My Self Publishing Journey Part 1

 

In the US Bronze is on a countdown promotion starting Sunday 14th September at $0.99 for the eBook, rising to $1.99 on the 17th September before reverting to the full price of $2.99 on the 20th September.  All promotions commence at 8:00 am PDT on the stated days.

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I've been self publishing since 2011 and was absolutely self-taught.  I'm sure I Googled a lot back then, used the how-to guides provided by Amazon and Smashwords but I don't know if there were any YouTube guides back then, almost certainly are now, but if I used them I've forgotten entirely.

I do remember it being a steep learning curve, probably helped by my having three novels - one a  relative behemoth at 115k words - sitting on my hard drive, so once I'd worked out what to do for one I was able to apply that learning and reinforce it on the following two.

I even blogged about the process (links below).  A quick perusal of that content fourteen years later shows it was more about the general process I'd learnt and less about what button to press and when in which piece of software.  Probably useful for someone starting out and almost certainly outdated in parts now.

How to self publish Part 1

How to self publish part 2

How to self publish part 3

How to self publish part 4

How to self publish part 5

The bit that might stick out like a sore thumb if you're reading those blog posts today is that there's no mention of print editions.  I think Amazon were spreading rumours about print on demand coming and if memory serves it was the US market that got POD first, but it just wasn't an option at that point.  Today most authors would want a print option for their readers, even though the profit margin is generally lower.  Actually that isn't accurate, you can price your eBooks and print books at any price you want within certain constraints, but most authors will be trying to make the print version as affordable as possible, and that usually means the lower priced eBook returns more in royalties.

Now all ten of my books are available in eBook and print versions.  The last couple are available in both paperback and hardback versions although I doubt I'll ever sell any hardback ones.  I created them because the only extra cost is my time and if I (or someone else) really wanted to provide a special gift of one of my books, then the hardback version would be a nice upgrade.

In addition to the ten books listed at the bottom of this blog I also was heavily involved in the production of the four (to date) Newsbiscuit compilations that exist to supplement our meagre income.  They were created by a small team of editors including myself and I was the person who did all the preparation, formatting and setting up in our NewsBiscuit KDP login for eBook and print versions.  Again, there are both paperback and hardback versions available.  We've actually sold 23 hardback copies, which at around £20 a book isn't bad.

  

The challenge for these books was similar to all the other books - setting up the prelim pages, setting the page and section breaks so the prelim section used roman numerals (apart from the leading pages that had none) and the main section had Arabic.  Like all print books I had to be aware of orphans and widows - chapters ending on the first couple of lines on a new page, for example.  Usually solved by careful selection of font and font size, but also by very fine editing if the story supports it.  One advantage of these books is that on any given page there are usually between two and four short stories and shuffling them around the chapter often resulted in a more efficient use of page space.  That technique generally doesn't work in a long-form novel!

Other challenges with print that you don't have concern yourself with for the eBook version is page size, page colour and margin sizes.  I initially used the default 9 x 6 format Amazon suggests.  Apparently it's a popular book format in the US but looks large for a piece of UK fiction.  Fine for textbooks and I set a large page size for the Newsbiscuit anthologies, however for my more recent print books in my range I've gone for a more traditional UK 8 x 5.  Obviously smaller pages mean more pages and with POD every page raises the unit cost, but equally smaller page sizes reduces the individual page cost.  I knew that maths degree would come in useful one day.

So these fourteen books have given me a grounding in preparing books for publication in eBook and print format, skills that have been acquired through hard work and more than  a little perspiration. I'm sure I will be setting up an eleventh Ray Sullivan novel at some point in the near future and we're way overdue a fifth NewsBiscuit anthology, but it turns out I've had the opportunity to use my skills to help other authors produce their books.  I'll be discussing who I've helped and in what ways in the next part of this story.

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In the US Bronze is on a countdown promotion starting Sunday 14th September at $0.99 for the eBook, rising to $1.99 on the 17th September before reverting to the full price of $2.99 on the 20th September.  All promotions commence at 8:00 am PDT on the stated days.

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Follow me on Twitter: @RayASullivan

email me at raysullivan.novels@yahoo.com

Check out my comedic ramblings as Throngsman on www.newsbiscuit.com

     

   

 

Has Amazon taken the eBook market?

A few months ago Amazon launched an aggressive campaign to get the eyes of eBook readers on books offered through them.  They launched Kindle Unlimited, which provided access to all the books in the Kindle library - but not necessarily in the Kindle store - to subscribers.

About a month ago they launched the same scheme in the UK and I have no doubt it is being progressively rolled out across all the main eBook regions. It has its merits; all the eBook subscription services have their merits.  The main one is that the reader pays a monthly subscription and gets as many books to read as they want, much like Netflix and Lovefilm do for films and TV shows.

The downside of all subscription services is that, unlike films and TV shows, books tend to be read by individuals.  They generally take longer to consume, or read, than films and TV shows do to watch.  A year or so ago we could have argued that at least you can consume books when streaming internet services were unavailable, but that is less valid today.  Many of us have access to 3 and 4 G services with ever increasing monthly allowances (mine is currently 2 Gb over 4G).  My top tip for anyone wanting to use an eBook subscription service is to create a family email account and use that for multiple devices.

I can't speak for all authors, but since the US launch my sales have quite literally flatlined.  Hardly surprising, mind, given that whenever Amazon launched the service it included the first month free as a trial, so many would have used that month to fill up on eBooks and are probably now all read out for the time being.  Many of them would have cancelled their membership once the month was up but Amazon have gambled on a significant amount liking the service so much that they stay, others will just keep forgetting to cancel - it's not like Amazon care.

Some might have been frustrated that the books they wanted weren't available - many big sellers aren't in the library, possibly never will unless Amazon hammer out a loss leading deal with them.  Others, such as myself, are also absent - I refuse to give in to Amazon and sign over exclusive rights to them.  I'm not going to bang on about my views - again - just search my blog for KDP Select if you've missed my rants.  However, despite zero sales since Kindle Unlimited started my books have been perused more than ever on Smashwords.  I don't see Smashwords as a major outlet for books - I never think to look there to buy - but they provide metrics that let me know if there's any interest in my books.  Probably I've seen more activity on there than ever before.  I've been cautious about over-interpreting the metrics, it could be one person continually visiting my book page and downloading the 20% samples time and again. However this last 30 days sales have kicked in again - not large amounts, but first Apple, then Barnes & Noble, now Smashwords reporting sales.

While I hope those who subscribe to the Amazon Unlimited scheme get what they want out of the service, while Amazon insist on exclusive rights to any books listed there you won't find me there.  If they lift that requirement I'll be on in a flash.  But I really hope they don't dominate the eBook market any more than they do right now, we need competition, you need choice. 

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Unpublish - and be damned

Following on from my last blog post I've done some more research and I'm gearing up for my protest against Amazon.  I'm hoping I'm not a lonely figure on the virtual picket line out there!

Why would I want to bite the hand that feeds me? - OK, throws me the occasional titbit then? Well I guess I need to formalise what success in this needs to look like before I try and convince anyone else to sign up. 

Like all KDP authors I was and to a large extent still am grateful for the way that Amazon liberated the book market for those of us struggling to secure a publishing contract.  They've played a very influential game over the last few years, opening up KDP for free, providing tools to help authors, letting us use their extensive marketplace for selling our books.  Like most KDP authors I've sold a few books through Amazon, but also like most authors I realise that this is a saturated market and consequently I still have the day job, almost certainly will need to until I'm ready to retire.  For me that isn't an issue - sure I've day-dreamed of being a runaway success and able to pay the mortgage, put food on the table and stock up on a few luxury items purely off the back of my writing but I'm realistic enough to know that's unlikely.  As I mentioned in my last blog, the median annual income for traditionally published British authors is £11000 (about $18000 at today's exchange rate), which is about half the average UK wage, so most traditionally published authors will need supplemental incomes to support an average lifestyle.  So, given the support and love a traditional author gets, why should self published authors expect more?

Well, maybe we could achieve much more - we're not feeding an industry, at least in principle - but our biggest problem is discoverability.  Who buys a book they don't know about?  Then there's trust - how many ebooks do we all skip by, on the basis of 'never heard of him/her'?  Not just me, then? The next biggest problem limiting our sales is the sheer amount of books out there - good, bad and indifferent.  No shortage of readers, they seem to be on the increase, but they all have a finite amount of money to spend on books and also a finite amount of time to spend reading.  I guess they have day jobs, too.

Now if Amazon was the only kid on the block we'd have bow and scrape to them.  They're not, but they are the biggest, so perhaps the more subservient amongst us should tug the odd forelock as we pass.  The other big players - Apple and Barnes&Noble particularly, perhaps also Kobo are not as big as Amazon in the ebook world, but in aggregate are close.  The way Apple is swinging behind ebooks suggests that they could challenge Amazon toe to toe on their own at some point in the near future.  What links these non-Amazon retailers is Smashwords, which has just been identified as one of the fastest growing businesses around.  I'm not going to regurgitate Smashwords CEO Mark Coker's words about their phenomenal growth here, but you can link to his blog post here to read up on his story and success.  For those who don't know, Smashwords is the primary distributed to virtually every ebook retailer bar Amazon, also provide amazing tools to help the authors and work hard to help authors sell books.  Smashwords makes money only by us authors selling books, so they have a very strong interest and do it very well. 

The difference between Smashwords and Amazon couldn't be greater.  Smashwords passes a greater percentage of the book price to the author, especially in the sub $2.99 bracket.  On one level consumers don't normally care who gets their money as long as they are happy with the price; in the arts though it's traditional to want the artist to receive a decent remuneration above the promoter.  Smashwords does, Amazon doesn't.  Both know that  most authors won't sell many books each - they both make their money due to the volume sales across all the titles they stock.  Smashwords is very upfront about this, Mark takes every opportunity to temper authors' expectations.  Amazon only tries to sell the success stories.  There's plenty of room for that, too, but a bit of realism doesn't harm.  Smashwords is very keen to see authors follow each and every avenue for sales - Mark encourages Smashwords authors to use KDP, even though Amazon are seemingly very inhospitable to himself and Smashwords. As a result I'm certain Mark would not condone my call to boycott Amazon.  Amazon are trying every trick in the book to gain exclusive rights to books.

There is chalk and there is cheese.  In this world, both are good, both have their places.  Amazon only wants us to have cheese.  I learned to write using chalk (honest - I was probably the last of my generation to use chalk and a board in primary school) and I'm starting to gain an intolerance for some dairy derived products.

What do we want to achieve?  Well, parity on royalty rates would be a good start, especially on sub $2.99 ebooks. Then an end to their call for exclusive rights to enter the KDP Select and Kindle Unlimited programs should be there, too. As I've said before, their insistence on exclusivity is limiting the potential for expanding these initiatives, they are just too damned blinkered by their vision of one retailer for all ebooks.

So that is why I think we need to send Amazon a message.  Unlike the banks, they are not too big to fail.  So on 1 September I'm unpublishing my books on Amazon for a week.  It's a simple process and entirely reversible.  Within 24 - 48 hours the books are removed from sale on Amazon and within a week or so they start to remove them from the listings.  Which is why a week is about perfect - we keep exposure, prevent sales for at least five days then just as they gear up to remove the books (which is probably automated) we reinstate them.  The books will still be available on Apple, B&N, Kobo etc and for Kindle readers frustrated by their disappearance they can still download them in a suitable format on Smashwords.

As I said in my last post, if only I do this then Amazon are not only unlikely to notice, they won't care.  If a hundred of us do this they might notice.  If a thousand do it I'm convinced they'll become aware.  If all one hundred thousand Smashwords authors, who in the main will also be KDP authors, do this, they will notice.  And given that traditionally published authors are now railing against the Big A, perhaps some of them could talk to their publishing houses to see if they could join in?  What if every book worth buying was unavailable on Amazon for a week, how cool a message would that be?  So, if you are an author published on Amazon, consider joining the picket line.  Even if you decide to not join in this time, please pass this blog onto your author friends and colleagues for their consideration.  If you Tweet, please use #boycottamazon, let's see if we can get a trend going.

I'm planning on putting information on my website advising potential buyers of where they can buy my books, including on how they can still fill their Kindles up via Smashwords.  I'm also hoping to put the protest on my Kindle author page - I don't know how joined up Amazon are and whether they could notice little old me protesting.  My guess is that they aren't and won't.  If a lot of us do this then by the time they notice and start taking the author pages down it will be over and everything will be back to normal.

This is only one way of sending a message to Amazon - I have another strategy waiting in the wings to follow this one.  For a given period, say a week again, lots of authors raise the price of their books to unrealistic levels - say £100 or $100 per book - on Amazon only.  It will make Amazon look a very expensive place to buy and although it is easily circumvented through their price matching process, if enough authors participate it will make Amazon work unnecessarily hard for a period.

If you want to comment on this piece of protest then please email on the address below or send me a Tweet.  Hopefully I'll see some of you on the virtual picket line 1 September. Bring your own placard - use whatever font you want, I'm not like Amazon.

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Visit my Book Website here

 

    
    Visit Project: Evil Website here                                        Visit DLF Website here

        Follow me on Twitter  - @RayASullivan

        Join me on Facebook -  use raysullivan.novels@yahoo.com to find me

Smashwords Improves Author Tools

I've been critical about the paucity of information available to authors in previous blogs. The playing field is far from level, nor is it consistently ploughed. Amazon, for example, lets me know instantly if I have sold a book, which one it is, how little royalty I will get and which of its regions it was bought in. This is as good as it gets in self publishing and probably a heck of a lot more than you get in traditional bookselling. They've made it easier to see when you've sold a book but paradoxically it gets harder once you know. But at least they tell you. Mind, you have to look, no advice emails from them.

Smashwords email you whenever anyone buys one of your books direct from them, so that's helpful. However selling books is a bit of a sideline for them, their core strength is distribution through Apple, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, etc. So those emails are generally few and far between, for me anyway.  However Smashwords are constantly looking for ways to improve their services to authors - their view is that if we authors don't sell books, they don't get paid.  They already provide a certain amount of information regarding sales, but unless the sales are directly through them you won't find out for maybe a month or more, and then you've still got one heck of a wait for payment from the likes of Apple, B&N et al before Smashwords can tee up your quarterly payments.

Like many Smashwords authors I pop onto my dashboard several times a week, mosey through the graphs showing how many pageviews each book has had, how many 20% downloads have occurred, I take a peek at the sales log that shows how many books are recorded at Apple, Kobo etc, bearing in mind this data is inevitably very old by the time I get to see it, and I then often take a peek at the site updates.  The site updates is the forum where Mark Coker, CEO of Smashwords, passes on information to the authors.  Sometimes you get three updates in a week, other times there are no updates for up to three weeks.  The other night I was popping into this forum to see if anything new had been posted to see a request from Mark to the first twenty respondents with a bit of free time to carry out some beta testing on some new features.  Normally I would pass on something like that as it was mid week, but I'd just come out of hospital after a minor op and was convalescing for the rest of the week.  So I threw my hat in the ring and, once Mark had secured twenty volunteers, the posting disappeared.  So not only can I tell you about the new features in Smashwords announced today, I can actually say I had a small part in their gestation!

The first item I looked at is a feature called 'daily sales'.  Now although Apple, B&N etc data is often quite old by the time we get to see it on Smashwords, it appears that the companies involved pass the data to Smashwords frequently, some pass it daily.  It's unaudited, but I suspect correct in the main, and Smashwords are now presenting that data to us authors through the dashboard.  When you enter it, you are advised graphically and numerically of all the sales you've had in the last 30 days - I'm told that when the database has been running for a while they will increase that range, possibly to 90 days.  You can see which sellers have sold books, which books have been sold, how many were free downloads (if you permit them) but you can't see where the books were bought from.  You'd have to wait until the audited data appeared to find that out, but at least you can now tell almost within 24 hours if you've had sales in these channels, which is useful if you've been running a promotion.

You still have to look to see if you've made any sales, unless they are direct from Smashwords, but at least we can find out how sales are going on a daily basis. The routine appears bug free - there was an issue with displaying the graphics on some versions of Internet Explorer but the Smashwords software team have aced that problem. It's a really useful tool for Smashwords authors and one to keep the pressure on the big A.

It wasn't the only new tool I was asked to test, but as the other tool hasn't been released yet I have to stay quiet. It's a very useful promotional tool that works very well, although there is at least one software issue that I've identified, however once released I'm sure all Smashwords authors will get a lot of use out of it. Watch this space for more news.

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Visit my Book Website here

 

    
    Visit Project: Evil Website here                                        Visit DLF Website here

        Follow me on Twitter  - @RayASullivan

        Join me on Facebook -  use raysullivan.novels@yahoo.com to find me

Amazon KDP updates dashboard

One of the bugbears for me with all of the distribution channels available is the limited amount of data available. Blogger, for example, attempts to let the blog authors know where and when their entries have been read, providing numerical and graphical information. It also splits the entry sources of the data and the operating systems down. It sounds useful, especially when using a blog as an advertising window on your books, but in reality it isn't that helpful at all. For example, I might know that in the last twenty four hours that my blog has been accessed in maybe ten countries, with fifty two percent of hits originating in the US, and maybe just a couple of hits in Japan. I may also learn that Firefox accounted for thirty five percent of browsers used, with IE just behind, then Chrome. I appreciate that some blogs might embed media that works better in one browser than another, but most of us just blog words and the occasional picture. The biggest issue with all of this, though, is that the data is too coarse. The US is a big place and it would be helpful to know where you are being read - East Coast, West Coast, good old Midwest maybe.

But it's just a blog, right?  What about people looking at my books? Well the best information available is through the Smashwords dashboard. That tells me how many times each book has been viewed and perhaps more interestingly a twenty percent download has taken place. People can stumble across your book page by any number of ways, and even those stumbling across a book through a wrong turn could result in a new fan, but downloading a sample is a real declaration of interest. You have to be checking your dashboard on a regular basis to get a feel for when the downloads take place, otherwise it's just so many on such and such a date. Location? No luck there, unless you spot the download being registered you have no clues at all. Sales are different because Smashwords emails you automatically, but book sales isn't their main function, distribution is. However, once a sale is confirmed it usually comes with some country ID, however that's about it.

The Ebook stores Smashwords distributes to such as Apple and B&N are black boxes. You find out way after the event that you've accrued sales, sometimes months later, and sometimes you get more granularity. I can recall watching sales of Project: Evil move steadily around Canadian states over a two week period a while back, forming a mental image in my mind of a group of readers emailing each other about a book they had enjoyed. But generally, that's as good as the data gets.

Then you have the Big A. Amazon indicate on your dashboard immediately you have a book downloaded, but they don't inform you by email, so you have to check manually. When I first published on Amazon I was checking my dashboard daily, sometimes several times a day, and would spot sales pretty much as soon as they were registered. Nowadays I review a lot less often, in part because waiting for the post is such a boring endeavour but mainly because Amazon have made it a lot more time consuming. As they've rolled out Kindle stores in individual European countries and in Japan , Brazil, Australia etc, they have added these to a drop down box that you had to interrogate one a time to see where you had sold, how many copies of which books and roughly when. The country data is as crude as with Blogger, so although I know how many copies of The Journeymen I have sold in the US, I still don't know if it's across the board or just in certain parts.

However Amazon have now added a new graphical tool that automatically indicates how many books you have sold over the last thirty days (if any) across all regions and your entire canon. You still have to drill down if you want more data, but as an overview it makes checking daily easier again. The graphics are straight out of the eighties, which is a little disappointing from such a big company but at least it is a step in the right direction.

But what is the big deal on data? Well curiosity apart, it would be helpful to know where in the world I am appreciated, and where I'm making zero impact. Such information could help me to reward the areas that follow me, to work with those that are unaware of my books, which may result in more sales that would benefit Amazon, Smashwords, Apple and B&N. It would also help me target promotional activities for my new book, Assassin, ahead of its release on May 1st. I'm fairly certain all of the above companies could provide better data easily, to their mutual benefit. But at least Amazon have tried to close the gap a little.
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Visit my Book Website here

 

        Visit Project: Evil Website here                                        Visit DLF Website here

        Follow me on Twitter  - @RayASullivan

        Join me on Facebook -  use raysullivan.novels@yahoo.com to find me

Pre-order Assassin and get another (maybe two) books free

* I've just been alerted to a fault with the email link below - now fixed. If you have tried using it and received a failure delivery notice, please resubmit. Apologies for any inconvenience*

As part of my pre-order promotion I'm offering anyone who can prove they have pre-ordered Assassin from an eBook store the opportunity to download one of my other books via Smashwords for free.  And when I say one of my books, I'm letting you choose which one.  If you have already pre-ordered the book or do so between now and release date (1 May), then just forward the confirmation email to me at contact@raysullivanbooks.com stating which of my other books you would like to obtain for free then I will generate and email you back a code for Smashwords that will allow you to access your chosen book for free in any eBook format you wish.  As an added incentive, I'm offering the first one hundred such pre-orders the chance to download any two of my books in this way.

My reasons for this promotion are to try and sell more books (obviously) but also to try and raise more awareness of my books in general.  Both my website and my Smashwords pages are showing that I've picked up a fair amount of interest in the last two months or so but there's a lot of readers out there who will be unaware of my books at all.  By setting Assassin up for pre-order it allows all pre-ordered book sales to be accrued on the same day.  If there are enough sales in one go, the book rises up the rankings, enhancing visibility.  It's a one-off opportunity to sell my name through a book.

So, for $0.99 (or the £ or Euro equivalent) you can obtain up to two of my other books for free.  That's an average of $0.33 a book, which has to be a bargain.

The books you can choose from are:

Parallel Lives
The Journeymen
Journeymen II: Day of Reckoning
Skin
Digital Life Form
The Last Simple
Project: Evil

To read up the blurb on any or all of these, please follow the link below to my book website, or visit your favourite eBook seller and read about them there.

I look forward to hearing from you.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------                                                         
Visit my Book Website here

 

        Visit Project: Evil Website here                                        Visit DLF Website here

        Follow me on Twitter  - @RayASullivan

        Join me on Facebook -  use raysullivan.novels@yahoo.com to find me

Read an eBook Week is Back

Once a year about this time the 'Read an eBook Week' is run.  This week it runs from March 2 for seven days and many eBooks are heavily discounted or even free.  If you need to stock up on your eBooks for less (legitimately) or if you are new to reading electronically then this is the perfect opportunity.

Many authors allow their books to be sold for a discount or for free to encourage use of the genre for the greater good and to receive some additional exposure to new readers.  I've participated in one way or another every year for at least the last three years and I'm continuing to do so this year.  I'm providing a discount code at the end of this posting to Parallel Lives, my first novel, so that you can obtain it for free with my blessing. 

This promotion week is especially relevant this year as the sales of tablet computers has grown exponentially over the last twelve months and consequently there are a lot more people with the capability to use them to read eBooks than ever before.  If that is you and you haven't tried reading an eBook on your tablet yet, or you know someone in that position, then do yourself a favour and give it a no-cost try.  Pass this blog onto anyone you know who might benefit from trying eBooks for free while you're at it.

But don't just stop there, take a look at the other books being offered by other authors and don't forget to check out their (and my) other wares while you're at it.

The promotion is being hosted by Smashwords once again and that is where you'll need to go to if you want to grab some free or cheap eBooks in the next seven days. The code you need to download a free copy of Parallel Lives is RW100.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------                                                         
Visit my Book Website here

        Visit Project: Evil Website here                                        Visit DLF Website here

        Follow me on Twitter  - @RayASullivan

        Join me on Facebook -  use raysullivan.novels@yahoo.com to find me

Assassin Available for Pre-order Soon

My latest novel, Assassin, is nearing completion and I'm expecting it to go on pre-order soon.  The ability to place books on pre-order is a new innovation for self published authors, a service that only the publishing houses enjoyed previously.  Of course all self published authors beat the drum ahead of launch date, but in reality this has always has a whiff of vapourware about it.  However Smashwords, the distributor of my books to Apple, Barnes and Noble and Kobo has introduced a pre-order system that the big ebook providers have agreed to.

So how does it benefit you and what does it mean to me?  Well, for the majority of authors, including myself, it probably doesn't provide much of a benefit.  It does allow pre-orders to accrue until launch day and on that day all the pre-orders are counted in one lump, which may just raise the visibility of the book a tad higher than without it.  It also allows the book to be previewed in advance of the sales period, giving readers a chance to think about it before it arrives.  It does provide a structure for the final edit - that is a job that can always be postponed due to other commitments if we're not careful, but a real deadline, well for a completer like me that's the kind of stress that helps.

For the reader, well, it allows you to think about a book and still be the first on the block to read it.  Probably not the highest priority for many of my readers, although I do have a loyal core of you that do seem to buy every book I write.  For those who like to think they are helping their personal favourite authors, it's a chance to help elevate their profile to let others know about them.  It's also an opportunity for authors to reward the loyal and one way that is suggested by Smashwords is to provide those who email evidence of a pre-order the opportunity to receive a promotional code to obtain an existing book from the canon for free.  I'll be looking into that as a tool.

So what's Assassin about?  Well, it's a return to the multi level novels I wrote in The Journeymen and Skin, that is, it has two stories spread over two time periods interwoven with each other.  It's set in the not-too-distant future, in a UK that has temporarily suspended democracy as part of the ongoing war on terror, being run by the congress.  It starts during the fledgling congress period at the time of the worst terrorist attack ever to hit mainland UK, a defining moment that reinforces the stance of the government and oscillates between then and events at the time of the fourth congress.

John is an engineer who falls victim to the terrorist attack that destroyed the Queen Elizabeth the Second bridge and almost killed him.  While being debriefed by congress agents his family is targeted by a mysterious person known only as Morris, a journey that results with John becoming a gun for hire, a dedicated killer known as the Assassin.  He finds himself holed up in a beach hut in Cornwall during a terrible storm with a beach bum who discovers John's secret.  They are destined to spend the night stuck in each other's company while the storm plays out and John decides to tell his story of how he came to be the Assassin as a way of proving he means his co-resident no harm.  Except his resident isn't all that he appears to be and unknown to John there are a couple of congress soldiers staking out the hut, intent on killing one of them and capturing the other.

As the night progresses, John's tale of his past unfolds as the present develops, and we find ourselves living his story alternately through his eyes and as a remote viewer.  Needless to say there is a lot of action throughout the book and the dénouement, currently being crafted, is packed with two concurrent storylines that lead to resolution of the past and the present.

Assassin has been a long time in development, having been started back in 2006 and worked on between other writing projects since.  It was born out of events at that period when the UK and US governments both sought to extend the war on terror in part by curtailing civil liberties, moves that were roundly resisted by many people.  While the menace that terrorism presents has necessarily resulting in a natural curtailing of our liberties for the greater good, some of the proposals seemed so at odds with what we regard as democracy it looked like we could end up as totalitarian as the states we aim to resist.  This book in part looks at what could happen when that battle is taken so far as to remove democracy, and the distorted world it could create.  It's not a political statement, nor a libertarian rant against anti-terrorist policies, but it does aim to make the reader consider these in passing.

There will be more information about Assassin and its release date in the near future, as well as excerpts from the book as a taster.

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Visit my Book Website here

        Visit Project: Evil Website here                                        Visit DLF Website here

        Follow me on Twitter  - @RayASullivan

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Amazon Price Madness

Anyone who self publishes through Amazon or Smashwords will know that the responsibility of setting the selling price is theirs.  It's a challenge for us Joe Averages who have managed to write a story from one end to the other correctly formatted for multiple reading devices, create a cover that looks professional and write a descriptive blurb (probably harder than the actual book for many of us) before we get to this stage.

Marketing is a black art, in my opinion.  I've worked with marketers in the past and I can confirm that science has no place in their deliberations.  However they must know something, must apply some formulaic process to their craft because when they get it right, they get it very right.  Of course, when they get it wrong their products sink without trace so we don't see that side too often.  Their failures are hidden.  Like I said, art, not science.

However, unlike the big six publishers and the shrinking number of small independent publishers, pricing is one of those things the self publisher has to sort out him or herself.  Opinions are freely available, I'm probably about to impart a few of my own at no cost in a few lines.  Mark Coker, the CEO of Smashwords, is a marketer from another age and imparts his analysis on eBook pricing.  He notes, and to be fair he is in a good position to analyse trends, that free books are good sellers, if lacking in revenue, $0.99 tend to do OK but it isn't until you price above $2.99 that sales take place.  Actually, from how I read his figures, $0.99 might need to sell more to make the same money as higher priced offerings but are more readily bought anyway.

The big insight Mark brings to the table is that the $1.00 - $2.98 range is in essence the ebook dead zone. Now, against my better instincts, I pitched my books above $2.99 for a while and sales plummeted.  My take is that I am not a well enough known writer for people to invest $2.99 in speculatively - and to be fair I rarely pay more than £0.99 (about $1.30) for books myself.  In fact I don't think the absolute value is the important bit, it's the fact that 0.99 in whatever currency you deal in that is psychologically relevant.  It's a candy bar price, a cup of coffee in a coffee shop that pays its fair share of taxes (excludes Starbucks and their fancy priced lattés, then).  The way I look at it, I'm more than happy to take a chance at £0.99 on a book as long as I get good vibes from the blurb but I'm reluctant to spend much more unless it's a book I really want to read.

So after trying Mark's advice for an extended period I reverted to my instinct and priced my books at 0.99 in whatever currency they were sold in where possible.  In fact this is one area that Amazon should have an advantage in as they allow me to price my books individually for each region with the exception of a couple of areas that have to be linked to the US dollar price.  In contrast Smashwords only allows one price, so that is set at $0.99 and is converted locally - such as in the UK - to the exchange rate, sort of.  I say sort of because if you peek at the Kobo UK pages for my books you will find they vary from £0.62 to £0.75, despite all being listed at $0.99 on Smashwords.  I suspect they were converted at different exchange rates on different days, then frozen.  Whatever, I'm not too hung up on the price, I have a wish to make it affordable and accessible to anyone who wants to buy my books.  If I sell small quantities then the price isn't going to make that much of a difference to my lifestyle, and if I do sell a lot then, well, a lot of $0.99 sales equates to that change anyway.  Hence I'm keen to keep my prices keen, if you get my drift.

So what's my beef?  Well, I've had a reasonably good week this week, for reasons I don't understand.  It's not like I've been promoting or even blogging and my blog hit rate has been OK but subdued due to the lack of entries.  On Smashwords I've seen a lot of activity across all the seven books and a reasonable number of 20% downloads.  I can't tell where the interest comes from, whether the downloads are unique individuals or even if they convert to a sale later - I suspect some people surf Smashwords for potential purchases but buy from Apple or B&N later.  On Amazon I've experienced sales across the planet, from home in the UK, across the US and even in the Far East.  Even paperbacks have sold, and I really cannot keep a lid on those costs, much as I'd like to.

Anyway, I took a stroll on Amazon to see how my books looked and to see if any new reviews had been loaded.  In the UK they are listing my books for £1.02 - it seems a ridiculous price to pitch at, but I suspect the notorious UK Value Added Tax, which is applicable to eBooks but not printed matter, is to blame for the £0.03 increase from the price I stipulated.  But in the US I note that my books are listed at $1.68.  I can't see any reason for this price - it's not the price I stipulated, it doesn't really net me much in the way of extra royalties when a book is sold and it pitches my books smack bang into the dead zone.

I've never found Amazon responsive to enquiries about how they price my books, so I haven't chased them on this. However I have had experience of how they react when they find out that a book is being sold elsewhere cheaper from when I ran a limited free ebook promotion.  They won't let me list for free (unless I sell my soul to them), but Smashwords does, which means Apple, B&N and Kobo do by default.  When I ran that promotion the word got out and Amazon started to give my books away as a price challenge for at least a month longer than the promotion ran - thanks, guys.  If you've been looking at my books but think $1.68 is a little steep, then I agree.  Challenge Amazon to price match their competitors.  Or buy your Kindle compatible version from Smashwords.  It saves on emails but unfortunately adds an extra step in the loading process.

For those in the UK, you can shave a quarter off the price by going through Smashwords, and don't worry about my royalties - a much larger slice of anything you pay in the UK ends up in the author's pockets, so generally we're happier anyway.  I would recommend shopping around for any book you fancy unless it is already discounted - don't assume ebook prices are fixed.  They are, but not in the traditional meaning of the word.

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Visit my Book Website here

        Visit Project: Evil Website here                                        Visit DLF Website here

        Follow me on Twitter  - @RayASullivan

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Smashwords Writes New Alliance With Scribd

Smashwords has just announced a new alliance, with eBook publishing platform Scribd. Scribd has apparently about 80 million visitors each month according to a press release from Mark Coker and many are subscribers. For those who subscribe they have access to a massive library of eBooks they can read, a library about to be swollen by the Smashwords premium catalogue.

The deal for Smashwords authors is that all of their books can be browsed on Scribd, with the first 10% available as a sample. If a reader continues reading then after the 30% point has been passed then the booik will accrue a royalty sale. Additionally, for every book that is browsed beyond the initial 10% by at least 5% but less than the 20% required to qualify for a royalty then it will be awarded a point. Accumulate ten points for a particular book and you get your royalty. Keri-ching (maybe)

Like the Oyster deal set up earlier in the year I struggle with the payment logic - the monthly subscription per customer is $8.99 and for that you get to read to your hearts' content. The big reader should do well from this deal,  although Scribd are probably working on the assumption that initially subscribers will read many books, then they will taper off their reading.  Otherwise it's hard to see how this will pay for them, unless they come to an arrangement with really popular book authors.  I'm ready to cut a deal.

It will be interesting to see how these subscription services fare - we now have two claiming to be major players linked to the Smashwords catalogue so perhaps we'll see some browsing action going on soon.  If these services don't make Amazon with its KDP Select programme take a second look, then nothing will.  Because unlike KDP Select these services don't require exclusivity to the books, so customers are free to browse through Scribd or buy through their normal channels (although if you're already paying $8.99 a month, why would you want to buy books you can read whenever?)

You can get more details from the Smashwords blog.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------                                                         
Visit my Book Website here

        Visit Project: Evil Website here                                        Visit DLF Website here

        Follow me on Twitter  - @RayASullivan

        Join me on Facebook -  use raysullivan.novels@yahoo.com to find me