So first of all - this is my anniversary post. Almost two months late, I know. I didn't get to write one right away because I couldn't think of any new information to share with you guys then. But now, I do, thanks to the new trilogy I recently started (and which is also about to end).
word count and serials
The Art of Trusting a Greek Billionaire (Book 2 in my six-part serial) was released in December 2013. Average word count for the books was 20k to 25k although Book 5 (the longest) was about twice as long, if I remember correctly.
When you do serials on Amazon, expect a lot of low-star reviews hating on the length (or lack thereof) of the book. Ranking doesn't have that much staying power either although there are exceptions to the rule. (Case in point, my super fave Whitney Gracia Williams).
On the other hand, you can also see from the chart that Apple users don't give an eff about the length serials. On Amazon, my biggest selling books for each month are the newest releases. On Apple, my newest release also takes the #1 spot but the second spot ALMOST ALWAYS goes to - yes, you got it - The Art of Trusting a Greek Billionaire, which is one of my oldest self-published books.
My takeaway: If you like writing short (and steamy), Apple is your BEST (but not your only) friend. Just be sure to have a permafree to keep sales steady. I really want to encourage Filipino authors to write serials since we grew up on serials and cliffhangers - I mean, hello, our telenovelas are rife with them and if you do them right, they can make a reader more invested in a book. Personally, as an author, nothing makes ME more invested in my own books than the heartbreak my characters are experiencing. The more painful it is, the more invested I am in their stories.
When you do serials on Amazon, expect a lot of low-star reviews hating on the length (or lack thereof) of the book. Ranking doesn't have that much staying power either although there are exceptions to the rule. (Case in point, my super fave Whitney Gracia Williams).
On the other hand, you can also see from the chart that Apple users don't give an eff about the length serials. On Amazon, my biggest selling books for each month are the newest releases. On Apple, my newest release also takes the #1 spot but the second spot ALMOST ALWAYS goes to - yes, you got it - The Art of Trusting a Greek Billionaire, which is one of my oldest self-published books.
My takeaway: If you like writing short (and steamy), Apple is your BEST (but not your only) friend. Just be sure to have a permafree to keep sales steady. I really want to encourage Filipino authors to write serials since we grew up on serials and cliffhangers - I mean, hello, our telenovelas are rife with them and if you do them right, they can make a reader more invested in a book. Personally, as an author, nothing makes ME more invested in my own books than the heartbreak my characters are experiencing. The more painful it is, the more invested I am in their stories.
SEQUELS WITHOUT BOOSTS FROM PERMAFREES
Now, one of the reasons why Trusting continues to sell well (based on my fairly low standards :D) on Apple is because Book 1 is permafree and drives sales for Book 2. Recently, I started a new trilogy, which is set in the same world as my first Greek billionaire serial. The only difference is that the new trilogy has NO PERMAFREE to boost sales for the second book. My prequel, The Greek Billionaire and His Secretary, was released at $.99c. Dear Greek Billionaire, Book 1 in the trilogy, was released a couple days after it.
This was an eye-opener for me. Huge eye opener, which is why I'm rewriting a part of Book 2 and use it as a permafree to boost sales on Apple. BN sales as shown in the chart are normal for a $2.99 release - although the chart makes my earnings from BN miniscule, you have to remember that BN's market is also a lot smaller compared to Amazon's.
My Apple sales usually outpace BN sales with a permafree but obviously that's not happening with DGB.
My Apple sales usually outpace BN sales with a permafree but obviously that's not happening with DGB.
to go or not to go free
ALL MY SELF-PUBLISHED SERIES start with Book 1 as free. Old ones like The Werewolf Prince and I don't count because they're not self-pubbed. Even my Silver and Lace series will have either a free prequel or short story of sorts to promote the series. But with my new trilogy (Stavros and Willow), I tried something different. I didn't set the prequel free but instead priced it at $.99 since it was only 44 pages long or about 10k words. I had super low expectations that it would sell since I figured people were used to me making Book 1 free. But THIS happened.
My ratio for Amazon / BN sales are never like that. NEVER. But for the first few days, BN sales actually outpaced sales in Amazon and honestly, if I were to base it on market size, I think TGBHS was able to sell at the same pace on both Amazon and BN for more than a week. I've NEVER sold this well on BN before so I'm thinking that it's a combination of a good strategic title and a $.99c price point. Obviously, it's just mostly conjecture at this point, I know I need more hard data, but even so, I have a good feeling it has to do with those two things.
Anyway, because sales of TGBHS were so spectacularly curious, I wondered how effective it was at driving sales to the next book, which is DGB. I compared this to the sales of Burn, which was preceded by Book 1 (Swish) being in a USAT/NYT bestselling boxed set (Wild Rides).
Anyway, because sales of TGBHS were so spectacularly curious, I wondered how effective it was at driving sales to the next book, which is DGB. I compared this to the sales of Burn, which was preceded by Book 1 (Swish) being in a USAT/NYT bestselling boxed set (Wild Rides).
Obviously, not that huge a difference. But there are a couple things to note.
I also noticed that Dear Greek Billionaire "seems" to be reaching more new readers compared to Burn as you'll see in the graph below. I'm thinking that Burn's decline on Day 16 was because I had reached virtually all of my old readers in the first fifteen days. Day 16 onwards, mostly new readers were the ones buying (and obviously they're not that many).
With DGB on the other hand, weekend sales account for the spikes (Day 9, 10, and Day 16, 17) but other than that they're selling more steadily. Again, I'll need more data to back this up but that's what I feel about it for now at least.
- DGB went live only a few days after TGBHS. Burn went out THREE MONTHS after.
- Swish was part of a boxed set that made it to Top 50 on Amazon and even Top 20 on B&N. My $.99c prequel made it as far as Top 500 on Amazon and Top 100 on BN.
I also noticed that Dear Greek Billionaire "seems" to be reaching more new readers compared to Burn as you'll see in the graph below. I'm thinking that Burn's decline on Day 16 was because I had reached virtually all of my old readers in the first fifteen days. Day 16 onwards, mostly new readers were the ones buying (and obviously they're not that many).
With DGB on the other hand, weekend sales account for the spikes (Day 9, 10, and Day 16, 17) but other than that they're selling more steadily. Again, I'll need more data to back this up but that's what I feel about it for now at least.
Sales for DGB are parallel with sales for TGBHS by the way (too lazy to create another graph for this, sorry) but when you consider that, then one way to interpret it is that TGBHS is still doing its job at driving sales for the next book.
Another reason why I think TGBHS has gotten me NEW readers ( which, again, I'm assuming is probably because of the strategic title and $.99 price point) is because since its release, sales for my other Greek books also went up. This has never happened before. When I have a new release, there's usually not much effect on my older books. I feel that this means I'm only reaching OLD readers (who don't need to buy older titles since they already have them). But with TGBHS, sales for other Greek books increased. Here's a screenshot of The Greek Billionaire and I.
The Greek Billionaire and His Secretary was released FEB. 28, 2015.
Same thing's happened with Books 1 to 5 for Damen and Mairi although not in the same scale. I'm thinking new readers were more inclined to one-click The Greek Billionaire and I because it's a standalone.
My takeaway: Amazon and BN readers may be feeling so overwhelmed by the number of permafrees available that they've taken to checking out $.99 releases and using it to decide which series to follow. Obviously, the opposite's the case with Apple. For now, though, I'm thinking I'll stick with $.99 releases for Book 1 of my serials and see how things will continue to work out.
Another thing I want to emphasize on is TIME. If you feel you don't write fast enough then consider writing your entire series in advance before releasing them simultaneously. I know from firsthand experience that readers' interest in your books tends to wane the longer you make them wait. So either work on writing fast enough OR release the entire series in one go. ANOTHER alternative - which I'm still working on - is to have SPECIFIC release dates you can stick to (my greatest weakness alas) and maybe even set preorders up for sequels. That's one way you can be sure to get them hooked until the end.
My takeaway: Amazon and BN readers may be feeling so overwhelmed by the number of permafrees available that they've taken to checking out $.99 releases and using it to decide which series to follow. Obviously, the opposite's the case with Apple. For now, though, I'm thinking I'll stick with $.99 releases for Book 1 of my serials and see how things will continue to work out.
Another thing I want to emphasize on is TIME. If you feel you don't write fast enough then consider writing your entire series in advance before releasing them simultaneously. I know from firsthand experience that readers' interest in your books tends to wane the longer you make them wait. So either work on writing fast enough OR release the entire series in one go. ANOTHER alternative - which I'm still working on - is to have SPECIFIC release dates you can stick to (my greatest weakness alas) and maybe even set preorders up for sequels. That's one way you can be sure to get them hooked until the end.
NICHES
If you've been following my blog, you'd know that I love, love, love talking about niches - probably as much as I love to talk about outlining. Now, one thing I've noticed is how sales for a particular book seems to be greater on one retailer than the other.
bdsm
A few facts about Meant to Be Yours:
- Released in October 2014
- Book 2 in a two-part serial
- Book 1 published in February 2013, was part of USAT bestselling New Adult Romance bundle in January 2014 and was set free when MTBY went live
- Categories / sub-genres: New adult / college age characters, contemporary romance with BDSM theme
At first glance, it may seem like Amazon is once again outpacing sales (slightly) on BN. But remember - BN has a smaller market than Amazon. When you take that into account, you'll know that MTBY has a larger market share on BN compared to how it's doing on Amazon (and Apple). This, by the way, is my ONLY BDSM-themed story (Jason & Keanne does touch upon this issue a little) so I'm thinking it's because of that it's still been selling steadily.
And just to show you how well MTBY is doing on BN compared to my other books, here's a chart comparing sales of MTBY to Burn (Aug. 2014), This Round I'm Yours (Feb. 2015) and The Art of Trusting a Greek Billionaire (Dec. 2013).
And just to show you how well MTBY is doing on BN compared to my other books, here's a chart comparing sales of MTBY to Burn (Aug. 2014), This Round I'm Yours (Feb. 2015) and The Art of Trusting a Greek Billionaire (Dec. 2013).
Keep in mind that This Round I'm Yours is the only book here that has no permafree preceding it.
shifter romance
Before my Greek books, I used to be more known for writing werewolf romances. Late last year, I finished a werewolf trilogy - it didn't rank as well as my first werewolf books (owned by my former publisher) and I think one reason was because the latter was initially priced at $.99 while my trilogy were priced at $2.99 for Books 2 and 3 (Book 1 is permafree though).
Another thing I've noticed is that shifter romance doesn't really sell that well outside Amazon (refer to graph). Initially, it did well on BN and Apple but afterwards, sales just kept declining until they reached a certain (low) plateau.
My takeaway: Every retail site seems to have its unique share of popular niches. Up to you to find out what it is and see which one you'd like to write more. Pricing may also have to be adjusted according to which niche you're in and, lastly, it may pay to be exclusive with Amazon, depending - again - on your niche.
Another thing I've noticed is that shifter romance doesn't really sell that well outside Amazon (refer to graph). Initially, it did well on BN and Apple but afterwards, sales just kept declining until they reached a certain (low) plateau.
My takeaway: Every retail site seems to have its unique share of popular niches. Up to you to find out what it is and see which one you'd like to write more. Pricing may also have to be adjusted according to which niche you're in and, lastly, it may pay to be exclusive with Amazon, depending - again - on your niche.
Anyway, that's it for now and I hope even just a little bit of what I've shared is able to help you figure out your next step in self-publishing. Nothing I've shared is ground-breaking for most indie writers but for those in the Philippines, I thought it would be a good thing if I summarized everything here, in case some of you guys were wondering about the same things.
Some of you may also be wondering why I haven't discussed KU. To be honest, I just don't have enough data because KU seems to work better for new SERIES and as of now, I haven't any to speak of. Next month, though, I'm hoping to be done with another shifter romance trilogy so maybe I'll have figures then. It depends.
Note: Everything here is BASED ON MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE. You aren't obliged to follow my advice or even think that I'm right. All I want is to give back and have more Filipino authors earning enough from self-publishing to be able to write full time. Is all.
Some of you may also be wondering why I haven't discussed KU. To be honest, I just don't have enough data because KU seems to work better for new SERIES and as of now, I haven't any to speak of. Next month, though, I'm hoping to be done with another shifter romance trilogy so maybe I'll have figures then. It depends.
Note: Everything here is BASED ON MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE. You aren't obliged to follow my advice or even think that I'm right. All I want is to give back and have more Filipino authors earning enough from self-publishing to be able to write full time. Is all.