To those of you who want to make a fast and easy living at being an author, this blog post is not for you. Or, maybe it is, if you’re willing to put in years of hard work and struggle with your e-book sales before you start making a real living on your books. If you’re up for that, read on!
What are the key ingredients to indie author success in 2016? Patience, hard work, a strong Twitter presence and paid promotions. I’ve been at this novel-writing and marketing business for four years now, both as a traditionally published author and now as a full-fledged self-pubbed author, and so far, those are the four main ways I’ve been getting my name out there and how I’ve found more interested, loyal readers.
After a year of being rejected by BookBub (Don’t give up! Make sure your cover shines! Get lots of reviews!) I’ve just had my first BookBub paid promotion ($105 USD) for Strangely, Incredibly Good being free in the Kindle store. On the first day the book got 13,610 downloads! The book has soared to #5 free in the Canadian Kindle Store, #15 in the US, and #6 in the UK and Australia, and is #1 in Time Travel Romance in all those stores, #2 in Romantic Comedies in Canada and the USA.
Keep in mind of course, those were not paying readers. On day 1 of my free book promotion yesterday, I made 13 paid sales =$55 Canadian dollars. So yeah, haven’t seen the promotion pay for itself yet, and I’m not going to be buying a new car any time soon.
It’s now about patience and more hard work, trying to engage with my new readers around the world. However, also keep in mind that if I’d sold 13 books with a traditional publisher, I’d have only made 20-25 percent of the net profit, whereas on Kindle, I got to keep 70 percent, and also, a traditional publisher likely wouldn’t have allowed me to make my book free for five days, which is why I’m now an Indie author. Times have changed, and I’m changing and growing and learning with them.
Who knows what tomorrow will bring? The book is free in the Kindle store until Saturday so please grab it, tell your friends, and review it if you haven’t done so yet. My hope is that the 15,000 people who have downloaded my book so far will read it in the coming weeks, review it, and want to buy the sequel, as well as my third novel, The Ticket, which is also my favorite of the three.
I’m going to give you a full report with screenshots of Kindle graphs and everything in a week or so, once I have all the data. As well, I’ll be doing some live video Q&A sessions with you on my Facebook Author page in the coming weeks, so be sure to visit and keep an eye on my Twitter feed for when I announce those sessions! I’d like to teach as many aspiring authors as I can about the process of self-publishing and also that this is not an overnight-success kind of career. It’s a long haul. But you know what? I still love what I do, and that makes it completely worth the hard work and time I’ve put in.
Isn’t that true about all the best things in life?
Best wishes,
Heather xox
