A year of self publishing (Sept '11 - Aug '12)

[thaddeus6th]

You should've stayed an extra week and watched the Grand Prix.

Cheers for the update; this thread's very interesting and useful.

[Scarfy]

Afternoon, all.

I sold 1,086 ebooks in March, bringing the total up to 9,546. I hope to hit 10,000 by the end of April. Sales are slowing now (as they will do), but overall I'm pleased with the numbers.

[Scarfy]

May: 995
Total: 10,541

Thought I'd keep this one brief

[Gary Compton]

How many free books are in that figure Steve?

Had a look round your website the other day. It's looking really good and the 3 book in one download should be a best-seller.

[Scarfy]

I don't count the free downloads at all. The free edition of HOTK has been downloaded well over 100,000 times from all the various places its available. I maintained a separate count for that, but I stopped doing it last year when I passed the 100k mark.

[thaddeus6th]

Blimey.

Hopefully that strategy will prove cunning. Your sales certainly look impressive.

[Gary Compton]

As you can see with my own thread. I'm planning to publish at back end of the year, unless I get a traditional deal.

What strategy would you advise - free download to start with or paid for?

Interested to hear your comments Scarfy

[thaddeus6th]

On that point: I'll be releasing my first book shortlyish (not for free).

I do like the idea of a free sample or abridged version (or even a free first book in a trilogy), but I'd want to make that decision before writing, I think.

[Scarfy]

Originally Posted by Gary Compton

What strategy would you advise - free download to start with or paid for?

The free download is basically a marketing campaign that a lot of authors do. I think that it's only really worth doing if you have a lot of books out or give away the first book in a series. It helps to get you noticed. However, if that book isn't any good, then people won't take much notice of the rest of what you've got an offer. First impressions and all that.

I do like the idea of a free sample or abridged version (or even a free first book in a trilogy), but I'd want to make that decision before writing, I think.

Free samples for ebooks is now a staple of the format. Most e-retailers will offer the first 10% of your book or so.

[thaddeus6th]

Bah, I expressed myself rather badly. I know samples are commonplace, I download them myself all the time, I meant a larger offering (a whole or abridged book, for instance, or the first third or suchlike).

[Scarfy]

Hmm, that's difficult to judge. You'll have readers who will download it because they genuinely want to read it, those that download it with the intention of reading it (and may or may not do so), and finally those that will certainly never read it, but download it anyway because it's free..! I know of people who have thousand and thousands of ebooks (legal and illegal), and have probably only ever read 4 or 5 of them.

Offering an entire free book from the start of a series definitely raises awareness and eliminates the dangers of obscurity. And if you can also get a steady stream of good reviews then that will also help.

[TL Rese]

i've just released a short story on the kindle! - and am kinda freaking out. =P

i'm doing kdp select and have scheduled a free giveaway day for may 18th. what other promos have you done? i'm racking my brain for ideas.

[Scarfy]

Other than giving away the first edition of the first book and putting the website together... er... nothing! :|

[TL Rese]

wow, i see! that's amazing! congrats on ur great word-of-mouth sales =)

[HareBrain]

Originally Posted by Scarfy

Other than giving away the first edition of the first book and putting the website together... er... nothing! :|

I can't remember his name now or his book, but I read an interview in Writers' Forum magazine with a recent Kindle bestseller who'd done absolutely nothing in terms of publicity, social media etc (well, he tweeted the book's existence once, as he had some followers from his role as a sports journalist). I do wonder how effective all the stuff you're advised to do really is.