Category Archives: Business

Ten Ways for Writers to kick off a Fantastic New Year by Stacy-Deanne

So we’ve all made it to another year! Isn’t that wonderful? Let’s be grateful to not only still be on this wonderful earth but a new year means new horizons and goals for your writing! The first thing I want you to do is throw away all that negativity. Just throw it away and don’t think of it again. Take a deep breath and let all those worries slip away. Negativity leads to destruction and you want your new writing year to start right. Because of this, I want to inspire you by providing ten rules, well not rules but more like helpful tips of motivation and positivity to keep you going.

I hope they help!

1. Be positive

Leave the negativity in 2012. It won’t follow you unless you let it.

2. Set goals you can control

It’s important for all writers to have goals but make them goals that you can control. Don’t have your mind set on getting a six figure advance or making the bestseller list. You cannot control those things but you can control how much you’re going to write and work on your craft. Making goals that you can’t deliver sets you up for disappointment.

3. Be open to learning from your fellow writers

Have an open heart and mind this year. Sometimes we are too busy thinking we know everything that we can’t learn from others. Your fellow writers are a sea of information and you owe it to yourself to appreciate that and take advantage.

4. Don’t get discouraged

Not everything works out how we expect it to. Some books don’t sell well and some authors can’t get their books published in the first place. So what? You can’t control it so don’t let it steal your joy. Aren’t you here because you love to write? Well then, nothing else matters. Be faithful to your priorities. Remember why you want to be a writer and you’ll be satisfied with whatever comes your way.

5. Stop worrying about other writers and just do you

Stay in your own lane. Revisit my successful author post on writer jealousy if you don’t remember why you should mind your own business. It’s best for everyone.

6. Make this the year of no excuses

If you’re gonna be a writer, write. If you’re gonna start that editing business, start it. If you’re gonna self-publish and your book is in professional shape, do it. If you got revisions that you’ve been fighting off since last year, get to it. This is the year of no excuses and like Nike says, “Just Do It”.

7. Challenge yourself and continue to learn

A closed mind is a waste of time. Part of the writing life is learning. You will never stop having to learn in this business so you need to embrace it. You also need to continue to challenge yourself. Once writing has gotten too easy then there is a problem. You want to be the best you can be and you do that by learning.

8. Share your knowledge with the peers of your industry

Don’t be greedy with what you’ve learned. Help your fellow writer out sometimes and lend them a hand. You never know what you might end up with in return.

9. Be open to new ideas

Don’t limit your writing. Venture out and don’t be afraid to try new things. Just make sure you do it because you want to and not for book sales.

10. Believe in yourself

If you don’t, who will?

Stacy-Deanne

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Are Amazon and Facebook Your Publishing End All And Be All? by Deatri King-Bey

Without a doubt, Amazon is the number one retailer of books, but what about the other retailers who have billions in annual sells? How are your sells going for you on Barnes & Noble and in the iStore? Are your sells so great on Amazon that you don’t care about other online retailers? You don’t care about expanding your audience?

Understanding what Amazon has done above and beyond other retailers to capture the overwhelming share of book sells is important. You have to think the same way about your business. What are you doing above and beyond to capture market share.

eBlast – My experience as a reader and author has shown me that Amazon is the best game in town when it comes to selling and buying books. As a reader, they send me alerts to books I may be interested in that actually interest me, and I can change my preferences at any time. As an author, they give effective free advertising, showcasing my books to people who may actually want to purchase it.
- When you are promoting your title, be sure to ask readers to “Like” your product and author pages. In my opinion, this is more important than reviews because the algorithm Amazon uses to send out email blast to readers for books they might be interested in use those “Likes” and the majority of readers I’ve asked say that reviews factor little to not at all if they will be purchasing a book.
- KDP Select – In this program, you give Amazon exclusive rights to sell your eBook for three months. You can’t even give your ebook away free. In exchange for exclusivity, Amazon adds your title to their Prime Library and when members check out your title, you are paid a certain amount that is determined quarterly. This program has pros and cons. There are tons of blog post out there revealing authors’ experiences so I won’t debate that here.
  - If you do the KDP Select program, I highly suggest you do not use it for your new title. Instead, release your title on ALL of the platforms available to you and give ALL of the readers a chance to purchase your book, then once sells slow, do KDP Select.
  - I do not suggest you permanently keep your titles on KDP Select. Why would you keep all of your eggs in the Amazon basket? That’s not good business. You want to expand your readership to as many platforms as possible.
  - KindleBoards – Amazon has done an excellent job of creating a Kindle user community of readers and authors. Consider becoming a part of the community, without becoming a walking billboard.

With the ease of selling and buying on Amazon, I understand why many authors don’t sell their titles on other platforms, I just don’t agree with them. Publishing is a business. As a self-published author, you are the CEO, CFO, and every other O of your company, and you have to look at more than short term gains. You have to plan for the long term success and expansion of your company.

A few paragraphs ago, I said you shouldn’t only use the KDP Select program to sell your eTitles. Let’s examine Amazon’s motivation behind the KDP Select program. Amazon works to dry up the self-publishing market from other eBook retailers so Amazon will be the only game in town. Amazon is a business and thus doing what is best for its interest. Is that good for your business as an author? Someone who sells eBooks using Amazon’s distribution? No. Amazon has already started testing out only allowing publishers to receive the 70% royalty if they have their titles in the KDP Select program in certain markets of the world. How much more market share do you think Amazon needs to capture in the U.S. before they start that here? Am I saying you shouldn’t use the KDP Select program or Amazon to distribute your eBooks? Heck no. I’m saying don’t ONLY use Amazon and the KDP Select program. Build your audience on other platforms also.

I can hear it now. I have “tried” to sell on other platforms, but I get nothing! Granted, Amazon sells the most, but from what I’ve seen time and time again from authors is them promoting their Amazon product page instead of maintaining a website (not Facebook wall) and having ALL of their purchase links for various vendors of their titles so readers can easily select their print or eReader preferences in purchasing. I see authors nurturing their relationships with Amazon customers, yet promoting to other retailers as an afterthought. Newsflash, your promos should be about your book, not Amazon. Authors give Amazon way more free advertisement than Amazon is giving them by sending out the occasional eBlast.

So what do you do? Upload your book to as many “legitimate” retailers and possible. If you don’t have a website, get one. You are in BUSINESS and should have a professional website that showcases your work. Create a separate page for each of your titles and ensure you have the purchase links on it. Then when you promote your title, send readers to that page instead of to Amazon.

So now that you’ve decided that it’s best to sell your titles on more than one platform and promote your website for purchasing links instead of sending customers to Amazon, let’s talk social media.

Facebook, like Amazon is by far the fastest way to reach a large audience. Facebook has created communities of authors and readers and has given authors a way to build their own following! Great stuff, huh? I can’t tell you how many authors have put all of their eggs into the Facebook basket when it comes to communicating with their readership. Now they have thousands of “Friends” who follow them. Who hooo!

Except, they seemed to forget that Facebook is a business and of course going to do what will make Facebook the most money. I’m not mad at them. My publishing company is also a business, and I do the same thing.

So let’s get back to your thousands of followers on Facebook. Let’s say you are not one of those authors who “friend” everyone and ask everyone to join your group. You are focused on quality instead of quantity. Quality being people who would actually be interested in purchasing your titles. It may have taken you a year or two to grow thousands of quality followers. Guess what happened a few months ago. Facebook changed their policy so posts from fan pages only show on 10% of your followers’ walls. If you want it to show on more of your followers walls, you have to pay a fee.

Oh, and let’s not forget, everyone is getting more followers (even the average person), yet many people, like me, do not scroll down to the bottom of their newsfeed to see what posts they have missed, so the chances of someone seeing your post have gotten much slimmer.

You’re not worried, because instead of creating a fan page, you have the regular user page that limits you to 5000 friends, but it’s all good. You tell people to “Subscribe” instead of befriend, and since subscribers don’t count, you’ll never reach 5000. You’ll just promote on your wall. HOLD UP! Facebook is starting to warn authors and delete accounts of those who fill up their walls with promos. That’s what fan pages are for.

Now what do you do?

Never, ever, ever have all of your eggs in one basket. Especially a basket someone else owns. Just as I said you should have purchase links on your website, you should also have an opt-in mailing list sign-up on your website. You should be building your opt-in mailing list so that when you need to reach your fan base, you can actually reach them.

Am I saying you should skip Amazon and Facebook or other social media? Of course not. But you need to maintain as much control over your product and contact with your customer base as you can. Now get out there and take over YOUR business.

Deatri King-Bey

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Proper Planning Testimony: A Key To Publishing Success by Deatri King-Bey

I began working in the publishing industry over a decade ago in editing and marketing departments of various publishers where I learned the business from the inside out. Whether you choose to go the traditional, small publishing and/or the self-publishing route, one of the keys to building a successful career is planning. I know you’ve heard a million times that publishing is a business and you should plan, but what does that mean?

To give you a better idea of how planning plays a key role in the success of your writing career, I’ll show you an example using myself. Don’t worry, I won’t tell you every detail of my plan, but I’ll give you enough so you can see the benefits of planning.

Full disclosure: I write under several names. The only names associated to Deatri King-Bey are Deatri (romance and women’s fiction) and L. L. Reaper (suspense). As Deatri my debut novel was released early 2006. A little over a year later, I left the author side of publishing as Deatri with four titles released. I was just getting a following as Deatri but decided to be a reader. Thus Deatri the author went into early retirement.

In 2009 I decided I wanted to learn about eBooks and ePublishing. So I signed onto a small ePublishing company as an editor and author to learn ePublishing. I didn’t like it there. That company turned out to be a rip off, but I learned about the eBook process. My books were out a few months there. Needless to say, I got my rights back quickly (which isn’t always easy) and took the knowledge I gained about eBook publishing with me.

Why did I give I give you so much background information, because it all went into my preparation to self-publish. So there I was. I had knowledge about ePublishing, traditional, independent and small press publishing and marketing. I had a stock of books that were submission and publish ready. My pen name L. L. Reaper didn’t come into existence until mid-2011 so that was a non-issue.

When I went on what I thought was early retirement but turned into a three year hiatus back in 2007, MySpace was popular. When I decided I’d step back into the game in 2009, Facebook was quickly becoming king of social media. So there you have it.

I hadn’t had a real release since 2007 and I didn’t have a web presence. I was starting over. I’m sure there were readers who remembered me, but they weren’t looking for my titles any longer. They were probably like, “Where did that girl with the odd name go?” LOL.

The first order of business was to plot out a five year plan for my brand and individual books and set realistic goals. I took into account marketing, production costs (ie: editing, distribution, ISBN, copyright, cover design, printing…), timelines, schedules (including a writing schedule)… everything that goes into advancing my publishing career.

Again, even if you are going the non-self-publishing route, you should still plan. If you don’t self-publish, the production costs are in the hands of the publisher, but you are the main one responsible for every other facet of your writing career.

Notice I said I was plotting a five year plan for my brand (Deatri King-Bey), not my publishing company or my imprint. Though imprints and publishing names are important to authors, in general, readers don’t care. They don’t care who the publishers of Nora Roberts, Beverly Jenkins, James Patterson or Steven King’s books are. They buy the books because they enjoy the author’s writing. Now don’t get me wrong. Companies such as Harlequin have done an excellent job at training their reading base to pick up just about anything with the Harlequin brand on it. Good for them, but I encourage authors to self-publish and publish through legitimate publishing houses. You want readers to look for you by the author name (your brand), not by who produced the title because the producer can change several times over your career.

Let’s talk about costs. Why is it important to know costs and include them in your plans?

Needing additional funds is one surprise we can all do without.
If you are self-publishing, you need to know how much money it will take to release your titles. This will help you set the price of the final product and help you gauge how many titles you can afford to release (eBook/print) in the coming year. So if you can afford three titles in the next twelve months, then you can plan your production, marketing, writing, editing schedule and cost and for three books.
Your plan will have estimates on costs. I choose to overestimate by 10% for each step. You will need to record actual costs of everything you spend on your titles so you can calculate your return on investment. For example, let’s say your production, distribution and marketing costs for one of your titles was $1,000. A positive return on investment is everything you make after the $1,000 investment in your title has been earned. Now how long it takes you to make a positive return on your investment is a topic in itself.
- Once you have actual costs, be sure to go back into your plans and make adjustments.
- When I calculated the various costs, I did not estimate how much I’d take in for the first two years. Instead, I pretended that I’d make nothing. So if I didn’t sell one book, I’d still be able to afford to release titles for two years. There was method to my madness. Stick with me and you’ll understand in a bit. Please note. What works for me will not work for others. Make a plan that works for you.

So I’d done my research and knew which professionals I’d hire for what, and I got on their schedules and/or made note of how far in advance I’d need to contact them for each project.

I had a marketing plan for each title I would release and also one for my brand. In less than a year, I planned on releasing my first title, and I had no web presence and the small following I’d had from previous years had no idea I’d be coming back more terrifying than before.

The first phase of my plan was online presence. I set up a Facebook account, re-launched my website as a blog, attended reader events for my genre, started building an opt-in mailing list and networked with readers through my book club. By the way. I am an avid reader and always will be. I read an average of a novel a week. As a “reader” who also happens to be an author, I participate in a few groups on Facebook.

I have very limited time, so I chose Facebook as my main online hangout. Join as many networks that work for you, but I encourage you not to spread yourself too thin. You should spend more time writing than anything else.

Whatever spots you hang out in, be sure to actually participate. You’ll get much more bang for your “time” buck than if you hop from place to place and the readers don’t connect to you, thus ignore your posts.

So let’s fast forward to Oct. 2010, when my first release was to come out. Along with always releasing a high quality product, I encourage authors to self-publish and publish through a legitimate publisher (traditional, independent, small press…) This is the fastest way to reach pockets of your target audience you may not have otherwise. Once you are happy with the size of your loyal reader base, you may decide to only self-publish.

I chose to only self-publish as Deatri. Do what works for you. Nothing is set in stone and you can always submit to publishing houses while you grow your base through self-publishing. I often tell authors that self-publishing has become the new “agent” of the industry.

Back to my brand and novel plans. I set measurable goals such as:

Number of titles released
Size of opt-in mailing list
Number of guest post on my blog
Number of guest appearances (online and in person)
Number of Facebook followers
- On followers in general. I am not a big hound on quantity. I want quality. That is why I do not request friendships. That is why I do not add people to my mailing lists or groups.

Do you see anything missing? How about sells numbers? I barely promoted any of my releases for my first ten months and did not have sells goals for the first two years. Sounds crazy, but again, there was method to my madness.

Sells numbers go back to return on investment and the knowledge I have about readers’ buying habits. If a reader picks up a book by an author that is new to them and they love the book, the reader has a tendency to go back and look for the author’s previous titles.

As a new author, you don’t have a back list (previous titles). Now what works for me, will not work for everyone. My five year brand plan has phases and my second phase was to become a master of self-publishing, to put what I had learned into practice and fix any holes in my system. This went for print and electronic titles. I released quality work and knew readers would go back and purchase the back list eventually.

Sounds crazy, but again, there was method to my madness. I’m in this for the long haul. Unlike many authors, I had a reserve of titles. Some had been released, others not. So I could take the ten months to get the lay of the land, experiment with different marketing techniques and make adjustments to my novel and brand plans as needed. I released high quality titles and allowed minimal promotion and word of mouth to make sells.

So did I have a sells goal? Yes.

By Oct. 2012, I wanted my royalty checks for eBook sells to be up to $2000 total per month. I went in knowing my first year of sells would be low, and I was okay with that. Again, there was method to my madness. Though I was wading through the self-publishing side of the world, I still released high quality products. With little promotion, I slowly built a reader base and a buzz started about this author named Deatri. About my brand.

July 2011 I planned to release the first book of a four part series. This would begin my next phase where I stepped up marketing a little. By stepping up marketing, I don’t mean I joined a million social media groups and posted “buy my book” type post numerous times in the groups. Did I do some promotion in social media? Yes. I participate in a few groups and I have Facebook and Twitter accounts.

I had connected with readers before I started talking about my books. With the series, I literally allowed the readers to decide what order I wrote the series in. I also increased blog appearances (for various titles). Organized “Sale” events with other authors and used cross promotion. I continued increasing my opt-in mailing list and meeting with readers. Sounds like a lot, but it doesn’t take a lot of time when planned properly. And yes, you do need to keep track of how much time you spend on promoting/marketing/ non-writing activities and make adjustments where needed.

Part of my promotion budget is free reads. I know many of you think giving away titles is a sin, but publishing companies have been giving away books for years because it’s one of those promotion tools that work. Before eBooks, many authors kept free reads on their websites. This is nothing new.

I’m not saying give away full length novels. But consider writing a few short stories and/or a novella to give away. Ensure they are properly edited and have great covers. Something your brand can be proud of give them away on your website and in any online store you can get them in to.

I use Smashwords for my free titles. I upload there and allow them to distribute. It took months, but Amazon and Barnes & Noble eventually matched the free price on the titles I’d submitted through Smashwords. Note that Amazon goes back and forth with having the titles free at times and .99 at others, but that’s out of my control. I have three free reads (well, free most of the time. Dang blasted Amazon) that are a short story, compilation of short stories and a novella. In December 2011, my titles became free on Barnes & Noble. It took until May 2012 (almost a year) before they showed free on Amazon. I didn’t think it would take that long. Lesson learned.

So let’s look at the numbers. Do you think I’ll be paid $2000 in Oct. 2012 for my eBook titles? I published my first eBook Oct. 3, 2010, so received my first royalty December 2010. Did minimal marketing until Jul. 2011, then stepped it up a little.

I’m rounding down to dollar amount. Rows in bold are the months I released a title (new, re-release of back list, and/or a free read). FYI: Currently, I sell my titles at Amazon and Barnes & Noble. I have other options, but did not want to pursue them in the first two years.

	Amazon	Barnes & Noble
Oct. 2010
Nov.
Dec.	$34	$1
Jan. 2011	$40	$9
Feb.	$31	$20
Mar.	$39	$11
Apr.	$17	$32
May	$503	$33
Jun.	$396	$33
Jul.	$213	$30
Aug.	$154	$28
Sept.	$145	$58
Oct.	$108	$42
Nov.	$89	$12
Dec.	$88	$15
Jan. 2012	$85	$72
Feb.	$128	$298
Mar.	$686	$269
Apr.	$966	$241
May	$562	$239
Jun.	$715	$275
Jul.	$1245	$284
Aug.	$1059	$238
Sept.	$2944	$414
Oct.	$2735	$408

As you see, I met my two year ebook royalty goal. I love the saying: Work smarter, not harder. I created a plan of action and followed through with adjustments here and there as needed. I don’t do a lot of promotion, but I do promote. My main focus is releasing a high quality product.

Wrap Up

I won’t tell you how your brand and novel plans should look or how many titles are the key to success. Here are a few items to remember when you write your plans.

Do your research and learn the publishing business. Besides being a downright excellent author, you need to become an expert in production, marketing and distribution. Especially where it pertains to your company so you can incorporate these elements into your plans. I chose to only release my ebooks on Amazon and Barnes & Noble because I wanted to learn the ins and outs of the two largest eBook sellers first then expand.
We all may have madness, but have method to your madness.
Do not cut corners. Always release high quality products (books) and indicate the cost into your plans. This method will cost you more up front, but in the end, it usually pays out nicely when accompanied with a good marketing plan.
Return on investment (ROI) is extremely important. You are in the publishing game for the long haul. Use all three types of marketing: those that show results short, mid, and long term. ROI also counts for your time. How much time are you spending on your various marketing campaigns? Are you getting your bang for your buck (ROI)? What about your editors? Are they qualified? Covers anyone…?
Know your product and your target audience.
Formats of your title(s), print run and distribution
Set sells and marketing goals
What markets will you sell in?
Create action plans to reach your sells and marketing goals.
How many titles will you release and when?
Where are the pockets of your target audience and how will you find/reach them?
How will you market yourself?
What makes your title(s) different than others in the genre? What sets your brand apart?
Will you write under one name or numerous? For example, many readers who enjoy traditional romance do not enjoy horror. So if you write both genres, you may want to have pen names by genre.
What are your expansion plans? How will you reach new markets and when should you begin expansion?
How will you maintain contact with your loyal reader base?
How will you grow your reader base?
What is your continuing education plan?

Do an Internet search on “book marketing plan” and I’m sure you’ll find lots of examples. Initially, planning is time consuming, but in the long run it is time well spent.

Good luck

Deatri King-Bey

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Keep An Eye on the Trades by W. Terry Whalin

If you want to know the inside scoop about publishing and how it works, I encourage you to read trade publications.

The weekly magazine of the publishing world is Publishers Weekly. If you’ve thought about subscribing, it is not cheap. I’ve been taking it for years and read it cover to cover each week. I absorb a great deal of information because each week covers a different type of book as well as current news about books and authors.

For many years, I made a weekly trip to the library and read Publishers Weekly from the reference librarians. Smile and engage the librarians because they will not have PW in their magazine section. The librarians read this trade magazine to keep up on the publishing world but also to know in advance about books from bestselling authors. It’s how your library always has a copy on order before it releases.

The PW magazines are kept behind the counter and you may have to read it in their sight because the librarians don’t want you to walk off with their resource. For many years, I read this publication in my local library.

Also subscribe to the free newsletters from Publishers Weekly and read them when they arrive in your mailbox. I have read this information for years and it’s been a great education about the business of publishing.

Several years ago, PW started a feature for the back page called Soapbox. Often authors or publishers or publicists will write something inspirational and insightful on this page. It’s well worth reading online (if available some of their material is only for subscribers) or in the print version. The most recent PW (Sept. 24, 2012) has a Soapbox column from first-time novelist Rayme Waters called Promote, Promote, Promote. She includes 10 tips on guerilla marketing. Every novelist (or nonfiction writer for that matter) can gain from these tips. Whether you’ve never published or been published many times, I learned a great deal from this article.

Another trade resource is to subscribe to Publishers Lunch. They have a free version and a paid version of this publication. I get the paid version because of the additional information and publisher access. Yet for many years, I read the free version.

Shelf Awareness is another terrific resource which is targeted to booksellers and librarians—yet includes valuable insights for writers. It’s free and comes five days a week. Most of the writers on this publication are former PW writers.

Trade publications are an important resource. Each of us needs to continue to grow in our craft and using this resource is a solid path of education.

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W. Terry Whalin, a writer and acquisitions editor at Morgan James Publishing, lives in Irvine, California. He has written more than 60 nonfiction books including Jumpstart Your Publishing Dreams. His website is located at: www.terrywhalin.com.

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Amazon KDP Select Experiment by Deatri King-Bey

Many have asked me why I haven’t hopped on the Kindle Select bandwagon. That’s because the majority of my titles have nice Nook sells and I want my books to be available to my supporters. Granted, I know you just pull your books off other vendors for 90 days (minimum), so be sure to take that into consideration. You can always go back to selling your books everywhere. Anywhooo, I just don’t find the program is good for me. I still received numerous questions about the program, so I decided to do a KDP Select Experiment so I can give you first-hand experience instead of just opinion.

For those of you who don’t know, if you enroll your eBook in the Amazon KDP Select program, you say that you will sell and give away your eBook on Amazon.com only. You give them complete exclusivity. You can’t even give the eBook away on your website. In exchange for your making your eBook exclusive to Amazon, you are allowed to give your book away for free for five days and your book is placed in Amazon’s library for its Prime Members. When a Prime Member borrows the eBook, you are paid a certain amount.

When KDP Select started, the units downloaded for free counted toward your sales ranking when the book went back to regular price. The result, traditionally published books were being knocked out of “Best Sellers” list left and right. They lost visibility, thus sells, so I knew the publishing industry wouldn’t let that last long. Publishers complained and now free downloads barely count towards paid download ranking. That’s not the end of the story. You can still make money using the Amazon KDP Select program.

I think the Amazon KDP Select program is especially great for authors who don’t have many sells outside of Amazon, have a series (I suggest putting the first book of the series), multiple books out or have older titles that aren’t selling as well anymore. I think the program can give LOTS of exposure and the possibility of numerous new readers.

Onto the experiment.

I have decided to place two titles on the KDP Select program. Neither of these titles have sold a copy on Barnes & Noble in over a month, so though I’m still uncomfortable about being exclusive to Amazon for 90 days, I’m going to suck it up and do it. I just need to remember that this will increase the visibility of these titles and that’s the whole point in making them available to the public.

Step One (May 28): I logged into Pubit and took my two titles (The Other Realm and Picture Perfect) off sell. I’ll admit, that hurt. It’s processing and I should probably wait until the process is over before enrolling into the KDP Select, but let’s see what happens. I also updated my webpage to take off the Nook direct buy links.

Step Two (May 28): I logged into KDP and contemplated if I truly wanted to have my two titles exclusive on one site for 90 days. I’m not happy about this, but it’s only 90 days—at least that’s what I keep telling myself. It’s not the 90 days that bothers me. It’s the exclusivity. I don’t like that for even a second. Get over it. I read through the FAQs, several times. I’m anal about this type of thing and you’d best believe I’ve spoken with authors who are in the program. A few new items I learned from the FAQs:

KDP Select-enrolled titles are automatically renewed for another 90 days unless you opt not to automatically renew. So you know I will hop on over to the “Edit book details” page and uncheck the box next to “Automatically renew this book’s enrollment in KDP Select.”
You can un-publish your KDP Select-enrolled titles at any time during the term. So if it is really driving you crazy that your book is only available on Amazon, you can remove it from there also. BUT you still cannot sell it other places either for the 90 days. So your book will not be available anywhere until the 90 days is up.
If you get cold feet, you have 3 days to get out of the program. I think all contracts work like that, don’t they? You get a 72 hour cooling off period.

There’s a lot more information on the FAQs. Be sure to read them.

I enrolled my two titles into the KDP Select program. I looked at my term date and have to leave my books exclusive until 25 August. If these two titles were the same genre, I wouldn’t have done them at the same time, but since one is fantasy and the other women’s fiction, the target audiences (though overlap at times) are different enough. Now I’m off to uncheck that auto-renew (into the program) feature. Okay, I’m back and didn’t see where to not automatically enroll. I still have three days to get out of this program, so maybe that option will appear after that time. I’ll be back.

I’m back (June 5). Did you miss me? I am now able to uncheck the auto-renew.

Step Three (May 28): I’m not in a hurry to select my free days. I know that I will do the free reads promo in three sets. Two Wednesday/Thursday sets and one Thursday set. I choose to do it this way because I’ve been told numerous times that the free downloads increase your sales ranking. No one knows how much. So let’s see if how much of a bump my numbers get just before the weekend. I’ll do the free day promos three weeks in a row because I’m trying to get it over with. Yep. I said it. This is an experiment and I just don’t feel like spreading the five free days spread out and having to report on each one. So I’ll group them and report on each group. If you are serious about the KDP Select program, I think it would be best to spread your five free days out.

I’ll be on vacation the second half of June, so I reckon I’ll start my free day promos then. There’s also another reason I’m choosing June to do the free promos. The 4^th of July is vacation time. Lots of summer reading will be going on so this is a good time to have my books out there. Here are the dates I’ll schedule the free days for:

June 13, 14
June 20, 21
June 28 (FYI: I ended up cancelling this date for both)

Originally when the KDP select program started, it was said that the free downloads would count toward your rankings, but from what I’ve seen, that doesn’t seem to be true. I’ll let you know for sure at the conclusion of this experiment.

First I need to create a plan on how to promote my free days. My Facebook, Twitter, reading groups I belong to and mailing lists are givens, but there are other online avenues that promote free reads. I hear they are hit and miss. Let’s see what happens.

Here’s a tool that submits your promo information for your free days to various websites:

http://authormarketingclub.com/members/submit-your-book/

Step Four (May 28): My followers who wanted the titles I’ve entered into the KDP Select program have most likely already purchased them, so it’s time to maximize on the exposure and find new pockets of my target audience. Sounds like a great time to set up a blog tour. I only have the one fantasy book, which I entered in the KDP Select program, and in all honesty have neglected it. Thus I need to find places to be a guest blogger or be interviewed. I’d do my women’s fiction title also, but I just don’t have time to do it with all the other things I have going on in my life.

(June 4) I did some research into the sci-fi/fantasy/paranormal romance world and have sent blog appearance request to nineteen to appear on their blogs near the end of June. They’ve probably never heard of me before but oh well. Nothing beats a failure but a try.

(June 4) I’ve already heard from several of the authors I emailed this morning and have four guest posts lined up (fantasy) and one blog talk radio. Cool. I did receive an odd email from one of the authors. I’ve been in the business a long time, and I know some authors can be a tad bit snobbish, but such is life. One of the replies to my request was from an author who said something on the lines of, “I rarely allow guests authors on my website, and when I do, they are my peers.” Did that sound snooty to you? I’ve been turned down many times for interviews and such. It’s no big deal, but that seemed like the author’s nose was high in the air and stick stuck way up her behind. Authors, remember tone is important when responding to people. For one thing, you should always be polite because it’s the right thing to do, and also because you never know who you’re speaking with, especially online.

(June 13-14) I forgot all about my books being free until I checked my KDP stats this morning, which I do every morning. Only 6 a.m. and already a few hundred downloads for both books. Cool. My next step was to go onto Facebook and announce the free books in the reading groups I belong to and also on my author pages. By the way, I ended up with a seven spot blog tour for The Other Realm. Not bad, huh?

Next I’m off to see what locations ran my free tour. I know some places must have since I already have so many downloads and it’s early in the day.

I did a search on Twitter for “The Other Realm by Deatri” and BAM, @FreeEbooksDaily had indeed posted it. Thank you, Mom, for giving me an uncommon name. Next I searched for “Picture Perfect by Deatri” and BAM, @sylviahubbard1 had Tweeted it. It’s still early so I’ll check again later.

Next I moved onto Google and did a search of “The Other Realm by Deatri” and BAM, I saw both books on http://ereadernewstoday.com/free-kindle-books-17-free-books-for-6-13-12/6714313/

The Other Realm also made it to: http://www.facebook.com/kindledailydeal

Picture Perfect: Kindle Daily Deal

http://thekindledailydeal.com/bargain_preview.cfm?bargain_id=804

Wednesday 13 June I got 4262 downloads on Picture Perfect and 2536 downloads on The Other Realm.During the course of the day, The Other Realm ended at #4 on the free downloads for fantasy. Picture Perfect ended up #56 in free downloads overall.

(June 15) I was anxious to see what the ranking of the titles would be after the free promotion. I had been told that Amazon counts the free downloads towards your actual sales ranking. Not one for one, but they do help substantially. When I would ask for what substantially or a lot meant (I’m a numbers person. Those I understand), I could never get what they meant. Before this experiment started, both of my titles were over a million in the sells ranking. If you sell, one or two books, your ranking can go to around 150,000 range, so let’s see how “substantially” the free downloads worked on my rankings.

Picture Perfect finished with 8112 free downloads.

And the ranking this morning is: Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #69,829

The Other Realm finished with 3984 free downloads

And the ranking this morning is Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #364,856

Let’s put this into perspective. The Picture Perfect ranking is okay. It would translate to I’d sold a few books in the past couple of days. The Other Realm ranking looks as if I sold a book or two a few days ago.

This is very good information to know because I’ve read and been told numerous times by those in the program to run your free days Thursdays so your rankings will be higher come Friday when people purchase. Keep it in perspective folks. From speaking with others who have participated in this program, and looking at the ranking on Amazon, I did extremely well on the download volumes. So well that Picture Perfect was the 56^th most downloaded book of ALL of Amazon’s free titles, and though The Other Realm didn’t break the top 100 list for most downloaded free books on Amazon, it did get to 106 of the thousands of free books offered on Amazon. So you’d need a heck of a lot of free downloads to really increase your sales rank. Side note: Here is an excellent article about Amazon Sales Ranking. Please note that the ratio of Frees that count toward your sales ranking is not 10 to 1. It’s not even 1000 to 1. Meaning for every 1000 free downloads that would count as 1 sell in the rankings.

You may now be thinking, what’s the point in giving away 12,000 books. Exposure. If even 10% of these people read the books, that’s up to 1200 people who have been exposed to my work who had probably never heard of me or considered reading my work. Hopefully, they will enjoy the titles and go back to purchase more. This is why the KDP Select program works better for people with a few titles released and those with a series (I suggest putting the first installment of the series in the program).

But more importantly, and an item I haven’t seen discussed in any of the articles I’ve read about the KDP Select program, is the Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought element of product pages. Over the years, I’ve had readers contact me who said they’d never heard of me but discovered my books through that Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought.

Picture Perfect had a total of 8112 downloads. That means 8112 Amazon customers’ book purchases are now linked to Picture Perfect. So on some of the product pages of books they have purchase, Picture Perfect will show in the Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought section. That is a heck of a lot of free advertising and a major strength of this program that I believe many overlook. I believe the Customers Who Bought section is one of the main strengths of the KDP Select program.

I need to write a few articles and submit the interviews for the mini blog tour I set up for The Other Realm. I’ve been neglecting this poor little title so long. Shame on me. Optimally, I would have set up a tour for Picture Perfect also during my free promo period, but I have a new romance coming out next month and will be touring then so just don’t have the time to promote both of these titles as I should. Be sure to always take into consideration your time constraints.

By the way, when I announced the free days in social media groups I belong to, I asked people to like the product page. People rarely hit that like button on anyone’s page, so I figured it couldn’t hurt to ask. I ended up with 20 additional likes on both pages.

(June 16) I’ve had a few sells of both titles which I shall credit to the KDP Select program since I hadn’t had sells for these titles in over a month. FYI: It looks like borrows count as sells in the ranking.

As of this morning:

Picture Perfect (Women’s Fiction) – 3 sells and 1 borrow, Amazon ranking: #33,650

The Other Realm (Fantasy Romance) – 3 sells, 3 borrows, Amazon ranking: #39, 586

(June 17) I haven’t been promoting either title but still received a few sells. Since the sales rankings for the books aren’t high enough to be placed on any list, I think the sells stem from the Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought section of the product page of Amazon.

Picture Perfect (Women’s Fiction) – 5 sells and 2 borrows, Amazon ranking: #36,365

The Other Realm (Fantasy Romance) – 7 sells, 4 borrows, Amazon ranking: #29,650

I’m curious how people find out a title is available to borrow unless they happen upon it while browsing Amazon. I’ll have to ask someone in the program I guess.

(June 18)

Picture Perfect 7 sells, 3 borrows Amazon ranking: #33,041,

The Other Realm 8 sells, 4 borrows, Amazon ranking: #43,921

Don’t worry, I’m done giving the daily report. I think the borrows and sells will go down between free days because I’m not promoting the books. I suggest you promote the books for additional sells so you’ll, hopefully, get on some of the best seller list on Amazon to be more visible

June 19 Evening

The Other Realm #109,392 Paid in Kindle Store

Picture Perfect # #65,904 Paid in Kindle Store

August: Okay, I think you get the picture of how the KDP Select program works. The virtual tour of The Other Realm that I went on started near the end of June and went nicely, but by the time I’d started the tour, the bump in ranking I’d had was gone. So take that into consideration when you schedule your free days.

In conclusion, I think the KDP Select program is a good marketing option to boost your sells of older titles. If you have a new title, I do not suggest you place it into this program. FIRST, get the majority of the sells from the eBook, then enter the program so those who are downloading it for free wouldn’t have bought it anyway. You want to use this program to gain new readers, which is also why you want to have more than one eBook out (preferably in the same genre) when you enter this program.

Has this experience changed me into a KDP Select person. Nope. Don’t get me wrong. The titles I entered have received at least 20 sells each since I ran those free days and it is a way to get your work out there to people who may not know about your books. Once readers begin reading those free downloads, I’m sure many will come back for more. This program just not for me, that doesn’t mean it’s not just right for you.

Deatri King-Bey

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Don’t have a copy of Become A Successful Author? What are you waiting for? Become A Successful Author will be used in the “How To Write That Novel” course at Chicago State because it covers everything from branding to writing to editing to formatting and uploading electronic and print books to marketing and so much more. Your time is money. Look at all the time, thus money, you’ll save by ending your search for answers: Purchase Become A Successful Author for only $4.99 (eBook) or $9.99 (print) from: Amazon (US), Amazon (UK), Barnes & Noble

Seven Deadly Sins of Self-Publishing

The publishing industry is a dangerous place. I read an article the other day that stated the overwhelming majority of self-published authors don’t even sell 500 copies of their titles. Scary huh? What can authors do not to be in that number? I have my opinions on the subject, but called in additional experts (self-published authors) to give their two cents on what self-published authors’ worst enemy is. I received lots of great responses that pretty much fell into the below deadly sins.

Arrogance – There are authors out there who have done decent to quite well selling books and get to smelling themselves (as my grandmother would say). What these authors see as confidence, others often perceive as a funky and/or dismissive attitude. As my good friend author J’son M. Lee would say, “It’s best to keep it humble.”

Distribution Issues – Unfortunately, many authors do not know or understand what their different distribution options are. This goes deeper than just who is shipping your book where (electronic and print). Many also do not understand how ISBNs work and why your publishing company should own its ISBNs. Yes, it takes research. Start with Bowker, the only official source of ISBNs in the United States, and learn everything you can about ISBNs. Don’t be afraid to contact their support if need be.

Know exactly what your distributor can and can’t do for you. Will they offer marketing of your title to regional book sellers and libraries? Will your print titles be returnable? What seller and warehouse catalogues will your title(s) be listed in? Are they print on demand? What is print on demand? Are they taking a percentage of each sell…?

Speak with authors who have distributed in different ways and ask what worked and didn’t work for them. Research, research, research then make informed decisions. It’s okay if you change your mind later on in the game. You may do it this way for now and another way later, but at least you truly know what you’re doing.

Doubt – This one came up a lot. Not only self-doubt, but the doubt of others in us that we’ll make it. Fear of failure and of disappointing our loved ones has stopped many from reaching for their dreams. There is no easy way to say this, so I’ll just put it out there. If you do not try, you have failed yourself. The desire for this dream is in you for a reason. Nurture it by writing, learning the craft and business and doing your best to see your dream to fruition.

Gullibility – It breaks my heart every time I hear an author has been taken advantage of by a supposed editor, publisher, distributor, book seller, cover artist… The list goes on and on, including fellow authors. I have been in the business for over a decade, but don’t listen to every word I say. Do your own research. Same goes of other experienced authors, industry insiders and those who are supposedly in the know. There are a lot of good people out there who truly want to help you, but there are also a lot of cons who do not want you to succeed for whatever reason or who want to take advantage of your dream. Be careful.

Instant Gratification – There are self-published authors who want their book out there now, now, now. They don’t want to wait until they have enough money to properly produce their books. Many don’t want to take the time to have their book properly produced. Many don’t want to invest time in learning the craft and business. Many don’t want to invest time in creating and implementing marketing plans. Many don’t want to invest in the time it takes to have reviews (from legitimate review teams and publications) before their book is released. Many don’t want to invest the time in truly building a relationship with their base. Many won’t even decide who their base is… It goes on and on.

Laziness – There are authors who just want to write the book. Forget about the research that goes into writing their book(s) or learning the craft or business. Money is tight so everyone is trying to save costs, but some authors are so lazy that they won’t even learn how to properly format their book (which is easily found online).

Poor to No Planning – You’ve written this book, now what? Many have not set aside production and marketing budges or created a marketing plan. They haven’t been nurturing their relationship with readers and networking. They haven’t pinpointed how to connect with their target audience or even know where or what their target audience is… Publishing is a business. For a better chance at success, it pays to have plans for your business and each product you release.

There you have it. The Seven Deadly Sins of self-publishing, but as I went through them, I think some of them carry over to traditionally-published authors also. Be careful out there. The publishing world is dangerous!

Deatri King-Bey

If you found this post helpful, please use the Share buttons to spread the word about it.

Don’t have a copy of Become A Successful Author? What are you waiting for? Become A Successful Author will be used in the “How To Write That Novel” course at Chicago State because it covers everything from branding to writing to editing to formatting and uploading electronic and print books to marketing and so much more. Your time is money. Look at all the time, thus money, you’ll save by ending your search for answers: Purchase Become A Successful Author for only $4.99 (eBook) or $9.99 (print) from: Amazon (US), Amazon (UK), Barnes & Noble