Self-Publishing: On Sales (January 2012)

I've posted on sales twice before, here and here, and figured I'd just keep going. These posts give me a good reason to reflect on my strategies and analyze the figures. Sales figures are final for January now, so let's look at them.

January's figures aren't as nice as December's, but I kind of expected that. I did see a spike in sales early in the month, something I attributed to people getting home from traveling and finally getting a chance to use their gift cards and really play with their new ereaders. I also didn't release anything new in January, like I hoped, so those sales are from the same four books and the same one book comprised the bulk of sales.

Those numbers aren't disappointing to me. Of course they aren't--any sale is exciting for me. I'm pretty proud of my numbers, all things considered.

Self-Publishing: Readers = Customers

Deciding to self-publish is deciding to throw yourself into the business of publishing. I know I certainly didn't think of this as "business" when I decided to do it, but when I was developing a plan for it, I realized that I had to become more business-minded. Not with the creative stuff--I write what I feel I need to write--but with this blog, with my Twitter, with my cover design, with my prices, I think about everything in terms of how it will affect my bottom line.

Target your audience.
These are your customers. You need to know who they are, what they want, and how much they're willing to pay. My target audience is the group of twenty-something mothers, either stay-at-home or work-out-of-home, without a lot of time or a lot of disposable income who miss being able to read romantic (erotic) fanfiction whenever and for however long they wanted. These women are my contemporaries. These women are me. I know what I want to read and I know how hard it is to find it, so I'm offering the product I want.

Respect your audience.
Appreciate that they are spending their hard-earned money on you and the entertainment you provide. Respect their buying power and respect the chance they're taking on you. Be grateful. Be determined to deliver. Make them trust you. Continue to earn that trust. These people are making your dreams come true. I know that's how I look at my readers. Without them, I'd have to get a real job. I had a real job. It was okay, but it was nowhere near as awesome as this.

Isolate your audience.
By this I mean offer them something they can't get anywhere else. Be unique in your product somehow, be it content or design or price. Build their confidence in you by consistently offering quality at a competitive price and make repeat customers--loyal readers--by always earning that confidence. If they're confident, they'll recommend your work to their friends and family.

Basically, I'm saying: benefit them. You want to get paid, they want to be entertained, this can be a mutually-beneficial relationship. People are smart. They're savvy. They're protective of their money. Give them a reason to spend it on you.

Monday Miscellany: Cowboys and Toddlers and Books

I'm about halfway through the final editing pass on One Good Cowboy. Basically the same place I was on Saturday, but I have my reasons. It's not the horrible, sucky story I was worried it was. In fact, it's pretty good. I'm still shooting to have it finished by Friday, but we'll see.

My sister and mother have gone home. I took them to the airport on Sunday morning. It's just weird having the house all to ourselves again. Everything is quiet and my dishes don't magically get clean several times a day. (My mother, when she visits, does the dishes and the laundry, my two most-hated chores.) I'm adjusting okay (mostly by being lazy and watching "Community" on Hulu+) but my toddler... Well. Let's just say she got used to being constantly entertained and stimulated and is having a difficult time adjusting to mommy's version of "no" versus auntie's and grandmother's versions.

Last week, I started reading Stella Deleuze's No Wings Attached. Again, it's not my usual go-to genre for entertainment, but I have to say that it's pretty fun. It's so girly. I feel like I should be watching Lifetime or listening to Britney Spears and drinking red wine and eating really good chocolate while I read it. It's turning into one of those frilly pleasures for me, like Asking for Trouble. I'm glad I know the two main characters end up together because if I didn't, I'd feel really, really badly for Celia, but since I know they're going to be okay, my worry and sympathy are only mild.

This week, I'm hoping to finally finish that post on treating readers like customers, as well as a post on sales figures and at least one book review. I'm not sure I'll manage all of that, but I am sure going to try!

Blog Roundup: February 27 - March 4, 2012

Chuck Wendig added 25 Ways to Unfuck Your Story to his 25 Things series. If you're stuck, it just might be the article you need.

Keystrokes and Word Counts had an interesting post on the subject of returning ebooks. Personally, I think the option to return ebooks, especially self-published ebooks, serves the readers as customers really well. I think that authors should embrace the guarantee-or-your-money-back. Most people don't return things just because they can and most people don't demand their money back for entertainment they didn't enjoy.

Over at Seeking the Write Life, Aimee Salter had two great posts this week. One on using ambiguity and one on writing motivations that seem real. They're good posts for reminding you what you're supposed to be doing.

Sierra Godfrey posted about three ways to use your dreams for stories. I'm sure we've all heard how Twilight was written based on a scene from a dream, so that seems like pretty solid proof that dreams are great sources for stories. And, as always, her Google Reader Roundup is an excellent collection of links.

Sirra posted another collection of Twitter writetips. Are you following her yet?

Now I feel better about being MIA last week.

SitRep Saturday: Real Progress! One Good Cowboy!

Guess what? I actually did some final-pass editing! I'm about halfway through the story and, you know, it's just not as bad as I feared. In fact, it's pretty good. If all goes well, I could have it finished and out by next week. This is very encouraging because it means I can start on my next project very soon.

Here's a very brief excerpt:

Heather inhaled sharply. “This is my bar. I'll treat my customers any damned way I please. If you don't like it,” she jerked a thumb toward the front door, “leave.”

“I haven't finished my beer.” He tipped the bottle, showing her just how little of his drink that he'd actually consumed.

She snatched it from his hand, her fingers brushing his. She felt the spark of electricity and ignored it. “Here, let me help.” She emptied the bottle into the stainless steel sink.

“Hey, I paid for that!”

She mustered her smuggest smirk and tossed the bottle into the recycling bin. “Now you don't have any reason to stay.”

Self-Publishing: Free Software Essentials

At the end of January, I bought a new laptop. I'd been using a netbook and so making the switch to a full-size laptop with full capabilities meant that I could download a lot more software and have everything I really needed in order to make my work look as professional as possible. It's a PC, so of course it came with Microsoft products--including, interestingly, an Office Starter program that has actually proved quite useful. I ended up downloading a number of Windows-compatible programs that I've either used in the past and loved or that have come highly recommended and I haven't figured out how to use yet but am excited about.

Open Office
This is a free, open-source office suite comparable to MS Office. You can even save your work in Office-compatible formats. I've used it for years and love it. The word processor is the program I used to write and format my first four books. It's reliable and totally easy to use, especially if you're already familiar with Word.

Calibre
When I first started poking around the MobileRead forums, I saw that a lot of people were talking about this program. In addition to being a library management program, it can convert ebooks from one format to another. This is going to be useful when I finally get around to formatting my work for sale on AllRomance... I hope. I haven't used it yet, but most users seem pretty happy with it.

MobiPocket Creator
This program is the one I've been using to convert my Word files to Kindle-compatible files for sale on Amazon. I haven't had any problems with it (despite the fact that a lot of users in the KDP forums seem to have trouble). It has been very easy to use and has made nice-looking books each time.

Scribus
An open-source desktop publishing program, I read about Scribus somewhere online (I'm a bad researcher, I can't remember where) and thought it might be useful for creating book covers whenever I decide to self-publish hardcopies. I haven't really played around with it, but it seems pretty powerful and it looks like it could create professional-looking graphics.

Photoscape
This is free photo editing software with really basic capabilities. It's great for people like me who aren't visually-minded or editing-savvy. I like it a lot--I've used it for all of my covers and I'm happy with the results.

GIMP
More photo editing software, this free and open-source program is a lot like Photoshop. My dad is a photographer and he likes it. I'm not smart enough for all the tools and potential available in this program, but I hope to be one day. You'll have to go to CNET for the download.

I also downloaded Mozilla Thunderbird with the Lightning add-on for my email and calendar and Intuit's website building program since that's the company I use.

Monday Miscellany: Road Trip, Kids, Books

Unfortunately, we waited too long to book our Paris tickets, so they are prohibitively expensive. It's okay. We're flexible. Instead of heading to Paris, we're going to check out Saarbrücken, Metz, and Luxembourg. I need to pick up my international license and rent a car, but we're planning a day-long road trip for Thursday. My mom is thrilled about Luxembourg but quite unhappy with me since I told her the kid and I are going to Paris on our own in April.

Maybe there will be pictures at some point. I keep forgetting to take them. The kid just hit her eighteen-month mark and I don't know if you know this, but toddlers are quite the handful.

I'm still working on the website update and I'm still working on blog posts. I feel much, much better this week, so I'm hoping to actually get some work done.

Over the weekend, I finished reading Morgan's Choice. You all know I loved it. (Admiral Ravindra. Rawr.) So I'll have reviews for that and Supertech soonish. I'm going to start No Wings Attached this week (probably today during the kid's naptime) and then Candlelight Sinner after that. And after that I'm going to read Starheart because OMGYES.

I think, after that, I'm going to read The Hunger Games. I'm really curious and the more I read about it, the more I think I'd enjoy it. I tend to stay away from wildly popular books like that, but this one is interesting me.

Blog Roundup: February 20 - 26, 2012

Chuck Wendig offered advice to writers for this week's 25 Things post. On the subject of being a writer, not on writing so much. Still worth the read. It illustrates just how unique the writing journey is for each person.

Greta van der Rol's new book is out! She posted about it here and shared the first chapter here. Also, because she is awesome, she talked about the Thrawn Trilogy here. If you're a Star Wars fan and you haven't explored the EU... you are seriously missing out.

Erotic Romance had a brief post on the subject of "barely legal" erotica.

Girl Who Reads did a quick, inteRuresting post outlining various traffic-driving sites for your blog.

Into the Morning offered three tips for new bloggers. I think it's especially important to remember number three.

James Killick wrote about how to surprise your reader.

As usual, you should check out Sierra Godfrey's Google Reader Roundup.

SitRep Saturday: On Being Sick

As if I didn't have enough excuses, I can add "being terribly sick" to the list. Ugh. I get sick once a year, if that, and this was my week. To make matters worse, the kiddo was sick, too. We were pretty miserable.

I still managed to start work on the website update, though. That's something. I'm much happier with my book cover redesigns--you can see them there on the right side of my blog.

This next week is going to be a slacker week, too. My mother and sister are still here and we have travel plans.

Maybe the distance from the story is good for me? Maybe it'll make editing a lot easier when I finally get the chance to sit down and work.

Monday Miscellany: Family, Blogging, and Breakfast

My mother came to visit! She's here for two weeks and we're planning things like a day trip to Paris, another to Idar-Oberstein, bowling, swimming, and tomorrow we're going to the Fasching parade in a local village. Maybe I'll have some pictures to share next Monday. I enjoy my mother's visits. So, too, does my husband. Don't worry--I told him that it's weird. He said, and I quote, "But she cleans the house!" We all got a good laugh out of that. (My sister's husband is the same way. Something about Mom having an extra thirty years of experience keeping house and looking after kids means she's better at it.)

Needless to say, I'm not expecting to get much "work" done, but I am certainly hoping to. I have two posts in the pipeline: one on the reader as as customer, and one on self-publishing software essentials. These are both drafted, they just need some editing and links thrown in. I know I've been a bad blogger lately. I've been a bad writer and pretty much everything. Things will be back to normal soon, though.

In the meantime, I'm going to point you in the direction of a brunch cake recipe. I made this one last night and it is delicious. Light, not too sweet, and I am pretty sure the strawberry can be replaced with blueberry, blackberry, or apricot with results just as delicious.