Editio Self-Publishing discussion

Ok I know this is like the rudest question I could possibly ask. I might as well ask why your kid is ugly. As Americans we never want to talk about money. But most of us follow the blogs of one of the "Big Boys" like J.A Konrath or Amanda Hocking, we see how much money they say you CAN make, but I'm wondering how much money people are actually making, if any at all. I think this is an important discussion to have. We all need to be realistic, because I think a lot of us have delusions that everyone else is spending their weekends rolling in all their money, when the truth is that a bet a lot of us are not making our living at this yet.

So I will go first... I work as a writer full-time and, I make about as much as a minimum wage part-time job.( all my books are 1.99 or less) I am pretty happy with that. I do lots of publicity, and I think most of my sales come from the people who read my articles on the Editio web site. But now I am wondering if that is normal or not. Are people making more? Are people making less? For a long time, I was jumping up and down when I got my check from Amazon and it said $12.35.

Off the top of my head, I made $150 so far this year from selling print rights and reprint ebooks of my short stories. I get anywhere from $5 to $20 for print rights to the anthologies. My short story ebooks sell for $0.99 each. Amazon sales been flat ($10) but Smashwords been great ($50). If I get a few more sales, I might break even for the year.

I expect 2012 to be a much better year. According to my sales data, reprint content sells better than original content. I'm writing more short stories to get them into print, wait for the exclusive period to end (30 to 365 days), and put out reprint short story ebooks. I'm planning to release a minimum of one short story ebook per month, and gather those ebooks into an omnibus edition for one low price at the end of the year.

I'm also branching out into original essay ebooks since non-fiction sells better than fiction. My bestselling ebook to date is a Christmas shopping tale about my mother duking it out with other mothers for a cabbage patch doll in the 1980s. I'm now writing an essay about how the reaction to the death of Steve Jobs reminds me of the death of Elvis, where my mother cried for three days straight and tried to get a black velvet painting of Elvis for the living room. People are fascinated about hearing my childhood tragedies, I'm going to find out if they like reading about them.

Well not a great deal at the moment but I'm finding that my stories are starting to sell at a steadier pace but what I'm finding hard is getting other people to buy my stuff rather than just friends.

L.K. wrote: "Well not a great deal at the moment but I'm finding that my stories are starting to sell at a steadier pace but what I'm finding hard is getting other people to buy my stuff rather than just friends."

Yes, I have a feeling that happens to all of us. And if you've got a lot of friends it's not necessarily even a bad thing for your first book. But once your friends know what your stuff is all about, if they don't like it they won't buy any more of it. The search for the target reader goes on!

I was attracted to this thread like a fly to sugar! Thanks for sharing everyone! As for me, I'm def. not about to give up the day job. Or the night job. Or the weekend job. But:
'For a long time, I was jumping up and down when I got my check from Amazon and it said $12.35.'
- doesn't that say it all.... isn't it a great feeling that someone liked your writing enough to buy a copy of your book. And not just some one, but another person, and another. Yep it would be really nice to sell enough copies to treat the old folks to a second honeymoon ... but the thrill of hearing from someone who liked your writing is enough for now.

I would make more if my wife would quit giving them away.

BookieWormie: Drat! Wish I'd thought of that one! *Lightbulb moment* "I was Rafa Nadal's intimate ball girl ... in this dream I had one night last week"

Ward: She's so proud of you:)

I think anybody who is doing this to "get rich" is in for disappointment.

A couple of fairly recent facts BELOW from writer's conferences about the mainstream publishing industry, and with the millions of books being self-pubbed the outlook for Self-pubbed "e" has to be far less.

If you take all the books in a Barnes and Noble, and discard the stuff that is public domain, the AVERAGE annual income for the writers is about $2500 -- or about $200 per month.

There are more players in the NFL than writers who are making a living by writing alone.

But if you've got the passion, you can't keep away from the keyboard no matter what the financial outlook.

My first book has done really well so far on amazon and also by advertising through facebook. I published it in the summer and my profit has been around $900 minus my expenses which were $500 so I am in the green from here on out. I had gone with Authorhouse with this one too which was a mistake. Going to try Createspace next time. Had I done it with this book, I'd have made alot more because their print costs are less and it doesn't cost as much for setup of the book. Oh well, I am still averaging at least one book a day on amazon plus my local sales are still going well. I know I won't "get rich" Lol but making money following a dream is more than I could ever ask for.
Mandi

Well said, Mandi.

:o)

Wait! You mean you can make money at this? Actually, I only just started charging for my ebooks. I was giving them away for the first month. I think I had just shy of 200 downloads in total. I don't think I've sold any for money yet though. I'll have to check but since I'm only charging 99¢ each for the two novels I have done (each just over 80k words), I don't expect to earn much. Maybe I should make them available in paper. That might make them more appealing although, unfortunately, expensive I'm sure.

D.L. wrote: "I'll have to check but since I'm only charging 99¢ each for the two novels I have done (each just over 80k words), I don't expect to earn much."

You need to get with the ebook program. Full-length novels (i.e., 80K words or greater) shouldn't be selling at $0.99 each. The sweet spot for most novel ebooks is $2.99. If your two novels are in a series, you can sell the first novel at $0.99 or for free to entice readers to buy the next novel.

Yes, you can make money in this business. Just don't be in a hurry, think long term and keep writing. The more ebooks you have available, the more likely you will have sales.

Great advice CD. I am doing pretty good with my first book but it's not necessarily bringing home the bacon so to speak, so yea I am hoping for sales to just keep rising. I'm thinking as long as I can keep it near the top I will continue to get new sales as I have in the past 6months. Good luck to all of you, I believe we can do anything we put our minds to. :)
Mandi

DL, just think positive. I started out charging 2.99 the first few months when my book was released. I then posted it on facebook and had LOTS of sales from there. Once my sales slowed down, I took the price down to .99

Wg, I do know what you mean about writers itch. Lol. But who says we can't make money while we scratch. :)

Mandi wrote: "Wg, I do know what you mean about writers itch. Lol. But who says we can't make money while we scratch. :)"

Well said. Personally I want to be able to write full-time. Which means I have to make it earn. Eating is always nice.

Let's see, I sell about one book every two and a half days. I make about 2.70 per book.

So I'm making about enough to go out to dinner, by myself, once a month.

I'm still in the hole on my editing costs and will be for quite a while.

But, I should have another book out in less than six months, and the sequel to the current book by December of '12. Once those two come out, sales numbers should start to pick up.

Oh, I didn't actually pay to advertise on facebook, I just posted as my status and I have around 1500 friends on there so I had lots of people wanting to buy from seeing my post. I haven't paid a dime for advertising yet and hope I don't have to. So far, word of mouth is really selling it very well. I had a friend buy it for her friends kids that live several states away and she just called me yesterday and said she is going to buy every kid on her Christmas list an autographed copy! Things like that have happened with lots of people which actually gave me the motivation to finish my second books illustrations and I wrote the 3rd already too. :)
Mandi

I think Facebook will actually be my biggest selling tool, mainly because the vast majority of my friends on there aren't writers. They're friends from way back (I've had my FB account for YEARS) and will happily buy the book and tell everyone about it. Hopefully enough of them will like it that I'll gain even more friends and will sell the second book too!

I think everyone needs facebook acct, I also do photography and have never in five years paid to advertise. I just post other people's pics on facebook and tag them and again, word of mouth is the best. I just signed up for twitter too but haven't quite figured it out yet, I also just made a website. I have researched alot too about boosting your book up in amazon and everything helps, (tags,likes,reviews, also others agreeing with your good reviews) right now I have 26 - 5 star and one 4 star and the only reason she withheld a star was because she thought a marshmallow shooter was violent. Lol. My character didn't even use his marshmallow shooter. Right now though, if you search in the kindle store under kids kindle book, mine comes up #1 so I am super excited and thankful for that.
Mandi

Wg wrote: "Well done! I guess I really ought to make a Facebook account...!!!"

Just a quick warning, don't use Facebook just to sell your book.

Use it to get in touch with your friends, meet new people, network, and occasionally let everyone know you're book is out.

People very rapidly stop looking at your posts if all they are is BUY MY BOOK!

Very true. They will all hide you if you push it too much. Lol.

Actually, yes the illustrations are fine on a kindle (just black/white) and it's in color using the kindle app on an iPad too or smart phone. I'm excited about the new kindle fire with color!

Keryl wrote: "Wg wrote: "Well done! I guess I really ought to make a Facebook account...!!!"

Just a quick warning, don't use Facebook just to sell your book.

Use it to get in touch with your friends, meet ne..."

Oh god yes! Sorry, I assumed that was a given, but I suppose it bears repeating. I actually play various games on Facebook and have sometimes had to add people in order to gain allies/neighbours or whatever it is I 'need'. Of course, those people then see all your updates, so if you happen to post something about your book.

In all honesty, I very rarely mention that I have a book coming out. I just chat to people and if it comes up in conversation (what are you up to - editing, tearing my hair out over formatting, being scared) and so on, then I mention it. I must be doing something right - a friend of a friend who reviews books for a print magazine offered to buy the book so that she could then give it to her god-daughter after she'd reviewed it!

Mhairi, do you write for children as well?

Here is a link to my author page that I just designed for my next book (the poem I wrote on it is a true story and also the reason I am pursuing writing). It is on flickr here. http://www.flickr.com/photos/mortimer...
I also have several cover designs in that album that I had played around with if any of you want to check them out. If you have any opinions about the one I chose, etc. I posted on goodreads before and got tons of great comments and ideas from others so it was extremely helpful and something I recommend if you are designing your own cover. Just helps to have an extra set of eyes. :o)

If any of you have books on amazon you'd like for me to like or tag, I'd be happy to. Just give me a link. :)

Mandi wrote: "Mhairi, do you write for children as well?"

I'm considering it, but at the moment all my protagonists are coming out as teenagers, so I'm assuming I'm in the YA section :) Particularly with the dead unicorns I've got littering up the place :S

Mandi wrote: "Here is a link to my author page that I just designed for my next book (the poem I wrote on it is a true story and also the reason I am pursuing writing). It is on flickr here. http://www.flickr.co..."

I must admit, I love drawing and so on, but I'm nowhere near artistic enough to risk doing my own book cover. I have a lovely graphic designer who uses stock photos and puts together the most wonderful covers for me. I am hugely awed by anyone who does their own covers!!

Wg wrote: "Oh my word, yes please!!! http://www.amazon.co.uk/Black-Hat-ebo... Please let me have a link back and I'll do the same!"

Liked Black Hat :)

Could I make a suggestion? The description of your book is great, really detailed, but waaaaaay too long. You give away a good deal of the plot line and end by introducing another character that you then don't explain at all. I realise I'm no expert, but as a reader, I almost stopped reading before the end. Not because it was bad, but because it was so long. Feel free to ignore this, but I think your sales might be improved if you shorted the description to no more than two or three paragraphs.

Ok, I liked it and added a few tags. :) it was UK so just make sure the like showed up. It said I hit like though but I'm on my cell and sometimes it won't go through. If not, I'll try again. I added alot more tags too! Hope ir helps.
Here's my link http://www.amazon.com/Mortimers-Adven...
I really appreciate it
Mandi

I added to my description too and I think it helped.

Yw. I like helping other authors because I've had some nice people give me helpful tips so i like to help when I can.

Yay! Thanks, glad u liked them Wg. Are you talking about my first book or the second? I posted my flickr link earlier with that cover. I've gotten better with my illustrations lately. I was surprised actually at the people who liked them. I have had lots of kids parents that know me say that the colorbook style illustrations really drew them in and actually inspired them to make their own books which I was soooo happy to hear. :)

The composition part comes from my being a photographer and working also in graphic design.

Hmmm, what exactly is flash animation? Is it for making a book trailer?

Mahairi, do you have a link to? :) and somehow I overlooked your post bookwormie! Sry. Going to tag yours now. :)
Mandi

Bookwormie, I just tagged and liked your book. It looks really funny. You should go through kindle direct publishing and get it on the kindle.
Mandi

Thanks, I'll have to check into the flash thing.

I'll check it as soon as I get home. My phone won't let me view flash.

I'm finding selling on Kindle harder than selling on Smashwords. It would seem people have a more open mind when approaching Smashwords, whereas they go onto Amazon with a set idea of what they want. Although I've made the UK equivalent of around £13 ($20 or so) in the past 20 days that my ebooks have been on Kindle and Smashwords. Not a lot, but when you consider in the six months prior to that I didn't make a groat on Lulu when they were print books, that says a lot really.

Yippee! I just broke even. Sold two more on Kindle last night along with three local orders!

It's quite labourious formatting for Smashwords as they like everything to be justified down one side and for you to delete spaces between paragraphs etc. Which is a bind, BUT while you're doing it, your eyes scan your work and you spot mistakes. I've put six books up on there, two of them are freebies and they've both had over 250 downloads each in a couple of weeks. Of course I've made no money, but there's the hope that even a handful of those people might like what they read and pursue my other books.

Is there a secret to smashwords? I have sold tons on amazon but hardly any on smashwords.

Congrats Ward! I remember when I broke even. So exciting!
Mandi

Mandi wrote: "Mahairi, do you have a link to? :) and somehow I overlooked your post bookwormie! Sry. Going to tag yours now. :)
Mandi"

Do you mean for the graphic designer? Here's her website. :D

Oh, I meant did you have a link for your book on amazon. :) I was going to tag and like your book if you wanted me to. :D

Mandi wrote: "Oh, I meant did you have a link for your book on amazon. :) I was going to tag and like your book if you wanted me to. :D"

Oh!! Thank you very much for the offer, but my book isn't actually out yet! A couple more weeks to go - it goes live (all being well) on 27th October :) But send me the link to yours and I'll happily go and like it :D

Thank you!! :) when it does come out make sure to let me know and I'll do yours too. :) http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005...