A month of Notes

Tags

Amazon, Barnes & Noble, bookshop, Draft2Digital, Google Play, Gumroad, Kobo, marketing, Notes of Change, Samuel Plank, self-publishing, Smashwords

And here I am, a whole month later.  That was a deliberate gap, in case you’re wondering: I decided to take a break after publication, have a holiday, and come back refreshed and full of fab ideas for book promotion.  Well, two out of three ain’t bad!  When I was working full-time, I could carve out space to do the actual writing (which I love) but not for any marketing (not so much love here…).  Now that I have stopped work, I am hoping to take a more professional approach: my ideal routine would be to spend two days a week writing, one day researching and one day on marketing.  And so I have not beaten myself up about abandoning “Notes of Change” to its fate after publication, as I know that before too long I will be revisiting the whole series with a proper marketing/promo plan.  (I’m going on a long train journey next week – four hours each way – and my goal is to spend most of it on preparing that plan.)

Meanwhile, I thought you might like to hear how “Notes of Change” has done in its first month.  It’s the first book for a while that I have published “wide” – i.e. on platforms other than Amazon, as well as on Amazon itself.  And here are the latest stats:

• Sold to bookshops: 10 copies
• Sold via Amazon: 25 copies
• Draft2Digital: zero
• Google Play: zero
• Gumroad: 1 copy
• Kobo Rakuten: zero
• Barnes & Noble: zero
• Smashwords: zero

So that’s a total of 36 copies.  On the plus side, I’m getting excellent reviews – five five-star ratings on Amazon already.  So onwards and upwards, as I promise my poor little books that I will give them the promo help they deserve.

All over bar the selling

Tags

Amazon, bookshop, Draft2Digital, editing, Gumroad, Heir Apparent, KDP, Kindle, Kobo, proof copy, publication date, Smashwords

Aye, as Sam would say.  It’s done.  Over the weekend I completed the final editing of “Heir Apparent” and cut and pasted it into the template that I use for the interior formatting.  It’s a bit of a beast, at 377 pages, but everyone who has read it tells me that it needs the extra space because it is more “twisty-turny” than the previous novels.  That would explain the headaches I had during my writing retreat…

I have now ordered my paper proof copy – I’ve checked it online, but it’s important to check it in the flesh, to make sure that the paper quality is good and that the cover looks as spiffy in real life as it does on the screen.  Plus, I can dance around the house waving the proof copy in the air – I just look daft if I do that with my laptop.

I have also emailed all the lovely bricks-and-mortar bookshops which stock the Sam books to ask how many copies they would like of his chunky new adventure – it’s one of my great pleasures to cycle to my two local bookshops on publication day and drop off their orders.  That said, “publication day” is a rather elastic concept: it’s all very well me pressing – with great fanfare – the giant “Publish!” button on KDP, but then it’s up to Amazon.  One of the Sam books took four (fevered) days to appear; another was listed within the hour.  I’ve learned to chill about it – but for general celebratory purposes, I’m aiming for the long-promised Friday 18 October.

So all that is left to do now is, erm, format the five e-versions that I need (Kindle, Draft2Digital, Gumroad, Kobo and Smashwords) – I’ll certainly be cross-eyed after that lot.  And then I’ll need to sell some books.  Easy-peasy.

Keeping the faith

Tags

Amazon, Draft2Digital, Faith Hope and Trickery, Gumroad, Kobo, publication date, Smashwords

I will admit that I don’t remember this happening before…  I have found a flaw in my publishing plan.  Once a book is uploaded to CreateSpace, it is formatted and then sent back to me for final checking.  If all seems well with the digital proof, I can then order a paper proof copy, if I wish, or simply press the Publish button to launch it onto an adoring and waiting public.  (At least, that’s how I choose to see you.)  Once the book is published, I can order my own copies to distribute to bookshops and reviewers.  However, this means that there is no way of making sure that the book appears on Amazon and in bookshops on the same day – Amazon is always going to be first.

Ideally I would prefer to have a halfway publication option: press Publish on CreateSpace but specify a launch date, which I would then try to co-ordinate with delivery of paperbacks to the shops.  But this does not exist: you cannot order copies from CreateSpace, even as the author, until the book is officially published – and once it’s officially published, it’s sent to Amazon for inclusion in their next update, which these days is often within the hour.

All of which is a long-winded way of announcing to you – stand by your beds – that “Faith, Hope and Trickery” is now available on Amazon, in both paperback and Kindle formats.  They seem to be shown separately at the moment, but I know from experience that Amazon will eventually unite them.  In the meantime, you can find both by searching for the title.  I have also uploaded e-versions to Kobo, Gumroad, Smashwords and Draft2Digital, which between them cover most of the e-book formats.  I sell very few books through these channels, but I figure that I won’t sell any at all if they’re not listed…

I realise that it all seems a bit of an anti-climax, but I was lying awake last night trying to figure out how to tie together the various publication strands, and hit the promised publication date exactly, when I realised that the book was ready to go and I might as well just do it!  And my husband has pointed out that Mothering Sunday is perhaps the perfect day to launch this particular story.  I have now ordered my giant box of books, which I am told will arrive in about ten days’ time, and then I’ll be sending them out for review and making deliveries to bookshops.  In the meantime, you can order your very own purple pages from Amazon – hurrah!

Scenting the finish line

Tags

cover, Gumroad, iBook, Kindle, Kobo, Nook, Portraits of Pretence

Just a quick update for you today, as things are moving along apace with “Portraits of Pretence”.  I have now done my final edits (until, that is, an eagle-eyed reader writes to me in a few months’ time to point out something I’ve missed!) and have cut and pasted the text into the format needed for uploading to CreateSpace.  I’ve written the back cover blurb (which doubles as the book description on Amazon), chosen the key words (for Amazon cataloguing) and set the price.  All I need now is the cover, which I have approved in draft and am hoping to see in finished form very soon.  So you don’t have long to wait to see that!  All I’m saying at the moment is that it’s green…  Once I’ve uploaded the cover to CreateSpace I can order my author copy, and once I’ve seen that I can publish quietly and order my big box of books to be delivered to bookshops ahead of the official publication date of 21 October.

Before then, I still have to take the finalised text of “Portraits of Pretence”, strip it of all its formatting, and turn it into different versions suitable for Kindle, Kobo, iBooks, Nook and Gumroad.  I sell hardly any in any e-format except Kindle, but the other books are available in those formats and it seems churlish to stop now.  I’m working in Guernsey this coming week, so I figure that creating one format per evening should see me through.

And just this morning, I found myself thinking about the plot of “Plank 5”…

The Worm is launched!

Tags

Book Depository, Gumroad, Heffers, iBook, Kobo, Nook, publication date, Samuel Plank, self-publishing, Worm in the Blossom

The Big Day is finally here!  And the (some might say obsessive…) planning has paid off, as “Worm in the Blossom” has hit all the relevant shelves at the right time.  Here it is in Heffers this morning:

And I have checked all the e-venues – iBooks, Nook, Kobo, Gumroad – and all listings are now live.  The only laggard is the Book Depository, and their catalogue will pick it up on their next sweep.  (I’ve never sold anything through them but no-one likes a monopoly, so I try to give an alternative for people who want a paperback-not-through-Amazon.)

My lovely friend and book blogger Jo has kindly featured me as her guest blogger today – you can read my post here.  Jo is also one of my reviewers, so now I wait on tenterhooks to see what she thinks of “Worm”.  Because yes, that’s the next step: waiting for those reviews and rating to start appearing…

But for now Sam and I will enjoy the moment.  And then next week I start thinking in earnest about “Plank 4” – I’ve already booked a library research day in the diary.

Opening a can of e-Worms

Tags

Fatal Forgery, Gumroad, iBook, Kindle, paperback, Samuel Plank, self-publishing, Smashwords, The Man in the Canary Waistcoat, Worm in the Blossom

I am a rugby widow.  Even though England have now been knocked out of the World Cup, my husband is  continuing to watch so that he can decide “who else to support” – and apparently Namibia/Georgia was the best match he has ever seen.  Luckily it has all coincided with my preference to spend time with the other man in my life, Sam Plank, and so this weekend is dedicated to the e-versions of “Worm in the Blossom”.

As I have explained before (I’m a bit obsessed with this), the key to successful self-publishing (which is not the same as profitable self-publishing – it’s just managing to get the book out there) is working backwards.  Decide on your publication date – for “Worm”, it’s next Friday, 16 October – and then work backwards from there.  And this means uploading your files several days before you want to be certain that they are available for sale.  When I was new to it all first uploaded “Fatal Forgery”, I clicked refresh on Amazon every three seconds for about four days, until I realised that these listing sites work to their own rhythm and timetable, and my fretting was having no impact on anything except my own blood pressure and sleep pattern.  So with “Canary” I just planned a bit further ahead, uploaded the files well in advance, and then went all Zen.  And I have done exactly the same with “Worm”: this afternoon I uploaded to CreateSpace everything they need for the paperback edition – cover, interior, price, distribution channels, search terms, the whole lot.  I have no idea when it will actually appear in Amazon’s catalogue, but I do know that, with six days’ lead time, it will definitely be there on the launch day.

And tomorrow is to be devoted to e-Worms.  As well as the paperback editions of the Sam Plank novels, I also offer them in Kindle, Kobo, Smashwords, iBooks and Gumroad (PDF) versions.  This is of course the same basic text, but formatted – or rather, stripped of most formatting – in slightly different ways for each one.  It’s a bit tedious, but fun when it comes to the uploading.  Again, the actual appearance date on each website is in the lap of the self-publishing gods, but come Friday, they’ll all be there.  And boy oh boy am I looking forward to Friday!

E-nough e-formatting!

Tags

Amazon, financial crime, formatting, Gumroad, Kindle, Kobo, publicity, self-publishing, Smashwords, The Man in the Canary Waistcoat

I do rather envy Jane Austen, you know.  When she was writing “P&P” and all the others, she simply sat in a sunny room in Hampshire and filled pages of parchment with lovely curly writing, then sent it off to London and someone turned it into books.  For me (note how I subtly compare myself to Jane Austen…), once the story is finished, the work is only half-done.

I do love self-publishing, as you know, for the many opportunities it offers, but it really is blooming hard work.  You may think that there is only one “Canary”, but I know otherwise: there is the paperback, then the Kindle version, the Smashwords version, the Kobo version, the iBook version and the plain PDF.  Each is subtly different (in formatting, not in words), and each has to be carefully prepared, checked and uploaded, with each publication route asking for different interior and cover files, and for slightly different information about book category, pricing structure, distribution rights and so on.  As my late nan used to say (alongside “a dulage of rain”), it’s a mindfield out there.

On the plus side, it’s all done – hurrah!  Now I’m just waiting for the various e-formats to appear on their sites in time for the Big Launch on Friday – although the Kindle one is already available (thanks to reader Graham for spotting it – too exciting!).

In the lap of the Amazon gods

Tags

Amazon, e-book, Fatal Forgery, Gumroad, print-on-demand, publication date, self-publishing, Susan Grossey

As regular readers will know, my official publication date for “Fatal Forgery” is this coming Friday, 19 July.  However, with self-publication, you need a detailed plan working backwards from the publication date, to make sure that you get everything where it should be in time.  For a print-on-demand paperback, you upload the files to your publisher (in my case, Createspace) and they then pass on the information to Amazon for listing.  This sharing of the files takes (according to the Createspace website) 5-7 days.  My “O” level maths is just about up to this, so I figured that – with a publication date of 19 July – I should upload the files on 12 July.  So I did.  And to keep things tidy, I also uploaded the Kindle file to KDP (Kindle Publishing Direct – the Kindle-y part of Amazon).  Great relief all round, and even a quiet little cry in the corner.  Well, it’s been four years in the making.

Five hours later, I was checking Facebook, and a friend had posted a link.  To “Fatal Forgery”!  On Amazon!  Both POD and Kindle versions!  So much for 5-7 days.  Of course, it’s all too exciting, but it has rather thrown my publishing plan for a burton.  You will notice that the “publication countdown clock” has gone from this website, for instance – after all, it’s published.  So, if you’re interested, you can see the book listed here on Amazon – they highlight both editions (POD and Kindle) in one listing:  http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fatal-Forgery-Susan-Grossey/dp/1489587403/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1373868902&sr=1-1&keywords=fatal+forgery

But fear not: this is not the end of our blog journey together.  After all, if you’re reading this as a potential self-publisher yourself, you’re going to want to know about the aftermath – the marketing, hopefully the sales, and the public reaction.  Also, on the recommendation of another self-published author, as well as using Amazon for the POD and Kindle editions, I am also selling the book as a plain PDF via a site called Gumroad – I’ll tell you all about it next time.