Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Archive for the ‘Newsletters’ Category

I promised photos from the trip

Posted in A writer's life, am wrinting, Newsletters, Travel, UK, Warhammer, tagged , , , , on April 18, 2024| 2 Comments »

I feel like a slacker but I have been busy. There’s so much going on, so much to write about. We’ve been back six weeks. It feels like a short time and a long time. I’ve been back at the day job and writing.

Now writing doesn’t just mean writing. I’m doing a bit more than that and writing admin takes time. But the good news is that I’m getting there. My newsletter has been sadly neglected and I will end up losing most of my subscribers with the last one I sent out. But it’s my own fault because being a slacktard! Lesson-Don’t stop sending newsletters! Because you get restricted to only those who interact with your newsletter in the last 90 days.

Next thing is picking up subscriptions for Bookfunnel, setting up my store (in progress), reducing the price of Awakening to $0.99 USD (check out the link in my books) and then getting in various newsletters etc. I’d really like to write a sequel to this story but i’ve got no reviews and it’s not selling and I don’t know why. Mind you I don’t advertise but that’s crazy these days, particularly on Amazon.

What have I been working on? Sihem, now called The Founders’ Legacy has been revised, reworked and will go to the CSFG novel crit group next month. Meanwhile I’ll start trying to put it on submission. I’m also working on a kids’ fantasy, Grandma Neebs: Through the Pantry Door. I had some lovely and encouraging feedback on this book. This, too, I will put on submission. It’s middle grade and around 43,000 words. I have a couple of things in drafting stage. A paranormal romance that links into by two series, Spellbound in Sydney and The Cursed Ones. I am also writing something else for a new pen name. Plus there is a backlist of stuff that needs revising/restructuring etc. My next project will be Amber Rose, in the Cry Havoc Series. We shall meet with Jemina and Fulton yet again. This time they are up against evil machines. Meanwhile I’m rereading Ruby Heart and Emerald Fire to make notes for Amber Rose. I’m also picking up typos so will fix them soon. I’m thinking of doing a paperback version of these.

Now for the photos.

This is the River Trent, Nottingham, in flood. It rained a lot before we got to England and more while we were there and it was still raining when we got home. I thought the submerged bench spoke volumes.

While in Nottingham we took a day trip to Cromford and Buxton, because there were bookstores there. This is Scarthin in Cromford. Cute town too. Below is a pond and tree opposite the bookstore.

That’s me walking into Scrivener’s bookshop, Buxton. I’m wearing my very warm Macpac coat. It was a godsend. Pity I’d spent a lot of money in Scarthins.

My bad but I can’t remember which shop this was in. Forgive me, I’m getting old. Matthew will probably know as he has a functioning brain. Lol.

By the way, Buxton is a pretty town. Apparently, the Dukes of Devonshire was wanting to make it rival Bath so there is some amazing Regency architecture there. It is also very hilly so some great views. If only I could paint.

In Nottingham we visited Warhammer World twice. Matthew was trying to connect with his editor but we had no luck as his emails went to spam. However, we had fun. Bought stuff and went to look at the gallery. I’ve posted pictures from this before. Actually my most popular images in the life of my blog. It used to be free but now you pay a small amount. But it’s now huge and amazing. Here are some shots.

I took this shot of Angron, because it was cool, of course, and because Matthew wrote a story about Angron in After Desh’ea, appearing in Tales of Heresy. The final masterpiece was a huge room for one diorama featuring the attack on a planet.

I should mention we took my son and grandson to Warhammer shop in Singapore, Katong to be precise. My son has painted some awesome miniatures but then he’s artistic.

And finally for this set of photos, me with Marc Gascoigne at a restaurant in West Bridgeford, Nottingham. Matthew took the photo. I have no idea what Marc is doing. Oh well. We’ve known Marc a while and he first published Matthew when he headed up Black Library. It was great to see him again. The food was good too.

Of course, there are more photos and I’ll try to put more up over the coming weeks. We stayed in a delightful village outside of Lincoln. Now I’m using it in a story.

Next time!

Read Full Post »

Publishing results for July 2017

Posted in 75 World Science Fiction Convention, A writer's life, Australian author, Book launch, Digital Publishing, general excitement, GUFF, Helsinki, Hybrid Publishing, Indie Publishing, Instafreebie, Newsletters, Publication news, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on August 1, 2017| 1 Comment »

Last month I posted about my Indie Publishing experience from a beginner’s perspective. That post is here.

There I discussed coming close to earning $100 in that month from my Indie publishing efforts. I did notionally make $100.

Well this month I’m over that amount. Earnings figures are notional by the way, because the money comes in at a different time. For instance Kobo calls them estimated earnings.  So this month notional earnings are around $140 $150.

Mind you I had to work hard for those few dollars!

I also gave away heaps of books this month but more on that later.

Sales

I used Kobo promotions a lot this month and that where I had most of my sales. Kobo are really easy to deal with and they offer a wide range of promotions, about half have no upfront costs just percentage of takings. I wasn’t successful in getting all that I bid for but I did okay. It takes time and I think getting my name seen will mean eventually people will buy. It also helps to have a number of titles.

Next biggest sales were iBooks, surprisingly. It is not easy to promote on iBooks. There is no easy way for Indies to promote on iBooks. I hope one day they will adopt the Kobo model.  Then Amazon was the next chunk of sales. Nothing earth shattering but better than a big fat zero! You cannot bid for promos on Amazon. Amazon put together their Daily Deals by themselves.

Promotion

As mentioned above I have a promo tab on Kobo. I directly list with them to access this. I had two or three promos with different books through the month: paranormal romance and dark fantasy.

I tried for a Bookbub a couple of times through the month with different titles and met with rejection so I decided to do something with another provider. It can be dangerous to put all your eggs in one basket, particularly when the basket holder is swatting your eggs away!

I used Freebooksy to get the word out that Argenterra was free on 28 July. I made it free earlier than that and it’s currently free. Interestingly, this means I won’t be able to tout for a Bookbub for this title for three months as Bookbub exclude books that have been discounted for three months. Freebooksy is not cheap. It was $100 US to list for a day. However, they are a great group to work with and they have been very considerate of my other efforts with Bargainbooksy.

I find it interesting that Amazon doesn’t let people promoted except by AMS ads which I don’t find effective at all because these email services are making heaps of money from marketing specials and freeboots to their subscribers.

Listing Argenterra for free is a loss leader tactic used by many vendors since forever. Technically I don’t like giving books away for nothing. I think it lowers the value of your work. On the other hand, giving away book one with the hope that:

  • the person downloading will read it (preferably sooner rather than later);
  • having read book one they will like it enough to buy book 2 and 3;
  • after reading books 2 and 3 will like my writing enough to try another series, and
  • after reading my work they become a fan of my writing and stick to me like spat gum to a shoe!

I don’t know if there are any figures out there, but from past experience and my own behaviour I know that free books downloaded may never get read, but as I said before I’m looking to find my audience so one must take a chance.

Before the Freebooksy promo I let people know it was free. Not in a big way. Patty Jansen put it on the Facebook page for Ebookaroo and I asked some people to include it in their newsletter. I don’t know if people did but about 60-70 copies had been downloaded before promo day. On promo day, I got about 1700 downloads on Amazon and about another 100 on iBooks. No figures from Kobo as their freeboot counter is out. But I had a tail, next day more books downloaded. This could have been due to late email opens and people clicking and finding the book still free, or because with the 1700 downloads I had reached #123 overall Amazon freeboots and #1 in three sub categories of Epic, Sword and Sorcery and Coming of Age. Then Patty Jansen included Argenterra in her regular newsletter and then more downloads happened. So far maybe an extra 300-400. I just had another look at the figures, maybe that’s closer to 500 downloads from a newsletter. That’s so fab. I’m so grateful for the little leg up.

I didn’t see a lot of buy through to the rest of the series. Maybe one or two. If only one percent of those 2400 people (maybe more) go on to buy the series that’s still 24 people who might go on to buy the series. The promo will pay for itself eventually. Also, people have my book so there is always a chance.

Newsletters and Instafreebie

Technically sending newsletters and listing books on Instafreebie are promotion too. Shatterwing was included in a group Instafreebie/Bookfunnel promotion and wow! It was the best yet. Probably 700 new subscribers who downloaded Shatterwing, Dragon Wine Part One over four days. I think the covers have something to do with that.

I think some of my sales come through my newsletter subscribers. Not heaps as yet, but I get a lot of people checking out the buy links on my website.

I also had a few deals going for newsletter subscribers. Not exclusive to them but being a subscriber allows them to find out about it.

Escape Publishing kindly discounted Rayessa and the Space Pirates and Spiritbound (Dani Kristoff) to 99 cents. The announcements for these were included in my newsletter and there were some sales. I don’t know how much because I can’t see because the books are controlled by the publisher. These books were included in Ebookaroo (Patty Jansen’s general newsletter) and there were some sales as a result. I was happy to give something to the newsletter subscribers and I don’t often get discounts from my traditional published books.

Also, to broaden things a bit and have something new to keep my subscribers interested, I published Beneath the Floating City, a sci fi, short fiction collection and put it on Instafreebie, mostly with a private link for my subscribers but it is also there for anyone to download. All bar one story has been previously published over the 17 years of my publishing life. I’m going to put together other collections. The next will be Compost Juice, magic realism and fantastical tales. I won’t do that until I get back from overseas. Maybe for Christmas. I also published this collection to all the eretailers.

Print versions

A major suck for my energy, time and dollars this month has been laying out books for print. Indesign gave me a kick up the butt and my photoshop skills are Neanderthal level, but I managed.

Shatterwing, Skywatcher, Deathwings, and Bloodstorm are out in print with the new covers. These are available on Amazon through Createspace and elsewhere as distributed by Ingrams. So yes, technically the library or your books store can order them in.

booksAlso, Oathbound and Ungiven Land join Argenterra, in print.

The Sorcerer’s Spell is in print too, but just through Createspace. It will appear in bookstores as well as Amazon over time, such as Book Depository. Opi Battles the Space Pirates was already in print, same deal through Createspace. You can buy a copy on Book Depository no problems.

This means that for the book launch at Conflux over the long weekend, 29 Sept to 1 October, I have books all to hand.

I have done all the things!

Phew!

Now to take off on Friday for nearly two months. Worldcon 75 and Helsinki here I come. I am the GUFF delegate, taking Australian fandom to Europe. See previous post for where I’ll be.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Read Full Post »

This Indie Publishing Thing

Posted in A writer's life, Hybrid Publishing, Indie Publishing, Networking, Newsletters, tagged , , , on March 19, 2017| 5 Comments »

Recently, I’ve taken the Indie Publishing thing more seriously. I believe there is only two ways to go about this. Do it or don’t.

I’ve also learned that is also hard work and that it requires a different mind set from traditional publishing.

Traditional publishing you have the acceptance of the publisher etc and they (hopefully) have a strategy to market your books. If you have the print deal you get into books stores and launches and if the publishers are pretty good you’ll have some press releases and even a marketer selling your books, getting you press in various places. These days you have to do some of your own marketing, Twitter, Facebook Pages, Blogs, Instagram etc etc.

That is nothing like Indie Publishing. And I don’t even know the half of it. I’m at the bottom of the hill pushing the dung to the top.

So what have I learned so far?

Advice is out there. Ask. I have learned so much mostly from the generosity of Patty Jansen and her cadre of Indie Publishers. (I’ll put a link up her page at the bottom of this post). Believe me there is a lot to ask.

Putting your book up on Smashwords or Ingrams and expecting it to sell doesn’t work (except maybe in some fluke circumstances). Believe me I had a book up there and it didn’t do much. You have to write more books. I had to turn that one Indie Published book into a trilogy. And I have the rights  back to another series so by mid-year I’ll be playing with eight Indie Published books and that gives me more options marketing wise/promotion wise. This does not include my traditionally published works under my own name and my pen name.

New skill sets…administration, formatting, Photoshop, buying stock images, learning about newsletters, different places to market my books, cross-promotions, pricing etc.

That’s just a quick overview. You really don’t understand until you do it. For example, I buy my own ISBNs so they have to be registered, then I register them with the National Library Catalogue in Print, then there is listing the books with different sellers and distributors, writing blurbs (the hardest thing of all), hiring editors, proofreaders, cover artists and writing briefs for cover artists. There are the ebooks to format and upload and print files to prepare…yadda yadda

Yet, it is rewarding. This has been the most challenging thing that I have done. It’s scary. It’s empowering. But most important of all–it’s a business. That’s the biggest change in mindset for me. I want to make a living from my writing. I want people to read and enjoy my books. I have to get the books out there. I have to find my audience.

So big achievement of the week. There have been a number of them, but sending out my first newsletter is the star  moment.

I’ve called the newsletter Wing Dust. People who have read the Dragon Wine series will get the reference.

Here is my newsletter banner, which I put together on Photoshop. Thank you You Tube for the tutorial. (It’s a very complicated and powerful program btw).

Newsletter banner master amended

If you want to sign up to my newsletter click here. 

You can unsubscribe from the newsletter at any time.

Heartfelt thank you to Patty Jansen. I suggest reading a few of her posts on Indie Publishing. Great advice and good sense from her. You can find her here.

Read Full Post »

Newsletter

Posted in Bookbub, Hybrid Publishing, Newsletters, self publishing, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on February 9, 2017| 2 Comments »

I am taking the writing gig seriously and this year you’ll see a lot of output from me (I expect five books out by June). So I want to put together a newsletter mailing list.

I’ve signed up with Mailchimp and I have a very basic sign up form.

I was hoping some of you lovely people would test it out for me and also that some of you would be interested in being on the list.

The mailing list URL is here. Feel free to tell me if it doesn’t work.

Also feel free to tell me what topics you want to hear about.

There’s

  • the PhD study
  • Writing advice
  • Self-publishing tips (as I learn them!)
  • Retro romance reading
  • General stuff.

Also, today took a serious turn. I’ve book a proofreader for the books coming up. This saves me a world of angst and time. I can proofread, but it is hard to do your own books and it takes me several run throughs to reduce errors. So booking a proofreader is worth the cost and has been added to the book budget.

I expect two edits to come in around the same time. Egad! Not planned that way.

And I put my toe in the water folks. I submitted a request for a Bookbub promotion. I’ll let you know how that pans out. But I expect it will take a few goes.

Read Full Post »