So I was at work this morning, and I decided to check the sales ranking for The Rake's Reward. The page loaded and I saw: #100 in the Kindle store. I let out a whoop and started doing the Snoopy dance, which made my co-worker jump. This happened at the circulation desk, mind you. So much for a quiet library.
What a day. I kept checking my rankings throughout the day, and whenever I was out on the floor, getting books from the stacks and pretty certain that no one was looking, I did fist pumps. As of today I've sold over 17,000 books for August. I'm projecting I'll hit over 22,000 by the end of the month. That's more than I sold in the first 6 month royalty period for some of my print books. I'm stunned. I hoped I'd have success, but I never expected this.
In my first month of publishing, I sold 5, count 'em, 5 books. Gradually my numbers grew, if not quickly, at least steadily. In May I was selling over 8 books per day, which I thought was respectable. I figured the numbers would only rise. But in June, I sold only about 7 books a day. Something was wrong. True, I didn't promote, and maybe that would help, but I really didn't want to do it. If producing ebooks makes you part of a crowd, so do some avenues of self-promotion. Everyone tweets, uses Facebook, and writes blogs, thus becoming part of another crowd. I decided I didn't want to go that way. Still, I had to do something. I'd produce more books, of course, but that would take time. I had to boost my sales somehow.
So, at the end of June, I lowered all my book prices from $2.99 and $3.99, which, by the way, I thought and still think to be reasonable, to .99. Nothing happened at first, but in the beginning of July I began seeing something. I sold 16 books in a day. Wow! Then 12. Oh, I hoped I'd sell 14, to keep the average. I didn't. I sold 20. And on, and on, until I hit 75. Over 100. Over, now, 800 and rising. I now make many times more money from my books per day than I do in my day job.
As I've said elsewhere,quitting writing 3 years ago was the right decision. Returning to writing now is the right decision, too. It's feeling good again. I'm doing the research and still writing notes, but I can feel the day when I write that first line coming closer. Yesterday one of the patrons at the library told me I'm losing money by working there, that I should be home writing. Hmmm. Is another decision on the way? Stay tuned.
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Monday, August 22, 2011
Let's Start at the Very Beginning
It starts with an idea.
That's the easy part. Something will leap out and grab me: a stroll on Newport's Cliff Walk, a line from a Dixie Chicks song, a jumbled dream. In this case, it was the idea of writing a Cinderella story set in Regency times. A real Cinderella story, with a poor relation heroine named Eleanor, a mean aunt, and 2 obnoxious cousins. Then the handsome earl comes along, in disguise, because he wants to survey the estate he's only recently inherited, without any fuss. And - well, you know the end of the story. Beautiful girl marries handsome nobleman, they live happily ever after, the end.
And it starts with notes. Lots and lots of notes. Ideas. Modification of ideas. Character sketches. Fragments of scenes. Lists of scenes. And in there, some startling changes. Like, what if the story's set in Victorian England, instead? And what if Eleanor, if still a poor relation, traveled widely with her father and is cosmopolitan and sophisticated as a result? And if Christopher, the earl, actually teaches math at Cambridge? Never mind that I'm lousy at math, and that I don't know anything about astronomy, his other avocation. That's what research is for. But how did all the rest of this happens?
Something happens when I put pen to paper. It's as if there's a direct connection from my brain to my hand, and I find myself writing things I never expected. Some of it's conscious, as when I decided that it was too easy to make the aunt mean; she is merely self-centered, a little silly, and a tad malicious, instead. Some of it came from nowhere. If Christopher was sickly as a child, maybe he's more slightly built than some of my characters? Wrong. Christopher told me he rows and gave me the image to go with that news. Instantly he became a broad-shouldered hunk with thick, russet-colored hair. Much more appealing.
Then there's the change in setting, to Victorian times. That means research. I'm knowledgeable about the Regency, as well as the clipper ship era in the 1840's, and America's Gilded Age. I love research, though, and working at a library I can get books on just about any subject I want. I just have to be careful not to overwhelm myself, because I don't have all the time in the world. Darn.
Finally there are the 3 not-so-obnoxious cousins - yes, 3, not 2 - who really are pretty much okay to Eleanor. Still, she is a poor relation, and Christopher is still a handsome nobleman, and maybe there's a glass slipper...
Maybe. I doubt it, but at this point I don't know for sure what's going to happen. All I know is that I just keep writing notes. After all, that's what it starts with.
That's the easy part. Something will leap out and grab me: a stroll on Newport's Cliff Walk, a line from a Dixie Chicks song, a jumbled dream. In this case, it was the idea of writing a Cinderella story set in Regency times. A real Cinderella story, with a poor relation heroine named Eleanor, a mean aunt, and 2 obnoxious cousins. Then the handsome earl comes along, in disguise, because he wants to survey the estate he's only recently inherited, without any fuss. And - well, you know the end of the story. Beautiful girl marries handsome nobleman, they live happily ever after, the end.
And it starts with notes. Lots and lots of notes. Ideas. Modification of ideas. Character sketches. Fragments of scenes. Lists of scenes. And in there, some startling changes. Like, what if the story's set in Victorian England, instead? And what if Eleanor, if still a poor relation, traveled widely with her father and is cosmopolitan and sophisticated as a result? And if Christopher, the earl, actually teaches math at Cambridge? Never mind that I'm lousy at math, and that I don't know anything about astronomy, his other avocation. That's what research is for. But how did all the rest of this happens?
Something happens when I put pen to paper. It's as if there's a direct connection from my brain to my hand, and I find myself writing things I never expected. Some of it's conscious, as when I decided that it was too easy to make the aunt mean; she is merely self-centered, a little silly, and a tad malicious, instead. Some of it came from nowhere. If Christopher was sickly as a child, maybe he's more slightly built than some of my characters? Wrong. Christopher told me he rows and gave me the image to go with that news. Instantly he became a broad-shouldered hunk with thick, russet-colored hair. Much more appealing.
Then there's the change in setting, to Victorian times. That means research. I'm knowledgeable about the Regency, as well as the clipper ship era in the 1840's, and America's Gilded Age. I love research, though, and working at a library I can get books on just about any subject I want. I just have to be careful not to overwhelm myself, because I don't have all the time in the world. Darn.
Finally there are the 3 not-so-obnoxious cousins - yes, 3, not 2 - who really are pretty much okay to Eleanor. Still, she is a poor relation, and Christopher is still a handsome nobleman, and maybe there's a glass slipper...
Maybe. I doubt it, but at this point I don't know for sure what's going to happen. All I know is that I just keep writing notes. After all, that's what it starts with.
Saturday, August 20, 2011
From Start to Finish
Sometimes when I walk past the bookshelves at the library where I work, I wonder how the authors did it. Sometimes I look at my own books on the shelves and wonder how I did it. During my hiatus from writing, I had, at most, a wistful longing to be a writer again. I had no desire to try again. No clue as to even how. While I told myself that my creativity couldn't really be gone, and that someday I'd write again, I didn't really believe it. I walked away from writing 3 and a half years ago. It was the right decision at the time, and I've never regretted it.
Then I discovered electronic publishing, and began reissuing my backlist. Epubbing gave books that had been out of print for years new life. More than that, they gave me an interest in my old career. As I reviewed books prior to publication, I found myself becoming interested again. I stopped wondering how I'd thought of certain things, and began knowing that I'd be able to think of others, if I tried.
There was a practical consideration, too. While I have a good backlist, it's not inexhaustible. The day will come when everything I've written has been published, and then what? Then I'll have to produce something new. Well, I thought, why not start now? It's true that I have little free time, but I'd written before in such circumstances. Get something started now, take my time with it, and by next year it'll be ready to publish.
I chose an old idea to start with, a novella titled "Miss Nobody." It's a story I've always wanted to write. More, it's an absolutely necessary prequel to a trilogy I really want to write. In the print world, I might be able to sell the trilogy, but no publisher would buy a novella. that's one of the advantages of epubbing. It gives niche books a place, and a market.
So, with some trepidation, I took up pen and paper (a black stick pen and a white, narrow-lined pad), and began sketching out notes. What happened surprised me. It's back. The skill and creativity and just plain fun of writing, that I'd thought lost forever, is back. I'm ready to begin the process of creating a book again.
Come along with me as I take this journey. We'll plot the story and watch the characters come to life and do research - together. And along the way, we'll discover how I did it.
Then I discovered electronic publishing, and began reissuing my backlist. Epubbing gave books that had been out of print for years new life. More than that, they gave me an interest in my old career. As I reviewed books prior to publication, I found myself becoming interested again. I stopped wondering how I'd thought of certain things, and began knowing that I'd be able to think of others, if I tried.
There was a practical consideration, too. While I have a good backlist, it's not inexhaustible. The day will come when everything I've written has been published, and then what? Then I'll have to produce something new. Well, I thought, why not start now? It's true that I have little free time, but I'd written before in such circumstances. Get something started now, take my time with it, and by next year it'll be ready to publish.
I chose an old idea to start with, a novella titled "Miss Nobody." It's a story I've always wanted to write. More, it's an absolutely necessary prequel to a trilogy I really want to write. In the print world, I might be able to sell the trilogy, but no publisher would buy a novella. that's one of the advantages of epubbing. It gives niche books a place, and a market.
So, with some trepidation, I took up pen and paper (a black stick pen and a white, narrow-lined pad), and began sketching out notes. What happened surprised me. It's back. The skill and creativity and just plain fun of writing, that I'd thought lost forever, is back. I'm ready to begin the process of creating a book again.
Come along with me as I take this journey. We'll plot the story and watch the characters come to life and do research - together. And along the way, we'll discover how I did it.
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