Time to Write

For authors who want to be read, is free the answer?

The argument for free

As a comment on one of my older posts, a reader asked which would you rather have: a handful of book sales of your self-published book on Amazon, or thousands of readers gained by giving the book away?

The limitations of free

People download tons of free ebooks and never actually read any of them. I was on the mailing list of several free ebook services but I've unsubscribed because my Kindle is full of books (mostly not free ones) that I haven't had time to read yet. So going free may lead to thousands of downloads, but nobody knows how many of those will ever be read.

Free as a way to prime the pump

If you can manage to target readers effectively and if you have several books in the same genre, it can make sense to give the first one away free in hopes that readers will then go on to buy others.

However, targeting readers these days costs money. One expert I talked to feels that currently Facebook ads are the best medium for this. You can risk a relatively small amount of money to see whether the ads lead to sales and justify the investment.

In his opinion, free social media doesn't work for unknown authors of fiction (although I'm sure, as always, there's are exceptions). 

Do shoemakers do this?

The other point this raises is why this choice seems to come up only for writers and artists. I don't think shoemakers debate whether it's better to charge for their shoes or give them away so they can have the satisfaction of seeing more people wearing them. They expect to be paid for providing something of value, and I think it's reasonable for authors to expect the same.

Of course, that requires authors to convince potential buyers that what they are offering does have value. That's going to require us to be as creative in marketing as we are in spinning stories.

 

 

 

Why book trailers are not a good idea for self-published fiction authors

I see that somebody is selling a course for self-published authors on how to make "Hollywood-style" book trailers. 

I don't think that's a very good idea. Reading a book is a different process from watching a movie. A trailer is a sample of the full movie-viewing experience, it's not a sample of the full reading experience.

Authors of non-fiction have it easier. If, for instance, your book is about cooking, you can make a trailer that includes some cooking tips. Viewers will know that if they like those tips, they'll get more like them in your book.

If your book is about space travel, you can build a few fun facts about that in your trailer. If they buy your book, they'll learn more about that topic.

However, if you've written a novel, there's not the same kind of link. Yes, if it's a mystery in which the protagonist is a chef, you could include a cooking tip but people don't buy fiction for tips. Similarly, viewers wouldn't read a sci-fi novel primarily for facts.

I've seen book trailers in which authors are interviewed (or interview themselves) about what inspired them, their research process, etc. Unfortunately, people are likely to find that interesting only if they've already enjoyed the book or know you from other things you've written. Sorry to be brutal, but otherwise nobody cares. 

Even non-fiction authors who make a trailer for their book are left with the big question: how do you get people to watch it? Put it on YouTube? Here's a little quiz:

In 2014, Youtube said 300 hours of new videos were uploaded every:

A. Week

B. Day

C. Minute

You probably guessed right--300 hours every minute! That's not to say you can't get your target audience to watch your YT video, just that it's not easy.

The bottom line: if you're a self-published author of fiction, there are better ways to spend your money than learning how to make a book trailer or on a trailer itself. 

 

 

Related articles

How can authors promote their novels without tweeting or blogging?

Why social media doesn't work for unknown novelists

Are authors wasting their time with Facebook? (1 surprising fact says yes)

Is it a waste of your time trying to cultivate a following for your books via Facebook? In a recent article at digitalbookworld.com, Michael Alvear makes a good case for the answer being yes.

I don't like blog posts that hype "surprising" or "shocking" information that turns out to be neither, but this article revealed something that did surprise me. Maybe you already knew this, but when you add a post on Facebook, only about 16% of your friends or fans see them. I don't mean that they appear on the Facebook pages of all your friends and fans, but 84% don't notice them. I mean that they pop up on only 16% of your follower's pages in the first place.

I have 469 friends on Facebook. That means any individual post reaches only 75 people. Admittedly, I am not very active on Facebook (other than having my blog posts sent to my page automatically), but let's look at the numbers to see how many I'd need for Facebook to be a significant selling tool. 

Alvear estimates that it takes 20,000 people seeing your posts about your book in order to create a worthwhile number of sales. That means in reality you need more than 100,000. Unless you're in the public eye, it's very difficult to get to that number.

Want your post to be sent to 100% of your friends or followers? Pay up.

How cost-effective is it to pay to have all your fans, and others interested in your topic, see your post? On his first try, Alvear paid to reach all of his 5000 Facebook fans and another 8000 people interested in the subject of his book. It cost him $60. He sold..3 books.

For another book with a broader appeal, he paid $344 to reach almost 13,000 people who expressed interest in his topic. He sold...0 books. 

In the article, he identifies some of the reasons why Facebook doesn't work very well for authors. For one thing, the click-through rate (that is, the percentage of people who actually click on your post to get to an order page or to one that has more information) is less than .02% (two-tenths of one percent)! On his second try, he had a click-through rate of 3% and still sold no books. The average conversion rate (that is, people who actually buy after clicking on the post in order to find out more) is only 13%. 

It makes sense. How many of your actual (as opposed to online-only) friends buy your book? I've talked to several authors who asked their friends to buy and review their books on Amazon. Most said they were lucky if they got half a dozen to follow through. People are busy, they may like you but not be interested in your topic or your genre of fiction, or they may just not want to spend the money. I'm sure some of them mean to get around to it but forget. If we keep sending out messages to remind them, it feels like we're begging our abusing the friendship.

Alvear's figures, as well as the personal experience of a few of my acquaintances, suggest that authors should put their attention on other ways of building an author platform. In future posts  I'll look at some of the other options. 

The case for courage in writing

I got an email the other day from an aspiring screenwriter who had an idea for an unusual structure for her screenplay. She asked whether I thought it would be safer to stick to the traditional three-act structure and "maybe just drop in a few more unusual elements."

Of course it's hard to give advice on a specific project when you don't know the story or the details of the alternative structure, but in general I agree with this advice from painter Courtney Jordan about mixed media artwork:

"Mixed media artists can't be faint of heart. You have to be brave to try mixed media techniques that you've never tried before, but I've discovered that you won't get anywhere--and you kind of feel let down--if you don't push it enough to show you are actually mixing media."

I think the same is true for screenwriters and novelists. If you have an unconventional way to tell your story--and you're using it because it's the best way, not just to be different for the sake of it--go for it.

Trying to stick to the rules and be just a little unconventional probably will make your novel or script just as muddy and unconvincing as a mixed media artwork by an artist who lacked the confidence to go all the way.

In the world of screenwriting, scripts that stand out often are not the first ones to be bought, but they capture the attention of those who read them. Those readers know they're dealing with a writer who has the courage to venture out of the safe territory. Ironically, they may then hire you to write something more conventional, but at least you'll have your foot in the door.

(For tips on writing, from inspiration through to publication, get a copy of my book, Your Writing Coach, published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)

Crucial book descriptions that don't quite work

 

jjjjjjjjjjComing up with a snappy description of your book is important these days. Here are a few that aren't terrible but have room fo improvement:

Little is known about the great artist Rembrandt’s life — but this enlightening biography reveals the man behind the paintings. Read this lively, fascinating portrait of one of history’s most enigmatic figures! 

Little is known..so you made it up? In that case, isn't it a historical novel instead of a biography?

With a killer on the loose, brilliant but damaged FBI profiler Jacob Thorne and special agent Emma Kane are determined to track him down. Their hunt for the murderer leads them through rural Nebraska in this harrowing thrill ride. 

Is it just me, or does "rural Nebraska" not go well with "harrowing thrill ride"?

When Cindy and Mattheus part ways, Cindy leaves the Caribbean to start a new chapter of her life. But before she can settle in, another shocking murder pulls her back to Bermuda — where, together again, she and Mattheus must solve the crime before it’s too late… 

I guess if you have already read other books featuring Cindy and Mattheus this would make sense. Even so, "before it's too late" is a bit vague...too late for what?

It's not an exaggeration to say that your book description (to be featured on the back cover, Amazon listings, letters to agents, and so on) may be the hardest and most important part of writing your novel.

Why social media doesn't work for unknown novelists

If you're a novelist who expects social media to lead to book sales, the truth may shock you. 

After all, everywhere you look you're told to get on Twitter and Facebook and Pinterest and other social media outlets to attract people. Get a lot of followers, then when your book comes out they will buy it.

"YES, MY  FOLLOWERS WILL BUY MY BOOK!"

A friend recently told me about one of her friends who started a blog about how to write children's books. He posted almost every day and the blog became quite successful.

Then he published a children's book of his own and mentioned it frequently on his popular blog.

Very few of his followers bought his book. 

The reason isn't actually all that surprising. They go to his site to learn how to write their own books. A few may appreciate his effort enough to buy his book as a token of thanks, but not many.

If your blog posts or tweets or pictures are not directly about your book, the odds are there will be little crossover.

"THEN I'LL BLOG ABOUT MY BOOK!"

I have more bad news...very few people will want to read a blog about a book by an author who isn't already known. 

I see advice all the time suggesting that novelists blog about the setting of their novel, or write posts in the voice of their protagonist, or reveal the true-life inspiration for the book.

I'm sorry to be so blunt (especially since this is true for anything I would write, too), but...who cares?

 "OK, I'll PUT A BOOK TRAILER UP ON YOUTUBE!"

Again, who cares? What's going to make people want to watch a book trailer for a book they've never heard of? 

"SO I SHOULD GIVE UP?"

Yes.

Just kidding. I think there are a few things that can work, and I'll cover them in the next post.

 

How can authors promote their novels without tweeting or blogging?

in the previous post I wrote about why social media generally doesn't work for new novelists. What does work?

1: Get the book to the attention of book reviewers, mostly bloggers and podcasters who have a large following. Not easy, because they are approached by a lot of novelists, but possible. Follow them, make intelligent comments, praise them (ideally, mean it). In other words, let them get to know you a little before you ask them for anything.

2: Get an endorsement from a celebrity whose followers like to read. This eliminates most pop stars, many actors, etc. but that's fine. Set up your book as print-on-demand as well as an ebook so you can print some copies to send to celebrities who might find your book of interest.

Try to find some relevant link between them and the book--did they grow up in that location, did they play a role similar to that of your protagonist, have they expressed interest in helping end domestic violence (if that features in your book)? These may or may not be enough to pique their interest, but it's worth a try.

The ideal is if they Tweet about it, but if they have one of their minions send you a message saying, "Thanks for the book, I enjoyed it!" you can use that quote.  

3. Create a video that is so entertaining that people will want to pass it along to their friends. Another challenging task, because in addition to being entertaining, it has to be relevant to your genre. A funny video of people slipping on banana peels might get a lot of views but I doubt that it would help sell a detective novel. 

 If yours happens to be a children's book, then a charming short video with a little story featuring the same characters might work. 

If you happen to write romance novels, send your trailer to Robin Covington, who features selected romance book trailers at her USA Today site:  send the link to [email protected]. Any subgenre is fine as long as it is a romance!

4. Do something that gets major media attention. The media don't care that you've written a book, so forget about trying to interest them in that per se.

Recently one publisher was lucky enough to have Facebook refuse to accept their book trailer ad because it included nudity--in the form of medieval and Renaissance paintings, drawings, and sculptures of female biblical characters. After Abel and Other Stories, by Michael Lemberger, is a series of Bible stories reimagined from the perspective of women. The Facebook explanation: "Ads are not allowed to promote the sale or use of adult products and services, including toys, videos, publications, live shows, or sexual enhancement products." 

Naturally the publisher, Prospect Park Books, immediately fired off a press release and the resulting publicity will help them more than the Facebook ad ever would have. 

In this case, it was just good luck. Generally you have to make an effort to get attention. Let's say you've written a funny novel about blind dates. You think of a blind date-related stunt--maybe a speed dating event in an unusual location, or one where singles bring their dogs, and if your dog likes the other person's dog you have to go on a date. That could get media coverage. Somewhere in that coverage it will mention your novel and its title. How many people who read the story will actually buy the novel? That's anybody's guess, but if the story makes a national news, it could pay off. 

No, Santa Claus is not in town (scams to beware)

The excellent Hoax Slayer newsletter reminds us of a few scams that are currently harvesting lots of suckers. Here are a few reminders:

* Nobody is giving away iPhones. Especially not iPhone 6's.

* Nobody is buying iPhones at auction for $5 or £5.

* There is no "one weird trick" that makes you lose weight instantly

* There is no "one weird trick" that made a 70-year-old woman look like 40.

* There are no dying widows looking for strangers to whom to give their fortune.

* There are plenty of Nigerian crooks but they want you to give them money, not the other way around.

* More specifically, it's not true that a 3-year-old girl named Lilly was snatched from the Surrey area of the UK, even though the message features a photo of her and the registration number of the fictional car she was last (not) seen in. Don't pass along this bogus message.

* You don't owe an EZ Pass toll that you forgot to pay. Do not open the attached invoice, it contains malware.

* Your Netflix account probably has not been cancelled. If you get a notice to that effect, do not click anything within that email. Instead, type in the Netflix address on your browser and then log in. 

* Your PayPal account probably has not been limited "due to login from unknown advice." If you get a notice to that effect, do not click anything within it. Otherwise, you may enable the scammers to hijack your PayPal account. I nearly fell for one of these because it happened to arrive shortly after I was made aware of an actual issue with my PayPal account.

* If you get a notice from American Express regarding unusual activity on your account, don't click on anything within it, just go to the real American Express site and log in as usual. 

TIP: When in doubt, always check the address from which the email came. Sometimes they do use one that resembles the name of the apparent source, but you may be surprised to find how often they're from an obviously bogus address.

I'll add a few scams that target writers:

* Traditional publishers are not desperate to be sent manuscripts, they get plenty without advertising. Generally these are companies that will publish anything they are sent, providing the author is willing to put up the money. There are some legitimate companies who assist you with publishing for a fee, but do your research before you sign any contract. Look them up on the web, contact authors whose books they have published, etc.

* Be especially careful if a publisher says they are eager to publish books of poetry because they sell well. Unfortunately, books of poetry (at least by unknown writers) almost never make any money. That's not to say you shouldn't publish them anyway, to give to friends and relatives, but be aware that your chances of making a profit are close to nil. 

* Legitimate agents do not charge a reading fee. They make a percentage of what you make, usually 12-15%. Legitimate agents also do not insist that you use the services of editors or writing coaches they recommend. 

* Legitimate contests do not charge a large entry fee when the prize awards are relatively small. 

 

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Free: how to be an Amazon best-seller

Will people pay for a book you gave away?

There are a variety of sites on which authors can showcase their work and get feedback from readers. At one of the biggest, Wattpad, readers can comment on your work, follow you, and vote for their favorites.

The site is geared mostly toward fiction for teens and young adults. One of the stars of Wattpad is Jerilee Kaye. She had more than ten million readers and more than 11,000 comments for Knight in Shining Suit, her chick-lit/romance novel.

That attracted attention from some traditional publishers, but she decided to go the independent route. She self-published the ebook using Smashwords (a popular self-publishing site), with a price of $2.99. She left ten chapters on Wattpad as a sample and to ensure the book’s continued presence on the site. She also created a trade paperback edition with CreateSpace (an arm of Amazon).

If ten million people had already read it on Wattpad for free, would there be anybody left to buy it?

The answer was a resounding yes. It is one of Smashwords’ top twenty-five bestselling titles ever.  That didn’t happen by accident, though. Kaye told Publishers Weekly that getting reviews from bloggers, advertising on Goodreads and doing a paperback giveaway with them, and interacting with her readers online all were critical to her success. She also posted more material on Wattpad, which found new readers, some of whom then bought her book. 

This is not the usual experience for a self-published author but it shows that having had free exposure for a book on a site like Wattpad can work for you rather than against you.

Your author platform: this publisher is helping (steal their methods!)

Little, Brown Publishers set up a site called Novl (theNovl.com) on which all their teen properties and book projects were featured. The content included book trailers, author guest posts, and author playlists.

Now they are turning it into a digital imprint that will release short-form, low-cost content every month.

These will be e-only short stories and novellas by Little, Brown authors and will be tied to existing properties.

The formats will include prequels and pieces told by characters in series whose points of view have not been explored, or they may be stories whose characters are new but live in the world created by the author.

The lengths will range from 7500 to 15,000 words, and prices will be between 99 cents and $2.99. 

There will also be some fan-generated content, and visitors will be able to vote on things like cover art.

At the moment, the site has a relatively modest following (about 13,000) but they hope the new version will draw additional fans.

What's in this for you if you're not a Little, Brown author? If you have a publisher, you might see whether they are open to setting up something like this as well.

If you self-publish, you might want to find another half dozen self-published authors and create a site like this. Ideally the authors would all be writing in the same genre so that visitors are likely to be tempted to sample work by authors they don't know yet.

It could also be a good idea to sign up for their newsletter at the Novl site, to see whether their promotional activities might inspire some of your own.

(for helpful guidance in writing your book, get a copy of Your Writing Coach, published by Nicholas Brealey and available from your favorite bookseller.) 

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Profit from your creativity: use what you have

How To Self Publish On Kindle

Writing a non-fiction book? The sales figures contain a lesson.

The sales of paperback non-fiction have been declining and it's easy to assume that this is the result of the advent of e-books. However, figures provided by Neilsen Book at a recent digital publishing conference suggests that the decline started before that.

The most likely reason is that so much information is available free on the internet. People who formerly might have bought a reference book look to Wikipedia and other online sources now.

I think this suggests an important lesson for anybody who is writing a non-fiction book, namely that you have to make sure that either the content or the presentation of your material is different from what people can find easily on the net.

Here are a few ideas on how you could differentiate your non-fiction book. 

DECIDE: BEAT THEM OR JOIN THEM?

Authors have responded to the rise of internet content in two ways: the "if you can't beat them, join them" strategy, which entails having bite-size content, colorful graphics, sidebars with comments that resemble Tweets, etc.; or the "do what they can't/don't do" approach, going in-depth and being unashamed about demanding the concentration of the reader.

I believe that books that aren't clearly in one camp or the other are less likely to succeed.

BRING YOUR PERSONALITY

Bring your personality to the subject. The one thing you can offer that nobody else can is your unique experience or perspective. When appropriate, include anecdotes and other personal touches. 

A good example of this is the Freakonomics books, which make a traditionally dry topic (economics) entertaining and bring in the authors' experiences and views. The first book was subtitled: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything.

FOCUS ON THE DIFFERENCES

In your marketing, including the title, cover image, blurb, etc., reflect what makes your book different. Again, Freakonomics had a cover very different from that of most books on economics.

THINK ABOUT SEQUELS

Finding people who buy your book is hard work, so think ahead to how you can keep them and what else might interest them. It could be a sequel or just a related topic. If you put your website address in the book and offer the reader an incentive (e.g., an extra chapter) for signing up, you'll have a list of people to whom to market your next book. If you already have the next book in mind you can mention it in the current one. 

Here's an example, continuing on from Freakonomics, of a book that gives more of the same:

Then they went on to a book that uses what went before but goes off in the direction of self-development:

CONSIDER OTHER FORMATS

Rather than assuming that a book is the best format for your project, consider whether other ways of presenting it might be better or easier to market. For example, although I've written a number of books on writing, my next project will be an online course. That allows me to integrate videos, audios, quizzes, etc. I will also be offering free webinars to people who buy the book, which will allow me to interact, answer their questions, and of course let them know of future projects that could be of interest to them. This creates a product with added value to the user, and also allows me to charge more than I would for a book.

BE CREATIVE

All of these tips have one thing in common, namely that they encourage you to be creative about how you approach a marketplace in flux. 

 

 

 

 

 

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Nine e-book cover mistakes to avoid.

If you want a quick lesson in what works and what doesn't in terms of the design of e-book covers, take a look at the entries in the December Cover Design Awards at thebookdesigner.com. Designer Joel Friedlander provides a (mostly) constructive critique of each.

You'll find examples of designs that are totally professional and some that make you cringe. The most common faults:

* type that is hard to read (too big, too fancy, obscured by the image)

* images that are confusing (collages, especially, are hard to pull off), or don't match the typography, or are too generic.

* compositions that draw the eye to the wrong place, or make the cover seem crowded, or are made up of elements that fight each other for attention.

Generally you are better off hiring a professional rather than trying to do it yourself. If you do it yourself, get feedback from someone who isn't a friend or relative and knows something about design. Clearly several of the people who entered their covers in this contest failed to do that!

 

Writers: beware the extreme hype! (part 2)

In the previous post, I shared a pitch for a book on self-publishing. Unfortunately, the information used to try to sell it to you was out of date at best, misleading at worst.

Recently I got another pitch from the same source (Trent Steele, editor, Write Street Newsletter, part of the Self Development Network). This time the pitch is for a book called The Wealthy Writer (not be confused with one with the same title, by Michael Meanwell).

This one starts by painting a picture of the idyllic life you could have if you were earning $100,000+ per year writing for the internet. That's what the book, by Nick Daws and Ruth Barringham, will show you, apparently. 

The pitch screams:

"TODAY the Web is Literally BEGGING for New WRITERS!"

Not figuratively, but literally. That means somewhere the Web is on its knees (who knew it even had knees?) beseeching the gods for someone, anyone, to please write for it. Because, as we all know, there's a big shortage of writers willing to put their words on the web.

NOT MUCH TALENT? NO PROBLEM!

The pitch goes on:

"Right now, ANY writer, living ANYWHERE, with almost ANY level of talent, can begin a career writing online.

It requires absolutely NO experience – and you could start earning BIG, in just DAYS.

We’re not kidding. Right now, you could be just a couple of days from your first paycheck.

Work quickly – and you could have earned your first payment by TONIGHT.

From article writing to affiliate marketing... From blogging to copywriting... From e-books to self-publishing... From auction websites to sales copy...

It’s EASY – and right now the industry is BEGGING for NEW WRITERS!"

Apparently there are loads of secret websites that offer big money even to low-talent, inexperienced writers. I haven't heard of these sites, have you? No? Well, the sales letter explains:

"The "worst thing" is that "regular" writers don't even know these sites exist!"

I'm not sure why there are quotes around "worst thing"--maybe to indicate that in this instance they mean figuratively, not literally, the worst, since I can think of quite a few worse things.

There must be some kind of conspiracy to keep this information from us, because in my experience, word normally travels pretty fast about people who are willing to pay writers any money, much less $100K a year.

The pitch asks:

"Are YOU ready to begin making at least $100,000 a year by tapping away at your keyboard?"

Tapping away at our keyboards...reminds me of what a member of the aristocracy said to Gibbon when the latter issued another volume of his The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire: "Another damned thick book! Always scribble, scribble, scribble, eh, Gibbon?"

The disclaimer

There is a smaller-print link to a disclaimer that says the examples they use are not typical, it's all down to how hard you work, etc.

THE GUARANTEE ALMOST GUARANTEED NOT TO BE REQUESTED

They say that if you haven't earned at least $25,000 after three months of using their manual, they'll refund your $47...but only betwee three and four months after purchase. How many people do you think remember that? And if they do, how many will remember where they put the address to which to send the refund request? It's not a fake guarantee, but a clever one.

IS IT POSSIBLE TO MAKE $100K PLUS WRITING FOR THE INTERNET?

There are copywriters, authors of ebooks, and others who make that and more. However, I doubt very much that they are writers "with just about any level of talent" and "no experience." They also are in the top 1%, maybe the top .5% of all writers trying to earn money through their craft. And I doubt that they would think of what they do as "tapping on the keyboard for a few hours a day."

I understand that sales letters have to get you excited about the thing they're selling. A little hype is expected and accepted, but I think this pitch goes too far. OK, the most you're going to lose is $47, but these days that amount can be a lot to lose for somebody who is unemployed and buys into the fantasy of riches presented here. 

If you happen to have ordered this book and have any comments, please let me know. I'm on the road at the moment, but maybe when I'm back home on a secure internet connection I'll order it and do a follow-up report...I just have to remember to put a reminder of that guarantee three months in the future on my calendar.

Beware the self-publishing hype and misinformation! - part 1

Here's part of an offer I received via email today, about self-publishing for Kindle. My comments are in red. 

"You would be surprised at how easy it is for anyone to get published on this new platform and the industry-crushing royalties paid directly to you, the author, make traditional publishing a thing of the past." True, pretty easy. Traditional publishing isn't ready to die yet, but let's read on.

"You see, where traditional publishing offers their authors a mere 7% to 15% royalties on average, you can get up to a 70% profit share just by publishing on the Kindle Marketplace." Yes, that's true.

"And while the big publishing houses refuse to adapt to the change and keep pricing their digital copies for just a few dollars less than their print counterparts, independent publishers are stealing the market covertly with #1 best-sellers selling for just about the price of a good coffee." Name authors are still doing very well with e-books priced not much below the paperback version. There have been some number one best-seller e-books from unknown authors charging much less. So..mostly true.

"For this reason, we are seeing an explosion of new authors publishing their works of fiction as well as non-fiction and making a killing with cheap digital books." The explosion, yes. A killing...true for a very small percentage of self-publishers.

"Do not miss out on this revolution that can make you a fortune." Can you make a fortune from self-publishing? Sure. You can also win the lottery, be left a fortune by an elderly lady you once helped across the street, or find a cache of old gold coins in your back yard. 

THIS IS WHERE IT STARTS TO GO WRONG

"Thousands of amateur authors are doing it already. Take Amanda Hocking for example. She started less than a year ago, and now has a handful of paranormal and romance titles on Kindle."  Hold it! Amanda Hocking didn't start less than a year ago! She began self-publishing in 2010! She doesn't now have a handful of titles, she wrote 17 novels in her free time, and in her first year self-published nine.

THE SITUATION HAS CHANGED 

An article in the New York Times reflects why this offer would prefer to cite figures from 2010 rather than current ones: 

"Now, though, the world has more stories than it needs or wants to pay for. In 2010, Amazon had 600,000 e-books in its Kindle store. Today it has more than three million. The number of books on Smashwords, which distributes self-published writers, grew 20 percent last year. The number of free books rose by one-third.

 

Revenue from e-books leveled off in 2013 at $3 billion after increasing nearly 50 percent in 2012, according to BookStats." 

 

"Most of her books sell for a reasonable $8.99. That means she gets around $6.30 for every copy sold." Wrong! She priced her books at either 99 cents or $2.99, that's one reason she was able to sell so many--a low risk for the buyer. Also, a very important factor was timing. She came along when lots of people were buying their first iPad or other tablet and wanted things to read on it, but there weren't yet that many titles available. Much less competition than exists today. 

The promoter, Trent Steele, Editor of the Write Street Newsletter, also doesn't mention how much marketing Amanda Hocking did. I've read her own account of this, and she was a marketing demon. By the way, she no longer self-publishes. After her self-publishing success, she signed a rich deal with St. Martin's Press, so clearly she doesn't agree that traditional publishing is a thing of the past. 

"Even a relatively small book, selling for $2.99, and selling just 500 copies a month - which is very realistic - would bring in an extra $1000 a month, or $12,000 per year." That's more than the vast majority of self-published authors earn and it's hardly the killing or fortune mentioned earlier. 

AM I OUT TO DISCOURAGE SELF-PUBLISHERS?

Not at all. I'm all favor of controlling your destiny and self-publishing is one way to do that. However, you have to go into it with your eyes open, with a plan...and with accurate information. I've emailed Trent Steele (I don't know if that's a real person or a marketing persona) to ask why they're sending out information that is out of date at best, and misleading at worst. I'll let you know if I hear back from him/them.If you know someone who isc 

>the next post: more hype aimed at writers--be aware!

Sunday thought: does your writing path have heart?

"When his apprentice wants to know which route he should choose, the Yaqui brujo answers, "Any path is only a path...All paths are the same: they all lead nowhere. The only important question you must ask is: 'Does this path have heart?' 

If a path has heart for you, then dare to follow it. It is important to give up on irrelevant questioning, to take care not to waste yourself."

 --Sheldon Kopp in "If You Meet the Buddha On the Road, Kill Him!"

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Does what you are writing have heart for you? Then dare to follow it. It may or may  not lead you to publication; for sure it will lead you to yourself.