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Welcome to episode 21 of the Self-Publishing Roundtable. The weekly indie news show that covers all of the news that matters to you, the indie author.
This week we are joined by our new co-host, Trish McCallan for the first time. Trish brings with her lots of indie and publishing success, and her ear close to the news that matters to you.
Let’s get on to the stories for tonight.
Quote from the article author: “Not long ago I bought a new release at full price and within the month it had been discounted for a book bub ad. I made a mental note not to buy this author immediately at release again, to wait until she discounted her books, which she seems to do with every release. Several other people have mentioned they’ve started doing this as well. This article brings up an interesting point- by running sales promos on our new releases, are we teaching our audience not to pay full price for our new releases, but instead to wait until the new release goes on sale?”
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Amazon is the market-share leader in e-books and allows refunds within seven days—long enough to read just about any book for free. By contrast, Amazon allows physical books to be returned only in unread condition and doesn’t allow returns of other downloaded virtual items. Major competitors Barnes & Noble and Apple don’t allow e-book returns at all.
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Effective promotion work. There is a fine line between running promotions, and building a fan base, and not pissing off your current fan base.
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The Gray Line Of Author Recommendations
We’ll be talking about the thin line between using your power with readers to recommend other titles, and betraying their trust as readers.
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Are traditional publishers starting to learn from indie success? This article may not bode well for self-publishers. Until recently one of our strongest advantages over the traditional houses was price- but that is changing fast. Last weeks NYT and USA Today’s bestsellers lists average price was 6.00. They broke the prices down. There were only 13 books priced above 8 dollars.
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Around a year ago, Digital Books Today started compiling a list of the top selling ebooks each week based on units sold. I think their list of the top 17 ebooks for last quarter is interesting for a couple of reasons. 1) self published came in as number four. And 2) Amazon publishing was number seven. Since none of the other online distributors will carry Amazon books, there’s little doubt that this blockade is hurting ebook sales as well as their paper sales.
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One of the biggest eye-openers in this article, between 40-70% of the books on Amazon Germany’s Kindle store’s top 100 books in the store were self-published. 4% of the self-publishers surveyed live full time on their writing and earn more than 2,000 euros a month. This is doubly interesting since I have been getting emails from self-published authors who have been approached by Amazon Crossing- their foreign translation department– about buying their german rights and having those translated. I’d also found out a couple of weeks back that they were translating FiF and FIA into German, and they have since moved on translating most the Montlake books. Looks like this is a hugely hot market right now.
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Sales Down 3% – More In Children Genres
Of course this data doesn’t take into account all of traditional publishers, only the ones who report to them. And they don’t take into account any of the self-publishing industry. I think the most interesting point made was that Kid’s ebooks dropped by 40%. YA is included in the kid’s category. Maybe because the Hunger Games books had all played out?
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See you live at 7PST / 10 PM EST.
What’s up yo’s?
Good evening everyone!
Carl Sinclair Carl, you’ve been so busy I’m surprised you have time for this show *ba dum dum
Good evening, SPRT family and friends!
Greetings programs!
Hey everyone!
jlward I <3 you Ward!!!!111
Aloha!
melissadonovan Aloha!
melissadonovan Howdy.
jlward Wassup, John!
Tech issues – wont be long.
I was just about to work on NaNoWriMo but I figured I can procrastinate for an hour or so.
melissadonovan Of course you can. It’s only 1667 words. You can do that in your sleep.
nicholaskahler melissadonovan Not this project. I’m down to 1098 words per day and I have to practically beat them out of myself.
nicholaskahler Nick! How you been?
BuddyGott nicholaskahler Busy, man. Super busy. Decided to come up for air.
Greetings everyone 🙂
melissadonovan nicholaskahler So… pretty much like everyone else then?
Eric Guindon Hello
Eric Guindon Hey there.
Eric Guindon Eric, just saw you on the new episode of BUDDY’S WRITING SHOW. Nice job!
BuddyGott Eric Guindon lol Buddy
nicholaskahler melissadonovan Pretty much.
Should we have a catchy name for our fans? Like SPRTers?
melissadonovan I’m in the same boat Melissa. I SHOULD be writing :
crissymoss It’s catchy. I like it!
crissymoss or Little SPRTs
crissymoss SuPpoRters? 😛
Eric Guindon melissadonovan In all of our defenses, this is sort of work-related!
BuddyGott Eric Guindon melissadonovan That’s what I keep telling myself.
I believe the “tech glitches” are actually Carl having his makeup being applied and having his hair done.
Saw Dave on Joanna Penn’s podcast yesterday. Great interview!
melissadonovan It was awesome.
I love how dave changed his office again. That’s a lot of moving around for someone that doesn’t like moving.
I thought at first that Wade’s lower third read, “Read, Write & Love.” (That should be Dave’s.)
It would be Hunger Games on every corner.
Are you guys going to cover the Trans Pacific Partnership and how it would affect writers?
Dave, do you want to borrow by bear costume?
melissadonovan Not tonight. I need to do some research about it.
RemarkableReads It’s a panda bear, but it’s still manly… really.
nicholaskahler RemarkableReads Not the way I wear it.
I try to pay full price to support other indie authors.
I think if you’ve got fans who are willing to buy your stuff as soon as it comes out, they deserve the promo discount if they can get it. Find ways to take care of your biggest advocates.
Promo’s are a strategy like anything else. Look at Jos. A. Bank retail. These guys sell suits at 3 for the price of 1, at least quarterly… and that’s when they sell all of their product. Better to train someone to jump when there is a sale than to have them forget you completely.
The hell with the new Xbox. Sticking with my vintage Atari system.
Regarding John Ward’s new office arrangement: I can’t see Spiderman anymore!
Sorry guys! :(( I still can’ get in.
Trish McCallan Bummer. 🙁 Miss you, Trish! Was looking forward to your debut!
Trish McCallan Bummer. We’ll get it sorted out before next week.
Goodreads giveaways are one of my favorite promos to do.
melissadonovan You can’t? He’s still there. Actually in a better spot. He should be in the lower corner of the screen.
jlward melissadonovan Where’s Batman?
BuddyGott jlward Hey Buddy!
nicholaskahler jlward Thanks, Nic.
melissadonovan jlward I believe that John secretly IS Batman.
melissadonovan jlward I don’t have a Batman. I’ve got tons of Doctor Who stuff behind me though.
I don’t mind there being returns, it’s not that big of a deal. If you’re getting a lot of returns, your book has a problem. I think people are blaming returns on scammers, but that’s not often the case.
Anyone dead set on reading your book in seven days and go through the return process. Let ’em. The percentage is small, and at least you got a read.
jlward melissadonovan I see the phone booth. Is that what it’s called? Or is it a police box?
melissadonovan jlward I’ve heard it called both.
melissadonovan jlward Tardis… *shakes head* 😛
You’re a special kind of asshole if you’re reading $3 indie books and returning them. That’s an affront to the authors.
Eric Guindon melissadonovan jlward That’s the word I was looking for! I’ve only seen one episode ever.
Serial returners are an Amazon problem. Let them deal with it. In the meantime, it’s the same as piracy. Enjoy the fact that you’re desirable enough to be read.
nicholaskahler Agreed.
melissadonovan Eric Guindon jlward I’ve never seen Dr. Who. *Hiding from John and Eric.*
Good point about libraries by Dave. I guess it’s not that much different but it seems different somehow.
BuddyGott melissadonovan Eric Guindon jlward *shakes fist at Buddy*
Eric Guindon nicholaskahler You ain’t crap until you’ve been pirated.
Zappos let’s you return shoes anytime in 365 days. It’s customer service. They’re an Amazon company. Seven days probably isn’t long enough.
You should have Spiderman sitting on your shoulder during the show.
Mob mentality at it’s best. The entertainer can die as long as the show goes on. Let the gladiators bleed.
melissadonovan Just let Spidey take your place, John 😛
crissymoss spurters? 🙂
I sometimes buy to help the authors. I bought Realmkeepers to help feed Garrett’s children. (Kidding, Garrett. The books are awesome!)
nicholaskahler But, I think it’s real.
Steam is doing a great job getting rid of video game piracy.
thedavidwwright crissymoss I like “spurters.” Lol
Eric Guindon Between Steam and Humble Bundle I have more games then I can play. No need for pirating.
nicholaskahler I wish we had that here… I have to buy shoes every 6 months. This seems to imply shoes from those guys would last longer.
http://www.lindsayburoker.com/amazon-kindle-sales/art-of-the-amazon-sale/
crissymoss Eric Guindon I priate anyway. I wouldn’t be Australian if I didn’t.
I don’t like shoes.
Carl Sinclair Carl Sinclair: The King Of Multi-Tasking! 🙂
melissadonovan you don’t wear them?
What do you guys think on this?
Carl Sinclair melissadonovanI wear them as rarely as possible. Maybe it’s because I’m from California. I do like flip-flops and slippers.
There were several people on the JR Ward readers loop that were bragging about never paying for a book and never getting a word from Amazon telling them to stop, or preventing them from doing it. They were giving lessons on the loop on how to read without ever having to pay for the books.
Do Garrett and ZC pay you guys commission on all the Realm Keepers mentions?
RemarkableReads They should.
RemarkableReads We’re in negotiations.
Trish McCallan That’s pretty shady.
Yeah, there were a lot of readers that called them on it and called it theft. I doubt it stopped them.
Trish McCallan There is a show that is all about extreme couponing, and how to get things for free from shops, or even cash back. But most people aren’t going to bother, or be dicks about it. So, yes, it sucks, but I think it isn’t going to effect people as much.
jlward RemarkableReads Maybe they’ll throw you a Realm Keepers t-shirt.
crissymoss Trish McCallan They aren’t readers who would have bought it probably anyway.
http://www.digitalbookworld.com/2013/what-does-an-ebook-best-seller-cost-about-6-00/
Trish McCallan Piracy will happen. Even if Amazon stopped this method, people would go about it another way. Pirates are going to pirate…
Trish McCallan crissymoss … and there are easier ways to do this without all the hoops.
Damn, I forgot to put #cricket when I tweeted about this show earlier. Sorry, Carl.
BuddyGott I hear self-publishing news and cricket have a killer overlap audience 😛
RemarkableReads I could just take my shirt off to achieve the bear look.
thedavidwwright RemarkableReads Lol!
Eric Guindon Trish McCallan Yeah, I agree. You aren’t going to stop it, and I figure it’s just a form of promo. These people on the JR Ward loop that were reading and returning were also recommending their favorite books to everyone.
That 70% royalty is only a game changer if the author wants to take on their own publishing duties.
nicholaskahler It is. But if your already in with trad, you are going to stay if you are getting a crap load of sales you weren’t before.
BuddyGott Try harder next time.
Carl Sinclair nicholaskahler I think every author established or otherwise is going to be looking at self-publishing as a viable option… particularly traditionally published folks because they have an audience to support experiments.
Carl Sinclair nicholaskahler There is actually a number of trad authors jumping to self pub already
Publishing is going to have to start making the shift to actually doing some marketing and helping authors with their platform, or they’re not going to be able to justify the 75% cut on ebook sales.
Joanna Penn was talking about the german market at length in her podcasts — she’s doing it with a few of hers.
$8000 for a translation sounds steep to me. How long does it take someone to translate a book?
melissadonovan You’re lucky if you can get a translator to work for 5 cents a word…
I’d totally tap Germany. Giggity.
Eric Guindon melissadonovan So then it would be $3k for a 60k-word book. That does seem fair.
nicholaskahler With my last name, I’m curious how my books will do in Germany. 😀
melissadonovan Eric Guindon But good luck finding that… 10 to 20 is more common.
BuddyGott nicholaskahler I bet Buddy’s gott is going on
Eric Guindon melissadonovan … and you can’t skimp. Unless you can translate German yourself, you’ve got to trust the reputation of the company you work with.
– melissadonovan Everything I’ve heard on the loops for translation has been in the $8-10K range- but that’s for a 100K book
I’m too distracted now imagining Dave driving KITT.
melissadonovan A lot.
Trish McCallan melissadonovan That’s steep for indies.
It’s not a true decline. It’s a decline in growth… the actual money is still increasing.
I have a friend who does translation between english-french. I’m working to get her to accept a share of the royalties. She would charge a stranger ten cents a word.
Hangout attendees reply below.
I imagine him driving Herbie.
http://www.espncricinfo.com/the-ashes-2013-14/engine/match/592397.html
Carl Sinclair Replying.
melissadonovan Trish McCallan Yeah, that’s why few of them can do them. I think Lisa Marie Rice works with a co-op of translators, and some of them have fairly good rates.
BuddyGott Carl Sinclair right here. kevinmichael3@gmail.com
While Carl is babbling about things that no one cares about, let me ask who would like to be in the Hangout After Party?
I have to get into the after party one of these nights but not tonight. I have to nano right now. Have fun, guys.
jlward people love hearing about sports that matter to the world John.
I’m with Dave. None of it makes sense to me either. People talk sports and they might as well be speaking alien.
Carl Sinclair I should be writing, but I’ll hangout for a while if there’s space 🙂
melissadonovan C’mon now. Aliens don’t speak, they telepathically communicate. Geez…
jlward Let me see if I can get it the after party
BuddyGott Eric Guindon Buddy’s Writing Show reference for the win!
Eric Guindon melissadonovan nicholaskahler goodnight spiderman
melissadonovan jlward It’s the TARDIS or Time and Relative Dimension In Space. The definition is:
Tardisˈtɑːdɪs/noun1.a time machine.2.a building or container that is larger inside than it appears to be from outside.
Carl Sinclair melissadonovan jlward I know what the TARDIS is and I also know that it was named that by Susan who was the companion to the first Doctor. I was trying to be nice to Melissa who is not familiar with the show.