c2011Shalako
Over the last ten or eleven days, we have given away over 4,900 copies of 'The Handbag's Tale,' a sardonic murder mystery set in Paris, at the height of the Roaring '20s.
I wrote it specifically as a promotional item, not being ready to tackle what would (or could) be my first detective novel. At that time, I was really more interested in science fiction.
It's available right now for the investment of two minutes time from Amazon.
At 11,000 words, the story took me a couple of weeks to write, and I submitted it around a little before deciding to publish it myself according to my 'everything for free' business model.
Necessity is very often the mother of invention and in my own case this is certainly true. What surprised me, was when I found that invention was the mother of virtue! But then I have a strong interest in making it work.
Later tonight or early tomorrow morning, the 5,000th free copy will go out the door, and I suppose someone will have to make a decision whether to put a price on it, or shoot for 10,000 free copies.
I say this because I am presently working on another Inspector Maintenon story, this time set in southwestern England circa 1926 or '27. It's called, 'Maintenon Gets a Vacation,' and he's on a walking tour of the moors when he stumbles across a murder.
This one has a double-whammy of a twist at the end.
I wish I could claim some credit for all of this promotional success, but Amazon lowered the price in a simple price-matching move because I was giving away free copies on Smashwords, one of my other platforms.
During e-book week, I worked my butt off to give away 130 e-books on Smashwords. Imagine my surprise to open up my account and discover that I had given away 1,700 e-books in my sleep.
There are no accidents, or so they say. I sure wish I knew how that happened; but what I did before, I can do again. Who knows, I might even be able to sell them for a buck or something.
You never really know until you try.
Note: the 'everything for free' business model controls overhead very nicely and that is what allows us to keep our prices low while maintaining the highest literary standards.
Showing posts with label E-Books. Micropublishing. Lou Shalako. Show all posts
Showing posts with label E-Books. Micropublishing. Lou Shalako. Show all posts
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Flux or Revolution?
c2011Shalako
I’ve been trying to make sense of what I’ve learned over the last few months. Is the industry in a state of flux, or is it in a state of revolution? It is my assertion that debt and recession has shrunk the market for brand-new authors, i.e., ‘real’ publishers, by an estimated ten to twenty percent.
Self-publishing is not revolutionary. It’s been around for a long time. What is revolutionary is that it doesn’t cost any money. What’s revolutionary is that you don’t even have to leave home. You can do it from a blanket on a beach. You can write your book while commuting to your day job on the train and you can publish it from a table at a fine restaurant.
E-books are not going to ‘kill the book.’ The forty or fifty dollar cost of a typical hardcover, or the ten, to fifteen, to twenty-dollar cost of a paperback, are not going to ‘kill the book.’ The sheer weight, bulk, and cost of producing a book, the investment in plant and machinery, plus the high cost of labour and shipping, (i.e. fuel,) will inevitably shrink market share in the face of professional digital publishing and distribution without the use of trucks, warehouses, and human employees unpacking cardboard boxes and sticking books on shelves.
The POD of ‘Case of the Curious Killers,’ is listed at $13.99. By the time it is shipped to your house, it will cost about $20.00 or more, depending upon where you live. My profit would be sixty cents. I can set the price of an e-book at less than two dollars and still make my sixty cents.
Is there some reason why big box publishers can’t see this? I have no costs—no costs except my own time and labour. It’s a good investment, from my point of view.
The old fashioned full-service gas station went away, for many reasons. It was hard to get good help for a buck-ten an hour, which is what the wage was back then. But it was the sheer weight of traffic that actually killed the old fashioned gas station. No one was willing to wait for thirteen cars ahead of them to be filled.
Global online traffic is growing at an exponential pace, especially in developing and newly developed nations.
In five years, ninety or ninety-five percent of all publishing in major markets will be digital, and that’s just because people will still be sticking flyers in old people’s mailboxes. It will never be one hundred percent.
‘Readers,’ are a small demographic group. I’m not saying this to be facetious. But someone remarked that ten million people in France read ten books a year or less, and someone else pointed out that only ‘x-percent’ of people in this other country read ‘y-number’ of books a year. There are plenty of other things to do which don’t require the investment of time that a good book demands of a reader. Why read when you can flip through two hundred channels of TV?
But what really got me was how much time I spend reading online. It’s about ninety-eight, or ninety-nine percent of my reading now. Without a computer, I would read a good deal less. Also, I read much less fiction than I did before, and a lot more technical and how-to material. Digital publishing brings the most up-to-date research to my device. With the devices available today, an old fashioned book is only one kind of programming, and providing it, like music, in the most portable, convenient, and ecologically sound manner makes perfect sense to this writer.
Stripping away everything that is inessential about a book and distributing it globally, to a potential market of one-point-six billion English speakers, at a world-shattering price of one dollar—that is revolutionary, ladies and gentlemen.
That would be a stroke of genius, if it ever comes up in conversation or debate.
A week or so ago, I gave away a box of CD’s. I may never buy a CD again, and the likelihood of buying an ‘LP’ ever again seems rather slim. Did the iPod and MP-3s kill music?
Did sound recorded on wax cylinders kill the orchestra?
I’ve been trying to make sense of what I’ve learned over the last few months. Is the industry in a state of flux, or is it in a state of revolution? It is my assertion that debt and recession has shrunk the market for brand-new authors, i.e., ‘real’ publishers, by an estimated ten to twenty percent.
Self-publishing is not revolutionary. It’s been around for a long time. What is revolutionary is that it doesn’t cost any money. What’s revolutionary is that you don’t even have to leave home. You can do it from a blanket on a beach. You can write your book while commuting to your day job on the train and you can publish it from a table at a fine restaurant.
E-books are not going to ‘kill the book.’ The forty or fifty dollar cost of a typical hardcover, or the ten, to fifteen, to twenty-dollar cost of a paperback, are not going to ‘kill the book.’ The sheer weight, bulk, and cost of producing a book, the investment in plant and machinery, plus the high cost of labour and shipping, (i.e. fuel,) will inevitably shrink market share in the face of professional digital publishing and distribution without the use of trucks, warehouses, and human employees unpacking cardboard boxes and sticking books on shelves.
The POD of ‘Case of the Curious Killers,’ is listed at $13.99. By the time it is shipped to your house, it will cost about $20.00 or more, depending upon where you live. My profit would be sixty cents. I can set the price of an e-book at less than two dollars and still make my sixty cents.
Is there some reason why big box publishers can’t see this? I have no costs—no costs except my own time and labour. It’s a good investment, from my point of view.
The old fashioned full-service gas station went away, for many reasons. It was hard to get good help for a buck-ten an hour, which is what the wage was back then. But it was the sheer weight of traffic that actually killed the old fashioned gas station. No one was willing to wait for thirteen cars ahead of them to be filled.
Global online traffic is growing at an exponential pace, especially in developing and newly developed nations.
In five years, ninety or ninety-five percent of all publishing in major markets will be digital, and that’s just because people will still be sticking flyers in old people’s mailboxes. It will never be one hundred percent.
‘Readers,’ are a small demographic group. I’m not saying this to be facetious. But someone remarked that ten million people in France read ten books a year or less, and someone else pointed out that only ‘x-percent’ of people in this other country read ‘y-number’ of books a year. There are plenty of other things to do which don’t require the investment of time that a good book demands of a reader. Why read when you can flip through two hundred channels of TV?
But what really got me was how much time I spend reading online. It’s about ninety-eight, or ninety-nine percent of my reading now. Without a computer, I would read a good deal less. Also, I read much less fiction than I did before, and a lot more technical and how-to material. Digital publishing brings the most up-to-date research to my device. With the devices available today, an old fashioned book is only one kind of programming, and providing it, like music, in the most portable, convenient, and ecologically sound manner makes perfect sense to this writer.
Stripping away everything that is inessential about a book and distributing it globally, to a potential market of one-point-six billion English speakers, at a world-shattering price of one dollar—that is revolutionary, ladies and gentlemen.
That would be a stroke of genius, if it ever comes up in conversation or debate.
A week or so ago, I gave away a box of CD’s. I may never buy a CD again, and the likelihood of buying an ‘LP’ ever again seems rather slim. Did the iPod and MP-3s kill music?
Did sound recorded on wax cylinders kill the orchestra?
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Festina Lente. Make Haste Slowly.
by Louis Bertrand Shalako
c2010
All Rights Reserved
The danger in talking about our work is that we reveal too much. All this must look so badly organized and scatter-brained.
This morning I have been working away since about 6:00 a.m. I'm trying to get four e-books up on Lulu.com.
Theoretically it is a nice easy job and at first it was going well. You can upload a variety of file types, and once you've gotten in and so far into the process you can go back and edit the cover image--at first it looks like you're stuck with their generic design, but just keep going.
Anyhow, it's easy enough to download a free author file from Smashwords, in EPUB format, and that seems to work well. The problem is that those have the phrase, 'This Smashwords Edition published by...etc.'
It should be easy enough to take that out. I have an original .doc file, and that's fine, it is a supported file format.
I don't know how to explain or even figure out what is going on in there. But I uploaded at least two proper .doc files, and those should be all right. Unable to locate one of the others, I used an EPUB file until I can fix the offending phrase, (and the ethical thing to do is not to promote this for a while, right?)
Okay. Now that fourth file was up once and then I deleted it. Now I cannot load either .doc or EPUB file, the error warning comes up and it just won't eat it. I don't know, and for some reason it seems to go into another interface--it's not the same one as the e-book publisher. Is the thing confused? Does it think I'm trying to convert an existing print book?
Intuitive as I undoubtedly am, this one will require a little analysis. For all I know, this will 'clear itself up,' after 24 hours or so. How the hell would I know?
This sure looks glamourous from the point of view of an objective witness.
The basic idea with Lulu is to find out if I can really publish POD for 'free until you sell.'
Now, that's a whole 'nother ball of wax, with bar code placement, book spine text/design, and 'rear cover art.'
Clearly this is another learning curve, and I do get tired sometimes.
On Smashwords, I can go in and read online in html format for free. That is the first 'x-percent' of the book. On Lulu, the 'preview'; is author selected. I chose small excerpts from around inside the books. It might have been better to stick with the first few pages, and then I could more easily check the opening materials.
1.) Maybe make an edited pdf.
2.) Try again!
3.) Try other file types.
4.) Try making a fresh edited EPUB with Mobi Creator.
5.) Keep thinking.
c2010
All Rights Reserved
The danger in talking about our work is that we reveal too much. All this must look so badly organized and scatter-brained.
This morning I have been working away since about 6:00 a.m. I'm trying to get four e-books up on Lulu.com.
Theoretically it is a nice easy job and at first it was going well. You can upload a variety of file types, and once you've gotten in and so far into the process you can go back and edit the cover image--at first it looks like you're stuck with their generic design, but just keep going.
Anyhow, it's easy enough to download a free author file from Smashwords, in EPUB format, and that seems to work well. The problem is that those have the phrase, 'This Smashwords Edition published by...etc.'
It should be easy enough to take that out. I have an original .doc file, and that's fine, it is a supported file format.
I don't know how to explain or even figure out what is going on in there. But I uploaded at least two proper .doc files, and those should be all right. Unable to locate one of the others, I used an EPUB file until I can fix the offending phrase, (and the ethical thing to do is not to promote this for a while, right?)
Okay. Now that fourth file was up once and then I deleted it. Now I cannot load either .doc or EPUB file, the error warning comes up and it just won't eat it. I don't know, and for some reason it seems to go into another interface--it's not the same one as the e-book publisher. Is the thing confused? Does it think I'm trying to convert an existing print book?
Intuitive as I undoubtedly am, this one will require a little analysis. For all I know, this will 'clear itself up,' after 24 hours or so. How the hell would I know?
This sure looks glamourous from the point of view of an objective witness.
The basic idea with Lulu is to find out if I can really publish POD for 'free until you sell.'
Now, that's a whole 'nother ball of wax, with bar code placement, book spine text/design, and 'rear cover art.'
Clearly this is another learning curve, and I do get tired sometimes.
On Smashwords, I can go in and read online in html format for free. That is the first 'x-percent' of the book. On Lulu, the 'preview'; is author selected. I chose small excerpts from around inside the books. It might have been better to stick with the first few pages, and then I could more easily check the opening materials.
1.) Maybe make an edited pdf.
2.) Try again!
3.) Try other file types.
4.) Try making a fresh edited EPUB with Mobi Creator.
5.) Keep thinking.
Monday, December 20, 2010
Pricing. And Platforms.
by Louis Bertrand Shalako
c2010
All Rights Reserved
What a busy weekend. So far I have lowered prices in the U.K. Kindle store for all four books. These are now available at a price of 1.71 GBP. I also went into Smashwords and lowered the price of the first two novels, 'Core Values,' and 'Heaven Is Too Far Away,' down to $1.49 (I think.) Both of those Smashwords Editions are available in all formats and are available for online reading.
Now I am in the Amazon Kindle Store U.S. and U.K., Smashwords, Kobo, and in Indigo/Chapters. This includes all four books. Hopefully those will turn up elsewhere in time.
Also this weekend, I have been publishing the books, using Pdf's with the newer cover art--the old versions had the red text, all murky in the case of 'Heaven.' The newer ones were done with Softonic's 'Paint' program.
These books should appear on Google Books.com and at Myebook.com in the very near future. Simply put, it takes me a while to sort of plow around in there like a bull in a china shop and learn the system, figure out how to get it right, etc. Paypal and bank verificaton, all of that stuff. What do I do if it doesn't work?
The basic premise is to get the books out on as many different platforms as possible, and certainly Pdf's can be priced lower, right?
Originally, I tried to get into Myebook.com back in late August or early September, but somehow got mired up in the sign-up process! Part of that problem was the verification process for Paypal; and I suppose my eyes were going nuts at the time.
At first the prices were definitely too high, at $7.99 and $5.99.
Another challenge is reviews. So far I have submitted two books for review; and one book for consideration but that site is merely for posting and discussion.
For some reason I'm still shy about attaching the books to e-mails and sending them all over hell's half-acre.
At some point I need to buy a new notebook and try to keep track of all this stuff.
UPDATE: Sorry, I think there are only a couple of books so far in Kobo and etc. Like I said, it's a lot to keep up with! And I'm the one who's doing it.
c2010
All Rights Reserved
What a busy weekend. So far I have lowered prices in the U.K. Kindle store for all four books. These are now available at a price of 1.71 GBP. I also went into Smashwords and lowered the price of the first two novels, 'Core Values,' and 'Heaven Is Too Far Away,' down to $1.49 (I think.) Both of those Smashwords Editions are available in all formats and are available for online reading.
Now I am in the Amazon Kindle Store U.S. and U.K., Smashwords, Kobo, and in Indigo/Chapters. This includes all four books. Hopefully those will turn up elsewhere in time.
Also this weekend, I have been publishing the books, using Pdf's with the newer cover art--the old versions had the red text, all murky in the case of 'Heaven.' The newer ones were done with Softonic's 'Paint' program.
These books should appear on Google Books.com and at Myebook.com in the very near future. Simply put, it takes me a while to sort of plow around in there like a bull in a china shop and learn the system, figure out how to get it right, etc. Paypal and bank verificaton, all of that stuff. What do I do if it doesn't work?
The basic premise is to get the books out on as many different platforms as possible, and certainly Pdf's can be priced lower, right?
Originally, I tried to get into Myebook.com back in late August or early September, but somehow got mired up in the sign-up process! Part of that problem was the verification process for Paypal; and I suppose my eyes were going nuts at the time.
At first the prices were definitely too high, at $7.99 and $5.99.
Another challenge is reviews. So far I have submitted two books for review; and one book for consideration but that site is merely for posting and discussion.
For some reason I'm still shy about attaching the books to e-mails and sending them all over hell's half-acre.
At some point I need to buy a new notebook and try to keep track of all this stuff.
UPDATE: Sorry, I think there are only a couple of books so far in Kobo and etc. Like I said, it's a lot to keep up with! And I'm the one who's doing it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)