$0.99 sale

Hello faithful readers, and good news: you can cancel the search parties. I’m alive. And I’ve got a new book for you—even better, it’s the start of a new series in a familiar world.

TSC-300x450THE SEALED CITADEL is set in the same universe as the Cycles of Arawn and Galand, but in an earlier time. A much different one. A time when Cally, the man who would later mentor Dante Galand, is just a young sorcerer himself. Yes, that’s right. It’s about Cally.

This is the first in a new series of what will probably be three or four books. To get it off to a nice start, and for fun, it’s currently just $0.99 on Amazon (UK version here) or can be read through Kindle Unlimited. It’s out on paperback, too.

Audiobook questions: will there be one? Yes. Will Tim Gerard Reynolds be narrating? Also yes, and it should be awesome to hear him voice young Cally. I think he’s slated to start recording any day now, so that ought to be out sometime this summer.

Using my almighty power of “having done this for a while,” I foresee another question: Galand #6? Yep, on the way—in fact, I’m almost done with the first draft, so expect the ebook in June, with Tim starting the audio narration shortly thereafter, making for a probable autumn release.

Starting a new series is always both exciting, but also a total gut-wrencher. You never know if it’s going to take off, or, to paraphrase a wise robot, flop like an automated flopping machine. With that in mind, I am extra grateful to everyone who picks this one up. Getting to write Cally’s voice again was a blast. I’m excited to see where the rest of his story leads.

As always, thanks for reading,

– Ed

RONIN, Rebel Stars #3, is now live! You can find it just about everywhere: Amazon, Amazon UK, B&N Nook, iBooks, Kobo, Google Play, and paperback.

ronin-finalI’m pretty pleased with this one—the plot takes a major leap forward, and sets the stage for the final phase of the story. That’ll take two more books to tell. I have to get back to some other series first, so look for the ending next year.

Oh, and if you’re new to the series, for the next few days, REBEL (Rebel Stars #0) is just $0.99. (It’s on sale at every other store, too.) If you’re an audiobook person, check it out on Audible.

Following RONIN, I’m working on a Sekrit Project, which should be out later this year. As soon as that’s wrapped up, I’ll be moving on to THE CYCLE OF GALAND #3. Expect that one sometime this fall.

Well, if I want to hit those deadlines, I’d better return to work. As always, hope you enjoy the latest book. Drop me a comment if you’ve got any questions.

Now live unto the world: STARS & EMPIRE. Ten books of space opera and military SF. Ten of indie science fiction’s biggest authors. All for just $0.99.

And, if you’re one of my readers, the best part? My contribution to this set is a completely brand new book — REBEL, available exclusively within this set. Book zero of the REBEL STARS novels, it kicks off a new series — one set a thousand years in the future of the BREAKERS books.

~

s&e

 

B&N Nook  |  Amazon  |  Amazon UK  |  Apple  |  Kobo  |  Google Play

~

To my Breakers readers: Don’t worry, the series isn’t over yet. And there are no spoilers in REBEL (besides, I suppose, the one that humanity survived). It was tremendous fun to leap forward in the universe and into space opera, which might be my favorite genre of all.

I hope that comes through in the new book. Hope you enjoy!

Yep. Got a new book out. Here’s the deal:

OUTLAW-2MBIN THE YEAR 2010, an alien virus nearly wiped out the human race. A thousand years later, mankind has recovered and ventured into space. There has been no sign of the aliens since. Humanity remains confined to the Solar System.

All that is about to change. 

Mazzy Webber is a lowly janitor on a third-rate cargo ship. Deeply in debt, when his captain decides to turn pirate, he leaps at the chance.

A modern Robin Hood—minus the part where he gives back to the poor—Webber lays down a few ground rules. No attacking manned ships, and no stealing from anyone who can’t afford it. Within months, he and the crew are out of debt. Their next target will make them rich.

But the attack goes all wrong. The target’s cargo could be the death of them—or it could be the key to reaching the stars.

AVAILABLE HERE at $0.99:

Amazon  |  BN Nook  |  Apple  |  Kobo  |  Google Play

By the way, if that description sounds familiar…it should. OUTLAW is the first book in a new series set in the far future of the Breakers universe. While you absolutely don’t have to read the Breakers books to follow along, having that as background should add an extra layer to the fun.

It definitely made it more fun to write. I love space opera and have been wanting to start a new series for a long time. Putting it in the future of my particular world has given it its own unique history and flavor.

On top of that, looking at this as a publisher, this gives readers more to check out. Like the Rebel Stars stuff? Good news! Its apocalyptic history has already been chronicled in the Breakers series. Like Breakers? Well, clear up some space on your ereader! Because here’s what happens long after humanity bounces back.

I really can’t say how much crossover there will be. I can say that combining these series into the same universe pleases the heck out of me as both a writer and as a publisher.

I now have delusions of chronicling the complete history of this world. That might be too ambitious — or possibly too boring! — but it’s an exciting possibility.

That can wait for a later date. For now? Buy buy buy! Buy like the wind! A thousand years of silly fictional history depends on you.

(Quick note: Yes, I still exist. I’ve been lost writing an endless fantasy novel, but I’ll resume blogging more regularly once the first draft is done in a couple weeks.)

What is better than stuffing, sweet potatoes, pumpkin pie, and leftovers for days? Nothing. Nothing on earth. But in between naps and the venerable tradition of watching the Lions lose, here’s something else to keep you occupied: 24 books by 24 indie authors for just $0.99 each.

My time travel thriller The Cutting Room is participating alongside a wide array of books including sci-fi, romance, thrillers, and YA. The other authors include multiple award winners and people who’ve made shmancy bestseller lists like the New York Times. It’s a pretty great crew.

Enjoy, happy holidays, and I’m looking forward to posting more soon about the new Kindle Countdown deals, publishing serials, and, of course, pineapples.

So, looking back over Part 1 and Part 2, here are the conclusions I’d put forward.

First, Amazon Select no longer offers much if any reward to most of its participants. Meanwhile, a new market has opened (Kobo), and while everyone is waiting for B&N to keel over and die, the Nook store is still selling boatloads of books every single day. Until they close, the sales are there. It’s hard to know exactly where Apple’s at, but they’re a legit ebookstore too. Lots of people make lots of money there. I sure don’t, but you can’t win ’em all.

So the current environment favors distributing everywhere in a way it didn’t back when Select was a magic bullet. Even if geographical or technical challenges makes it hard to publish direct to B&N, Apple, and Kobo, just use Draft2Digital or Smashwords.

Waiting to publish and/or promote is a bad idea (I hath decreed it!). So what do we do with our first book?

I see a few ways to go with this. The first option is to toss your first book into Select for a single three-month period with the knowledge it’s highly unlikely to do much for you. Call this the “At least it’s better than nothing.” In fact, let’s make sections!

“At Least It’s Better Than Nothing”

Sure, the other stores exist, and sell books, but with so few ways to advertise or otherwise reach Nook/Kobo/Apple readers, you’re sacrificing very little by starting out in Select. And free runs still have some utility. You may sell a few copies post-free. You may start to get a feel for how appealing your book is; don’t read too much into any one failure, but if it gives a bunch of copies away with little to no promotion, you might just be on to something. And perhaps most valuably, free runs are still a good way to garner some initial reviews to qualify your book for promotion at the various advertisers.

Here’s how I would handle it. Do a couple free runs immediately, just 1-2 days long. Feel free to extend them if you really explode, but try to save two free days. Next, schedule Book #2 to publish about a week before Book #1 expires from Select. (This may require waiting a short while to publish #1 or #2, so let’s just pretend I didn’t spend 1500 words condemning the idea of waiting in Part 2.) Do not enroll #2 in Select. Instead, schedule a free run on #1 for the day after #2 goes live, with the hope this will get #2 off to a stronger launch.

When #1 reverts to paid, see how it sells. If you’re satisfied with the way things are going, you can enroll #2 in Select at this point and re-up #1. But if Select is as dead as it is for most people, #1 is ready to expire and #2 was never enrolled. As soon as #1 exits the program, distribute both books to all channels, uploading directly wherever possible.

The idea here isn’t to use Select to rack up hundreds or thousands of dollars in sales. Those days are long gone, sad trombone. Rather, the idea is to leverage the power of free to get readers to take a chance on you, to build up Book #1’s infrastructure (its reviews, alsobots, etc.), to gain mailing list subscribers, and to support the launch of #2. Any real sales over this period is just a bonus.

This is a very short-term plan and it’s highly unlikely to make you a rock star, but at least it’s a plan.

“The Boring Way That I Do Things: Sales and Ads”

Option number two is what I’m (mostly) currently doing. It’s not how I got here, but I think it should work all right, with a few modifications. Basically, it consists of publishing to all platforms, then running advertised sales, particularly to bolster new releases.

To get a little grittier with my nits, if I were just starting out with this method, I’d upload direct to all four major self-publishing platforms (Amazon, B&N, Kobo, Apple). If for some reason you can’t upload to BN or Apple, use Draft2Digital. Their price changes go through much faster than Smashwords, and if you’re running regular sales, it’s going to be important to be able to change prices quickly–like within 24 hours. You’ll probably want to publish to Smashwords and distribute to all the other markets eventually, but honestly, they’re all so small you’re not missing out.

Then.. scramble for reviews.

And by reviews I mostly mean “Amazon reviews,” although BookBub will look at everything you’ve got, including Goodreads, so they’re all worth getting. The purpose isn’t the reviews themselves, but to get enough that the various ad sites will agree to advertise your book. While there’s no such thing as enough reviews, the scale we’re looking at is somewhere around 5-20; ~5 will qualify you for smaller sites, and ~20+ will start to look pretty good to the big ones.

How do you get these reviews? Honest ones, that is? Some people have had success with giveaways at LibraryThing and Goodreads (offer free copies in exchange for honest reviews), but that’s seriously all I know about that. I hate stuff like chasing reviews and it makes me want to give up and go home.

But the reviews aren’t going to just show up on their own, and in my experience it takes something like 100 sales to get 1 single review, so do the math. It could be months–years!–before your book has ~20 reviews arrive organically. You’ll have to chase them down somehow. If it helps, think of them as a Legend of Zelda sidequest. O brave warrior, you must track down the 20 Lost Reviews in order to unlock the Dungeon of Forbidden Advertising!

That out of the way, things are much simpler: find places that advertise ebooks, and book ads. To be a little more specific, find places that advertise ebooks well. Places that immediately cover the cost of the ad or come close to it. Some people like to argue that all advertising is valuable, because brand awareness, and when a consumer sees something seven times mumble grumble sales, but you’re not Crest toothpaste on a shelf with Arm & Hammer and the store brand. You’re one book on a shelf of two million. The people seeing your ad are probably never going to stumble over your book again.

I’m aware of five good ebook advertising sites. In roughly descending order: BookBub, POI, ENT, KBT, Book Blast. Generally speaking, it’s best to advertise at $0.99. At $0.99, these sites will generally break even or better, and the goal is to reach as many new readers as possible.

Run ads whenever your sales dry up, which as a new author will probably be always. And when book #2 arrives, try to have ads in place for book #1. It’s generally effective to drop to $0.99 for three days (the day before the ad, to ensure your price lowers; the day of the ad; and the day after to pick up the stragglers), but if you keep selling at $0.99 and you like what you’re seeing, stick with it as long as you like.

And that’s it, really. The downsides are there are only so many places to advertise, competition for spots is fierce, and BookBub is the only effective site I know about to reach beyond Amazon, but as they say, it is what it is. Even temporary boosts will reach new readers and may shake up your alsobots, leading to a longer tail of post-promo sales. It’s a long-term strategy, too. You’ll only be able to advertise any one book every so often, but as long as you keep writing new ones, that’s fresh material to promote.

This is the core of my current strategy, for whatever it’s worth, but I do have some qualms that it might be tough for brand-new authors to book ads at desirable sites. And there’s the review threshold to get over. But I see new authors doing this on KBoards right now, so it’s not impossible.

Now.. my favorite idea.

“The Nuclear Option!”

While I was mulling around the idea of this little series, I ran this idea by a group of writers I know–several of whom are much more successful than myself, and all of whom are very smart–and it was pretty much roundly rejected. So bear in mind that if this were a commercial, that commercial would say “Five out of six full-time indies think this is a Bad Idea!”

But it is, I think, what I would do if I were just starting today.

I would go permafree immediately.

For those just dipping their toes into the self-publishing waters, “permafree” means setting your book free permanently. Bit of a misnomer, as technically you can revert it to paid at any time, but the idea is to set it to $0.00 forever as a free introduction to your series. It’s a powerful tactic because it costs readers nothing to give your book a shot, and if they like it enough, they’ll go pay actual money for the later books in the series. Indies do this all the time. It’s one of our most basic tactics.

The unconventional bit of this is that writers generally don’t put it to use until they’ve got three books in the series out in the world.

The idea is to wait until you’ve got a couple sequels to make money from before you start giving the first one away for nothin’. But I’m not sure why the magic number is three. I’ve seen people go permafree with great results when they only had two books. So if it works for two, why not one??

…oh right, the part where you’re making zero money. But here’s what you’re making instead: readers. Of your stuff. At a much faster rate than you’ll be gaining them by charging $2.99. Readers who will (hopefully) go on to buy your sequels when they do come out (so long as you have a mailing list or other way to alert them), helping launch those books higher, and ultimately making you more money–and thus getting you closer to a real career–than you would have made waiting until book #3 to drop #1 to free.

And if you’d be worried about giving away a potential bestseller before it has the chance to find its legs, good news! The logistics of permafree require your book to start life as a paid title. Since you can’t set your BN price to $0.00 yourself, you’ll have to distribute your book there via Smashwords. It can take a few weeks for a SW-distributed book to go live at BN. Even after it does show up free on BN, it may take Amazon days, weeks, or months to pricematch to free.

And you can test the waters in the other stores as well. Upload direct to Kobo, Apple, and even BN and see whether the book takes off as a paid title. If it doesn’t, and you want to hasten the pricematching process, lower your price at Apple and Kobo to $0.00. As soon as the free SW version shows up at BN, pull your self-published version from sale.

It’s an extremely simple plan, there’s flexibility in the execution, and since advertising beyond Amazon is so limited, making a book permafree is probably the best option for reaching readers in the other stores. Amazon’s algos are pretty cruel these days. The trend is almost always down, and once your first 30 days as a new release are up, the cliff can come hard and fast. Diversifying your readership in other stores will help keep things steady between new releases.

Also, it’s pretty dang low-effort. Upload, tweak a couple prices, then remind Amazon that it’s free elsewhere until they pricematch. Once it qualifies (reviews etc.), sub it to freebie sites. That’s pretty much it. Go write!

But this plan isn’t without drawbacks. Some authors feel that books downloaded for free wind up with lower reviews than books people paid for, and there’s anecdotal and logical support for that idea (although no comprehensive studies I’m aware of). You’ll be giving up some unknown amount of initial income until your sequels arrive. If you’re on a tight budget, that’s a real consideration, especially if you could use those earnings to invest in snazzier covers or advertising or whatever. Someone suggested to me there’s psychological value in knowing total strangers have paid real money for a book you wrote, particularly in the fragile early days.

I’m unswayed. Free is one of the few tools brand-new authors have to make themselves competitive. If you can see yourself using it eventually, why wait? Why not fire it up right now and grab all the visibility you can in every store you can get into? Why not start gathering a mailing list right off the bat?

Anyway, let’s look at the timing on this. Day zero, you publish to Amazon, Smashwords, and wherever you’re uploading direct. It then takes a few days to be approved by Smashwords premium distribution (which you need to distribute to BN). If you haven’t met their formatting demands, you’ll have to try again; there’s a few more days. Once approved, it’ll probably be a couple days until it actually ships, and even then it can take 2-3 weeks for the free book to actually show up at BN. Once it does, Amazon rarely pricematches immediately. Even if you’re reporting your free book on their “tell us about a lower price” link, it can be days or weeks before they decide to match.

At this point, you’re beyond Amazon’s new release window, and if you’ve buckled down on the sequel, you should only be a couple months out from publishing. Yay. You gave #1 a shot as a paid title, and even if permafreeing it before #2 is out turns out to be a stupid idea, it’ll only be a stupid idea for a couple months until #2 goes live and permafree magically becomes a good idea.

You could hedge a bit more by waiting to set the permafree wheels in motion until #2 is almost ready. Finish up #2, then hit publish as soon as Amazon sets #1 to $0.00.

Anyway, this rationale is getting ridiculously long.

Let’s take a step back and look at what brand-new indies have to work with: virtually nothing. No fans, no reviews, no experience. The only way to accumulate those things is to publish a book and get it into readers’ hands. There are two factors in getting a reader to choose a book: first, they have to see it; second, it has to look interesting enough to overcome their resistance to buy. Making a book free creates visibility and reduces resistance. QED. I said QED!

~
Well, there you go. These are just ideas, obviously. None of them are sacred, particularly revolutionary, or likely to make anyone an instant King Kong bestseller. On the plus side, they’re very simple, they should work for almost all genres, and each route should be infinitely more effective than waiting for all the readers to spontaneously yank your book out of that pile of two million.
These should be looked at as customizable templates, too. For instance, it might make a lot of sense to start off with Better Than Nothing and transition to The Boring Way as soon as your first Select term is up–use your free days to pull in reviews and give your book a little test drive, then publish to the other stores 90 days later, bolstered by whatever ads you can scrounge together. In fact, if I weren’t bold enough to try the Nuclear Option, that’s probably what I’d do, personally.
Now, these strategies are all situational, dependent on the current ebook environment, but there’s an underlying strategy that should be effective no matter which way the Amazon algo-winds are blowing. SM Reine already wrote the book on the foundation of an indie career, but to summarize:
1) Write in a series
2) Start up a mailing list immediately
3) Do something to get your books in front of readers
That process, or something close to it, is basically the story of every big indie’s career. This post has focused on 3), but unless you’re also doing 1) and 2), it’s going to be much harder to continue building on your prior success.
When it comes to 3), 2013 feels tougher than 2012. Even in its post-May 2012, watered-down state, Select was a strong tool for reaching readers. After a series of algorithm changes starting in February 2013, however, the program is virtually useless for generating post-free sales. Nothing remotely as effective has shown up to replace it.
In a tough environment like that, I’d be looking for strategies that are low-risk–plans that will almost certainly result in the steady accumulation of new readers–yet are aggressive enough to make you stand out. Like instant permafree or regular $0.99 sales. It might take several books and a year of publishing before you start to see strong book launches, but at least there will be visible progress as a trickle of new readers joins your mailing list, Facebook page, blog, etc.
By contrast, I’m not really a fan of strategies where the potential payoff is huge, but where you might lose out on months and months of growth if things don’t come together. Like waiting to publish until you have multiple books ready to go. This is an attempt to swing for the fences that is likely to result in a strikeout.
Even so, I can’t deny the awesomeness of big bold moves. Whatever route you go down, it’s vital to understand that you can’t count on readers appearing from nowhere. You’ve got to learn how to reach them, whether it’s through direct social means (participating on Goodreads or whatever) or more passive, low-effort methods (presenting a book to potential readers via making it free or advertising a sale). Learn to do that, and you’ll be in good shape.
Good luck, everybody. I’m happy to discuss ideas in the comments. And if you’re just getting your start, or you’ve just broken through, I’d love to hear your experience.

P.S. — For unknown reasons, the comments section of this blog like to disappear sometimes. Refreshing a couple times will generally convince them to show up. This is one of the many things I lament, but don’t have time to fix. The glorious life of a mid-list indie.

~
I’m perfectly happy writing these posts for free, but if you feel like giving me a hand, I’ve just released a box set of my main series that’s currently just $0.99. It’s available at Amazon, B&N, and Kobo.

Well, I’ve been pretty quiet lately. As usual, that means one of two things: either the police have finally caught up to me, or I’ve got a new book out. Luckily for me, it’s the latter: Reapers, the newest book in my post-apocalyptic Breakers series. In it, a hunt for a missing person leads former agent Ellie Colson through the wastelands of New York State–and right into the middle of an explosive gang war.

AVAILABLE AT:
Amazon  |  B&N  |  Kobo
“Oh,” you say. “That’s nice, but that’s the fourth book in a series, and I like to start at the beginning.” Yes, I can see how that would be a problem.. but hey wait what’s this??

AVAILABLE AT:

Amazon  |  B&N  |  Kobo
“Yeah, but a set that fine must cost like two million dollars.” It sure looks like it! But for the next few days, it’s just $0.99.
~
For the writers out there, this is the second prong of my release strategy (the first being the typical “alert my mailing list/Facebook page that a new book exists”). Most of the big advertisers won’t run a brand-new book. BookBub used to, but no longer, and places like ENT generally require a decent number of reviews before they’ll feature something. But they’re obviously happy to run an older title, so long as it meets their standards, and right now they love featuring steeply discounted box sets, because their readers love the value.
I can’t afford to leave this set at $0.99 forever, but I’ve got some ads on it running in a couple days which will hopefully lead to spillover on Reapers. I’ll see how the ads go, and then, after a few days, I’ll probably raise the price on the box set to something like $5.99–still a bargain, just not a no-doubt choice over the individual titles, which will be temporarily reduced to $3 each. I’ll be playing it by ear as to when exactly to tweak prices up, but the set’s standard list price will wind up at $9.99 ($3 off the first three books’ list).
I’m hardly the first to say “Hey, you know what people like? More books for less money.” But with new releases, it’s all about how high you can fling them into the ranks. Since a box set is one of the most potent sales tools there is, to me, it makes extra sense to pair it with a new release.
I don’t have any ads or donation buttons on this blog, so if you these posts helpful, consider picking up one of the above books. I’ll never know if you don’t, but who knows, you might even like them.

What’s up everyone. I’ve been quiet lately–working furiously, if there’s anything furious about “sitting in a chair seven days a week”–but in the meantime, here’s something new: the complete book of my previously serialized time travel thriller The Cutting Room. And for the next few days, it’s just $0.99.

AVAILABLE AT:
Amazon  |  B&N  |  Kobo  |  Apple

Thanks for taking a look. Once I’ve got a bit of breathing room with my work in progress, I’ll start blogging again–including a look at my experience with The Cutting Room as a serialized novel. It’s been an interesting process.

Psst. Hey. You like epic fantasy? How about lots of epic fantasy novels from some bestselling authors (and me) bundled for a ridiculously cheap price? Then this may be relevant to your interests: the four-book fantasy box set The Strife of Gods & Kings, currently just $0.99.

If we’ve stumbled into a Bizarro Universe where you know me, but not the other authors in the set, here’s a quick rundown. David Dalglish, author of the Half-Orcs series, is perhaps the poster boy for indie epic fantasy. He’s sold hundreds of thousands of copies by himself, and within the next year, he’ll have books coming out with both Orbit and Amazon’s 47 North.

Michael Wallace also began indie, but his Righteous thrillers boomed so big he was quickly snatched up by Amazon’s mystery imprint Thomas & Mercer, where he has sold an absurd amount of books. In addition to his thrillers, he’s written a few fantasy novels. I’m hoping some day he’ll cross back over to the Dark Side for good.

Lastly, I’m me. Hi. My book The White Tree is in here. You might like it.

I’ve read both dudes’ work. It’s great stuff and I’m honored to be in this set with them. Hope you like it.

As usual, a quiet blog means I’ve got a new book on the way. This time, I’m trying a new format, too: a serial.

~

In the future, there are many parallel Earths–but only one of them has time travel. Its criminals break into the pasts of other worlds, far beyond the reach of conventional police.

Blake Din is the top agent of the Cutting Room, the group tasked with stopping these trespassers. But on a mission to undo the murder of a young boy, he steps into a far-ranging conspiracy. For the first time, it isn’t one of the other Earths under attack. It’s his own.

A sci-fi thriller in the mold of Minority Report and Quantum Leap, THE CUTTING ROOM: EPISODE I is the first in a six-part serial novel. New episodes weekly.

Get it on any store you like:

Amazon  |  B&N  |  Apple  |  Kobo

Additionally, if you’re a Kobo reader–and they’ve got an app–I’ve got a limited amount of copies to give away. Just follow the (very quick and easy) instructions here.

~
If you’re new to serialized fiction, it’s pretty much like a TV show: each episode tells its own little story, and the complete book tells an over-arching story of its own. With The Cutting Room, I’ll be releasing new episodes every Wednesday. Each episode is about 30-50 pages long (12,000-15,000 words), and there will be six in total.
Writing in this format was more of a challenge than I expected, but it was really fun. If this book does well enough (and frankly, my standards for “well” are pretty mild), I’d love to write another. Thanks for taking a look.

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