2018 Wrap-up

As I've done in the past, I thought I'd take a moment to tally up my book sales and marketing progress and share the results with you. My sales are always modest, with income that can buy me a few pairs of shoes and not much else. That said, as an author hoping to grow her platform, my biggest concern has always been distribution--getting my books to as many readers as possible. In that regard, this was definitely my best year yet.

Here's how things looked as the year closed:

What She Inherits: 633 paid purchases/downloads; 78,030 free downloads
The Latecomers Fan Club: 30 paid purchases/downloads; 931 free downloads
Watch Me Disappear: 29 paid purchases/downloads; 484 free downloads

At the end of 2018, I had a total of 705 paid purchases and nearly 80,000 free downloads. That's a lot of readers! In fact, my goal back in 2017 was to sell 500 books, a goal I did not reach. But in 2018, I sailed right past that number. Here's to never giving up, friends.

Now, I know what you're thinking: Do people actually read the books they download for free? Well, a fair number do, if we take as proof the huge increase in the number of reviews What She Inherits picked up this year.

Before my major promotion in early September, What She Inherits had about 50 reviews on Amazon and no reviews on iBooks or  Kobo. As of this writing, that picture has changed dramatically:

Retailer / Number of Reviews / Star-rating

Amazon / 181 Reviews / 4.5 stars
iBooks / 205 Reviews / 4.5 stars
Kobo / 40 Reviews / 4 stars

To be honest, my biggest fear in running a free giveaway and promoting it on Bookbub was that What She Inherits would suddenly get a barrage of bad reviews. It had mostly favorable ones up to that point, and I knew I was taking a risk. That said, my faith in my book wasn't misplaced and I'm thrilled that readers have enjoyed it.

Overall, I haven't been especially active in promoting my work in 2018. I have been focused on other things--like writing my next book, keeping up with my day job, and finding quality time to spend with my family once in a while. That said, I learned that running a Bookbub promotion was 100% worth the money I spent, just as it was several years ago when I used it to promote Watch Me Disappear. In fact, I have earned back the cost of the ad and--for the first time in my self-publishing career--actually ended the year in the black, and that is a very good feeling.

To compare this year to previous years, you can check out these past posts:

2015 Year in Review
2017 Year in Review

Looking Back at 2017: Lessons from Launching Novel #3

I'm not much of a math person--as my students who are constantly correcting my math errors on their tests and quizzes will tell you--but being an indie author has turned me into a person who crunches numbers. Each month, I sit down and tally up my book sales on the various platforms I use for distribution and keep detailed spreadsheets. Even when the numbers are a little depressing, it feels productive to keep track, and over the months, those sad little figures start to add up to something.

In 2017, when I launched my third novel, What She Inherits, I set sales goals for the first time ever. For my previous books, I was happy with (or sad because of) whatever happened, but I supposed I didn't feel it made sense to have an expectations. I was sending my books into the world, and that was that. But for my new book, I got the idea into my head that concrete measurable goals mattered, and I decided that my goals needed to be doable but ambitious. If they were too easy, they wouldn't really be goals, would they?

To that end, I made I decided that I would try to sell 365 books in 2017, one for every day of the year. Ambitious? Hell yes. I published my second novel in 2013, and I still haven't sold 365 copies of it. Nonetheless, I thought my goal was still doable. In one year, I sold 296 copies of my first novel. My new novel was a better book, and I knew more about marketing.

For much of the year, I was actually ahead of my goal, which was pretty darn exciting, but as the year wore on, and my enthusiasm for marketing my book, which might be a new release but which felt old me after years of working on it, decreased, my numbers started to drop off.

Here's how the year turned out:

What She Inherits: 278 paid purchases/downloads; 8458 free downloads
The Latecomers Fan Club: 4 paid purchases/downloads; 174 free downloads
Watch Me Disappear: 32 paid purchases/downloads; 54 free downloads

So at the end of 2017, I had sold 319 books.

I fell short of my goal, but I still had my best year ever as a self-publishing author. Here are some interesting things I've learned along the way:

1. Having a lot of legit, positive reviews before doing a free giveaway makes a huge difference. When I did my first free giveaway, my book went straight to the top of the free charts, and, thanks to that, I got a ton of paid audiobook downloads by people who qualified for a discounted audiobook after downloading the free ebook. Those audiobook purchases make up 83 of the 278 paid sales.

2. Watch Me Disappear had more sales this than in the past two years, and the reason is truly hilarious. A big bestseller novel in the women's fiction genre was releases this summer with the same title by an author named Janelle Brown. The book got press like crazy, and, funnily enough, my sales noticeably increased. I didn't sell a single ebook of Watch Me Disappear in 2016. I sold a bunch this year. So I guess titles matter... I'm not saying you should mimic a bestseller's title (the opposite is what happened to me), but hey, whatever works.

3. Winning awards doesn't equal book sales. The Latecomers Fan Club won the Indie Reader Discovery Award for Chick Lit in 2014. It has the worst sales of my three novels and the worst reader reviews. My guess as to the reason: a. It's too dark to really be chick lit. It's more accurately women's fiction, but maybe not quite serious enough for that genre. b. The cover sucks. It's my worst cover. I just don't quite know what to do with the cover, so I haven't bothered trying to change it. Meanwhile, What She Inherits has my best cover. It also has the best ratings of all my books, so no surprise that it's selling well.

4. Despite my initial reservations about enrolling in Kindle Select, it has actually paid off for me with What She Inherits. I have had more income from that book this year than from my other books combined in their entire lifespans thanks to readers borrowing the book through Kindle Select. In a slow month, it brings me an extra $15, but in a good month, it can be as much as $100, which may not be much, but it's more than nothing. My other books get very little traction on Kindle Select, and I will likely unenroll them when their current term expires.

To other self-publishers out there, I hope this information is helpful. If you want to learn more about getting reviews, check out some of my other posts and let me know what you think!

Self-publishing Tips: Lessons from My Best Month Yet

In this post, some sales-boosting strategies I used in March 2017 to grow my readership.

In January, I launched my third novel, What She Inherits. Unlike my first two books, I actually had a real plan for sending this one into the world. My plan had two parts: First, generate excitement, rally book reviewers, and spread the word about my book before its release through the following methods:

• I made the book available as a preorder on Amazon, Smashwords, and all the retailers to which Smashwords distributes.
• I invited friends and family to buy the paperback via Createspace in advance of the official release date.
• I listed the book on NetGalley the month before launch. (Want to find out about a way to get a discounted NetGalley listing? Email me.)
• I used BookRazor to target Amazon reviewers and offered free ebooks to those reviewers.
• I talked it up on my social media pages (while trying not to be annoying about it my followers).

Second, once the audiobook was up on Amazon and Whispersync was functioning to allow readers to switch back and forth between the ebook and audiobook,  I made the book part of Kindle Select. Then, only when it had 20 good reviews on Amazon, I held my first Kindle Select Promotion and ran the book for free for 5 days. Using some strategic advertising (more on this later), I made the most of those free days and saw a long sales boost after the book when back to full price, so much so that I earned back everything I spent on advertising with some leftover. 

The only other promotion I've ever done that had anything close to the impact on sales as this Kindle Select Promotion was a Bookbub listing I ran for Watch Me Disappear a few years ago. That time around, I discounted the book to $0.99, and I definitely had my single best week of paid sales, with over 300 ebooks sold, but there was no lingering boost from that promotion and Bookbub is so expensive, that I only netted about $10.

Let's talk numbers for a minute.

ICYMI -- The Little Details that Matter for Book Layout

This essay was originally published in The Grub Daily and also appears in The Sane Person's Guide to Self-publishing.

Both in my work at The Worcester Review and as a freelance book designer, I regularly receive manuscripts for publication that require serious attention before they can even be imported into InDesign for layout, not because they’re poorly written, but because they are full of sloppy formatting.

If the individual responsible for layout is an experienced professional, it all should work out okay in the end, although cleaning the copy will require a lot of hours and a good eye for detail. If the individual responsible for layout is inexperienced or rushed for time, the result might be sloppy or you may have to go through several layout revisions, causing delays in getting your book to readers.

By learning a few little things, you can fix up your manuscript to save yourself and your layout editor time, and—for self-publishers—save yourself money, while taking an active role in making your book look as good as possible.

1. Finish all editing before you give your manuscript to the layout editor. Layout editors are not copyeditors. They will not be looking for typos. It’s fair to expect the layout editor to modify design choices after they send you galleys, and any errors he or she inadvertently introduces while completing layout must absolutely be corrected, but if the errors are yours, you might have to pay.

2. Be sure that if you used “Track Changes,” you have completely accepted or rejected any modifications. Track changes can cause huge headaches when importing a document for layout. My advice: For each draft, make a whole new doc instead of getting tangled in the web of Track Changes.

3. Be consistent when typing your manuscript. Here are some things writers often do inconsistently:

Paragraph format. Microsoft Word and other similar word processors “learn” from you as you type, which means they see what you’re doing and make predications as you proceed. For instance, if you hit tab to indent a couple of paragraphs in a row, Word will begin automatically indenting future paragraphs. This is great in theory, but it often leads to inconsistency. The best solution: In the “Paragraph Style” menu, choose the option to indent the first line of each new paragraph. Use that style 100% of the time for the body of your work. Never, ever use the tab key. The tab key can cause layout woes.

Paragraph spacing. Look at any traditionally published book on your shelf. Notice that there are no extra spaces between paragraphs. Many writers hit the enter key twice at the end of each paragraph, leaving a little extra gap. Don’t do that. Only hit the enter key more than once if you are indicating a section break within a chapter. In fact never hit the enter key to add extra space of any kind to your manuscript. Only hit enter to end a paragraph.

Special characters. While you’re looking at that traditionally published book, look for a dash. See how pretty it is, all emphatic and visual? Those are called “em dashes.” Is that how your dashes look, or are yours shorter, stumpier, less visible?

Here’s how you want your dashes to look:

Word—word

You format them by typing a word, then typing two hyphens with no spaces between the word and the hyphens, then typing the next word and hitting the space bar. Magically an “em dash” appears.

Here are some WRONG examples. Avoid any of these!

word – word

word - word

word— word

word –word

Word-word

Usage. If you’re self-publishing, also be consistent with word usage. For instance, do you sometimes capitalize “Black” when referring to African Americans but not other times? Make a style sheet for yourself for these little details (even if you’re paying a copyeditor).

4. Lastly, if you’re self-publishing, you will need to create all the front matter for your book. Layout editors just arrange what you’ve given them. To create front matter, once again consult that traditionally published book. Your book will need a title page and copyright page. You’ll need to write the text for that, including your copyright information, ISBN number, etc. You may want a dedication as well. All these details are up to you.

The bottom line for writers is this: Even when we’re working with a team, we writers still have to do as much as we can to make sure our work is the best it can be. To be a publishing writer, we have to learn a little bit about each part of the process of creating a book, including the nitty-gritty. But if that means the final version of my book is professional and beautiful, it’s fine by me!

Planning a Book Launch

In this post, some lessons learned from the release of my third novel, What She Inherits.

After a lengthy break from updating this blog, I'm back with some tips and suggestions based on my recent experience in the self-pub world.

Between November of 2013, when I published The Latecomers Fan Club, and January 2017, when I published What She Inherits, my attitude about self-publishing and thoughts on how best to approach it have definitely evolved.

A few months ago, I was inspired by some wise words Glennon Doyle Melton offered in Liz Gilbert's Magic Lessons podcast. In the interview, Melton commented that her writing isn't her baby, and thank goodness for that, because it was, she'd have to babysit it. When I heard that, I had one of those lightbulb moments. I don't have to babysit my writing! Because it's not a baby! Hooray! That might sound like common sense, but anyone who has checked sales pages and reader reviews daily (and suffered the depression no sales brings) might want to follow Melton's lead, too. This tiny lightbulb moment partly explains why I left this blog alone for a while. When I wasn't babysitting my writing, I wasn't worrying about self-publishing strategies or trying new marketing strategies. I was writing instead.

That said, when What She Inherits was finished and ready to go, I had to put my publisher hat back on. This time I brought a lot of past experience, but I quickly learned that I needed some new tricks, too.

In this post, I'd like to outline for you a book launch plan that makes the most of the current self-publishing landscape. Some of this is what I did for What She Inherits, and some is what I wish I did. There's always next time!

#SelfPubHelp: Top 3 Pieces of Self-Publishing Wisdom

Recently a friend put me in touch with a friend of hers who just self-published his first novel (Hi, Adam!), and in the course of our email exchange, he asked me what my top 2 or 3 bits of self-publishing advice are. Tough question, but fun to ponder, and as I wrote back to him, I thought, I should really share these on the blog, so here goes!

1. Don't join Kindle Select and thereby cave in to Amazon's exclusivity demands. This is controversial advice, and to understand why I offer this advice, you can read more about some of the downsides of Kindle Select here, or get a copy of The Sane Person's Guide to Self-Publishing for a more complete picture. That said, I strongly recommend you distribute your ebook via Smashwords, so that you can get it into Barnes and Noble, iTunes, Kobo, etc. Smashwords is free to authors, has good royalty rates, and is an all-around great company. If you uploaded a word doc (saved as a filtered webpage) to KDP, you can use basically the same file with a few tweaks on Smashwords. Also their blog is useful to follow for news. Further, I think it's totally worthwhile to do a print book via a print-on-demand option like Createspace. It's easy and cheap (very nearly free) to make a POD book, so why not?

#SelfPubAdvice #BookMarketing: Getting Reviews

In this post, an excerpt from The Sane Person's Guide to Self-Publishing. Links to sites referenced in this post can be found under the resources tab above.

There’s not much you can do to get readers to review your book aside from politely asking them, which you should do. There are, however, lots of ways to pay for reviews.

Thanks to the culture of online reviews, high profile reviews no longer have the power they once did. It seems to matter more that you get lots of reviews than it matters who wrote them. This is good news since the New York Times probably isn’t going to review your book.

Basic options for paid reviews:

#SelfPubAdvice: Planning your book launch

In this post, an excerpt from The Sane Person's Guide to Self-Publishing.

Your book launch is your first step towards establishing your book’s discoverability, so it is worth doing some careful planning. While we indie authors don’t have the resources of a publishing house to place ads in the New York Times book review, get reviews in glossy magazines, and throw parties with jumbo shrimp and champagne, we do have friends and families who want our books to succeed, and we can count on them to be excited when we set our books loose on the world.

Things that help your book launch:

#BookMarketing for Indie Authors: Preparing for Author/Book Fairs

In this post, some general tips about setting up an eye-catching table at book and author fairs.

Let me tell you about the first time I had a table at a book fair.

I was representing The Worcester Review at the book fair of the Mass Poetry Festival. I had never done any events like that before, and I was completely unprepared. I showed up with a box of back issues, an envelope of one dollar bills for change, some flyers about The Worcester County Poetry Association and a sign that I made in Microsoft word and printed out on my 8.5 x 11 paper on my home printer, which only printed in black and white. I got to my table and discovered that it was a ratty old folding table with a cracked and blistered top. I had no tape to hang up my sign, nor any way to prop it up. I had no book stands to prop up my books, so I had to lay them flat on the cruddy table. My display was pathetic.

Since then I've upped my game. In fact, at my last author fair at the Worcester Public Library a fellow author with whom I've traded publishing advice over the years suggested I blog about some tips for author events, so here goes!

My Table at the New England Authors Expo. Vertical signage, book stands, postcards, and a banner. Looking sharp ;)

#SelfPubAdvice: Turn your book into an audiobook!

In this post, an excerpt from The Sane Person's Guide to Self-Publishing on creating audiobooks.

Audiobooks are a fast-growing segment of the book market thanks to the ease of listening to books via smartphones and tablets. Did you know that you, little old you, you the indie author, can turn your book into an audiobook for a total cost of ZERO DOLLARS?

For real. You can turn your book into an audiobook and sell it at Audible, iTunes, and Amazon, and you don’t have to know thing about audio production, and you don’t have to spend a single penny to do it. Here’s how: