Category Archives: Self-Publishing

Self-Publishing Writing

Emotionless Pricing

March 18, 2012 – 12:18 pm

Pricing for indie authors shouldn’t be an emotional task.  Yet, for many of us it is.

Is my price too high?  Is it too low?  Should I bump it up because I’m getting a bunch of sales right now?  Should I lower it because I haven’t moved a book in weeks?  These are the questions that keep us up at night.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could take the worry and stress out of pricing?

The good news is:  You can.

My Philosophy on Pricing

Pick a price and ride the wave.  In a nutshell, that’s my philosophy on pricing.  But, there’s more to it than that.  In an article called Pricing Strategy, I give some methodical approaches on how to determine a price and what factors play into pricing.

But, today I want to look at another aspect: How often should you change the price of your book?  Just because you can change price whenever you want, doesn’t mean that you should.  Avoid the temptation to make frequent price changes.

Starting Out Low

If you are a new author and you are trying to get your name out there, it makes perfect sense to start with a lower promotional price.  But, train your brain to think of it as exactly that:  a promotional price.

The reality is that many authors start out with a low price and they just keep it there, afraid to upset the apple cart and lose sales.  If I move from $0.99 to $2.99, I’m scared that I won’t sell any more books.

Selling Less Can Make You More

While you could sell fewer books at a higher price, you have to ask yourself:  Is that really a bad thing?  Consider this:

If you sell 100 books at $0.99 at 35% royalties, your total royalties = $34.65.

If you sell only 25 books at $2.99 at 70% royalties, your total royalties = $52.32.

If you sell only 25 books at $5.99 at 70% royalties, your total royalties = $104.82.

Is this making sense?  Do you see how you can make more money by selling fewer books?  What if we add an extra zero onto the equation?

1000 at $0.99 at 35% royalty = $346.50

250 at $2.99 at 70% royalty = $523.25

250 at $5.99 at 70% royalty = $1,048.25

Now we’re talking.  I could certainly use another grand.  How about you?

Let’s think even bigger for a second.  What would happen if you signed up for KDP Select.  Then you had a few free days.  Following those free days you hit your marketing outlets (blog, social media, whatever) with lots of activity to keep the momentum going.  What if you priced your book at $5.99 and actually sold 1,000 copies?

Can you say:  $4,193.00 royalty check?  I can.

Tying It All Together

See, when we focus so much on the number of books sold versus the number and price combination, we can make emotional decisions.  We can decide to drop our price to $0.99 to move more books so we can feel better.  Or, we think we’re on an upswing, so we lower the price so we can sell even more.  What really happens is that we end up leaving money on the table because of fear or a lack of self confidence.

Indie authors:  Be bold.  Take a look at the big picture.  Avoid making emotional decisions about pricing.  Consider how both price and number of books sold can play together to help you achieve your financial goals with your writing career.

 

Self-published author, Karen Baney, enjoys sharing information to help authors learn about the Business of Writing.  She holds a Masters of Business Administration from Arizona State University and has worked in various business related career fields for the past 20 years.  She writes Christian Historical Fiction and Contemporary Romance novels.  For more information about Karen’s books, visit her Amazon Page and for more great articles by Karen, visit her articles page.

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Kindle Select Self-Publishing Writing

Climbing on the KDP Coaster

February 3, 2012 – 1:00 am

Authors Stacy Eaton and Keith Weaver join me today to share their experiences with KDP Select in the first month of the program.  Thanks for joining me, Stacy and Keith!

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Stacy Eaton

In December, I jumped onto the KDP Select roller coaster with my hands holding the railing tightly and my eyes wide open. My knees were shaking a bit and there were butterflies in my stomach, but I did it.  Now several weeks later, I am sitting in the front seat, holding my arms high in the air and smiling because this ride is great!

Since I joined on December 24th, I feel like I finally found a place to stay. I started my ride with upping my price to $2.99 from the promotional rate of $0.99 and put a couple of free promo days in right away. It helped that a whole bunch of people had just gotten Kindles for the holidays and my free days left me smiling!

Many people asked me what the benefits were to giving away the books for free. To me, I was giving gifts! I love to give. I love to help and since I am a new author, being able to give my book out to people who might not have tried me before was exciting and invigorating.

I wasn’t sure how the “borrow” feature would work with KDP, so it was very exciting to see that column slowly trickle up as people borrowed my books and then to find out that I was making $1.70 per book for each borrow.  That was pretty exciting. You don’t get paid from the library when someone borrows your book.

I think the hardest thing about being part of the program is not being able to use excerpts in post and advertising.  It seems actually frustrating that we can’t post this information someplace even though we are directing them to Amazon to buy the book.  If there was anything I would like to see change in this program it would be that.

All in all, I am very happy with the program and I look back on the fears I had before I climbed on with a chuckle and a smile.  I feel at home for now, and I’m planning on staying here for a while.

Stacy EatonCurrently Stacy Eaton works full time as a Police Officer for a small township is Southeastern Pennsylvania. While her current position is that of a patrol officer, she spends a lot of time doing investigations and crime scene processing. Forensics is something she loves and she takes her job seriously. It is not just about proving who is guilty, it is also about proving people are innocent.

She is also a wife to a Police Officer and with their constant schedules life can get very hectic at home. She has been blessed with two children, a son who is currently in the United States Navy and is very proud of him for what he is doing and for serving his Country. Her daughter is a priceless princess who loves to help market her books to teachers and other parents while she is at school and church. She is also working on a book too.

When she is not working the job that currently pays all the bills she works on her business. Yes, she has her own business too.

In her spare time… she writes.

To learn more about Stacy and her books, please visit her website: http://stacyseatoncom.fatcow.com/

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Keith Weaver

I recently decided to entertain the new KDP Select program that Amazon had started.  For me personally, it really was an easy decision.  Probably 98-99% of my sales were from Amazon, so shutting down all other e-formats was not that difficult of a cross to bear.

Other than just sales, there were other aspects of the program that enticed me.  The borrowing of books for free is something I feel will become more and more popular going forward.  With this program, readers can borrow your book for free, and you still get a % sale based on the total number of Amazon books borrowed for the month.  The free days were another big factor.  Getting 5 free promotion days for every 90 days you’re enrolled was a great marketing tactic I wanted to use.  My first free day of each book netted my over 600 downloads for Nebulous, and over 1000 for The Nefarious.  Now, that may seem like a low number for some, but to me being relatively new to the marketing game and not having a lot of exposure, that was huge!  Also, as I stated, the program is only for 90 days.  At the end, you can stay in it or go back to all other venues for your book.

To me the program has been worth it, again not having a great presence outside of Amazon.  I have seen some sales come in since the free days.  I’ve always believed that word of mouth is a major player in all aspects of life, so having readers get your book for free, enjoy it and tell their friends could do wonders down the road.  Also, seeing reviews come in is big.  I had a review come in for Nebulous after the free day.  It was a 5-star from a Mom who loved the book, and can’t wait till her daughter is old enough to read it herself.  That’s the kind of praise and recognition that is more valuable than an actual sale!

Keith Weaver

Keith Weaver was into fantasy as a young boy. The first book he has a real memory of is The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster, a favorite of his still today.  His mind has always had an affinity for the strange and make believe.  He’s been watching and reading horror, paranormal, fantasy and sci-fi ever since.  In college, he fell in love with literature courses and started dabbling in writing.  To learn more about Keith, visit his website: http://www.aboutkeithweaver.com/

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Kindle Select Marketing Self-Publishing Writing

Why Sign Up for KDP Select?

January 27, 2012 – 1:00 am

Because, it works.

For giggles, I decided to sign up my latest release, Nickels, for KDP Select in mid-January.  I first released Nickels in mid-December and had a pretty strong opening week.  Sales trickled in through the rest of December, but came to a screeching halt at the new year.  After only 20 dismal sales, I decided to pull Nickels from B&N, Smashwords, Apple, Kobo, & Diesel.

Once I was certain Nickels was only left in paperback and on Amazon, I signed up.  The process was really easy – just  choose “enroll”.

If you’re not familiar with KDP Select, here’s the basics:

  1. Agree to go exclusive with Kindle for digital book (ebook) for 90 days
  2. Book becomes available for Amazon Prime Members.  They can borrow 1 book for free every month.  Authors get paid a royalty on borrows (see KDP Select Terms & Conditions for details).
  3. Author can list the book for free for any 5 days during the 90 day exclusive window.

The Plan

I knew right away that I wanted to use some of the free days as soon as possible.  After all, my sales needed a shot in the arm.  But, I wanted to be strategic about how I used the days.

See, here’s the thing:  Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays are traditionally the highest book sales days.  I’ve seen this with my own numbers.  So, I knew I didn’t want to offer my book for free when readers were more likely to buy it any way.

My plan?  Go free on Wed & Thurs to boost sales ranking.  Then the book goes back to regular price ($4.99) on Friday.  No matter how hard it was, I avoided the temptation to drop the price.  I mean I just spent two days flooding the internet with messages about my book.  The word was out.  So, there was no need to offer a reduced price (thereby losing money) because I didn’t have to draw traffic to my book.  I already had traffic.  Now I wanted to maximize profit.

For more detailed information on my plan, see my post with this KDP Select Checklist for Free Days.

The Results

Free Days Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Total
Highest Kindle Ranking #3 #809 #153 #127 #131
Sales 29,500+ (downloads) 70+ 500+ 490+ 310+ 1370+ sales29,500+ (downloads)
Borrows 70+ 80+ 110+ 50+ 310+

 

Stay Tuned

Over the next four Fridays, I’ll have two guest authors each week share about their experience with KDP Select so you can get a better idea of how the program is working for multiple authors across multiple genres.

Maximize Your Free Days

If you missed my earlier post on how to maximize your free days on Kindle Select, check it out.  I’ve included a great checklist with helpful tips.

 

Self-published author, Karen Baney, enjoys sharing information to help authors learn about the Business of Writing.  She holds a Masters of Business Administration from Arizona State University and has worked in various business related career fields for the past 20 years.  She writes Christian Historical Fiction and Contemporary Romance novels.  For more information about Karen’s books, visit her Amazon Page.

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Kindle Select Self-Publishing Writing

Maximizing Free Days on Kindle Select

January 25, 2012 – 1:00 am

KindleFire-MainMenuI recently gave Kindle Select a try and enjoyed some pretty amazing results.  I offered my new romance novel, Nickels, free for a Wed. and Thurs.  During those days, it had over 29,500 downloads in 6 countries.  It ranked #3 on overall Kindle Free best seller list, #1 in Kindle Free Fiction, #1 in Religious Fiction, and #1 in Contemporary Romance.

In the first two days following the free days, I sold over 700 copies and had over 190 borrows from Prime members.  My sales ranking has gone as high as #125 in Kindle Paid and #1 in Religious Fiction.

How did I do it?  By maximizing the use of my free days and promoting like crazy.

Here’s my checklist to help make the most of your Kindle Select Free Days.

Before Your Free Days

1. Sign up for KDP Select.

2. Schedule your free days.  Consider scheduling on a Wed / Thurs or just Thurs to capitalize on the exposure.  Big sales days in a week are Fri, Sat, Sun.  So don’t give it away free on those days.

3. Send requests to following to get your free book listed.  Do this a few days ahead of time to give the site owners time to post your book.

4.  Add a Goodreads event and send it to all of your Goodreads friends.

On Your Free Days

1. Post on Facebook pages on your free day(s):

2.  Add “Kindle Freebie” and “Kindle Free” tags to your book on Amazon page.

3.  Post about your free book on your other social networking sites (Linked In, Stumble Upon, Triberr, Google+, etc.)

4.  Tweet like crazy.

5.  Get authors in your cross promotion group to tweet like crazy (and thank them for it).

6.  Send email newsletter.

7.  Post about it on your blog.

8.  Get your mouse-clicking refresh-button-hitting finger ready to watch the downloads roll in!

After Your Free Days

1.  Don’t lower your price.  You just did a lot of hard work to generate sales by offering it free.  Keep your book at regular price and enjoy the higher royalties on the new wave of sales.

2.  Keep up the momentum for a few days.  If your free days ended before the weekend, keep up strong promotion efforts (through social networking) through the weekend.

 

Christian Genre Specific sites:

Do you know of any genre specific sites?  If you’d like to share them, please leave a comment below.  Thanks!

Self-published author, Karen Baney, enjoys sharing information to help authors learn about the Business of Writing.  She holds a Masters of Business Administration from Arizona State University and has worked in various business related career fields for the past 20 years.  She writes Christian Historical Fiction and Contemporary Romance novels.  For more information about Karen’s books, visit her Amazon Page.

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Business of Writing Marketing Self-Publishing Writing

How to Price Your eBook

January 13, 2012 – 1:00 am

Girl ReadingOne of the most common questions I hear from indie authors is:  “How do I price my eBook?”

First, let’s deal with some wrong thinking about price.  There is no one method or approach to pricing that will work for every book.  That’s right.  There is not a single answer to this question.

So, the real question becomes, what is some way I can determine a price for my book that the market will bear?

Let’s consider some of the information you’ll need to come up with a good pricing strategy.

1. How many titles do you have available?

2. What are other comparable eBooks in your genre selling for?

3. What are your distribution channels?

4. What are your sales goals?  Are you looking for a short, big burst of sales or are you looking at building a steady stream of sales over a period of time?

 

Number of Titles Available

If you only have one title available, your pricing strategy will probably vary from an author who has multiple titles.  For example, when my first book, A Dream Unfolding, was released, I priced it at $2.99 until the second book in the series came out.  I chose the $2.99 because a lot of authors talk about that being the sweet spot price for eBooks (more on my thoughts about that later).  My sales were okay – not really reaching over 100 books per month at that price point.

When I released my third book in the series, I dropped the price of the first book to $0.99 while pricing books two and three at $2.99.  I was still working on building my marketing strategy, but I sold over 200 copies of the first book that month and another 150 between the other two.

After a month of some very strong marketing, selling over 700 books between all three titles, I decided to come up with a better strategy for pricing books two and three.  I left book one at $0.99 to reduce the barriers for new readers to try my books as a new-to-them author.

My answer for books two and three?  I priced them both at $5.99.  Before you cringe and say that my sales tanked, let me offer you the next point.

Price ManPrice of Comparable Books in Your Genre

I did a pricing study of the top 100 best selling eBooks in my genre.  You know what I found when I did that?  The average price for my genre was $5.29 with some eBooks as high as $9.99 and others as low as $0.99.  I decided to go up a little from the average and price them at $5.99.

The results?  I didn’t see any drop off in sales.  Instead, I saw a marginal increase, which I attribute to better marketing efforts, closing out the month with 1740 books.  That number has been steadily increasing each subsequent month.

Distribution Channels

How do distribution channels affect pricing?  Well, if your eBook is on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other distributors, be aware of their rules.  Amazon has a strict policy (see KDP’s Terms & Conditions for the most accurate info) that your eBook cannot be priced lower on another distributor than it is on their site.  Apple has a rule that the book must end in 99 (i.e. $0.99, $1.99, etc).  These rules must play into your pricing strategy.

Sales Goals

Lastly, your sales goals are a part of your pricing strategy.  If you’re looking for a short term burst, try lowering your price for a short period of time, like for a 99 cent sale.

If you’re looking for long term, steady sales growth, consider doing a pricing study or pick a price and stick with it for awhile.  Price alone will not provide long term sales Marketing plays an important role to the success of your novel.

The Sweet Spot Price

Given my own results with books priced higher than $2.99, I disagree with the idea that there is a one-size fits all sweet spot price for all eBooks of all genres.  My historical novels are doing well at the $5.99 price point.

Conversely, my new contemporary novel is not getting as much traction at $4.99.  My approach to this?  I’m working on beefing up my marketing efforts for it—leaving price alone.  If it’s still not doing well in its third month of release, then I might play with price.

Remember, price is just one of the tools at your disposal for selling your novels.  Don’t forget about advertising, distribution, and promotions.

 

Self-published author, Karen Baney, enjoys sharing information to help authors learn about the Business of Writing.  She holds a Masters of Business Administration from Arizona State University and has worked in various business related career fields for the past 20 years.  She writes Christian Historical Fiction and Contemporary Romance novels.  For more information about Karen’s books, visit her Amazon Page.

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Self-Publishing Writing

Tips for Finding an Artist

November 18, 2011 – 1:00 am

When I needed advice for finding and working with artists, I turned to Jim Baney, CEO & Co-founder of Knightvision Games (also my hubby).   He and his business partner have produced numerous role playing game modules for the past year and a half.  They work with many artists scattered all over the world to provide everything from full color cover art to interior black & white line art.  His tips worked well for me, so I hope you get some great ideas from his guest post today.

 

I started a gaming company almost a year and half ago and needed to have some art created for my games.  After searching the almighty Google.com, I found some great resources to find artists within my budget, which isn’t much.  The first thing I found out was that artists are artists and not business people.  They have a hard time coming up with commission rates for different types of artwork.  Sometimes the same type of artwork can range from $10 to $100.

After becoming frustrated over this back and forth I decided to come up with an artist guideline on my website that explains exactly how much I will pay and for what.  Though, as a self published author, it might not make sense for you to post a page on your website, the idea still applies.  Tell the artist what you are willing to pay up front.  This helps end any negotiation and misinterpretation of emails.  If the artist says “no way, I can’t work for that rate”, I say, thank you very much, and there are more artist that will work for that rate.

I also use the email string as a contract.  Some artists don’t even ask for a contract, yet some do.  I never pay up front and explain that I pay within three business days of the final art rendering.

To get the art piece I need, I give a description of the scene or creature and let the artist use their imagination to come up with a rough draft.  This goes back and forth through several iterations.  Then I give the green light to proceed with a final piece.  I always reserve the right to make final changes.  I’ve never had an artist complain about this process.

Most of the artists I found are overseas (non-U.S).  They work fast and come up with some great concept art.  My company pays via PayPal in U.S. Dollars, which most overseas artist are glad to have.

Some great resources to find an artist:
1. Conceptart.org – Be aware, there can be a lot of nudity and NSFW (not suitable for work) “artwork” on this site.  However, this site has some artists that will knock you socks off.  Also a great site for inspiration.
2. Deviantart.com – I found this site to be of lesser quality work then conceptart.org.  Never the less I have found some great artists.
3. Believe it or not, Google Plus has been a great in finding illustrators and background artists. Just find a circle of artists and ask for some art submissions.

Jim Baney
CEO and Co-founder of Knightvision Games

To learn more about Knightvision Games, visit them at http://www.knightvisiongames.com, on Google + as JimBaney, or on Twitter.

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