RNA Conference Day 1 - What I learnt

This time last week I was getting v excited about going to the RNA conference in Mile End Road. A week has gone by and I still have good and bad memories. (The bad ones will appear on my food blog). The first talk I went to was a Skype webinar with Jim Azevedo of Smashwords, where he talked about pre-orders, what they are and what they can do for authors.

Here is what I learnt:

Preorders are only for Apple, Kobo and B&N. They are advanced book orders. Readers can order the book before release but they won't be charged until the launch day.

1. Preorders area fast track to desirability, discoverability and visibility. You need to start promoting your ebook months in advance. You are already talking about your next book. Capture the sale, don't lose it. Have a preorder link.
2. Better buzz building. You get anticipation, excitement and fans and superfans, which can lead to
3. Better reviews. Fans are more likely to preorder. Be the first to read your book and to review them.
4. Fast track to a bestseller list. A bestseller is more visibility to readers. Sales lead to more sales.
5. Same day availability as launch day.
6. Increased merchandising option.  Eg Apple iBooks Oz have a special called 'Coming soon'.

Planning - Budget for a long runway into publishing timetable. More days = more time to get orders. 4-12 weeks is recommended.

Timing - Avoid Tuesdays on SW (even though I published my latest on a Tues and got a sale). The weekend is the biggest selling days. Holidays and after Xmas Day are good.

Marketing
1. Contests, chapter reveals, blog tours. Promote direct links to preorder pages.
2. Mobilize your fans as a street team. Spread the word
3. Author special pricing. You can have preorder price cheaper, then increase it on launch day.
4. Leverage other books to market preorder. Update back pages of all other books. Free sample of book. Series starter as free.

But what if your book isn't finished yet? There is now Assetless Preorders. You only need to know the title, the price, the description, release date and category. (Might do this myself for either 'Fire Angels' or Billy, or both). When you upload onto SW, and click 'publish' you can choose the option 'make it a preorder.'

Review publishing schedule in 12 months. Get all firm projects as preorders. Choose your on-sale date as far ahead as possible. Once preorder is listed, promote!

For normal preorders you have to have the book ready 10 days in advance so each retailer gets your book on the same day.

I asked if we could change metadata eg title of book from the preorder one to the launch day one. Yes, you can change any of the metadata.

Now thinking seriously about having one or two of my forthcoming ebooks as Assetless Preorders.

Now 'A Friend in Need' is published, I am back to tell you how to reach as many readers you can as an indie author of ebooks – this is the way I do. In my next library talk I will be mentioning ebook platforms, and this is the way to get to as many readers as you can – publish on as many digital platforms you can. I know that some indie authors have had great success with publishing exclusively on Amazon, esp with their Select programme, but for me, I want to reach as many readers as I can, to let them know what I like writing about: mainly hope and second chances. Ever since I became an indie author in 2011, I have published widely. Although, when I published ‘Snakeskin Boots’ I did put it in Select as an experiment to see what results I got – no sales. When the 90 days were up, I published it widely.  I will continue to publish on as many channels as I can. So, when ‘A Friend’ came out last week, I published it on Amazon, Kobo, Smashwords for its own store and the US libraries and subscription services eg Oyster, and Draft2Digital for Apple and their new channel, Tolino. Now that D2D have this new channel, I am going to put the rest of my ebooks that aren’t on there, on there. I started today by putting ‘More Fish in the Sea’ on there. I have now put all of my ebooks on there. I have also checked Goodreads, and they are all on there, too. My next task is to update my website so that they are all on there, too, plus reorganise the pages for my children's ebooks. I also need to put them all on ALLi's website for discoverability.

So, that’s how to reach as many readers you want to – publish your ebook on all platforms you can find. If D2D add more channels, I will add them there, too.

Are you an indie author? If so, do you believe in being exclusive to one etailer or do you publish widely? Let me know.

'The Leaping Angels' is now out

The fourth ebook in my 'Guardian Angels' series called 'The Leaping Angels' is now out on Smashwords, Amazon and Apple. It's yet to reach Kobo. Here are the links:

Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/448507

Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00L123QJ8?*Version*=1&*entries*=0

Apple: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/id890824994

I couldn't believe how easy it was to upload the book to both Smashwords etc. Thought it would be hard, but no. Someone has already bought it from Amazon. There is one more ebook to come in the series. I have already come up with an idea on a side series from it. The idea came to me last night when I watched a programme about benefit tenants and housing agencies.

Meantime, I am working on the second mermaid story called  'The Vanity Quest'. I finished the first draft of it this morning.

The London Book Fair 2014 - What I learnt

So I went to the London Book Fair at Earl's Court on Tuesday. I managed to get there earlier than I expected so I had time to sort myself out then find the stand I wanted to go to for a talk. The first talk was called 'Book Discovery for Authors' and was a question session to the panel of Mark Coker (Smashwords), Andrew Rhumberg (Jelly Books) and Joanna Penn (author and member of ALLi). It was all about how to get your books discovered by readers. I took lots of notes, but will only do a summary of the main points I learnt.

The challenges that authors face is shelf-space. Now that more authors are publishing ebooks. Joanna said that they solutions are to write and publish more than one book, and grow your email list. (This is something I plan to do now, and next ebook I publish will have a message on the contacts page asking if they wish to join my newsletter). Joanna also said it is a good idea to join with other authors writing the same genre and create a box set. Andrew said to have a great cover, be consistent on social media and write interesting stuff not just buy my book. Readers will determine your success. Mark said that you need to take your readers to an emotional high and make them say wow.

Joanna, who also writes non-fiction, said that when you publish a non-fiction book, check out keywords on Google etc. Don't give the book a title that readers won't look for.

Mark mentioned the 'Pre-order' he has on Smashwords. This makes it easier for readers to find the books in estores. And, if you put your ebook for pre-order and you get readers buy then, when the ebook comes out, you get the sales on the first day. Budget for this in your launch.

How do you know what works? Joanna said that indie authors are more focussed on what works.

The single most important thing to do to get discovered more - grow email list. Mark said the book.

Put your contacts page at the back, as readers want to know what you write before they know you. Price your book good, lower is best. You want to eliminate friction from reader between giving them the sample and them purchasing the book.

Then book trailers were mentioned. Don't pay too much, it's for a special audience but if you enjoy doing it, then do it.

Later at the weekend I will talk about the rest of the day. See you then.

A publishing experiment - KDP Select

When I first started my indie publishing career with 'The Railway Angel' I told myself the best way to reach as many readers as I wanted was to publish it across all the digital platforms as possible. I have been doing this ever since, but this year, when I get to publish 'The Snakeskin Boots' I am going to experiment.  I have been hearing good and bad things about KDP Select. So I decided I shall give it a try myself to see what all the fuss is about and if it works for me. I have a while yet before 'Boot's is ready to go because I have just got the second edits back from my editor and have lots of thinking and editing to do. Then I shall send it to her again for a final edit. I plan now to publish it early August.

When I publish it on Amazon, I shall blog here. Then after say a month, I shall blog with results of what is happening. I seem to earn more from Smashwords, but it looks as though I get more downloads on Amazon. We shall see. The rest of my ebooks I will continue to publish everywhere.

Watch this space...

Let me know if you have used KDP Select, and what results you got. I will categorise Boots as urban fantasy I think.

Look forward to what others have to say about it.