3 S.R. Johannes: Answers, Prizes, and Bookanista - Oh My

Thursday, February 02, 2012

Answers, Prizes, and Bookanista - Oh My

So I got a lot of questions yesterday.


Jan Status (Untraceable)
  • I've sold approximately 3,600 books to date (from Nov 31st). 
  • The highest sales are on Amazon. B&N second.
  • ebooks account for most of that at 90%.
  • Only about 200 paperback.
Winners for Q/A post
All prizes for launch day will be mailed out on Monday.


Karen Adkins, Mandy, Vera and Danielle. Email me at shelli@srjohannes.com to discuss your choice of prize.


1) a free ebook of On The Bright Side
2) a free ebook of Untraceable
3) a query critique
4) some other books/arcs I have laying around. You can choose.



Don't forget to stop by On The Bright Side tour still going on :) There are are some giveaway, prizes, marketing tips, writing tips, character interviews and more.


Answers to your questions


How do you manage your time with everything?  


Well I'm glad it LOOKS That way. Because I don't feel like I do. fake it 'til you make it that is my motto. So honestly? I try to schedule the time. 1 hour for interviews, 1 hour to write etc etc. I also have ADHD which comes in handy for multi tasking. I'm also a night owl so I get a lot done after 10 pm. Plus I am having so much fun it doesn't feel like work. But I am tired 
:)


How do you manage to get the word out so fast? (about your books)


Easy...Bloggers. I love bloggers and 100% support them. Always have, always will. I owe them a lot. I also have a lot of writers friends that offer wonderful support without me even asking. 


How did you keep yourself on track while writing your book? 
I don't count words. I try to just do what I can. I do not need to put pressure on my writing. I have enough. I do the best I can with the time I have. Sometimes that is good, sometimes it's not. That's why I do not do Nanowrimo. It takes away from the fun of it and forces me to write which makes me not want to. I'm a rebel that way - even with myself :)


What do you consider the major selling points for going the indie route? How did you know this is the right direction for you?


Hm as with anything - there are good and bad things about self or indie pubbing. In a nutshell:

  • Good - you have creative control over your vision and book, you can put book out to meet the market demand 
  • Bad - you are running an entire business (see this post on all the roles a self pubber plays), it's exhausting, its hard to sell books due to stigma. (Avg sales for self publisher are 100 books over the lifetime of a self pubber. I've gotten lucky so far. But at 100 books at 99 cents - you have made 30$
My question is as a self published author have you found access to libraries and schools for your books?

That is my next phase. I publish my paperbacks through CreateSpace. But have just added Lightning Source. Lightning Source gets me into Ingram which is the main distributor to libraries and bookstores. That means you can order my book at any store starting Vday. Downside - You have to apply as a published so there is a ton of paperwork, you have to be a business, and it is not user friendly.

When did you start writing seriously? 

When my daughter was born in 2004. I was on 5 months of maternity leave and had an idea. Took me 5 years to get an agent and I was with her for 2 and on submission the whole time. We parted last May and I started this journey.

How you come up with all the guest posts!

If someone just nice enough to have me on their blog. I want to offer fresh material. I don't believe in regurgitating the same ole stuff. I usually come up with about 30 topics over marketing, writing, me, my books, my characters etc and let them pick. Some bloggers come up with great ones themselves! I write pretty much every one from scratch so it is new.

More questions next time :) You can still leave questions for me in this post or the question post


Check out these Bookanista posts today

3 comments:

Danielle B. said...

Thanks for letting us in your writing world. And thanks for taking the time to answer my question. And thanks for the giveaway.

Janet Johnson said...

Congrats that your book is doing so well. :) And I enjoyed reading all your answers. I'm like you about NaNo, I just can't take the fun away from myself.

Christina Farley said...

I love reading your stats. It's amazing what you've done. Very inspiring. I also started writing after my kids were born (actually after my youngest was born).
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