Becky’s Comments (group member since Oct 19, 2014)

Becky’s comments from the Sci-Fi, fantasy and speculative Indie Authors Review group.

I'm also taking part in the sale - Leopard's Kin is still free, Lion's Kin and All the Courses Run are 50% off.
https://www.smashwords.com/profile/vi...

Going off on a bit of a tangent here, I have to say I'm fairly put out by the price of hardcover books lately. In Canada, it's rare to find a hardcover under $35-$40 now...and I wouldn't mind paying that much for one of my favourite authors (because most of them pump out huge volumes topping out well over 300 pages).

However, I'm seeing more and more so-called "novels" that barely reach 100 pages that are still costing over $30. That I refuse to pay for. At the very least, I'll wait until they come out in paperback...or snag a "discount bin" copy for $4.99.

Time for some follow-up, everyone. I looked into some in-depth sales reports through Smashwords last night and it appears the suggestion from the Smashwords people were accurate after all. (That is, entice your audience with a free first book in the series and charge for the others.) The 2 sales on Lion's Kin that I originally mentioned were sales that came directly from Smashwords - I get notification of those immediately and the money shows up in my sales revenue report the same day, as well.

However, if the sales come not from Smashwords directly but rather from one of the companies they distribute to (i.e. Apple, Barnes & Noble, Sony, etc.) then there is a delay in the reporting. So I've actually sold 6 copies of Lion's Kin in the past 3 months - mostly from international sources so it only appears on my revenue reports monthly.

I followed the advice of the Smashwords team and dropped the first book in my Aquarian Era Tales series to "free" in the hopes it would generate lots of readers that would then pay the $3.99 price I had on the second book in the series. It hasn't worked so far (and we're over a year into this experiment now), but in a curious sequence of events, my quarterly royalties are actually MORE than they were when I was charging $4.99 for Leopard's Kin and $3.99 for Lion's Kin.

I've had 2 sales on Lion's Kin in the past 3 months, over 200 downloads of the free Leopard's Kin in the same time period, and am getting regular deposits of $15 put into my PayPal account. I guess I'll have to revisit the payment options / fine print on my Smashwords contract because I thought I would only get payments on actual sales - not on free downloads - and this is clearly not the case.

Unfortunately, if I'm going to generate more revenue on a free book, I'm inclined to mark them all down to $0 and let the payments come rolling in.

Hi everyone,

I'm new to the group, so hope I'm not overstepping my bounds by letting you know about a free novel of mine that's available at Smashwords here: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view...

Brief summary:
Lori Pate, newly-wedded and newly-widowed, is learning how to cope with the loss of her husband – and make a living as a horse trainer – when the cats on her farm start doing some fairly unusual things. And when her hair starts turning gray at the age of 21, a cougar shows up on the farm, and a Native Canadian stranger enters the picture shortly thereafter, Lori gets the sinking feeling her world is turning upside-down.

The stranger, Noel Tecumseh, and two of his eccentric friends soon show Lori that she’s now part of a unique club – one where snow leopards, black panthers, lynxes and others protect and guide “their humans” from both natural and supernatural dangers that threaten the gang of four. So when a group of Jaguar Knights comes to town with the intent to “clean up” the weaker parts of the human population, Noel must instruct all of them in how to direct their thoughts to evade notice.

LEOPARD’S KIN is a blend of the philosophies introduced in works such as Conversations with God and The Celestine Prophecy but is designed to appeal to a new generation of fantasy enthusiasts. While it stands alone as a novel, subsequent books will expand on the power of thought in ushering in a New Age, utilizing a variety of legends and myths of big cats from around the world.

With a 5 out of 5-star rating at Smashwords - and over 1100 copies now downloaded - I've been pretty pleased with the results. Unfortunately, I wrote the first book in this series while I was "between jobs" and now that I'm back to work full time, I've found it very difficult to dedicate the time required to the 2nd and 3rd novels. Lion's Kin - the 2nd in the series - felt rushed even to me and has gotten mediocre reviews. I'm debating now whether to yank it entirely and rewrite (adding to the length and expanding the plot) or to just carry on by working on the 3rd novel (Tiger's Kin).

Are there other writers out there who've had success with their first in a series, but fell short with their 2nd? What did you do? Thanks for the input!

Thanks so much, Ken and Richard. I'll wade my way around and do some contributing soon! :)

Hi everyone,

I'm Becky Norman and so far have stuck with self-publishing through Smashwords and Amazon only (though, of course, the never-ending quest to find a publisher continues!). I'm also a Full Time (plus) Human Resources Manager so that eats into my time to market and promote myself.

I particularly like to read historical fantasies (Morgan Llywelyn, Guy Gavriel Kay, Jack Whyte, Marion Zimmer Bradley, George R. R. Martin, etc.) but writing them is a bit more difficult, as I don't have the time to do the extensive research I feel the genre warrants.

I'm glad to be here and welcome the opportunity to hear about indie reads that are yet uncovered!