By Jon F. Merz
I’m having my best month of ebook sales so far in 2012 so I thought I’d share some of the steps I’ve been taking to increase my sales. I outlined a lot of practical steps – including the best piece of software you can use to help boost your ebook sales in my book: HOW TO REALLY SELL EBOOKS (which was written after I wasted five bucks reading another author’s account of how he sold one million ebooks but failed to list anything concrete that he did beyond a blog) but here are a few other steps I’m doing right now to help things along even more.
1. Production Schedules: Depending on how quickly you work, I think it’s vital to come out with new material at LEAST every few months. Debuting new material allows you to promote it and simultaneously call attention to your other works. I’m aiming for new stuff every other month. I’m not necessarily talking a new novel every other month – it can be as small as a new short story. The key here is consistency and an ever-increasing amount of ebooks for your growing fan base to pick up. People want new stuff faster and the old days of only a novel every year are well and truly gone.
2. EBook Anthologies: This is going to piss a lot of people off, but every time I see someone else soliciting stories for an e-anthology, my first reaction is “why on earth would I waste my writing for it?” The fact is, any writer can put that story out themselves at a 99 cent price point and earn 35 cents and 40 cents (Amazon and B&N respectively) with each sale. And rather than getting lost in the table of contents with other authors (who may or may not help sales depending on the quality of their work) you can put it out yourself, increase your own virtual shelf space, and help further your own brand. Royalty sharing among ebook authors (unless it’s a novel collaboration) is no way to generate any sort of income. Of course, if Stephen King drops you an email and asks you to be in his anthology, that might be a different story.
3. Free Ebooks: Stop. Just stop. Everyone is doing this now, which means you absolutely should NOT be doing it. Further, while I know everyone wants to get exposure and introduce the world to your writing, the simple fact is, if you’ve labored long and hard on your book, then you shouldn’t give it away for free. Perception is reality and if people see you don’t value your own work, then they’ll never value it either. It’s worth something – even if it’s only 99 cents. But free? No way. There’s such a glut of free ebooks out there now, you’ll never get any sort of exposure anyway. It’s wasted effort that you could be using to sell copies of the work in question. Want exposure and reviews? Recruit a few keys friends or fans and give them a copy in exchange for them talking it up and posting reviews about it. Yes, it’s free to them, but there’s an exchange of value going on – they get the ebook and you get some definite exposure and reviews out of it.
4. Stop Book Launch Events on Facebook: Learn to use Facebook Pages for your author stuff. Creating a new event every time you have a book launch splits up your audience and then forces everyone you invite to receive email every time you post an update on the event page. It gets annoying very quickly. Announce your books on your Author Page and if you need help setting them up properly, I wrote up a few posts in the past on how to do it here and here. Remember: your goal is to build your audience, not annoy them. Plus, the more things you invite people to, the less likely they are to attend. Give them one page on Facebook to focus on, not thirty.
5. Write a Series: if you’re only writing standalone novels, I suggest you start writing a series. Now. Why? Because if your series is good and people like it, you will have a built-in audience for future installments. Plus, new readers will discover your series and you’ll keep building it. But if you keep writing standalone novels, then maybe the subject matter doesn’t click with certain folks. A series is a definable product and provided they like the characters, readers will keep coming back for more. I would argue there is more inherent value in continuing a series than there is in a standalone. My Lawson Vampire series now stands at seven novels, five novellas, and seven short stories. Each month, the series earns me roughly 85% of my income as compared to my various standalone novels. It is well worth your time developing a series.
Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this post, I hope you’ll share it with others!
OATHBREAKER, a new short story is now out on its own. It’s also part of the SIX TIMES DEADLY collection, but this is the standalone version. It’s only 99 cents and meaty at 6,000 words. This time around, Lawson enters the hospital undercover to find out who is bleeding patients dry – but what he discovers is actually a whole lot worse than was previously thought.
If, for some inexplicable reason (say, you were off-planet fighting alien invaders or possibly got kidnapped by clowns and forced to perform mime for the last six years) you haven’t yet gotten into the Lawson series, I’ve bundled three novels into one great ebook, DEADLY TRIO, which collects THE FIXER, THE INVOKER, and THE ENCHANTER into one volume for only $9.99 (which saves you about $3 bucks over buying them separately). LETHAL TRIO will be out within the next few days and collects THE DESTRUCTOR, THE SYNDICATE, and THE RIPPER into one volume for the same $9.99 price.
Yesterday saw the release of the next Lawson novel, THE RIPPER, which puts Lawson back in Boston trying to uncover the identity of a serial killer while dodging a Chinese assassin, dealing with Marty’s advances, counseling Niles, and dealing with Arthur’s past. It’s a chaotic mix of non-stop action and mayhem. And sales have been very good indeed!
Earlier today, I released SIX TIMES DEADLY, the first Lawson story collection featuring six short stories: The Price of a Good Drink, Interlude, Red Tide, Enemy Mine, Rudolf The Red Nosed Rogue, and Oathbreaker. Along with those six stories, I also included some cool bonuses: the script for the first part of the Lawson graphic novel and the first two chapters from the Talya spin-off novel series CODENAME: BELLADONNA. Yep, you heard right: there’s going to be a Talya spin-off novel series. It’s been in the works for a while now and with the advent of ebooks, I can actually write what I want without having to appeal to the whims of New York City publishing. I have three Talya novels sketched out and expect to complete the first one this year. I’m excited about it; Talya’s a great character and well-deserving of her own series. Hopefully, the fans will enjoy it.
And finally, FROSTY THE HITMAN is now available for sale. This is the freebie short story I gave away on Christmas Day, but that window has now closed so if you want it, it’ll cost you 99 cents. You can grab that