Tout your Kindle and E-Publishing!

[LDWriter2]

Hey, I did it. Or so it looks so far.

On Smashwords a set of five stories.

First try, I may have to work on that cover for the small size but it looks like I did everything else right.

A short PS.

I double checked my story set, the Epub version may have two slight problems but I don't know if either would be considered a problem.

But according to Smashwords the set will be reviewed by humans and so we will see what they-him-her think. When they get to it. 

[Ishmael]

Hey LD,

If you will take a tip from a veteran teacher of how to write advertising copy, then I suggest you might revise the short description along the following lines:

"Five gripping new science fiction stories. Around 6,000 words each, the latest short stories from Californian writer Louis 'Iceman' Doggett will chill your blood / freeze your bone marrow / make you laugh your socks off! Get ready to be astounded!"

Or something like that. The last thing you ever do when advertising is give an honest description of the product. Nobody else will.

OK, sorry, I'll mind my own business.

[LDWriter2]

Something along those lines might work better.

I will think about it when I upload a fixed version. Assuming they find something for my to fix. I know there is one thing but I'm expecting more.

I was planning on putting in the total word count but obviously I forgot.

So what do you think of the cover? I was thinking of making the text larger. It's a simple cover I did--I don't know if I said that here--I don't want anything fancy for the story sets. That would take a lot of work and expense.

[Ishmael]

So what do you think of the cover? I was thinking of making the text larger. It's a simple cover I did--I don't know if I said that here--I don't want anything fancy for the story sets. That would take a lot of work and expense.

Well, since you ask ...

The cover legend did rather confuse me, I must admit. Who or what is Flying Eagle? Is 'Long and Short Tales' some kind of brand name? The introduction seemed incongruous when what the book actually contains is a number of stories of much the same length and all by the same author.

The title, I suggest, needs to be in a much larger font than any introduction to the title. For me, 'Five Stories of Sci Fi Adventures' is also duplication. 'Five Science Fiction Adventures' or 'Five Science Fiction Stories' would be cleaner.

Personally I am not too keen on the left justification of all the wording, but particularly of your name, this may be just a matter of taste.

Now the single planet photograph is a common cover, which means that yours will not really stand out. That also means of course that it doesn't look bad either. The image looks fine in the thumbnail version. In the full size version it looks rather more like a marble with what appears to be the shadow of the photographer falling upon it. (Here's where you tell me it is actually a moon of Jupiter or something!)

Bear in mind please that I have yet to attempt anything like this myself and I claim no expertise in this market, only a general background in marketing. The trouble is, whenever I try to be helpful it always somehow comes out sounding very negative.

ETA: I have been messing about trying to illustrate what I mean rather than describe it.



I'll leave this image posted for a while in case anyone else wants to comment, but I am not pretending it is of merchantable quality, it's just a mock up.

[LDWriter2]

So what do you think of the cover? I was thinking of making the text larger. It's a simple cover I did--I don't know if I said that here--I don't want anything fancy for the story sets. That would take a lot of work and expense.

Well, since you ask ...

The cover legend did rather confuse me, I must admit. Who or what is Flying Eagle? Is 'Long and Short Tales' some kind of brand name? The introduction seemed incongruous when what the book actually contains is a number of stories of much the same length and all by the same author.

The title, I suggest, needs to be in a much larger font than any introduction to the title. For me, 'Five Stories of Sci Fi Adventures' is also duplication. 'Five Science Fiction Adventures' or 'Five Science Fiction Stories' would be cleaner.

Personally I am not too keen on the left justification of all the wording, but particularly of your name, this may be just a matter of taste.

Now the single planet photograph is a common cover, which means that yours will not really stand out. That also means of course that it doesn't look bad either. The image looks fine in the thumbnail version. In the full size version it looks rather more like a marble with what appears to be the shadow of the photographer falling upon it. (Here's where you tell me it is actually a moon of Jupiter or something!)

Bear in mind please that I have yet to attempt anything like this myself and I claim no expertise in this market, only a general background in marketing. The trouble is, whenever I try to be helpful it always somehow comes out sounding very negative.

ETA: I have been messing about trying to illustrate what I mean rather than describe it.



I'll leave this image posted for a while in case anyone else wants to comment, but I am not pretending it is of merchantable quality, it's just a mock up.

Flying Eagle: Long and Short Tales is my publishing company. Or will be when I have a couple of books under it. I need to make it official. If I'm going all out with Indie publishing than having my own label is suppose to be good. It's just for my novels and stories--even though some are under pen names. Of course I could place that on the inside and just make the cover L. E. Doggett presents Five SF adventures. But I don't want a plain phrase others use "Five Science Fiction Stories".

Your right others have used single planets on covers which is why I did. It's easier to do--this was hard enough to figure out. And no it's not a moon to Jupiter or any other planet. It's my own private planet. My wife gave it to me as a present a few years back. It plays havoc with the water in the bathtub and compass needles but we can cope.

As to the title I will probably be centering the title--whatever one I use--as I get more practice.

And thanks for you looking it over and the advice.

[LDWriter2]

Hey , I did it. I received the premium status. Wow I thought for sure something would be wrong.

Actually, there is one thing but that is easily fixed and I will redo the first short blurb.


And I did fix it I hope, my blog post Indie Update Two explains it.

I changed the blurb, please check it out. But the title will stay. The next one will be shorter.

[izanobu]

Here is my totally unsolicited opinion:

That cover is kinda terrible. The planet looks stretched and weird. The text is unreadable. It looks very home made and not professional at all.

The blurb still needs work. Don't put word count into the blurb. Readers generally don't have a clue what word count is, it's a writer/publishing thing. If you are desperate to put a length, use page count. Better yet, just tell them what they are getting, ie 5 short stories. Don't say Star Trek New Worlds 10, just say something like "from Star Trek writer" etc, because most readers will have heard of Star Trek and won't know what exactly New Worlds or #10 was or remember your story in it if they did read the series. If you absolutely must, then use just Star Trek: New Worlds.

If you are going to go simple with the cover, that's fine. But make the fonts much larger, make sure they are nice SF fonts that scream the genre and make sure the layout looks like other books. Here are a couple of examples I found that are simple but look 100 times more professional:



Don't be disheartened. This stuff has a learning curve and it takes a while to tweak and get it right. But it is worth it, since having a good blurb and a professional cover will make the difference between you selling 5 copies and 500.

[LDWriter2]

Here is my totally unsolicited opinion:

That cover is kinda terrible. The planet looks stretched and weird. The text is unreadable. It looks very home made and not professional at all.

The blurb still needs work. Don't put word count into the blurb. Readers generally don't have a clue what word count is, it's a writer/publishing thing. If you are desperate to put a length, use page count. Better yet, just tell them what they are getting, ie 5 short stories. Don't say Star Trek New Worlds 10, just say something like "from Star Trek writer" etc, because most readers will have heard of Star Trek and won't know what exactly New Worlds or #10 was or remember your story in it if they did read the series. If you absolutely must, then use just Star Trek: New Worlds.

If you are going to go simple with the cover, that's fine. But make the fonts much larger, make sure they are nice SF fonts that scream the genre and make sure the layout looks like other books. Here are a couple of examples I found that are simple but look 100 times more professional:



Don't be disheartened. This stuff has a learning curve and it takes a while to tweak and get it right. But it is worth it, since having a good blurb and a professional cover will make the difference between you selling 5 copies and 500.

That bad??? Yikes. I knew it wasn't great but I don't want to spend the money for pro cover for these story sets. Just simple and easy to do for the sets. My novel will be pro--if a certain web site every gets back to me that is. The font can be changed but I'm surprised by the word count not being important. Smashwards divides the books by word count and B&N lists the word count under the story title.

[izanobu]

It's possible to do your own, I just don't think you are quite there yet. I understand just starting out and not having much of a budget.

Another alternative is to find a premade cover. You can often get them for 30-50 bucks and they look as good as a custom one.
Here's a few I found that might work:
http://listings.bookcoversmarket.com/ads/europa-rising/
http://coverhaus.storenvy.com/products/ ... -andromeda
http://www.goonwrite.com/science-fictio ... fNwQKzGHso (has quite a few that will work and is running a sale right now)

[LDWriter2]

Tried another blurb.


And it's not just a starting out budget. It's how much time and money I think would be worth for a five story set. I don't expect tons of sells for these. I spent more quite a bit longer on the cover and formatting than I figured...mostly the cover.

[soulmirror]

Well ... Amazon is showing our "customer images" unexpectedly again (they may all finally be stripped from our Amazon books' previews come Aug. 31) ...

So in the spirit of "One last opportunity to TOUT my own stories' ILLUSTRATION CONTENT" ... ...

May I invite WOTF / IOTF forum folks here to visit my (Scott Frederick Hargrave) Kindle books page?

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_10?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=scott+frederick+hargrave&sprefix=scott+fred%2Cstripbooks%2C220

There be Science Fiction ...




... and Fantasy bright and dark!



*** Swing by, look inside the stories ...
*** Please buy for a discreet $.99 if any interest you ...
or
*** Offer a kind review for those you enjoy ...

But mostly, * le sigh * add the echoes of your footsteps as you pass by to look through my little Museum of Illustrations ... soon (ah, too soon) to become Amazon ghosts and gone ...

[jdbrink]

First, thanks to LD and Monty for enlightening me to the existence of this thread.

I started "indie" publishing a year ago this month and have 5 ebook titles now, so while I'm definitely no expert, I can share a little bit of the trial and error that I have endured, especially in relation to the recent conversation.

1. I believe that covers go a long way to selling books. Or at least, they are the first hook that attract someone's attention. Of course getting a nice one costs a pretty penny, unless you are an artist or know one. But there are ways to make a decent on on a budget. There is royalty and rights free artwork and photos out there -- you can google "creative commons" and "art" or "photos" or whatever combo you find works. Most of these allow you to alter them, which you can do with photo-editing software (which you can also find free to download). Of course professional (or even ameteur) expertise is always helpful. (I have a couple people I can lean on, so I'm lucky there.)
You can also find designers and artists for freelance hire on the internet. I've used Odesk.com but there are others.

2. Blurb is important, especially since it's limited in size. The initial Smashwords blurb is only 400 characters -- this is the hardest part of it all for me. How do I sum up 128,000 words in 400 characters?? Or even 10,000 words? But being concise and keeping only to what matters helps. In the previous discussion, I agree that word count need not be mentioned. Smashwords already tells everyone the word count on the document, you don't have to waste precious wording on it. But try to get something exciting and interesting in there. It's a big part of your hook.

3. Title -- I'm not great at titles either (and have used some I regret now), but in my opinion, using one of your story titles for the whole collection is more interesting than "5 sci-fi stories" or something to that effect. The "5 stories" can be on the cover and in the blurb, but I don't think it makes a very catchy title. Neither does using your own publishing brand name. You don't see many books titled "Random House: 5 stories". I also created my own "publishing house" and logo, which will hopefully eventually build a brand name for me, but it's not the first thing readers are looking for, especially if they've never even heard of it before.

Again, when browsing virtual bookshelves--and nowadays they are crowded!--your cover, title, and blurb are the most important factors for getting a potential reader to stop and check out your work.

4. Last thing I think is important here is formatting. Ebook formatting is tricky and a pain, but the work pays off. If a reader opens a sample and it doesn't look nice and organized and professional, chances are they won't spend their money on it. Put the extra work into good formattng and appearance.

Those are my nuggets of relative wisdom, for what they're worth. Hope that helps someone out. :)

[jdbrink]

Having said all that, i hope "y'all" don't mind if I plug my work here too.

All my stuff can be found on my website/blog "Fugitives of Purgatory":

http://www.jdbrinkfugitive.com

I have a couple of short stories (horror-noir and a fun little superhero adventure) for free up on Smashwords and it's affiliates, two short books 75-100 pages (one trio of horror-noir tales, one 20,000 word fantasy warfare story), and my first fantasy novel, TARNISH. The novel and short books can also be found on Amazon and in paperback. Links to all of them can be found on my site, and for convenience here's an Amazon to the novel:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DYHK754

If anyone is intrigued enough to read any of them, I'd certainly appreciate an honest review when you're done!

Thanks!

[LDWriter2]

Couldn't find a thread for guest blogs so since this deals with Indie publishing I placed it here

[LDWriter2]

Okay, got another story set up at Smashwords. This one is seven fantasy stories with one flash bonus.
Took me long enough. I kept having the problems I thought I would have with the first set but it's now up. I think it looks better inside than the SF set so I will redo that one later in the week

Of course outside is another matter. I used a picture I took. I tried various colors for the lettering but white was the best even though not great. I should have made the lettering larger but I was having many problems with GIMP and decided to leave well enough alone. I may retry this weekend.

I think most of the stories have better writing than the SF set.

Fantasy Stores

[izanobu]

Why is it 2.65? That's a really strange price. For seven stories, I'd price at least 4.99. Also, pricing ending in .99 has a long history and lots of research backing it up. Why buck the trend and look strange?

Second, that cover doesn't say fantasy to me. Or anything else. Sorry.

[jdbrink]

E-Pub pricing is an interesting topic for me. I never know what is appropriate. What are e-readers willing to pay for an unknown author? Especially when some relatively known authors are selling whole novels 0.99 or 2.99 and others charge that much for 5000 words. Has anyone had any moderate success selling stuff at certain prices?

My current "pricing theory", which isn't making me a millionaire, by the way, is this:

upto about 10K words: free
10K+ words: $0.99
about 15K to 29K: $1.99
30K+ : $2.99
100K+ : $3.99

By a lot of standards I am probably underselling myself, especially when I see erotica stories of under 5K words selling for 3-5 bucks a piece. (But sex always sells, right?) And I have heard that some readers assume anything cheap isn't worth paying for. But I also can't see people spending top dollar if it isn't a big name writer and a big name publisher.

Any thoughts? Those with experience in this? I have sold a handful here and there but I have no steady stream for my four available priced works. The only semi-steady downloads I get are for my freebies. (Maybe my writing just sucks but I don't think that's all there is to it.)



Any words of wisdom are greatly appreciated.

[izanobu]

My pricing, which brings me in anywhere from 200-1200 a month, is this:

Shorts under 6k words- 1.49
Shorts between 7k and 20k- 2.99
Novellas (20k-40k)- 4.99
Novels (over 40k)- 5.99-7.99 (5.99 for first in series, 7.99 for new works in series)
Short story collections- 7.99 (I have some older ones at 3.99 but for the new ones, always 7.99)

[Rebecca Birch]

My pricing, which brings me in anywhere from 200-1200 a month, is this:

Shorts under 6k words- 1.49
Shorts between 7k and 20k- 2.99
Novellas (20k-40k)- 4.99
Novels (over 40k)- 5.99-7.99 (5.99 for first in series, 7.99 for new works in series)
Short story collections- 7.99 (I have some older ones at 3.99 but for the new ones, always 7.99)

I haven't got anything as long as Annie yet, but my under 6k's are also $1.49 and I have an 11k-ish story coming out in the next week that I'm planning to price at 2.99. I haven't sold a whole heck of a lot yet, but it's pricing that I'm comfortable with.

[LDWriter2]

Why is it 2.65? That's a really strange price. For seven stories, I'd price at least 4.99. Also, pricing ending in .99 has a long history and lots of research backing it up. Why buck the trend and look strange?

Second, that cover doesn't say fantasy to me. Or anything else. Sorry.

The 2.65 was spur of the moment. When I put up the five story set I checked out the prices on a bunch of story sets, most of what I could find seemed to be under 3 dollars. This one with seven--actually eight--maybe should be over three. The stories are just over 20,000 words.

The cover has a castle and a tree with a face, both are fantasy even if the castle looks like something for a poor group of wee folk. I found it hard to find something that was a general fantasy pic, a picture of a dragon might work since three stories have dragons. I would love a lady in a wizard's robe talking to a dragon-I think that story is the best in this patch--but I don't want to spend the money on having one specially made. Not for a story set. Nor do I have to time to try to find something like that in the free pic sites.

[jdbrink]

My pricing, which brings me in anywhere from 200-1200 a month, is this:

Shorts under 6k words- 1.49
Shorts between 7k and 20k- 2.99
Novellas (20k-40k)- 4.99
Novels (over 40k)- 5.99-7.99 (5.99 for first in series, 7.99 for new works in series)
Short story collections- 7.99 (I have some older ones at 3.99 but for the new ones, always 7.99)

I haven't got anything as long as Annie yet, but my under 6k's are also $1.49 and I have an 11k-ish story coming out in the next week that I'm planning to price at 2.99. I haven't sold a whole heck of a lot yet, but it's pricing that I'm comfortable with.

Wow, you guys blow me away! I don't think I'm anywhere near where you are yet as far as "writing career" -- looks like you have a lot more going for you than little ole me -- but good to know folks are willing to pay at least as much for good quality reads as they do their average cup of coffee!
And damn, now I really feel like I'm short changing myself. I mean, I suffer a general lack of confidence when it comes to asking people to pay for my writing, but now i feel kind of silly. Guess I could make some price adjustments...

Thank you for the insight into the more experienced of the up and coming!

[jdbrink]

My pricing, which brings me in anywhere from 200-1200 a month, is this:

Shorts under 6k words- 1.49
Shorts between 7k and 20k- 2.99
Novellas (20k-40k)- 4.99
Novels (over 40k)- 5.99-7.99 (5.99 for first in series, 7.99 for new works in series)
Short story collections- 7.99 (I have some older ones at 3.99 but for the new ones, always 7.99)

I haven't got anything as long as Annie yet, but my under 6k's are also $1.49 and I have an 11k-ish story coming out in the next week that I'm planning to price at 2.99. I haven't sold a whole heck of a lot yet, but it's pricing that I'm comfortable with.

Last month, by the way, I put out my first novel at 130,000 words and i priced it at 3.99 after convincing myself that after breaking 100K it wasn't asking too much for an extra buck above 2.99. THAT'S how poor my confidence is!

[izanobu]

The key, btw, to higher pricing is that your stories have to look like they are worth it. That means being basically indistinguishable from trad published books and collections. Pro-looking covers, excellent description, copy-edited, and properly formatted.

[Rebecca Birch]

Sixteen-year-old orphan Jin struggles to give her younger brother a better life. She works long hours in a cannery and steals items chosen by an ancient coin she wears on a cord around her neck.

When her most recent acquisition, a jade lion, shows signs of being spirit-occupied, she knows she needs to be rid of it in a hurry, but the disappearance of her buyer forces her to undertake a rescue mission that quickly turns personal--the kidnappers have her brother.

GUARDIAN is a contemporary fantasy novelette (10,300 words)

***

Guardian was originally published in the Grantville Gazette: Universe Annex.

Guardian at Amazon

[morshana]

That's great, Rebecca!

[LDWriter2]

Sixteen-year-old orphan Jin struggles to give her younger brother a better life. She works long hours in a cannery and steals items chosen by an ancient coin she wears on a cord around her neck.

When her most recent acquisition, a jade lion, shows signs of being spirit-occupied, she knows she needs to be rid of it in a hurry, but the disappearance of her buyer forces her to undertake a rescue mission that quickly turns personal--the kidnappers have her brother.

GUARDIAN is a contemporary fantasy novelette (10,300 words)

***

Guardian was originally published in the Grantville Gazette: Universe Annex.

Guardian at Amazon

I know that story, nicely done. And love that cover that is Greatly done.

[jdbrink]

Sixteen-year-old orphan Jin struggles to give her younger brother a better life. She works long hours in a cannery and steals items chosen by an ancient coin she wears on a cord around her neck.

When her most recent acquisition, a jade lion, shows signs of being spirit-occupied, she knows she needs to be rid of it in a hurry, but the disappearance of her buyer forces her to undertake a rescue mission that quickly turns personal--the kidnappers have her brother.

GUARDIAN is a contemporary fantasy novelette (10,300 words)

***

Guardian was originally published in the Grantville Gazette: Universe Annex.

Guardian at Amazon

AWESOME! Looks great!

[jdbrink]

The key, btw, to higher pricing is that your stories have to look like they are worth it. That means being basically indistinguishable from trad published books and collections. Pro-looking covers, excellent description, copy-edited, and properly formatted.

That makes perfect sense. I got the formatting. the rest... of course that's subjective too to a degree.

[austinDm]

Congrats, Rebecca! I saw this on FB, and the cover looks fantastic.

[LDWriter2]

Okay, I reposted my SF set with two added flash stories and upped the price to $2.99 and I upped the price of the Fantasy set to the same.

Time to work on my Odd stories set.

The Marriage set will have to wait until I send one story to three-maybe four markets first.