There wasn’t anything really special about July, but that doesn’t mean things were boring.
I managed to write 109,511 words and put out just 1 eBook. Yeah, not a whole lot! I did put up a combined 66 posts on this website and my ESL website however, so maybe that means something.
Here’s the complete rundown.
I managed to write 109,511 words and put out just 1 eBook. Yeah, not a whole lot! I did put up a combined 66 posts on this website and my ESL website however, so maybe that means something.
Here’s the complete rundown.
Google+ for Authors and Bloggers
I’ve got a new eBook out called Google+ for Authors and Bloggers, one that I’m giving away to all the people on my email list.
How many people are on that thing? I’ve got 40 right now. I remember when I was still allowed to say what I think on Kboards I had 7 people. Since then it’s grown.
Why? I think offering a free ESL book helped. And I think people just come along because I have a link at the end of all my eBooks, right there first thing before my “About the Author” section.
Maybe I’ll get more people as a result of this promo, but I feel they might not be quality people. In fact, I expect my drop-rate to go way up, where people are signing-up, getting the book, then unsubscribing when the first email comes. It could be that no one signs up at all.
So those are all reasons for me to just offer the book on Amazon at $2.99, which is what I think I’ll price it at here starting on August 1. That’ll be the same for other retailers as well.
I’m sure some people will find it and buy it, never having heard of my site. Then they’ll return it when they learn. Maybe nothing will happen.
I don’t worry too much about it right now. Yeah, I’m not obsessed with eBook sales, and maybe that’s why they’re…well, they’re about unchanged and as abysmal as ever. That’s not true. I got 90 sales this month on Amazon, which is actually up from the 77 sales of the month before. Together with the first two quarters for Smashwords, that puts me at 754 books sold this year, compared to the 860 I sold for the whole of last year. All in all I’ve had more than 1,600 eBook sales so far…pretty darn good!
Now, humor me for a moment.
I have 43 books and based on how they’re priced, if I were to sell one copy of each I’d get $127 that day. That equals $3,810 a month or $45,720 a year.
Of course I’m not selling one copy of each a day and sometimes don’t sell a single copy of some titles in a month. Some books of mine haven’t sold in a few months. But you get the idea.
I do have one consolation and that’s that Smashwords has more updated reporting now, which allows me to see iTunes and Barnes & Noble sales each week instead of…oh, maybe once every couple months, as was the case with some retailers.
I’m wandering now. Bottom line…if you want a good book that’s free and that’ll increase your authorial reach on Google+, sign-up for my email list and get this book!
How many people are on that thing? I’ve got 40 right now. I remember when I was still allowed to say what I think on Kboards I had 7 people. Since then it’s grown.
Why? I think offering a free ESL book helped. And I think people just come along because I have a link at the end of all my eBooks, right there first thing before my “About the Author” section.
Maybe I’ll get more people as a result of this promo, but I feel they might not be quality people. In fact, I expect my drop-rate to go way up, where people are signing-up, getting the book, then unsubscribing when the first email comes. It could be that no one signs up at all.
So those are all reasons for me to just offer the book on Amazon at $2.99, which is what I think I’ll price it at here starting on August 1. That’ll be the same for other retailers as well.
I’m sure some people will find it and buy it, never having heard of my site. Then they’ll return it when they learn. Maybe nothing will happen.
I don’t worry too much about it right now. Yeah, I’m not obsessed with eBook sales, and maybe that’s why they’re…well, they’re about unchanged and as abysmal as ever. That’s not true. I got 90 sales this month on Amazon, which is actually up from the 77 sales of the month before. Together with the first two quarters for Smashwords, that puts me at 754 books sold this year, compared to the 860 I sold for the whole of last year. All in all I’ve had more than 1,600 eBook sales so far…pretty darn good!
Now, humor me for a moment.
I have 43 books and based on how they’re priced, if I were to sell one copy of each I’d get $127 that day. That equals $3,810 a month or $45,720 a year.
Of course I’m not selling one copy of each a day and sometimes don’t sell a single copy of some titles in a month. Some books of mine haven’t sold in a few months. But you get the idea.
I do have one consolation and that’s that Smashwords has more updated reporting now, which allows me to see iTunes and Barnes & Noble sales each week instead of…oh, maybe once every couple months, as was the case with some retailers.
I’m wandering now. Bottom line…if you want a good book that’s free and that’ll increase your authorial reach on Google+, sign-up for my email list and get this book!
A Return to Reading
It might sound a little silly, but I don’t read that much.
Alright, alright…I read, but just not books. Yeah, I write books but I don’t read the damn things.
I’m writing so much and reading so much crap online and in newspapers and magazines that I don’t sit down with sci-fi or fantasy or mystery or history books much anymore.
Sure, I read through a lot of books on Google Books when I’m looking for sources to use for my own history books. But that doesn’t really count as curling up with a good book or electronic device, er…eReader, now does it?
I decided to change that this past month by reading more. First of all I finished off Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn, a book I’d been reading since last summer. After that I picked up Isaac Asimov’s Foundation and finished it in just a week or so. Then I got started on J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, a book I’ve never read before!
Alright, alright…I read, but just not books. Yeah, I write books but I don’t read the damn things.
I’m writing so much and reading so much crap online and in newspapers and magazines that I don’t sit down with sci-fi or fantasy or mystery or history books much anymore.
Sure, I read through a lot of books on Google Books when I’m looking for sources to use for my own history books. But that doesn’t really count as curling up with a good book or electronic device, er…eReader, now does it?
I decided to change that this past month by reading more. First of all I finished off Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn, a book I’d been reading since last summer. After that I picked up Isaac Asimov’s Foundation and finished it in just a week or so. Then I got started on J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, a book I’ve never read before!
| | | | |
I’m now on Rendezvous with Rama, although I’m not reading a whole lot each day, not up to 200 pages a day like I was when I was first living in China. Some days I don’t read at all still, but others I read 10 pages or maybe 50. For years I made myself read 100 pages a day, and that’s why I’d have a “Read” list of 100 titles in a year.
I began keeping a “Books I’ve Read” list back on July 2, 2008 (Green Hills of Africa by Ernest Hemingway was the first entry), just a couple months after I graduated from college. The first year I managed to get 57 entries and the next I added 113 more for a total of 170 books read.
When Paul was born in 2011 my reading rate went way down. Last year I read just 5 books. Pathetic, I know.
I’ve still got 366 books on that list so I need to get back into that. I did, and an amazing thing happened…I stopped caring.
I stopped caring about reading Self-publishing vs. Traditional Publishing debates, I stopped caring about my eBook sales so much, and I stopped caring if anyone’s reading this blog…and if it really matters.
When I can sit down with a good book then I can transport myself to another world where a lot of that meaningless stuff reveals itself to be so…well, meaningless.
Anyways, I would suggest being my friend over on Goodreads as I do a lot more over there now, and I suggest you do as well.
I’ve still got 366 books on that list so I need to get back into that. I did, and an amazing thing happened…I stopped caring.
I stopped caring about reading Self-publishing vs. Traditional Publishing debates, I stopped caring about my eBook sales so much, and I stopped caring if anyone’s reading this blog…and if it really matters.
When I can sit down with a good book then I can transport myself to another world where a lot of that meaningless stuff reveals itself to be so…well, meaningless.
Anyways, I would suggest being my friend over on Goodreads as I do a lot more over there now, and I suggest you do as well.
My Books
I worked a lot this moth getting the “My Books” page of this site under control. I wanted to have each book direct back to a detailed post explaining what that book was about.
I had many good posts already, but some were more than a year old, and some books had no posts at all That’s why you saw a lot of promo posts for old books this month…I was updating that page.
I had many good posts already, but some were more than a year old, and some books had no posts at all That’s why you saw a lot of promo posts for old books this month…I was updating that page.
Each "Learn More" links back to an old or new blog post that details what each book is about. This increases your long-term sales potential
There are still some I need to do, and some of them even link over to my ESL website, but overall it’s pretty good and about where I want it. Now I need to figure out if I want to take all the book images off the homepage. That page does get the most hits, though, so that might be a bad idea.
Setting Priorities
One of the reasons my output, eBook-wise, was so low this month was because I was setting my priorities for the rest of the year.
It’s not a bad idea to have a mid-year breather, and that’s just what I did. It’s also not a bad idea to have a few excuses up your sleeve as to why you didn’t do much work in a given month.
Either way, I have a firm sense of what I want to accomplish, and that includes getting the Kindle Worlds G.I. Joe series complete, all six books more I need to do (detailed post coming up), as well as starting in on Flight 370 again and finishing it.
The nice thing with Flight 370 is that’ll I’ll add in some things with Ukraine and Russia and Israel and all that other shit and also take some characters from Bring Back Our Girls.
Yep, I’m making an open-ended series that will really give Tom Clancy fans what they want, just with more edge, humor, and blood…and maybe sex, drugs and rock & roll too while we’re at it, just to be on the safe side.
I like to have all my bases covered, as do many of those government spies and spooks and “specialists” that plague that novel. It’s a nuthouse, but anyone following American politics will tell you that’s not fiction.
Another idea I have is to start a short novella mystery/adventure series with a real fuck-up named Sanders McGee. These stories would all follow some kind of natural disaster that follows the natural disasters of this detective’s life.
Working titles include:
For that last title I can see Sanders heading up to Montana from California but being snowed in with drifts reaching hundreds of feet high.
Yeah, crazy stuff, but fun too. Anyways, like I said, it’s just an idea, but one you can read in this week’s Free Fiction Friday.
I have other ideas as well, but the hard part is figuring out which are viable and which are shots in the dark. All are the latter, but some can make you money, and those are best to focus on.
Maybe I should do Books 2 & 3 for The Hirelings and Tarot Card Killer. Both books never sold much, though, so you run into that. That’s why I often write shorter books now, something which might hurt me. But when the longer books don’t sell…you can see how it’s frustrating.
I think August will be pretty good as I’ve had some good writing jobs that take the financial pressure off. Maybe I can make something really good this month and get noticed. Here’s hoping!
It’s not a bad idea to have a mid-year breather, and that’s just what I did. It’s also not a bad idea to have a few excuses up your sleeve as to why you didn’t do much work in a given month.
Either way, I have a firm sense of what I want to accomplish, and that includes getting the Kindle Worlds G.I. Joe series complete, all six books more I need to do (detailed post coming up), as well as starting in on Flight 370 again and finishing it.
The nice thing with Flight 370 is that’ll I’ll add in some things with Ukraine and Russia and Israel and all that other shit and also take some characters from Bring Back Our Girls.
Yep, I’m making an open-ended series that will really give Tom Clancy fans what they want, just with more edge, humor, and blood…and maybe sex, drugs and rock & roll too while we’re at it, just to be on the safe side.
I like to have all my bases covered, as do many of those government spies and spooks and “specialists” that plague that novel. It’s a nuthouse, but anyone following American politics will tell you that’s not fiction.
Another idea I have is to start a short novella mystery/adventure series with a real fuck-up named Sanders McGee. These stories would all follow some kind of natural disaster that follows the natural disasters of this detective’s life.
Working titles include:
- Lightning;
- Thunder;
- Wind;
- Rain;
- Snow.
For that last title I can see Sanders heading up to Montana from California but being snowed in with drifts reaching hundreds of feet high.
Yeah, crazy stuff, but fun too. Anyways, like I said, it’s just an idea, but one you can read in this week’s Free Fiction Friday.
I have other ideas as well, but the hard part is figuring out which are viable and which are shots in the dark. All are the latter, but some can make you money, and those are best to focus on.
Maybe I should do Books 2 & 3 for The Hirelings and Tarot Card Killer. Both books never sold much, though, so you run into that. That’s why I often write shorter books now, something which might hurt me. But when the longer books don’t sell…you can see how it’s frustrating.
I think August will be pretty good as I’ve had some good writing jobs that take the financial pressure off. Maybe I can make something really good this month and get noticed. Here’s hoping!
RSS Feed