Daily Archives: February 7, 2017

Lessons Learned; First 30 Days of Self-Publishing

There’s some great inspiration right here for all of you folks out there trying to make your way through the world of indie publishing!

Joynell Schultz

Since deciding to self-publish my novel, Love, Lies & Clones, I scoured the internet and obsessed over every “My First 30 Days of Self-Publishing” post; intrigued by everyone’s experience. All of them were slightly disappointing and had the same theme. How do you find readers?

Well, I thought I’d throw mine out into cyber-space too since today marks the end of my first 30 days.

Firstly, those of you who’ve been following me know my goal with writing is just to have people READ what I’ve wrote (and enjoy it.) Writing is completely a hobby so I’m not trying to make any money doing it, but I did want to share the economics. (Incidentals of writing books, computer, desk, notebooks not included.)

Expenses:

  • Pre-publishing costs: $265 (editing, stock photo for cover, ISBNs)
  • Post-publishing costs: $124 (advertising, print advanced reader copies)
    • Grand total of expenses: $389

Net Income for…

View original post 1,527 more words

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Am I Happy With Kindle Scout?

So, it is Tuesday and I have been busy all morning pushing digital doorbells and banging on virtual doors attempting to stir up a little more interest in Kelpie Dreams and the rest of my February promotions.

Kelpie Dreams, my Kindle Scout winning shoot-em-up paranormal romance involving the love story between a suddenly-mermaid and a two hundred year old kelpie is marked down from the usual $3.49 price down to a lowly $1.00 price tag in the North American market. Which means that you can purchase a digital copy for single greenback at Amazon.com or a well-thumbed loonie at Amazon.ca OR you can grab it for free if you are a member of Kindle Unlimited.

kelpie

So – how have I been doing?

Let me tell you how things are going for me.

Kelpie Dreams was released by Kindle Press (the folks who publish Kindle Scout winning works) and it has been hovering around the 40000 to 50000 Amazon ranking all February long, meaning that it is selling at an approximate rate of about 8-10 copies per day, during this February one dollar promotion. I’d like to see that number improve, but so far at least I’m holding steady. I was hoping for enough Kelpie Dream sales to pay off the last few hundred dollars of my original advance, so that I can start putting some of these royalties into my bank account.

SO – I repeat – am I happy with Kindle Scout so far?

Yes I am, actually.

This is me, doing my Happy Dance!

I’m ten months in and I’d like to pay off the advance before the end of May, if not sooner – but I am still happy with the results.

Why?

Let me tell you.

The thing to remember is that the Kindle Scout program is still fairly young, as is Kindle Press. I know that a few authors are disgruntled because most of us haven’t seen the kind of returns that the Kindle Press contract originally promised. Nevertheless, I’ve sold more copies of Kelpie Dreams than any of my books. Which means two things. Number one – I am still happy with my results at Kindle Press, even though I am still a few hundred dollars short of paying off my advance. Number two – I really suck at selling books by myself – so I am REALLY easy to please.
🙂

yours in storytelling,

Steve Vernon
https://stevevernonstoryteller.wordpress.com/2017/02/07/
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