Lindsay - October 29, 2020If you frequent the various author forums and Facebook groups, you probably see people say it again and again: book publishing (especially ebook publishing for indie authors) has gotten too competitive, it’s pay to play (meaning you have to have piles to spend on ads), and nobody’s making what they used to.
But is it true? We did an informal poll in our Facebook group and asked listeners when they got started publishing and whether they had more success in the past or if they’re doing better today. We chimed in with our thoughts where appropriate and, as usual, shared some of our own experiences with publishing over the last ten years.
After that, we shared what we would do if we were starting from scratch today in 2020. You’ll have to listen to the episode for most of the details, but here’s Lindsay’s bullet-point list copied from her notes:
Lindsay’s “what would you do if starting from scratch today”:
(This is pretty similar to my late-2014 pen name launch and more or less what I would do now, assuming I had some money for editing and cover art but only a little to spend on ads.)
- Pick the genre/subgenre that I’m interested in writing and that is also solidly in an Amazon category (bonus points for a newer and less competitive category)
- Scope out covers/tropes that are popular (since it’s me, I’ll never end up writing something solidly to market, but I try not to be too far out there) before plotting things out.
- Write the first three novels before releasing anything, and prepare to write 4 and 5 as I’m releasing the first three back to back.
- Write a bonus story or bonus scenes from PoV characters that readers of the first book/books will be dying to read after reading the other stories. This will be a newsletter exclusive–they have to sign up to get it.
- Before publishing, set up a minimal website (with domain name), with a landing page for the newsletter and a book list.
- Put a request for reviews at the end of each book, as well as the newsletter signup and enticing information about the bonus.
- Launch Book 1 wide so I can make it permafree (or free for now). It’s tough to get momentum going on a new name/new book, and you can’t even get sponsorship sites to pimp a new release without a history. You also probably don’t have a lot of money to spend on ads (and it’s hard advertising something with no reviews). This is why I’d go to free right away. (I did this with my pen name, got it to free in about a week.)
- Second book in KU and up right away or at least on pre-order (by the time 1 goes free) with a buy link for it at the back of 1.
- Do some inexpensive ads for the free book as soon as it has reviews (might do a little on FB/Amazon even without reviews) and qualifies for sponsorship sites.
- Hopefully by the time 3 releases, I’d have some people on my newsletter and would be getting some sales of 2 to help finance ads and the cost of covers/editing for more books.
- Eventually, once 1 has reviews and if free downloads have dwindled, pull it from the other sites and put it into KU so we’ve got a matched set, can earn from page reads, and can bounce back and forth between free and full price and countdown deals. (Chances are not that many people found it on the other sites when it was free, but you may not want to do a hardcore cliffhanger if you’re not planning to publish the other books in the series wide soon.)
- For subsequent launches in the series, you should have people on your newsletter, so just send out announcements. Make 1 free for launches of later books. Rinse and repeat.
Hi Lindsay. I was wondering if you found that people were bothered by having the first book wide and the next in KU? I’ve considered doing that but heard it might frustrate wide readers.
Also, Joe, thanks so much for saying what you did about starting with books at the shorter end of the average spectrum when trying a new genre. I’m just about to dive into sports romance, with my first release in December, and I’ve been wondering if I stuffed up by not writing a massive novel as some of the bestsellers in that subgenre are pretty long (compared to other romance subgenres). But I am firmly in the realm of average (if at the bottom end) so I feel a bit better about that now.
I found with my pen name, starting from scratch, that I didn’t get many people downloading the wide Book 1 even free. Until you promote stuff, people don’t tend to find it. But as I mentioned in the show, you might not want to do this if you have a cliff hanger ending on Book 1. If Book 1 is a complete story, they shouldn’t be as grumpy if they look you up and find you have other books that they can’t get.
Not sure how far back it goes, but BookFunnel does have a user library (by email) where we can go and re-download titles we’ve gotten in the past.
Per their site it also works for audio files obtained via them.
I know they can if the links haven’t expired, but I always have to do a new link or go in and un-expire the old ones for Patreon peeps who’ve lost the book to download it again.