list on the second page. If something went wrong with the upload, or there is something wrong with the book contents, it will most likely show up here as missing chapter headings.
The Draft2Digital submission is very fast, but the process of adding to the major platforms appears to be a lot slower than adding to KDP. You do get emails as each one is added.
Make sure your BIO has no mention of any Apple competitor, especially if adding it to the back of each book.
Hero at Large is now PERMAFREE. And on almost all of the platforms now, including Scribd, which is another subscription service.
Doing another Freebooksy on Sep 4, this time with all the boxes ticked. Will be doing another Bookbub submission shortly.
Its scary, but also exhilarating.

Pulling out of KU didn't result in major rank drops. In fact, it looked like the normal day to day changes went on as usual. Reads held for about 2 days, then dropped to almost nothing. But sales rose immediately, and seem to be holding well above they were averaging with KU. Actual money held for the first couple of days, dropped, and now seems to be steady-ish. Not unexpected, and until I get some traction on the other platforms, something I have to put up with as part of the major change.

If anyone is interested in more info as the transition happens, post here so I know. Otherwise I will likely forget to update here.

Hero at Large is now
Book Rank: #2,703 in the Free store.

 #9 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Military > *Space Marine* 
 #10 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Space Exploration* 
 #11 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Metaphysical & Visionary*
And that's on the strength of 1.5 days in the free store, after being about 62k in the paid store, with no promotion yet.

Maybe I should have done this a long time ago.


----------



## AliceS

Thanks for the update Timothy. I am about to take a series out of KU and this post helped clarify some things. I've been following this thread since it started and will continue to look for updates. Thanks.


----------



## AltMe

Its interesting to see things settle out.

Still no sign of non-KU rank drops. They seem to be upping and downing normally depending on the days sales.

Sales have stopped being a sine curve. Used to be good day, horrible day, bad day, ok day, good day, and repeat. Now sales seem to have settled out to a relative flat line, about 3 times higher than before the last promo. 

Reads dropped by 75% overnight, and then stayed steady there. But most of that is the recent release. In a couple of weeks I expect it to have dropped by half again, and then slowly peter out completely. 

Which is an interesting observation, because it suggest my books in KU were mainly being read the day they were borrowed, and the reads go up the next day, or day after. Which makes Page-Flip very very obvious when you remove a normal days reading.

First 3 downloads on Draft2Digital. No idea where from, but all the free book 1. Its a start. Freeby promo happening in 24 hours now.

Amazon missed a store when they price matched. The UK store didn't change. I had to send them a reminder. I doubt it will make a difference to the promo, as Freebooksy Amazon readers should already have it. The promo is aimed at bootstrapping the other stores.

Will post results when I see them.


----------



## Laran Mithras

Be prepared to wait a few months for that traction through D2D's partners. Apple is great for me, but the build was slow.


----------



## AltMe

Jeff Tanyard said:


> Don't forget to update your website to include the non-Amazon book links. (I only mention it because this is the sort of thing that would totally slip my mind.)


And so it has. But the website is also being rebuilt, so I need to get the new version updated.

Good reminder though.


----------



## AltMe

More interesting.

On Sept 2, my author ranked spiked upwards for no apparent reason, and then dropped like a stone.

So it appears author rank is more tied to KU involvement, than book ranks are.


----------



## AltMe

Odd. This is Amazon Free store:

Book Rank: #223 - 

 #2 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Space Opera* 
 #2 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Metaphysical & Visionary* 
 #3 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Space Exploration*
Nice, considering Amazon wasn't really the focus for this promo.
But on D2D, nothing at all. Its like the Ibooks and Nook buttons on the ad didn't work, only they do. I'm hoping D2D is just tardy updating its report.


----------



## AltMe

So Freebooksy turned out to be pretty bad for wide platforms. But I now have $8 in my D2D account. (Crowd goes wild silently.)
Bookraid was who knows? Not had a bill for clicks yet.

Still waiting for ENT to get back to me. Manybooks in a couple of weeks time. Bookbub cold shoulder as usual.

A trickle has begun. Still trying to figure out how to up it to a flood.


----------



## AltMe

ENT promo going on at the moment.

Hero at Large
#200 Free in Kindle Store 

 #1 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Military > *Space Marine* 
 #1 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Metaphysical & Visionary* 
 #1 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Space Exploration*
Also #1 in Space Opera, Military Space Fleet, & Military.
#7 in Sci-fi
#22 in Sci-fi/Fantasy.


----------



## AltMe

And at the same time....

Destiny Stone, book 4 in the A.I. Destiny series, was released today.

Its my first release since HL #4, NOT into KU on launch.

Interestingly, double the sales for #3, but also double the rank, since there is no borrows to boost it. Also interesting is the initial sub-cat ranks, which are an order of magnitude worse than with KU. I used to rank a new book in the top 5 of my best 3, and now as you can see ....
#5,285 Paid in Kindle Store 

 #47 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Metaphysical & Visionary* 
 #56 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Military > *Space Fleet* 
 #83 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Military > *Space Fleet* 
Huge difference in what I've seen before. Hard to know if this is not being in KU, or the fact the entire ranking system has been destroyed by scammers.


----------



## AltMe

Update time on going wide.

I've had several promos now, mainly more minor sites. Was Manybooks author of the day, but not sure it was worth it.

HaL is now loaded everywhere, including Google Play through Pronoun, and Smashwords. Not happy I now have 4 versions of the book. But its out there permafree pretty well everywhere now, and doing promos ticks all the boxes.

I've been trying Bookbub every couple of days with the next book in the series, and the first 5 bombed on free. Taking advice here, the next 3 are at 99c, which interestingly costs a good deal higher.

Also following advice, I loaded HaL onto Kobo direct, and now have 2 promos being considered, for first half of Oct.

Fussy Librarian is go for 18th Oct. Gwynn White promo for Admiral Jane 99c for 8-10 Nov. BookBarbarian for 1 Nov. EbookBetty, Awesomegang and Ebooksoda for 30 Sep. (Robin reads, Booktastic, Ebookhounds still waiting to hear.)

HaL has been fluctuating from about 300 in the free store, up to current 1808, and it was #1 in most of its subcategories twice now. I'm aiming to keep it bubbling for the next few months.

I am getting sales wide. No real idea of where from yet, but I've crossed both the 300 downloads mark, and the $300 mark already. Its not fast, but very little traction there yet for HaL, but what there has been is seeing flow through.

One thing I can say is, Permafree still works! Even off a promo, I'm getting downloads from Amazon free store, and these are converting into book sales.

I'm not back up to where I was with KU income, but its nowhere near as bad I thought it might be, and it is slowly building up.


----------



## AltMe

I've noticed a couple of interesting things over the last couple of days.

Yesterday I saw my books listed at the bottom of a Kboards page for the first time.

Today I saw a Kobo ad on the bottom of a forum post.

What changed? For forums ads, not a clue, but thank you kboards.

For Kobo, I signed up direct, and changed my first book over to their site from D2D. Now I'm seeing ads. Yea!


----------



## AltMe

Just to start off a run of promos, Alasdair Shaw has featured Admiral Jane in his monthly Sci-fi roundup blog.

https://alasdairshaw.blogspot.com/2017/09/the-september-round-up-of-scifi-books.html


----------



## barryjhutchison

Watching this closely, Timothy. Been thinking about going wide with my own series once I hit 9 books. Up to 7 at the moment.


----------



## AltMe

Supposed to be a big weekend, with 4 promos running at once.

Ebookbetty, Bookbarbarian, Ebookhounds & Awesomegang. 

Bookbarbarian & Ebookhounds were both expensive in comparison to others, and almost up to Freebooksy cost each. 

And yet, the Amazon results are completely pathetic. 152 downloads of a free book, with 20 minutes left in the day in NY. I was expecting 4 times that number.   

So it will be interesting to see if they deliver wide instead. Although one of them only had an Amazon link. One of them had a double click needed to get to a buy site, so not feeling comfortable. Have to wait and see.


----------



## AltMe

Jeff Tanyard said:


> Give bknights a try. I used them this past week, and I got about the same number of free downloads you did. I blogged about it.


I looked at them a while back and never did anything. I've also heard some warnings here about them, and people having trouble with amazon after using them.

Still, all avenues lead to the black hole.


----------



## AltMe

Minor update for the weekend. 4 promos running. Downloads as follows:

167 from Amazon.
18 from D2D.
241 from Smashwords.
11 from Google Play.
40? from Instafreebie, although some of these could have been earlier, as I wasn't watching day to day.

Not in the ballpark I was expecting, and perhaps indicates a lot of people subscribe to all of the 4 promo services, so it was duplication.

Week long Kobo promo starting anytime now.


----------



## abonje

Thanks for keeping us posted.  Keep it going, keep it going, keep it going! You're doing an admirable job.


----------



## AltMe

abonje said:


> Thanks for keeping us posted. Keep it going, keep it going, keep it going! You're doing an admirable job.


Actually, I'm hanging in there.

One thing is clear though. KU was cannibalizing some 75% of sales.

BKnights ad submitted, waiting to hear when.

End results for last month are not all in yet. Amazon was a bit down on what I used to call an average non-launch month, even though it had a launch. D2D is looking like what I get from Am-Aus some months, so its not nothing, and for a first month, that's something.

One thing is becoming obvious though. Those of us who dont spend huge amounts on BB auction ads, AMS, and FB ads, are being left behind.

As I said, I'm hanging in there at the moment, trying to do all I can, but .....


----------



## Caimh

This is a fascinating thread, the very best of luck with it. 

Can I ask, when you were in KU, what percentage of your income came from page reads? 

I'm thinking of making the jump myself and I'm trying to figure out how much I'll lose initially. I estimate KU page reads are 30% of my overall e-book income.


----------



## AltMe

Caimh said:


> This is a fascinating thread, the very best of luck with it.
> Can I ask, when you were in KU, what percentage of your income came from page reads?
> I'm thinking of making the jump myself and I'm trying to figure out how much I'll lose initially. I estimate KU page reads are 30% of my overall e-book income.


My KU income was about 65% until Aug 1, after which it slid down to 40%.

The difference in sales income now has made up a good chunk of it, but overall, I'm about 25-30% down on income at the moment, which is made up of KU only readers, who only read me because it was affordable through KU. The ones using me to vet the books first, before buying, all seem to be buying. After things stabilized, sales shot up, and with the odd bad day, are remaining up.

So what will happen is, you lose your KU only reads, but make up full sales which were being cannibalized. Your author rank will tank, but books will only slip marginally, while the sub-categories will slide a lot.

At 30% of income, I think you're in a lot better position than I was, and probably should make that up in sales. But, and its a big but, nothing is certain.


----------



## Used To Be BH

TimothyEllis said:


> My KU income was about 65% until Aug 1, after which it slid down to 40%.
> 
> The difference in sales income now has made up a good chunk of it, but overall, I'm about 25-30% down on income at the moment, which is made up of KU only readers, who only read me because it was affordable through KU. The ones using me to vet the books first, before buying, all seem to be buying. After things stabilized, sales shot up, and with the odd bad day, are remaining up.
> 
> So what will happen is, you lose your KU only reads, but make up full sales which were being cannibalized. Your author rank will tank, but books will only slip marginally, while the sub-categories will slide a lot.
> 
> At 30% of income, I think you're in a lot better position than I was, and probably should make that up in sales. But, and its a big but, nothing is certain.


Considering that you haven't been wide long, it sounds as if you're doing well. Most of the people who've talked about their wide experiences have said it takes time to get traction on the other venues. I imagine you'll catch up to your old income level before very long. Successful writers normally seem to be able to make wide a productive strategy.

For the sake of newbies reading the thread, I will underscore your "nothing is certain," comment, though. This is partly because people have radically different experiences. For instance, you reported a high degree of cannibalization (which, since your sales shot up after you left KU, seem to be accurate). In contrast, when I started doing well in KU, my sales actually increased, not decreased as some have reported. KU became a big chunk of my income without causing a noticeable sales drop. If I left KU (maybe these days I should say, "When I leave KU), I wouldn't necessarily expect to see a big jump in Amazon sales. I'd probably have to make up the whole amount from sales on other venues, which would take longer.


----------



## AltMe

I still think wide is going to take a good six months, as people have said. The promos all seem to be aimed at Amazon first, and the rest second, and I suspect while they show all the buttons, they are mainly sending out to Amazon readers.

The Bookbub on the 23rd may make some traction. Actually that will be interesting, since BB say they prefer books to be wide, because of their readers using other platforms. The truth of this should be revealed on the 24-25th, when the results come in on those platforms. Then its a matter of chasing the elusive US Bub.

But yes, nothing is certain. I'm holding on for now, and planning on having a new book out within 10 days, which should give another push upwards.


----------



## AltMe

So....

I cant even find the Kobo ad. And no downloads. Time to ask a question.

BKnights delivered around 100 downloads on Amazon, but I was disappointed they only advertised it on Amazon. Which they didn't say was all they did. Boosted my free rank there, but nothing elsewhere.


----------



## MattGodbey

Thanks for the updates.

M


----------



## AltMe

And finally, 5 days short of a month after release, Destiny Stone finally had an Amazon new release email sent out.

Ok, like thanks for finally getting around to it. But WTF? How can they call something which has been out for almost a month a new release? Obviously the word 'new' has been redefined.

*Rant over*

Kobo promo is getting some downloads. I needed a link to find it, but it is there, and is getting some attention.


----------



## JamesCraft

TimothyEllis said:


> And finally, 5 days short of a month after release, Destiny Stone finally had an Amazon new release email sent out.
> 
> Ok, like thanks for finally getting around to it. But WTF? How can they call something which has been out for almost a month a new release? Obviously the word 'new' has been redefined.
> 
> *Rant over*
> 
> Kobo promo is getting some downloads. I needed a link to find it, but it is there, and is getting some attention.


Cool! Congrats on the downloads and promo.


----------



## AltMe

Follow up email from, interestingly, Author Central, rather than KDP.

It seems there was a major problem, and it took them a long time to fix it. Still made me wonder if 2 parts of Amazon just had a war over what happens when someone pulls out of KU. The KU end presumably had a change put in to stop the emails, and the AuthorCentral lot fought to get them back, and won.

On the other hand, whatever they did on Aug 1, could have buggered up the email mechanism.

On the gripping hand, who cares, it seems to be fixed now. Hopefully my next book will get it in timely fashion this time.


----------



## AltMe

Book 5 in the AI Destiny series, Talisman of Tomorrow, went live on Kindle a short time ago.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B076BDCH8T




https://www.kobo.com/au/en/ebook/talisman-of-tomorrow


----------



## AltMe

The Books2Read followers email went out within hours of going live on ibooks. Why can't Amazon do the same thing?

Edit: Series page updated in super fast time though, and already on the page.

Reasonable launch so far and better than the previous one.

Book Rank: #4,874 

 #28 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *Metaphysical & Visionary* 
 #77 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Military > *Space Fleet* 
 #95 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > *First Contact*


----------



## AltMe

An odd day yesterday.


International BB on book 7 starts, and I go to bed.
I get up really late, see results not up to expectations, and cook lunch.
I cut into my Chicken Kiev, and garlic source shoots out the other end, covering my ipad mini and the stand holding it, in garlic. No idea what the cosmos was trying to tell me there.
Several hours later, the power fails.
Power comes back in 20 minutes later, but the internet doesn't.
26 hours later, the internet comes back on.
Results from a 99c BB in UK,AU,CA,IN were 136 over 2 days in Amazon, 44 from D2D, and 8 from Google via pronoun. 188 total. Less than half BB said was possible. So in one sense, very disappointed. 80c spent to make 30c, in money terms.
However, ranks in UK, Aus, and Can were really good. There was also a 20k improvement in the US store.
One very interesting thing, is as far as I can see, every single person who bought book 7, also downloaded the free book 1. Sales of the 2 omnibus went up immediately, and there has been flow-on into the series.

So while the actual promo wasn't all that good, the last 2 days have been the best since the last release, and the only time I've had 2 good days in a row all year.

Edit: +23 sales for Oct 24 through D2D. Brings the total to 211.


----------



## AltMe

The tail to the international BB lasted less than a week.

The US only one for the same book was rejected. No email notification either. They also rejected book 1 again.

 

On a positive note, wide sales and downloads is slowly building. Not replacing KU yet, but give it a couple of months, perhaps.


----------



## Pacman

TimothyEllis said:


> The tail to the international BB lasted less than a week.
> 
> The US only one for the same book was rejected. No email notification either. They also rejected book 1 again.
> 
> On a positive note, wide sales and downloads is slowly building. Not replacing KU yet, but give it a couple of months, perhaps.


Timothy, I've just gone wide with some of my non-fiction books, as they slowly come out of KU I'll push them across to D2D. Your thread is extremely important to me, so thanks for posting your updates.

When I retire - just 4 weeks to go - I'll have time to write and market, at last. I'll post my results for others as well.


----------



## Used To Be BH

TimothyEllis said:


> An odd day yesterday.
> 
> 
> International BB on book 7 starts, and I go to bed.
> I get up really late, see results not up to expectations, and cook lunch.
> I cut into my Chicken Kiev, and garlic source shoots out the other end, covering my ipad mini and the stand holding it, in garlic. No idea what the cosmos was trying to tell me there.
> Several hours later, the power fails.
> Power comes back in 20 minutes later, but the internet doesn't.
> 26 hours later, the internet comes back on.
> Results from a 99c BB in UK,AU,CA,IN were 136 over 2 days in Amazon, 44 from D2D, and 8 from Google via pronoun. 188 total. Less than half BB said was possible. So in one sense, very disappointed. 80c spent to make 30c, in money terms.
> However, ranks in UK, Aus, and Can were really good. There was also a 20k improvement in the US store.
> One very interesting thing, is as far as I can see, every single person who bought book 7, also downloaded the free book 1. Sales of the 2 omnibus went up immediately, and there has been flow-on into the series.
> 
> So while the actual promo wasn't all that good, the last 2 days have been the best since the last release, and the only time I've had 2 good days in a row all year.
> 
> Edit: +23 sales for Oct 24 through D2D. Brings the total to 211.


I'm glad things are going well for you. Every success encourages us all.


----------



## Nathan Elliott

TwistedTales said:


> Marketing and product packaging tactics for wide versus KU are completely different. It's literally night and day.
> ...


Thank you for taking the time to share all of that.


----------



## Pacman

TwistedTales said:


> You're welcome.
> 
> I think many people worry about leaving the seemingly safe harbor of KU. It's one of those things that's daunting until you do it. Like all things, it takes a few attempts to find a way that works for you and your catalog. It may mean a little repackaging and possibly cleaning up your brand. It's not one of those things that automatically falls into place, even now I'm testing different ways of engaging the wider market.
> 
> The most important thing I've learned is the marketing tactics for wide are very different to those that work for KU. The problem with marketing books is it's very easy to either lose money or for it to become a zero sum game. I'm watching some authors in KU who must be spending 80 - 100+% of their revenue on marketing.
> 
> The increasing cost of marketing is the greatest risk for almost every author now, whether they're in KU or not. What I found was, once I left KU, the entire reader market became my market, not just those subscribing to KU. That one fact changed the math for me. My margins increased. My reader base expanded. I had to focus on quality not quantity and could slow the pace of release. My books are no longer downloaded on a whim. Readers spend real money, meaning my books are being read so I get better feedback.
> 
> Leaving KU has been the best decision I could have made. Marketing costs inside of KU we're getting crazy. The pay to play cycle has been speeding up over the years, to the point where I thought AMS might as well run a debit against my revenue because they were taking so much of it. This year I've spent $36.00 with AMS since January and made more money than I ever did while I was in KU.
> 
> I'm over the KU game and the tactics I felt forced to play just to keep the books in motion. I'm as in motion now, if not more so, than I was in previous years. I've sold more books in 2017. I have an international presence now. My rep on the other sites is slow to develop, but I am selling most days on iTunes. My whole catalog is selling now, not just most recent releases.
> 
> My experience outside of KU is meaningful. There is something very constraining about KU. It's as if it slowly boxes you into a corner about what niches you write, how often you publish, and what tactics you can use to market. The cost to earning ratio is shifting so, unless you're an outlier or started a long time ago, there's almost no way to win. If anything, being in KU and living within the constraints was taking the joy out of writing for me. Once I left, not only did my profit line improve, but I felt like I'd been released from prison.


Thanks TT, this is an incredibly validating post, the entire thread is refreshing. Over the coming months I will be shifting most of my books wide and this is the sort of post that gives me the confidence to do it.


----------



## AltMe

I would ask people not to reply to TwistedTales here, since those posts are off topic here and constitute thread highjacking.

If you want to discuss KU or going wide in that broad a context, please do it somewhere else.

This thread is a documentation of my journey, not a general discussion thread. 

I would not normally post like this, but TwistedTales has blocked PM's, which in itself is an indication of a deliberate thread highjack. 

Please do not respond this post or TwistedTales posts in this thread, but take it elsewhere.


----------



## Pacman

fair enough, Tim, I was wondering if you have audio books in mind later on?


----------



## AltMe

Pacman said:


> fair enough, Tim, I was wondering if you have audio books in mind later on?


I've had them in mind for quite a while now, but recent quoting convinced me they were too expensive to produce.

When your shortest book is going to be around $2000 US, doing the whole series is mindbogglingly expensive.

I've had a call for them, but not enough to justify the expense.


----------



## Ann in Arlington

TwistedTales said:


> No hijack intended, TimothyEllis.
> 
> I'll delete the posts. If you wish to PM me then you can.


No need to delete anything, Tales. Threads are what they are -- meant for discussion. And sometimes conversation. As such, topics sometimes meander away from where they started. Almost always meander back, and that's o.k. too.

I'll also note that asking people not to respond to another member's posts is unacceptable.


----------



## Ann in Arlington

TwistedTales said:


> Thanks, Ann in Arlington. That's always been my understanding of how forums work, but in the interests of keeping the peace I have deleted the posts. All they covered were my observations/learnings about the difference in reader behavior/expectations, and the impact that has on marketing, release cycles, packaging and pricing, when you're wide versus in KU.
> 
> I tend to compose my posts in a note system, so if anyone wants the deleted posts I can always send them by PM, or add them to a different thread. I often make notes, which I never post, because it helps me understand what I'm seeing and where I'm at. The business is in such an endless state of change it can be hard to make sense of it. My little brain works best when I write things down, funny that.


Feel free to start a thread on that topic using your posts -- of course, there's no telling where it'll go.


----------



## Used To Be BH

TimothyEllis said:


> I've had them in mind for quite a while now, but recent quoting convinced me they were too expensive to produce.
> 
> When your shortest book is going to be around $2000 US, doing the whole series is mindbogglingly expensive.
> 
> I've had a call for them, but not enough to justify the expense.


At some point, it might be worth doing one to see what happens.

Keep in mind it isn't just about Audible, Amazon, and iTunes anymore (though that's probably the bulk of the market). Through Findaway Voices or Author Republic, you can reach a lot of other vendors. (That's sort of the audio equivalent of going wide.) The conventional wisdom is that if the ebook version is selling well enough, the audio version is more likely to be profitable. We also know the audio market is growing.

I know this isn't a good time for you to experiment since you're trying a lot of new things. Audio might be worth considering when things stabilize, though.


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## AltMe

Bill Hiatt said:


> At some point, it might be worth doing one to see what happens.
> 
> Keep in mind it isn't just about Audible, Amazon, and iTunes anymore (though that's probably the bulk of the market). Through Findaway Voices or Author Republic, you can reach a lot of other vendors. (That's sort of the audio equivalent of going wide.) The conventional wisdom is that if the ebook version is selling well enough, the audio version is more likely to be profitable. We also know the audio market is growing.
> 
> I know this isn't a good time for you to experiment since you're trying a lot of new things. Audio might be worth considering when things stabilize, though.


I cant do audible until they allow Australians in.

Did try Findaway, but they are too expensive. And the problem is, the voice I need is fairly specific, so I cant use just any cheap voice.


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## Pacman

TimothyEllis said:


> I cant do audible until they allow Australians in.
> 
> Did try Findaway, but they are too expensive. And the problem is, the voice I need is fairly specific, so I cant use just any cheap voice.


Tim, audible don't allow Australian audio books? I didn't know that, so what happens if I upload my audio book to Audible, it makes it unavailable to Aussies? Or does it refuse to upload altogether?

I'm in Canberra. I intend to make my own audio books, non fiction so I don't need a variety of voices, I'll go thru Findaway not Audible (though Findaway distribute to Audible I believe).


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## Used To Be BH

TimothyEllis said:


> I cant do audible until they allow Australians in.
> 
> Did try Findaway, but they are too expensive. And the problem is, the voice I need is fairly specific, so I cant use just any cheap voice.


If you don't like the first set of narrators, you can request more choices.

Or are you saying you did find ones you liked, but those were too expensive?

It's certainly true there's no point if you aren't happy with the voice.


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## AltMe

Pacman said:


> Tim, audible don't allow Australian audio books? I didn't know that, so what happens if I upload my audio book to Audible, it makes it unavailable to Aussies? Or does it refuse to upload altogether?


Australians cant join Audible as an author. Only US and UK can. There is no upload to audible, if you cant actually sign in.



Bill Hiatt said:


> If you don't like the first set of narrators, you can request more choices.
> Or are you saying you did find ones you liked, but those were too expensive?
> It's certainly true there's no point if you aren't happy with the voice.


Bit of both. Didn't find a voice which matched my MC, and the price was going to be too high for all the options available.


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## Nathan Elliott

TimothyEllis said:


> I would ask people not to reply to TwistedTales here, since those posts are off topic here and constitute thread highjacking.
> 
> If you want to discuss KU or going wide in that broad a context, please do it somewhere else.
> 
> This thread is a documentation of my journey, not a general discussion thread.
> 
> I would not normally post like this, but TwistedTales has blocked PM's, which in itself is an indication of a deliberate thread highjack.
> 
> Please do not respond this post or TwistedTales posts in this thread, but take it elsewhere.


That was uncalled for. TwistedTales stands to gain approximately nothing from sharing hard-won wisdom here, especially given that we know neither TT's name nor the titles of any of his/her books. If you perceive that TT has hatched a plan to steal your spotlight by thoughtfully compiling useful info and then disabling PMs before posting it here, then I would urge you to check the calibration on your sensors. To me it looked like nothing more than a generous attempt to help folks, as I had assumed this thread was.


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## AltMe

I've just realized something.

This thread is now obsolete. People keep saying it gives them hope to do what I did, but the fact is, I cant do what I did anymore, and nothing I did over the last 2.5 years has any relevance to making it now.

In some ways, this thread now holds out false hope, and that's not something I want to do.

The sad fact is, everything has changed since I uploaded my first book. Amazon has changed, now bogged down by scammers and algorithms which hurt the genuine author more than they hurt the scammers.

AMS ads changed everything. KU3 changed everything. If you're not in KU, and you're not spending considerable money using AMS ads, Amazon downgrade your books to keep the ones who are paying them the most high.

It simply isn't possible to have the rise I did in my first year anymore.

Going wide is hard. Its as hard as everyone said it would be, and I'm far enough in to see it will take the full 6 months or more to get any traction at all.

But I can also see on my now minor KU reads, just how much Amazon isn't paying me, and how broken that system is now. If Amazon allowed an author to turn off page-flip for a book, I'd be back in KU immediately, but with the scam they have running now, going wide is at least more honest.

For now, I'm making do. I'm down to a level of real sales which pays the mortgage, feeds me, but nothing else. And I have some reserves to tide me over when the next book isn't ready in time.

In some ways, I wish I could just give up. But the sad part of doing really well for a while, is you become dependent on it. So I'm going to make do.

But this thread is done. Its a new age of eBooks, and the old ways of doing things are gone.

And as recently occurred, the more likely it will be highjacked by ongoing arguments looking for somewhere else to happen.

So, I'm asking the Mods to lock this thread, and allow it to sink into the sunset.

For those who read all the way through and are still reading, thankyou for your encouragement. I hope some of what was here helped, even if very little of it is now relevant anymore.

The only things I can leave this with still seemingly relevant are these:


Write in trilogies. or sixes. Nine maximum. Or write stand alone stories with something in common.
Don't use cliffhangers. If you do, make sure the main story is done, and the cliffhanger is on the long range story.
Write to the length normal of your genre.
Monthly releases is the only way to keep finances stable.
Build your mailing list. Find ways to reach people on release day to make day 1 as big as you can.
Use backmatter to ensure people can easily find all your books, and especially the next book.
Thanks for reading.


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## PearlEarringLady

TimothyEllis said:


> For those who read all the way through and are still reading, thankyou for your encouragement. I hope some of what was here helped, even if very little of it is now relevant anymore.


It's been fascinating watching your journey, with all its ups and downs. Thank you for sharing, and very good luck for the future.


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## AliceS

Thanks! It's been interesting to see the changes and how things stopped working. That was very helpful for me. And seeing your struggles put things into perspective. None of this is easy. We just need to keep on keeping on in a young industry that is still finding it's feet.


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## Nathan Elliott

Timothy, you did well.  It is no small feat to pay your basic expenses by writing.  It was also very nice of you to take the time to share all of the information you've shared.  Good luck with your future books.


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## Reveries

TimothyEllis said:


> This thread is now obsolete. People keep saying it gives them hope to do what I did, but the fact is, I cant do what I did anymore, and nothing I did over the last 2.5 years has any relevance to making it now.
> 
> In some ways, this thread now holds out false hope, and that's not something I want to do.
> 
> The sad fact is, everything has changed since I uploaded my first book.


I've actually been finding this thread incredibly useful precisely because everything has changed since it started. The way you've had to keep adapting is the most valuable of lessons to anyone starting out. The publishing world will keep changing. We'll have to keep adapting.

I hope you change your mind and keep the thread going, but thank you either way.


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## sirk2429

TimothyEllis said:


> Write in trilogies. or sixes. Nine maximum. Or write stand alone stories with something in common.


Why 9 maximum?


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## Tizzy

sirk2429 said:


> Why 9 maximum?


Probably because when a series gets too long it reaches a point where the length is a deterrent to people starting it instead of a reason to. Some people would rather read a trilogy than a single book, but when you have an overarching storyline spanning, say, 16 books, it takes a lot of willpower and commitment to willingly start reading such a series - hence why OP says it would be better in such cases to write separate storylines set in a shared universe than a single, super long storyline that will require all of a reader's willpower to see through to its end.


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## AltMe

Tizzy said:


> Probably because when a series gets too long it reaches a point where the length is a deterrent to people starting it instead of a reason to. Some people would rather read a trilogy than a single book, but when you have an overarching storyline spanning, say, 16 books, it takes a lot of willpower and commitment to willingly start reading such a series - hence why OP says it would be better in such cases to write separate storylines set in a shared universe than a single, super long storyline that will require all of a reader's willpower to see through to its end.


This.

My first series went 13 books, because I locked myself into a timeline. I can see in the stats where after 9, there is a huge drop off. 12 and 13 were about as good as my books get, and yet, they flopped really badly in comparison to the rest. I basically peaked at 5, because 6 was too different, and after that, it slides into oblivion. These days, I see a lot of people give up after book 5.

The other issue is cost. Free #1, but the rest at $4.99, makes 13 books an expensive read. 6 books would be an acceptable read, so 2 6 book series in the same universe, but completely different, would most likely sell better. I'm ending my current spin off at 6.


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## Tizzy

Since you're experienced with series, I got a question for you.

I released my first novel just last week, and it's the first of a series. But, instead of an overarching storyline, it's more of a shared universe - ie, each story is a standalone. Settings and characters might repeat, but there is no main character, no cliffhangers at the end of books, and if you want you can start reading on book #3 and all you'll miss is the odd reference to previous events.

What I wonder is, when the moment comes how could I go around letting this be known? Like, letting everyone know the series is mostly episodic, with only small, lighter plotlines connecting books together? Should I expect readers to catch up on this on their own, or is there a way of letting them know? I just fear that (eventually) this could become an issue


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## AltMe

Tizzy said:


> Since you're experienced with series, I got a question for you.
> 
> I released my first novel just last week, and it's the first of a series. But, instead of an overarching storyline, it's more of a shared universe - ie, each story is a standalone. Settings and characters might repeat, but there is no main character, no cliffhangers at the end of books, and if you want you can start reading on book #3 and all you'll miss is the odd reference to previous events.
> 
> What I wonder is, when the moment comes how could I go around letting this be known? Like, letting everyone know the series is mostly episodic, with only small, lighter plotlines connecting books together? Should I expect readers to catch up on this on their own, or is there a way of letting them know? I just fear that (eventually) this could become an issue


What are you using for a series title or sub-title?

One way of doing this is using a subtitle like "Tales from the blankety blank universe." Or you could use that as a series title. The choice of words informs these are standalone books with a central theme, instead of a trilogy or serial series.

Or instead of "A Jack Reacher novel", you call them "A in-universe novel/story". These dont need a series number, just the sub-title.

The side effect of using sub-titles instead of series, is you wont get a series page.

I'm going to be moving in the future to "A Gaia Jane novel" or a "A Gaia galaxy novel" once my current series is complete. There is a lot of scope for future books, but I'd rather do them as standalones in an established universe.

You can get too locked into a series, and if all you have is one starting book, promoting regularly becomes a diminishing returns situation. Having a lot of individual books, which can all be promoted free at any time for a short while, gives you far more ability to get Bookbubs.


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## Tizzy

TimothyEllis said:


> Or instead of "A Jack Reacher novel", you call them "A in-universe novel/story". These dont need a series number, just the sub-title.


That's basically what I'm doing. I've put it on Amazon as a series, but the cover of the book states "A Neitherlands Novel," although I did this mostly because I might want to write outside of the universe and in that case I'd like for prospective readers to know when a novel is _not_ set in it. The title on Amazon doesn't say that part tho, only the cover. Amazon shows it as usual with series, using a parenthesis and the number of the book.


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## Athena Grayson

TimothyEllis said:


> This.
> 
> My first series went 13 books, because I locked myself into a timeline. I can see in the stats where after 9, there is a huge drop off. 12 and 13 were about as good as my books get, and yet, they flopped really badly in comparison to the rest. I basically peaked at 5, because 6 was too different, and after that, it slides into oblivion. These days, I see a lot of people give up after book 5.
> 
> The other issue is cost. Free #1, but the rest at $4.99, makes 13 books an expensive read. 6 books would be an acceptable read, so 2 6 book series in the same universe, but completely different, would most likely sell better. I'm ending my current spin off at 6.


Hi Tim,
You've had an amazing journey thus far and I'm grateful you chose to share it here. It might not be apparent to you, but your season has changed - success is no longer an "event" but a process to you. Once you have reached some value of "success" your focus should naturally shift to "sustainability." This isn't something unique to us writers or to indie publishing. It's time for you to figure out how you are going to "level up," and I wish you luck and joy in that endeavor.

Having said that, I pay attention to what some longer-term heavy-hitter romance writers do. Romance series frequently are more interconnected books or "continuity" series than they are about the same people having adventures over multiple titles - the long-form story takes a backseat to the spotlight couple, so to speak. One thing that contributes to their staying power is to have multiple "points of entry" into a series or continuity. It's harder to keep promoting the same old Book 1 after multiple times, when you're launching a book 7 or 9. But if you have another point of entry closer to the current release (say, a side story, an in-universe story, or a "spinoff" series), that provides another point of entry into the universe you've created AND another, fresher book to promote.

9 books feels intimidating to the "non-whale" reader, but 3 omnibuses (omnibii?) might not. Especially if you're going wide. Offering higher-priced collections on other sites besides Amazon can help you attract readers at higher price points and of different consumption habits. It's worth a shot, at least.

Anyway, your journey is still very worthwhile, so I hope you continue to keep updating. And keep enjoying the ride.


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## C. Gockel

Athena Grayson said:


> Hi Tim,
> You've had an amazing journey thus far and I'm grateful you chose to share it here. It might not be apparent to you, but your season has changed - success is no longer an "event" but a process to you. Once you have reached some value of "success" your focus should naturally shift to "sustainability." This isn't something unique to us writers or to indie publishing. It's time for you to figure out how you are going to "level up," and I wish you luck and joy in that endeavor.
> 
> Having said that, I pay attention to what some longer-term heavy-hitter romance writers do. Romance series frequently are more interconnected books or "continuity" series than they are about the same people having adventures over multiple titles - the long-form story takes a backseat to the spotlight couple, so to speak. One thing that contributes to their staying power is to have multiple "points of entry" into a series or continuity. It's harder to keep promoting the same old Book 1 after multiple times, when you're launching a book 7 or 9. But if you have another point of entry closer to the current release (say, a side story, an in-universe story, or a "spinoff" series), that provides another point of entry into the universe you've created AND another, fresher book to promote.
> 
> 9 books feels intimidating to the "non-whale" reader, but 3 omnibuses (omnibii?) might not. Especially if you're going wide. Offering higher-priced collections on other sites besides Amazon can help you attract readers at higher price points and of different consumption habits. It's worth a shot, at least.
> 
> Anyway, your journey is still very worthwhile, so I hope you continue to keep updating. And keep enjoying the ride.


Hi Timothy - I agree with everything Athena has said. Sustainability is possible, but you have to keep trying new things.


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## Guy Riessen

Hey Tim, thanks so much for sharing all this information!
I know you've talked a lot about the various ad venues, but I'm curious about your mailing list size before you went wide.
I've heard varying reports, but most seem to indicate that having a large mailing list is key to making the transition to wide as quick as possible.
Again, mostly curious...I primarily wanted to thank you for your generosity with your time to inform us all, regardless of our stage in the journey!


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## AltMe

Athena Grayson said:


> One thing that contributes to their staying power is to have multiple "points of entry" into a series or continuity. It's harder to keep promoting the same old Book 1 after multiple times, when you're launching a book 7 or 9. But if you have another point of entry closer to the current release (say, a side story, an in-universe story, or a "spinoff" series), that provides another point of entry into the universe you've created AND another, fresher book to promote.


Working on that. But the second series has been largely a flop to all but major fans. There are a couple of reasons for that, but largely, its still a case of running a series too far.

I have a direct sequel to the first series in planning, but I'm not at all sure its worth doing it as more than 1 book. Still rethinking it.



> 9 books feels intimidating to the "non-whale" reader, but 3 omnibuses (omnibii?) might not. Especially if you're going wide. Offering higher-priced collections on other sites besides Amazon can help you attract readers at higher price points and of different consumption habits. It's worth a shot, at least.


I did the first 2 of 4. They have performed so overwhelmingly badly, I didn't bother going on. In fact, I stopped promoting them completely. Most people seem to buy the originals, even knowing the Omnibus versions are there.



Puddleduck said:


> I think part of a reader's hesitation to start a very long series is that a lot of us have been 'burned' by series that start good but, because they're successful, the author keeps churning out books beyond the point where they should have wrapped it up. Sadly, I think this makes a lot of readers skeptical that a very long series can continue to be good. (I can think of one good example where I know that's not true, but it is kind of an exception.)


True. I went there purely because I locked myself into a timeline, and then found each book covered less time than I'd intended. Will try not to make that mistake again.



Puddleduck said:


> And honestly, Tim, you need to look at other things to see if there are other factors that may be putting people off from buying. Things that were perhaps not such a big deal a few years ago. But since you didn't ask for feedback like that, I'll leave it at that.


Its pure visibility.

If you dont use AMS, Amazon push you down.
If you're not in KU, Amazon push you down.

If you look at the relationship between store rank and category rank, books which 2 years ago were top 5-10 on release, now cant get into the top 100. And if they do, they get pushed out as soon as they have 1 bad day.

Used to be, you had a good launch, and the algorithms boosted you up, so the next week was a steady climb. Now, you have a good launch, and day 2 drops you like a rock with no algorithm boost at all.

The only people in Scifi doing really well are those who worked out how to spend $1,000's a month in AMS and Bookbub ads, and have them work. I tried AMS and FB and they are a total useless waste of time and money.

Its also about release times. You have to be releasing inside 4 weeks to maintain any momentum now.



Guy Riessen said:


> I know you've talked a lot about the various ad venues, but I'm curious about your mailing list size before you went wide.
> I've heard varying reports, but most seem to indicate that having a large mailing list is key to making the transition to wide as quick as possible.


I have a list around 650, which hasn't grown all 2017. And its been going backwards since I left KU.

What is growing, is my FB event friends list. This is using a relatives FB (not otherwise being used), to friend people so they can be joined to release events. ts something I'm still trialing. But this list hasn't hit 150 yet.

My mailing list is useless for wide, since all of it came from Amazon readers.


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## AltMe

Puddleduck said:


> So it sounds like you want to 100% blame outside sources beyond your control, rather than opening it up to discuss what you could do to your books to make them more marketable or appealing (which is what I was getting at). Sorry, but at this point, it sounds like you're kind of just complaining that you can't get ahead and are not really looking for feedback to improve, so I'm not sure what the point of any of this discussion is anymore. If you want to see yourself as a victim of unfavorable circumstances, that's your choice, but it's not really something any of us can help you with. And it's not something you can help yourself with either, until you make the choice to do so.


First, this never was a discussion.

Second, I have significant health issues which prevent me from writing at the speed I want to write at, which is monthly releases.

Third, same health issues work against me understanding how to use AMS and BB ads effectively. Brain just doesn't work that way any more.

Fourth, we did "marketable or appealing" 2 years go. I have no desire to reinvent the wheel, or discuss what colour it should be.

Fifth, its not a matter of getting ahead. Its a matter of things have dramatically changed, and so far, my situation hasn't been able to adapt.

Sixth, I'm not looking for feedback to improve, and I haven't asked for it. I'm documenting how things are changing, and why what worked 2 years ago, doesn't work now. Feedback to improve was 2 years ago. You're very late to this party.

If you want to help: Show me how to make AMS and BB ads effective. My ad history all my life is not getting back what I spent on it, and AMS and FB ads are no exception. I simply have no understanding of BB ads at all. Until someone can explain it to me in terms which I not only understand, but can use, I'm not wasting money I cant afford to spend.

I have books which do sell, but at the moment, the visibility they used to have is not there, because (see previous posts), and I dont write fast enough anymore.

What is NOT HELPFUL is having someone call me a victim. I'm not. I'm being overly slow to adapt, because health issues.


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## Rose Andrews

TimothyEllis said:


> What is NOT HELPFUL is having someone call me a victim. I'm not. I'm being overly slow to adapt, because health issues.


Your journey documented in this thread has been very helpful to me. I just went wide in mid October and it's going better than I expected.

I'm only on here to offer encouragement. I have an inflammatory condition in my feet that is very painful and sucks the life out of me when it flares up (like this week). It's hard to write when you're in pain and tired from feeling ill. Hang in there, Timothy!


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## Guy Riessen

Rosie A. said:


> Your journey documented in this thread has been very helpful to me. I just went wide in mid October and it's going better than I expected.
> 
> I'm only on here to offer encouragement. I have an inflammatory condition in my feet that is very painful and sucks the life out of me when it flares up (like this week). It's hard to write when you're in pain and tired from feeling ill. Hang in there, Timothy!


Hey Rosie, start your thread too! I'd love more experiential info on going wide.

That's also why I don't want this thread to close down, Tim! You're 2.5 years of experience is important not because you're offering "the secret of success" but it is an unbelievable resource documenting one author's path through this mire and your journey is not over!


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## Craig Andrews

Puddleduck said:


> Well, no. The product itself is not as appealing to as many people as it used to be, and that's making people choose not to buy it.
> 
> If you're not willing to look at updating your product, asking for the magic bullet to the same marketing systems you've already been using is not going to help much. And it severely limits the advice or help anyone else can give you.


This. So much this. Ask Mark Cooper how many times he's changed his covers to be more in line with what the market is looking for. Ask why Nick Webb updated his covers in his Pax Humana saga, or why Jay Allen has been updating his covers for his backlist over the last year. Timothy, I know this discussion has taken place, and that you've updated your covers before, but they're just not in line with what the market is looking for, and until it matches genre expectations it's going to be very difficult to get the kind of results you're looking for. Puddleduck isn't trying to be hard on you, nor is Athena or Carolyn, we're all simply trying to illustrate that many of these challenges are fixable.


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## Nathan Elliott

Timothy, are your FB advertising attempts using a look alike audience generated from your mailing list?  If not, that might be worth trying.  I think perhaps your audience may be different enough from the general population that the look alike audience may be able to increase your ROI.  

Also, if you're using BookBub ads, I have heard that it is wiser to start with middle size authors in the genre b/c the big names tend to have intense bidding associated with them.

I have not kept up with the whole thread, so apologies if these things have been hashed to death already.


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