New Amazon/Kindle FREE Bks. PROGRAM

"Does it make sense to give away the store?"
"Are you nuts?"

"What's your new address? Bellvue Hospital?"

These are typical responses to the ebook Indie author who 'buys' into this newly put together brainstorm-result program that is a sly deal between authors and Amazon.com/kindle store  where I have an end-cap, a table in the coffee shop, and where I do a lot of time promoting, so when I saw this program come along, I was all-in from the get-go, placing up a number of my titles for the FREE 5-Day promotions push on Amazon (the largest display case for your book in the world!). HOWEVER, as I have said all over the internet, BEWARE and know what you are getting yourself into, for this program is NOT ripe or right for every Indie author.  READ the following to follow me on this:

This program is not for everyone but it suits my purposes perfectly as it does Joe Konrath's and many another author who has created a long list of titles on their dashboards. When one or two titles can be put up, others rotated in, it works wonders in garnering huge numbers of new and old readers. Amazon sold 4 million kindle/fire readers in December alone, so consider the numbers if you could get even a small slice of kindle-folks buzzing about your titles. I say it is not for everyone as meaning those who have titles on Smashwords and other ebook stores as part of the agreement is that you have to be exclusive to Kindle for 90 days (3 months), so you have to take down your titles elswhere to participate in this and the loan program attached to it. NO you make no cash on the freebies, but again if you have a lot of books to work with and they are on the kindle shelf (I have close on to 50 odd titles up there) then it can be a great way to garner new
eyes on your titles, covers, descripts and while most will place the book in a to be read stack, you just never know in as big a crowd as these freebies are generating who your book is going to find - reviewers, buzz-byters, screen writers, producers, agents, maybe even an open minded publisher, and certainly a few editors. Maybe. It is all a gamble but then so is any promotion.

For me it is the perfect solution to getting things moving to a new level of sales, I hope....but it was little skin off my nose to jump in with both feet -- all in. Why? Because for 3 years now I have promoted myself as a Kindle Original -- an author who is Exclusive to Kindle. I have not branched out from that in all this time. So I did not have to take down titles from B&N or Smashwords or elsewhere (which is another gamble and not very nice!). My last six finished novels have not even sought out the months of rejection slips or the waiting for a year and a half to see the contracted for title in print!

I saw that Joe Konrath leapt in with both feet as well; I had made my decision independent of Joe, a good friend, but I have followed Joe's advice about ebook publishing from the outset. In fact, Joe dragged me into ebook publishing kicking and screaming and I thank him all the time for doing so. Joe has put up 27 titles on five day promos, maybe more by now. I have put up 30 titles since Dec. 15th which has translated into an amazing 53,794 books given away -- no money changing hands, not a cent.

One title alone went to 20,000 bks. gone after it was placed up on Dec. 18th. UK numbers are added in here. So between US and UK, I have gained a lot more eyes on my pages...or will as time goes by. Never in 30 years of working on and off with traditional publishers have I ever known any author to have that many books go out for 'reviews' and reads -- in fact, I believe most author advance copies go out to approximately 50-150 reviewers. Not that all those takers of my books will review it but every reader is in a sense a 'buzz' reviewer. Gotta give me that, and I have to believe that months from now, I will still be reaping benefits from having placed my titles into this program. Two books I have as yet to enroll in the program but that was only due to some technical problems. I am all in. But as I said at top of this post, it all depends on YOUR circumstances. You may want to do as others have and place one of your titles, a leader for a series for
instance up. If you get five free promotion days for said title, that is money you could not have afforded for the book, so in a real sense, some cash is flowing to you in this to some sweetheart deal.

We've been discussing this up and down on my "What Moves Kindle Bks. off the Shelf" at KDP Community Threads a lot. There are many who see this as authors committing mass suicide, and maybe we are all lemmings going over the edge, but my gut tells me otherwise. Besides, there has got to be a way for a guy like me to make HAY with these numbers just on the face of it. Doing some of that already here and there. Still the numbers of ACTUAL book sales, as predicted by naysayers of the program, have indeed SHRUNK, so I expect any paycheck I get for the month of December will reflect that. As a result, I am taking in laundry and book editing again, pressing the pants and pleats for anyone you might know who needs a book or story autopsy or resuscitation. Send 'em my way. Still working the DAY JOB.

Rob Walker
www.robertwalkerbooks.com
WWW.RobertWalkerbooks.com

Sell That eBook - What Sends ebooks Flying Off Shelves?

Selling the e-book with a Look! What Sends ebooks Sailing off Virtual Shelves?

Some simple changes I made turned my book sales on Kindle from a drip, drip, drip to big sales. I just clocked in at 935 books sold in my slowest month since sales have been going well for me—December 2010. Now in month one of 2011, I have sold 1,140 books – all at 2.99. I make almost $2 (70%) from each book or unit as they say.       

When first I placed my work onto Kindle, I was lucky to make 60 bucks a  month.                                                      

How'd I do it? What changes did I make? First I went back to my book descriptions and made absolutely certain of no typos or errors of any kind as well as rewriting to make each the best damn short-short I could. This made a huge difference in sales, I kid you not. Secondly, I went on a TAG binge, tagging all my books below where they are found on Amazon to utilize genre-specific tags like Occult Horror, Generational Horror, suspense, mystery, police procedural, supernatural, paranormal female detective, etc. and I linked using my name along side other more successful authors in my field. This did two things – by placing my name on tags whenever anyone opens my book list, they also get my author’s page coming up. By ‘associating’ my work with the work of say William Miekle—as he did me—I am seen by his fans, and he by mine.

I had an amazing spike in numbers since taking these steps. Of course promoting online is of great import but so to is professional cover art and editing. When I am working on a novel, I put it out there what I am working on, and I invite early readers, and it is amazing how much readers will catch. One does not have to pay huge prices for good editing as I have found my best editors – amazing editors – who love to read a book BEFORE anyone else help me create the best book I possibly can. Most people believe they had to pay out big bucks for excellent editing but truth be told many people pay out big bucks and get punk editing for their money. I’d rather have a passionate edit with no exchange of money than a so-so one that cost me a couple thousand bucks, wouldn’t you? I edit myself heavily and do many rewrites, but I know I need more sets of eyes on the project, so as I am doing a work in progress, I ship it off to people I have come to trust absolutely. This has worked out fantastically well for Children of Salem -

Romance Amid the Witch Trials, and for Titanic 2012 – Curse of RMS Titanic. My payment to these wonderful contributors has had to be in acknowledgement only, and guess what – they have been tremendous about this, and they so love being involved in a project and seeing their name in the book, that I have never been sued or held up or yelled at.

Notice how on my recent ebooks I have chosen to use subtitles? I believe subtitles help sell the book with a look, so to speak…a bit more detail right there in the title. Which brings us to titles. One’s title needs be unique and grab-ilicious. Early on, I put it out there that I am looking for the perfect title. For my last two I conducted searches. For Titanic 2012, I set it up as a contest – and I got two titles I loved – and so I used them BOTH as you see. Titles can either be seductive and alluring or boring and repellent! Think it through before you lock down on a title and as with so much put it out there for a search or contest as I did on my blog Dirty Deeds.

Cover art is imperatively important. I can’t stress this enough. Generic cover art or templates are seen as about as exciting as seeing one of those blanks where the photo or cover should be but isn’t. This is one area where I get professional help. The package has to look elegant and reflect the story within. I have been fortunate to have had excellent artwork for my ebooks. My artist happens to be my son, Stephen, a graphic artist by profession. Again, I have been fortunate in not having to pay out big bucks for artwork/graphics. But there are more and more people doing this for a one-time only fee and not for the lifetime of the book.

If you turn over your rights to an ebook publisher, guess what? They will take care of all such concerns and problems and things you may view as obstacles you do not want to deal with, and so long as you know what you are getting into, this can be a fine way to go, but you will be splitting that royalty then three ways instead of two. If you do sign with an ebook “agent” or “publisher” be clear on what their services for you provide. Will they be editing the work? If so, is that to be an extra charge? Same with artwork/graphics? If you sign with an ebook group that takes care of all the hassles and they are charging you a one-time fee to place the work up for you, do they turn over the controls to you or do they control your dashboard – thus the royalty payments, etc. Or is this group speaking of simply a one-time only fee. It should be one or the other. A real insult in my opinion is that a company charges you for these services and also wants a percentage for lifetime of the book.

You may want to find a kid – any kid – and pay them a modest amount to get your book(s) onto Kindle shelf and show you how to find your payment reports/sales reports (not actually royalty or advances as in the traditional model of publishing).

Now getting back to what actually SELLS the ebook – a key, key, key element is pricing. Ebook readers expect low, lower, lowest prices. All my novels, despite the disparity in complexity and length, were originally put up at 1.99 but I notched them up to 2.99 as soon as Kindle offered the 70/30 split as part of the partnership ‘deal’. My latest, a very complex title that is truly two books in one, I placed up at 3.99. I believe low prices to be a key element in larger numbers of books sold. I learned early on that I can make more money on a 2.99 ebook than I can a 25 dollar hardcover due to the difference in the author percentage per sale. 10 to 12 percent on 25 is far less due to the far fewer number of books sold at this high a price.

Finally, what sells ebooks for me has been a long-running presence on such places as Facebook, twitter, blogs, online magazines, chat groups, and more recently kindle forums and ebook forums. Almost all my ebook reviews have come about via meeting people online who love to do book reviews and routinely look for ebooks to review. More and more review outlets for ebooks are coming into being every day, but I have made contacts on Facebook for instance that have reviewed Children of Salem and Titanic 2012, placing reviews on their blogs and on Amazon.com, but such results came after long hours on Facebook, not just seeking such outlets but engaging people in all manner of conversation and discussing issues of interest placed up by others. In the end, if you are liked thanks to your online presence, sense of humor, concern for the universe, etc., then others online will begin to eagerly seek out your writing. If they like you, they'll want to like your ebook(s).

Some reading this will say it can’t be that simple or easy, but guess what – it has not been simple nor easy at all, and it has taken great and abiding patience. My IQ is not as important in this “business” of ebooking it as is my PQ – Persistence Quotient. Recall what I was making a month when I started with nearly the same amount of books up. It does help indeed to have an impressive list of books – numbers of covers in a line do encourage sales as well, so the last job and first really is for you to post more works – collected short stories, themed stories, how-to book crafted from your years of blogging perhaps, and more fiction, more novellas, novels. Keep putting new titles up. I had a huge backlist but it took me years to build that backlist, I can tell you.

Keep on truckin’ and ebookin’ – and take a look at my website to see what can be done if you work with a truly good graphic artist. Look at my graphic artist and webmaster’s own website – www.SRWalkerdesigns.com and find other information on this subject at The Newbies Guide to Publishing and archived blogs on the subject right here at ACME Authors.

Robert W. Walker

www.robertwalkerbooks.com

www.robertwwalker.com.blogspot.com