THANK YOU TO AMAZON AND MY READERS

I want to say a big, fat, ‘Thank you’ to amazon. Without them and their kindle, I wouldn’t be in the position I’m in today.I also want to thank all the lovely people who buy my ebooks. I hope you enjoy them.

I am at last earning a living income from my writing. And I have kindle – and my readers – to thank for that. My ebook sales have increased, month on month. My income arrives month on month, unlike when I was with traditional publishers, when I’d get paid every ten months for each book. First, say in the January of the year, when I’d receive my advance on signature. I  wouldn’t receive another payment from my publisher until the October of that year (after the payment had gone via my agent). if I’d written another book, I’d  receive another advance.

There are none of these lengthy waitings around with amazon. For each month’s sales you get paid 60 days after the end of the month in which the sales were made. So for July sales, I’ll get paid end September/beginning October. And for July sales, I’ll know by the 15^th of the following month what I’ve earned. I keep a tally of daily sales, of course, both for my accounts and my own satisfaction, as it’s good to see the numbers mount up.

As I said in my last post, my start with amazon wasn’t promising. I only made a few sales in my first month or two. But I suppose that was to be expected. Readers, in particular, American readers, to whom I make most of my sales, had to get used to the sight of my book covers. They had to prepare to buy, if you like.

So here’s a big thank you, to amazon and all my ebook purchasers. Between you, you’ve changed my life. That’s a nice thing to be able to say on a wet Thursday in August.

MAKING A LIVING AS A WRITER

You want to make a living as a writer? Here’s the route I went.

I wrote a book a year for six years. Totally failed. Until I sold the sixth book, a romance, called Land of Dreams, to Robert Hale. For the fabulous, unforgettable sum (well, I never forgot it!) of £100. Yes. That’s right. £100. That’s around US$160.

As you might guess, my sales were negligible. The marketing less than nil.

I’ve been published by small independents (Hale and Severn House). By big players (Macmillan and St Martin’s Press). By audio and large print publishers (Isis Soundings and Ulverscroft respectively). But, you know what? All of these so-called experts had one thing in common: they not only didn’t know how to market me. They didn’t market me.

Since I’ve taken the ebook route I’ve marketed myself. I’ve done a blog tour,  I’m on facebook, though my tweeting leaves something to be desired. I post on kindleboards and respond to other posts. I’m on DorothyL and Murder Must Advertise and have learned a lot from both. I’m on crimespace and Librarything, goodreads and the Red Room. I have this blog and I send out a monthly newsletter. And you know what? I sell far more books than the publisher ‘experts’ ever did. For relatively little effort.

Hey, I’m no expert. I’m no marketing guru. I’m not even J A Konrath! But I have learned one thing from experience over the last nine months.

And that is that any ebook that is well-written, that entertains and that has been professionally edited and eformatted, with a professionally-designed cover – will sell and sell well enough to give you the living you never managed when you were print-published by the so-called professionals.

Go figure.

IT’S OFFICIAL: I’M NOW GOING SOLO IN THE PUBLISHING WORLD

I’ve been umm-ing and ah-ing about going totally indie for some time. But then when my publisher made it clear that they not only wanted the ebook rights to my just finished book but also to all of eight plus books that form my backlist with them, I rebelled.

I’ve always earned a subsistance income from my print books, but epublishing my early Rafferty and Llewellyn mystery novels convinced me that that didn’t have to be the case with ebooks. So, when it at last looked like I was going to start earning a living that took me up from poverty level, why should I willingly agree to sink back down?

Admittedly, it was a long, hard think. I’d been with my publisher the best part of ten years and they’d published twelve of my mystery novels. But seeing as they were intransigent and resistant to any attempts to negotiate on royalty percentages or price or frequency of payment, I also dug my heels in. Why, I asked myself, would I accept a 25% royalty rate when I could get 70% with amazon? Why would I accept twice-yearly royalty payments when amazon pays every month? And why would I be happy with books priced at $9.99 or above and which are unlikely to sell when I know from my own experience of publishing the earlier Rafferty books which were published by a different publisher, that a lower price equalled higher sales?

It was all a no-brainer. Yes, I felt a little disloyal. But weighed against that was how foolish I would feel accepting such a poor offer.

We’ve all read J A Konrath (A Newbie's Guide to Publishing (see top of Blogroll to right). We’ve all learned a lot from his experiences and experiments in the ebook world and from those of his writing friends. JA, I’m grateful to you for all you’ve taught me. I’m not about to spurn all your hard-won knowledge.

So, as I said, I’m now officially an independent. Feel  free to support a poor author. Here are my amazon pages

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=node%3D341689031&field-keywords=geraldine+evans&x=0&y=0

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=node%3D1286228011&field-keywords=geraldine+evans&x=0&y=0

Hats off to J A and hurrah for Indies everywhere. Long may we flourish. Monthly ebook sales now at over 700 and rising…

Hey, if it carries on like this, I might actually start to make a living.

DEATH LINE PUBLISHED WITH TRAILER

Well, it's now up on kindle, minus the cover at the moment, as I received this after the book content. But that will adorn the book shortly. But what I've done differently with this one is to embed my trailer into the actual book. How advanced is that? Needless to say, I wasn't responsible for it - I just asked and it was done by my lovely ebook formatters hitch@Q.com and her staff.

Here's the trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTOg75pLNzc

Hitch thinks it's a hoot, but she may be biased!

Have any of you embedded a trailer in an ebook? I have to admit this is a new concept for me. I'm still gobsmacked about the whole ebook revolution. It seems like some sort of miracle to an ignored midlister like me. Now we can perform on something like a level playing field with the bestsellers.

I love being able to set my own price, decide on my own cover and control what extras are put in the book. For the next one, I think, as well as an embedded  trailer, I'll probably put the first chapter of Absolute Poison, the next in my Rafferty & Llewellyn mystery series.

How about you? What plans do you have in this mad ebook world? Going to bring out an anthology of your short stories? Or your writing tips articles? Admittedly, with the latter, you can't begin to compare to the king of tips, J A Konrath and his Newbie's Guide to Publishing (see Blog List at right). This thousand-page book, made up of countless blogs about the publishing industry and marketing and epublishing, is a phenomenon. It helped to persuade me to join the revolution. I'm glad I did: by the time I publish Absolute Poison, I should be earning £400 a month. Maybe more, as it's said that the greater the number of books up on kindle, the better the all-round sales. We'll see. But I'm not complaining. How about you? And if you've yet to join the revolution, you could do worse than buy Konrath's Guide. You've nothing to lose and maybe everything to gain. I think it's the best advice book I've ever bought.