Mind you, I've had to wait for it. I'd gone three days without selling and was beginning to think when would I ever get my 40th! But tonight it came, and hopefully somebody somehwere, I have no idea who, will be settling down with a good book tonight: my book.
I suddenly realised something earlier that I have never actually stated in all my blog entries since I began this blog in early August, what my book is really about and my reasons for writing it. And that thought occurred to me as a result of reading the opening couple of entries of a brand new blog by a fellow wannabe children's novelist, Martin Jones of Toronto, Canada, formerly from Lancashire.
Martin has been regularly following this blog and has now decided to set up his own to promote his book, They Shoot Birds Don't They? And straightaway, he's done something very sensible, which is to tell people what the book is actually about! Not a bad idea really. All I've done is sort of vaguely tell people that it's a children's adventure novel set in Abersoch and the Lleyn peninsula of North Wales and I don't think I've exactly given away much else of the plot whatsoever. Of course, there are links to my listings on Amazon but I perhaps could have allowed people more of an insight into Smugglers at Whistling Sands, and the characters who appear in it.
So, it being the weekend tomorrow, I will endeavour to do that. I'll write a blog entry or two letting all those of you, save the 40 who have been kind enough to purchase my book already, know a bit more about the novel. And I'll select a few passages for you all to have a sample read, and see what you think.
Meanwhile, don't just read my blog, read Martin's - you'll find a link to it on the right of your screen, or alternatively just press here and you'll also find out a bit more about his novel, which is largely written but still in the final stages of production.
Friday, September 30, 2011
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Good! I'm back in Amazon's bestseller list for children's adventure stories on Kindle
Another sale puts me back in the top 100 bestseller list for children's fiction, action & adventure category - at #83 (as of 4pm Sunday afternoon) with Abersoch-based Smugglers at Whistling Sands.
# Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #9,811 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
* #83 in Kindle Store > Books > Fiction > Children's Fiction > Literature > Action & Adventure
Really chuffed about this, since being on this list is an important part of getting one's book known about and acquiring more readers. Again, it is evidence that you don't have to virtually give your novel away just to get readers.
Well the sun is not far off setting on another weekend and I wish I could say that I have been furthering my writing ambitions these last two days. Unfortunately, the demands of being a dad to two young children and hosting a friend of my wife's who visited for the weekend have conspired against me.
Mind you, right now I have no excuse. My wife has given me a couple of hours' grace to disappear to the top floor where I have my office to do book-related stuff. And what I have been doing - reading rather than writing or promoting. I've been tucking into the No.1 bestseller in the Kindle store: The Alchemist's Secret by Scott Mariani.
The ebook version costs the not-very-princely sum of 49p, which rather disproves my theory that selling too cheap will discourage sales. Ok, but I will say this: Mariani is an excellent writer and this is by all accounts an excellent book. I would have been happier to pay a good pound or two more for it and for him to have been rewarded accordingly. Mind you, he has several books for sale on Amazon and most are for £1.99 and a couple for £2.99. If giving one or two away at 49p apiece helps win more readers for his other novels, good luck to him. Certainly, I am happy to plug The Alchemist's Secret - really gripped by it (not that Mariani is in any need of being plugged of course!).
* I've just tweeted to say that I have set a deadline of Sunday, October 9th, 2011 to notch up my 50th sale of Smugglers at Whistling Sands. If I have reached that milestone by then, I GUARANTEE to write a sequel, bringing siblings Jack, David, Emily and their friend Lou back to Abersoch for another exciting adventure! I am currently 14 short of that target and must sell an average of one book a day to achieve it. Fingers crossed! (If I don't reach that figure, I intend to start work on a wholly different book aimed primarily at adults rather than children.)
# Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #9,811 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
* #83 in Kindle Store > Books > Fiction > Children's Fiction > Literature > Action & Adventure
Really chuffed about this, since being on this list is an important part of getting one's book known about and acquiring more readers. Again, it is evidence that you don't have to virtually give your novel away just to get readers.
Well the sun is not far off setting on another weekend and I wish I could say that I have been furthering my writing ambitions these last two days. Unfortunately, the demands of being a dad to two young children and hosting a friend of my wife's who visited for the weekend have conspired against me.
Mind you, right now I have no excuse. My wife has given me a couple of hours' grace to disappear to the top floor where I have my office to do book-related stuff. And what I have been doing - reading rather than writing or promoting. I've been tucking into the No.1 bestseller in the Kindle store: The Alchemist's Secret by Scott Mariani.
The ebook version costs the not-very-princely sum of 49p, which rather disproves my theory that selling too cheap will discourage sales. Ok, but I will say this: Mariani is an excellent writer and this is by all accounts an excellent book. I would have been happier to pay a good pound or two more for it and for him to have been rewarded accordingly. Mind you, he has several books for sale on Amazon and most are for £1.99 and a couple for £2.99. If giving one or two away at 49p apiece helps win more readers for his other novels, good luck to him. Certainly, I am happy to plug The Alchemist's Secret - really gripped by it (not that Mariani is in any need of being plugged of course!).
* I've just tweeted to say that I have set a deadline of Sunday, October 9th, 2011 to notch up my 50th sale of Smugglers at Whistling Sands. If I have reached that milestone by then, I GUARANTEE to write a sequel, bringing siblings Jack, David, Emily and their friend Lou back to Abersoch for another exciting adventure! I am currently 14 short of that target and must sell an average of one book a day to achieve it. Fingers crossed! (If I don't reach that figure, I intend to start work on a wholly different book aimed primarily at adults rather than children.)
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Couple more sales and a really nice email is spurring me on to thoughts of a sequel
My decision to put the price of my novel Smugglers At Whistling Sands back up to £1.71 seems if anything to have increased sales. I've had a flurry of three over the last couple of days and an email from my latest buyer very pleased with the book.
Interestingly, she actually thought it was too cheap at £1.71. I don't agree - I don't intend to increase the price on my Amazon ebook any further. £1.71 (£1.49 plus VAT) is the lowest I can charge to qualify for the 70% royalty. At its previous price of 86p I only got a 35% royalty which equated to 26p profit per sale. But at £1.71 I get 99p and I think, for an ebook that is a perfectly reasonable cut. I do not understand why it is that major publishers feel the need to charge almost as much for an ebook as they do for the paper and ink version.
That said, and maybe not everyone knows this, hard copies of books do not attract VAT - but ebooks do and Amazon - as the seller - must therefore apply 20% VAT to the £1.49 cost of my book, hence the VAT inclusive price of £1.71. But I still find it hard to stomach that an ebook, even of world-famous authors, should cost £6 or more. For me, £1.71 is just fine. A smallish sum for the buyer but a reasonable return for the author. Above all - and this is the key reason for dropping the 86p price tag - it is because it puts off more buyers than it attracts.
The sort of person keen to buy a children's novel like this, either as a nostalgic read for themselves or for their kids, aren't likely to need to be corralled into a purchase with an ultra-cheap price.
Anyway, it was great to have a few words of appreciation for the book because like most writers I am inherently insecure and love praise. And I am now seriously turning my mind to a possible sequel to Smugglers. I said I would start one for definite if I could reach a total of 50 sales by the end of September. I am 15 sales adrift so that might be pushing it - but when that milestone is reached, particularly if it's fairly soon, I will definitely consider it.
Interestingly, she actually thought it was too cheap at £1.71. I don't agree - I don't intend to increase the price on my Amazon ebook any further. £1.71 (£1.49 plus VAT) is the lowest I can charge to qualify for the 70% royalty. At its previous price of 86p I only got a 35% royalty which equated to 26p profit per sale. But at £1.71 I get 99p and I think, for an ebook that is a perfectly reasonable cut. I do not understand why it is that major publishers feel the need to charge almost as much for an ebook as they do for the paper and ink version.
That said, and maybe not everyone knows this, hard copies of books do not attract VAT - but ebooks do and Amazon - as the seller - must therefore apply 20% VAT to the £1.49 cost of my book, hence the VAT inclusive price of £1.71. But I still find it hard to stomach that an ebook, even of world-famous authors, should cost £6 or more. For me, £1.71 is just fine. A smallish sum for the buyer but a reasonable return for the author. Above all - and this is the key reason for dropping the 86p price tag - it is because it puts off more buyers than it attracts.
The sort of person keen to buy a children's novel like this, either as a nostalgic read for themselves or for their kids, aren't likely to need to be corralled into a purchase with an ultra-cheap price.
Anyway, it was great to have a few words of appreciation for the book because like most writers I am inherently insecure and love praise. And I am now seriously turning my mind to a possible sequel to Smugglers. I said I would start one for definite if I could reach a total of 50 sales by the end of September. I am 15 sales adrift so that might be pushing it - but when that milestone is reached, particularly if it's fairly soon, I will definitely consider it.
Monday, September 19, 2011
Have now dropped introductory price of 86p
I don't want to send the Retail Price Index through the roof but I have decided to drop my ultra-low price of 86p and leap back up to £1.71. Boo hiss!
There are a number of good reasons though, and I'll start with the obvious one: Amazon punish anyone selling their Kindle books for less than £1.71 (£1.49+VAT) by allowing them only a 35% royalty. Thus from an 86p sale, I would take only 26p - that is simply not enough of a return to reap an author a noticeable reward for his efforts unless he was lucky enough to sell huge quantities of books.
At £1.71 - I will take 70% royalty (minus an obscure 'delivery' charge introduced at this rate) which gives me 99p - a reasonable sum per book and one which I feel, can leave buyers with the satisfaction that they have paid a fair price for their ebook and the author has had his fair reward.
Of course, the priority for any fledgling novelist should be to acquire a readership - and not worry about trying to make money from it. I still hold to this principle so it may seem counter-intuitive on that basis to jack the price up, but I also feel that asking a mere 86p is sort of saying to people - "look my book may not be very good but come on, I only want 86p for it". In other words, by appearing not to value my own work, I may actually be losing sales.
Let's put it this way, if anyone reading this would like a copy of the book but doesn't want to risk £1.71 on it - then I will gladly send you a PDF of the thing for free - and you can pay for it afterwards if you like it!
Pleasingly, I have already had my first sale at the higher price - making a grand total of 35 sales. When you consider that some people struggle to get anyone buying their ebooks, I think that is a result which I ought to be reasonably happy with.
There are a number of good reasons though, and I'll start with the obvious one: Amazon punish anyone selling their Kindle books for less than £1.71 (£1.49+VAT) by allowing them only a 35% royalty. Thus from an 86p sale, I would take only 26p - that is simply not enough of a return to reap an author a noticeable reward for his efforts unless he was lucky enough to sell huge quantities of books.
At £1.71 - I will take 70% royalty (minus an obscure 'delivery' charge introduced at this rate) which gives me 99p - a reasonable sum per book and one which I feel, can leave buyers with the satisfaction that they have paid a fair price for their ebook and the author has had his fair reward.
Of course, the priority for any fledgling novelist should be to acquire a readership - and not worry about trying to make money from it. I still hold to this principle so it may seem counter-intuitive on that basis to jack the price up, but I also feel that asking a mere 86p is sort of saying to people - "look my book may not be very good but come on, I only want 86p for it". In other words, by appearing not to value my own work, I may actually be losing sales.
Let's put it this way, if anyone reading this would like a copy of the book but doesn't want to risk £1.71 on it - then I will gladly send you a PDF of the thing for free - and you can pay for it afterwards if you like it!
Pleasingly, I have already had my first sale at the higher price - making a grand total of 35 sales. When you consider that some people struggle to get anyone buying their ebooks, I think that is a result which I ought to be reasonably happy with.
Saturday, September 17, 2011
An annoying setback - but what can you do?
To my disappointment, someone has been on my Amazon listing and given the two excellent reviews I have received so far for Smugglers at Whistling Sands the thumbs down. Now, the first one is rated three people out of four find the review helpful, and the other that two out of three find it helpful.
I just find it annoying that someone, under the cloak of anonymity, should do that to me. Have they taken the trouble to leave their own review, explaining what they liked and presumbly what they did not? No, of course they haven't.
Have they commented on the two reviews I have received to date, explaining why they don't agree with them? No, of course they haven't. Instead they have just quietly, effortlessly used the thumbs down sign.
Have they even read the book? Who knows! It has crossed my mind whether it is from a rival author / publisher out there. Perhaps I shouldn't read too much into it, I just think when you go to the trouble of seeking to knock a fledgling novelist like me and imply that my book isn't even worth the 86p I'm asking for it - whoever it is might at least explain why.
Whether it will knock future sales I don't know - I've just got to hope others continue to buy it, and hopefully I will pick up some more reviews - not necessarily five star as my current two are - but honest crits, which hopefully will be more positive than negative.
My sales have now reached 33 - they definitely don't appear to be exactly taking off, but it is still early days yet and I am, frankly, doing next to nothing to promote my book - I really need to find the time to do so.
I just find it annoying that someone, under the cloak of anonymity, should do that to me. Have they taken the trouble to leave their own review, explaining what they liked and presumbly what they did not? No, of course they haven't.
Have they commented on the two reviews I have received to date, explaining why they don't agree with them? No, of course they haven't. Instead they have just quietly, effortlessly used the thumbs down sign.
Have they even read the book? Who knows! It has crossed my mind whether it is from a rival author / publisher out there. Perhaps I shouldn't read too much into it, I just think when you go to the trouble of seeking to knock a fledgling novelist like me and imply that my book isn't even worth the 86p I'm asking for it - whoever it is might at least explain why.
Whether it will knock future sales I don't know - I've just got to hope others continue to buy it, and hopefully I will pick up some more reviews - not necessarily five star as my current two are - but honest crits, which hopefully will be more positive than negative.
My sales have now reached 33 - they definitely don't appear to be exactly taking off, but it is still early days yet and I am, frankly, doing next to nothing to promote my book - I really need to find the time to do so.
Monday, September 12, 2011
A few more sales - just wish I could invest more time in pushing my book
Despite having done very little to promote my book - including failing to keep this blog up to date - I have continued to pick up slow but steady sales. In my last entry I had reached a milestone of 20 sales of Smugglers at Whistling Sands. This tally has now leaped to 31 - well I say leaped, it is after all nearly a fortnight since I wrote that entry!
On Saturday evening I had two sales and this afternoon I had another two, which pushed me up to #35 in the top 100 in children's fiction action & adventure category on Amazon's Kindle bookstore.
I badly need to start pushing the book again to build on this - selective use of Twitter and Facebook spring to mind, but it all takes time and I've been very busy with work and also family matters over the last few days.
My very first buyer, fellow fledgling novelist Martin Jones in Toronto, Canada, has done me an excellent analysis of the first chapter of my book, which I'm very grateful for. The value of having a fresh pair of eyes can be summed up in just one observation alone of his - something no-one else has spotted, including my wife! I was selling my ebook with one of the principal characters, 12-year-old Jack, referred to in the first chapter as "John".
John was his original name, but I changed it to Jack ages ago, and thought I had altered every single reference in the book - but clearly I missed one. As soon as I read this, I changed the hard copy of the novel in Word format on my desktop, converted it to ebook format and uploaded it to Amazon to over-write the original file. I am not happy that a good few people will have bought my book with that mistake contained in it - that said, it will create no more than a momentary confusion and I don't think anyone will be that furious with me. But certainly I feel a little furious with myself!
There are three or four other minor changes I intend to make arising from Martin's analysis. And a number of his suggestions I will reject and leave things as they are, grateful though I am for them. It's a sign of strength to listen to criticism and be willing to change your novel - but it's also a sign of strength to reject certain observations and say, "well, I'm the author, that's how I want it!"
I shall soon be sending Martin a little analysis of my own of his part-written book, and I expect him to do the same - maybe take on board some of what I say, and reject some of it. Talking of which, I think it's time I plugged his book in this blog which I am very much enjoying. I find it's whole basis is highly original and unusual. It's called They Shoot Birds Don't They? - and you can find a long extract from it on the writers' site Authonomy.com run by HarperCollins, under Martin's author name MP Jones. Click here to go directly to it. Martin's book is now ranked very highly by fellow members, up to 117 as I write this out of several thousand other books. So take a look!
Talking of which, the Authonomy website is very interesting, not had time to get my head round it properly yet, but looking forward to delving into it in more detail. And I promise not to leave it another fortnight before updating this blog!
On Saturday evening I had two sales and this afternoon I had another two, which pushed me up to #35 in the top 100 in children's fiction action & adventure category on Amazon's Kindle bookstore.
I badly need to start pushing the book again to build on this - selective use of Twitter and Facebook spring to mind, but it all takes time and I've been very busy with work and also family matters over the last few days.
My very first buyer, fellow fledgling novelist Martin Jones in Toronto, Canada, has done me an excellent analysis of the first chapter of my book, which I'm very grateful for. The value of having a fresh pair of eyes can be summed up in just one observation alone of his - something no-one else has spotted, including my wife! I was selling my ebook with one of the principal characters, 12-year-old Jack, referred to in the first chapter as "John".
John was his original name, but I changed it to Jack ages ago, and thought I had altered every single reference in the book - but clearly I missed one. As soon as I read this, I changed the hard copy of the novel in Word format on my desktop, converted it to ebook format and uploaded it to Amazon to over-write the original file. I am not happy that a good few people will have bought my book with that mistake contained in it - that said, it will create no more than a momentary confusion and I don't think anyone will be that furious with me. But certainly I feel a little furious with myself!
There are three or four other minor changes I intend to make arising from Martin's analysis. And a number of his suggestions I will reject and leave things as they are, grateful though I am for them. It's a sign of strength to listen to criticism and be willing to change your novel - but it's also a sign of strength to reject certain observations and say, "well, I'm the author, that's how I want it!"
I shall soon be sending Martin a little analysis of my own of his part-written book, and I expect him to do the same - maybe take on board some of what I say, and reject some of it. Talking of which, I think it's time I plugged his book in this blog which I am very much enjoying. I find it's whole basis is highly original and unusual. It's called They Shoot Birds Don't They? - and you can find a long extract from it on the writers' site Authonomy.com run by HarperCollins, under Martin's author name MP Jones. Click here to go directly to it. Martin's book is now ranked very highly by fellow members, up to 117 as I write this out of several thousand other books. So take a look!
Talking of which, the Authonomy website is very interesting, not had time to get my head round it properly yet, but looking forward to delving into it in more detail. And I promise not to leave it another fortnight before updating this blog!
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