Peter Laurent's Blog - Posts Tagged "ebook"
The Magic of KDP Select - A Debut Author's Story
What a whirlwind book launch.
My head is still spinning. I never expected there to be an audience for my writing.
Hoped, yes. Expected, no.
After publishing my debut novel, The Covert Academy, on Friday 1st Feb 2013 (NZ time), I saw around 10 sales over the weekend. Probably they were some of my faithful Facebook friends, since I had been spamming their timelines with my book's launch date.
But I joined KDP Select right away, because as a new author, I realised there would be little to no public knowledge of my book's release.
So I scheduled a single day's free promotion for Monday (USA time), and signed up to a bunch of ebook newsletters in the hopes of drumming up awareness.
The Covert Academy is now sitting at:
#13 in Amazon's bestsellers for Science Fiction Adventure,
#37 for General Fiction Action/Adventure,
#1,012 Overall in the Free Kindle Store
EDIT: By the end of the promo it had reached
#6 for Science Fiction Adventure,
#14 for General Fiction Action/Adventure,
#520 Overall in the Free Kindle Store
I know it will drop back down after the promotion, but I am still amazed. Floored even. It was at around #60-80,000 overall before the promo.
It's incredible to see people from around the world adding my work to their "to-read" list on Goodreads or "Liking" it on Facebook.
Where will it go from here? I haven't made a cent from those sales, not that I mind. The hope is that some of those readers will enjoy the read, post an honest review on Amazon, and help keep the book in the spotlight for a while longer.
I would dearly love to continue the story of the Academy. I've got many more ideas about where the series should go next!
Writing a 60k+ word novel is no small task. This was my first attempt, and it took me six months of almost full-time commitment. My wonderful parents supported me the entire time, since my animation freelancing work had slowed towards Christmas. I owe them a lot.
Still, I enjoyed every minute of the process. I want to do it again.
Six months to write a book?
...Well that's two per year!
Here's to a great 2013 :)
Cheers,
-Petes
My head is still spinning. I never expected there to be an audience for my writing.
Hoped, yes. Expected, no.
After publishing my debut novel, The Covert Academy, on Friday 1st Feb 2013 (NZ time), I saw around 10 sales over the weekend. Probably they were some of my faithful Facebook friends, since I had been spamming their timelines with my book's launch date.
But I joined KDP Select right away, because as a new author, I realised there would be little to no public knowledge of my book's release.
So I scheduled a single day's free promotion for Monday (USA time), and signed up to a bunch of ebook newsletters in the hopes of drumming up awareness.
The Covert Academy is now sitting at:
#13 in Amazon's bestsellers for Science Fiction Adventure,
#37 for General Fiction Action/Adventure,
#1,012 Overall in the Free Kindle Store
EDIT: By the end of the promo it had reached
#6 for Science Fiction Adventure,
#14 for General Fiction Action/Adventure,
#520 Overall in the Free Kindle Store
I know it will drop back down after the promotion, but I am still amazed. Floored even. It was at around #60-80,000 overall before the promo.
It's incredible to see people from around the world adding my work to their "to-read" list on Goodreads or "Liking" it on Facebook.
Where will it go from here? I haven't made a cent from those sales, not that I mind. The hope is that some of those readers will enjoy the read, post an honest review on Amazon, and help keep the book in the spotlight for a while longer.
I would dearly love to continue the story of the Academy. I've got many more ideas about where the series should go next!
Writing a 60k+ word novel is no small task. This was my first attempt, and it took me six months of almost full-time commitment. My wonderful parents supported me the entire time, since my animation freelancing work had slowed towards Christmas. I owe them a lot.
Still, I enjoyed every minute of the process. I want to do it again.
Six months to write a book?
...Well that's two per year!
Here's to a great 2013 :)
Cheers,
-Petes
Constructive Criticisms
One of my wonderful reviewers contacted me today. They asked why another author would write a book and then blog about expecting to sit back to wait for the money to roll in, then get upset when receiving this reviewer's honest 3 star review.
I thought my response to the reviewer might interest some of you...
(edited for relevance)
I have no issues with wanting to make money out of writing, I definitely want to make enough to support myself and be able to write full-time. But writing with the sole intention of making money is the wrong way to work. The most important thing, above all else, is that the reader enjoys your book, whether it's entertaining, educational, or an erotic thrill, making money is a by-product of reader enjoyment.
So when I read a book, and I see a typo or clunky sentence, it diminishes my enjoyment of that book. I can forgive maybe 3-4 errors for an indie author, a bit more if the rest of the story holds up (strong characters, plot etc.)
A traditionally published author has no excuse and must have zero mistakes.
That's why I proofed my book at least 6-7 times. Then after I published it on Amazon, I read it again and found maybe 10 punctuation mistakes and fixed them (within a few days of the initial publication date, before the freebie sale). So maybe even I was a little hasty, but at least I went back and fixed it up as soon as possible. It's something I wanted to be proud of.
If an author is lazy and publish their 1st or 2nd draft, readers will not enjoy their poorly edited books, won't recommend it to friends and/or give negative reviews. Money can't buy good reviews, they are worth more than that.
Good reviews aren't just 5 star reviews. If a reviewer gives 2, 3 or 4 stars, but mentions what they liked and didn't like, possibly even suggest improvements, that is just as valuable as a 5 star review.
Authors should not be unhappy with 3 star reviews if they actually cared about improving their writing.
Besides, many readers ignore the 1 and 5 star reviews because they assume they are biased, and only read the 2, 3, 4 star reviews for honest opinions. I would be fine having 2-3 star reviews as long as it was honest and said how the book could have been better, or why it was not good enough for 4-5 stars.
Personally I think the whole "star-rating" system is broken and Amazon should abandon it. Readers should be forced to read reviews instead of tallying up an average star rating to make decisions on what to buy.
Maybe it's because I come from an animation background, which is even more cut-throat than writing, I became used to taking criticism, and kept an eye out for what people will pick up on that would need fixing.
It can be heart-breaking when you have spent months of your life pouring your soul into your work, only to be told it is no good.
I was lucky to have received mostly good reviews on my animation, honest feedback that critiqued and ultimately ended up improving it. The same applies to writing. You can't learn without making mistakes.
Then again, not every reviewer knows what they are talking about, and sometimes you have to stick to your guns. It's just that it is important to keep an open mind.
There are over 1.5 million ebooks on Amazon, and since they do not check for quality, you can imagine how many books are rubbish and not selling at all. That's where honest reviews are needed, positive and negative ones.
Whew that's quite the rant I wrote!
Well I'd better get back to it, book two isn't going to write itself haha!
Cheers,
-Petes
I thought my response to the reviewer might interest some of you...
(edited for relevance)
I have no issues with wanting to make money out of writing, I definitely want to make enough to support myself and be able to write full-time. But writing with the sole intention of making money is the wrong way to work. The most important thing, above all else, is that the reader enjoys your book, whether it's entertaining, educational, or an erotic thrill, making money is a by-product of reader enjoyment.
So when I read a book, and I see a typo or clunky sentence, it diminishes my enjoyment of that book. I can forgive maybe 3-4 errors for an indie author, a bit more if the rest of the story holds up (strong characters, plot etc.)
A traditionally published author has no excuse and must have zero mistakes.
That's why I proofed my book at least 6-7 times. Then after I published it on Amazon, I read it again and found maybe 10 punctuation mistakes and fixed them (within a few days of the initial publication date, before the freebie sale). So maybe even I was a little hasty, but at least I went back and fixed it up as soon as possible. It's something I wanted to be proud of.
If an author is lazy and publish their 1st or 2nd draft, readers will not enjoy their poorly edited books, won't recommend it to friends and/or give negative reviews. Money can't buy good reviews, they are worth more than that.
Good reviews aren't just 5 star reviews. If a reviewer gives 2, 3 or 4 stars, but mentions what they liked and didn't like, possibly even suggest improvements, that is just as valuable as a 5 star review.
Authors should not be unhappy with 3 star reviews if they actually cared about improving their writing.
Besides, many readers ignore the 1 and 5 star reviews because they assume they are biased, and only read the 2, 3, 4 star reviews for honest opinions. I would be fine having 2-3 star reviews as long as it was honest and said how the book could have been better, or why it was not good enough for 4-5 stars.
Personally I think the whole "star-rating" system is broken and Amazon should abandon it. Readers should be forced to read reviews instead of tallying up an average star rating to make decisions on what to buy.
Maybe it's because I come from an animation background, which is even more cut-throat than writing, I became used to taking criticism, and kept an eye out for what people will pick up on that would need fixing.
It can be heart-breaking when you have spent months of your life pouring your soul into your work, only to be told it is no good.
I was lucky to have received mostly good reviews on my animation, honest feedback that critiqued and ultimately ended up improving it. The same applies to writing. You can't learn without making mistakes.
Then again, not every reviewer knows what they are talking about, and sometimes you have to stick to your guns. It's just that it is important to keep an open mind.
There are over 1.5 million ebooks on Amazon, and since they do not check for quality, you can imagine how many books are rubbish and not selling at all. That's where honest reviews are needed, positive and negative ones.
Whew that's quite the rant I wrote!
Well I'd better get back to it, book two isn't going to write itself haha!
Cheers,
-Petes
