Intriguing

Here it is, almost two months after I've pulled the eBook from circulation, and I've received notification of an eBook sale of The Adventures of Reztap. OK, maybe that doesn't sound strange to you, but consider this - it is through Amazon where the eBook isn't even listed on my Dashboard of books! Evidently, it really is difficult to remove a publication from the internet once it's been posted there in one form or another.

For those keeping track (I think there are about five of you, maybe?), I've been writing both the sequel and revising the original. Neither of those very fast, I might add. I have other projects I'm working on as well, and all of them seem to have suffered the same fate. Just not concentrating as well as I used to on writing. Maybe it's the new grandson that is distracting me more than anything else.

So, back to concentration and focus. Would that writing were a full-time occupation for me, it would be easier to justify the number of hours required. As it is, it's still a part-time endeavor. The full-time job still occupies a vast chunk of time - 11.5 hours a day including commute if there is no overtime. Finances being what they are, there is also the part-time job which consumes an additional chunk of time on the weekends. Time left over for writing is very sparse. I have less of it now than I did this same time last year. Not a positive prospect to be sure.

However, now I have an additional array of tools at my disposal. During lunch time, I can easily access my writing documents and add a little here and a little there. That could be another 2.5 hours of writing a week. It's not the best, but it's better than a kick in the pants. Given the circumstances at home with the new grandson, it may actually behoove me to devote a couple of hours away from the house to writing rather than try to cram it in with the distractions there. I'm going to try a four-hour window every weekend and see what I can accomplish away from the home office.

Enough musings! I hope your own personal pursuits are more fruitful than mine have been of late.

Regards,
Artemus

Price - Not Such a Factor in Sales

It's been an interesting discovery. Perhaps it was the lack of pushing the product or maybe it just doesn't matter, but when I dropped the eBook pricing for The Adventures of Reztap to $2.99 I didn't sell a single one. Whereas, in my inital push to get the book out there, I had priced it at $4.99. I sold several at that price, but perhaps that was because of the newness of the book. I really can't say.

I do believe that my marketing leaves much to be desired. It would not appear the price of the book means one wit to whether or not someone will actually purchase it. History suggests if someone has been reached, noticed the book, was interested in that subject and willing to pay a fair price for it then there is a sale. I don't know how else to quantify the results.

I will leave the eBook at $2.99 through the holiday shopping period. After that I will raise it once again to $4.99. It will be interesting to see what the results of this post will be before and after the price is raised.

For your ease of purchasing frenzy which I'm certain will occur after this post, I'm putting the links to both the hard copy and eBook of The Adventures of Reztap below:

Kobo
Amazon (Kindle eBook & paperback)
Diesel
Sony
Barnes and Noble (Nook eBook & paperback)
Apple (iTunes)
Smashwords

Happy purchasing! Merry Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/WinterSolstice/etc.

Artemus

The Paradigm Shift - eBook Pricing

I've seen many articles relating to how to price eBooks. I've had feedback on how The Adventures of Reztap eBook is priced ($4.99) where the paperback is $12.95. That is about a 62% discount - which seems to be in line with other pricing I've seen.

On the high side, there has been some discussion about $9.99 being the average price for a fiction eBook. I would venture that is also an average couple of more pages than my mdoest entry at 180 pages. Still, I don't think there are an average 360 pages to all those fiction eBooks, so the pricing still seems more than fair from that standpoint.

However, I have also seen articles and stories about pricing the eBook at $2.99. This is the minimum pricing at which the author can still get a 70% royalty on Amazon, so I think that is whre this bottom line pricing figure has emerged from. If you go below $2.99, your royalty drops to 35%. On Amazon, you can't price below $0.99. You can get free eBooks onto Amazon by offering them free elsewhere (like Smashwords) and Amazon finds out and "price matches" your eBook. But that's not a tried and true method; it's just what I've heard. If you enter the KDP Select program, that is a zero cost for your eBook for Prime members, while the author gets a piece of a $600,000 pie - really only about $2 per book checkout by the Prime member.

In the interest of testing, I'm going to drop my eBook to $2.99 on Amazon and Smashwords. This first book is all about discovering what works and what doesn't. It may take a while for the price change to filter out to the other platforms that get the digital eBook from Samashwords (Barnes and Noble, iTunes, Kobo, Diesel, etc.) I will let you, my intrepid companions on this ePublishing adventure, know what the outcome of the price change is. Be warned, the price changes set may not take effect for a few days - I've already taken steps to change the prices - for instance, now the eBook is unavailable on Amazon until they review the eBook again, a process which could take up to 48 hours.

Other strategies include giving the first book in a series away free to drive sales of other books in the series. Unfortunately, the other books in my series have yet to be written/published, so it doesn't so much apply to me at this time. In a year, that will be a different story and a different blog post.

Happy Pricing!
Artemus

You can download The Adventures of Reztap from Amazon, Smashwords, iTunes (look in iBooks on iPhone or iPad), Barnes and Noble, Kobo and Diesel.

Now on Barnes and Noble - Nook & Paperback!

I admit to be a little shocked. The eBook Channel Manager on Smashwords does not show it has shipped to Barnes and Noble, yet The Adventures of Reztap is available on the Nook (http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-adventures-of-reztap-artemus-withers/1111399068?ean=2940033235711&itm=1&usri=reztap). I do have an explanation, though. Smashwords shipped the eBook to Baker &Taylor, a provider of books & eBooks to libraries and commercial web sites - I can only imagine that is how it filtered out to and got listed for the Nook on Barnes and Noble.

The paperback (http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-adventures-of-reztap-artemus-withers/1111399068?ean=9781477589229&itm=1&usri=reztap) is a real quandry. It's not only listed on Barnes and Noble's web site, but it's on sale! I really don't understand the mechanism at work here. I do have it listed at two other locations (http://www.amazon.com/ & http://www.thebookpatch.com/) as a paperback, perhaps that's all that's necessary to get it listed at Barnes and Noble. I can only assume there's some kind of wholesale thing going on so they can offer it at a 28% discount. Interesting.

So, those of you in the mood for a Nook copy or a sale on the paperback, Barnes and Noble is your place to go!

Fully disclosed and loving it,
Artemus

A Little Excitement...

Trying to generate a little excitement in the blogosphere with a $1 sale: (It's an Independence Day sale - now through 7/7/2012 get The Adventures of Reztap eBook from Smashwords for just a buck! That's $1 using coupon code ML88M at checkout from https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/161674.) Posted on Facebook, Twitter and here. An audience of maybe 300...of which, how many will notice and pay attention? Will they spread the word?


The inevitable question comes to mind. Does this result in an increase in sales? Will anyone, in fact, actually buy the eBook for that price? It is a standard splashy gimmick that many eBook authors use, usually at the outset of their marketing campaign. I will, of course, keep you informed on whether or not this works or even generates any sales at all. The last week has been pretty dry from a sales standpoint. I also haven't been pushing it much. I have the iTunes launch to wait for and I'm anticipating doing a book promo at ArmadilloCon (not yet confirmed...hotel plus convention costs just squeezing the budget a wee bit much right now.)


Book giveaway results - shipped four books. Free books to readers across the globe (well 3 in the US and one in Great Britain). Haven't heard a thing from them. Nary a sale either. Sales, I'll be quite honest, don't concern as much at this point. But generating a little word of mouth, discussion, etc. THAT is what interests me. Haven't had that yet.


Book reviews are still to come this month. Haven't yet selected/found the reviewers, but that should happen this weekend/next week. Will that generate buzz? I'm not entirely sure how to measure how many people will even read a review once posted. Is there a page viewed count on these pages? So many questions - I will figure out the answers and let you know as soon as I find out!


Until then,
Artemus

Memorial Day Sale

For a limited 24 hour period, The Adventures of Reztap is available for only $1.

Use coupon code ZP42X at Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/161674

Read, enjoy, share!

Obviously, I don't do this every day, but given the holiday and my recent completion of the Book 2 synopsis, I felt compelled to celebrate.

Regards,
Artemus