February Sales Records

Obviously, February's Sales Records came out ten days ago, so I'm a bit slow on the uptake. But this is something I've been meaning to do, and may do every month. Why? Because I like sharing.

tl;dr - February was much slower than January, especially in the UK, probably because free promotions just aren't as effective as before.


Now, without further ado...

Amazon US Sales

• Family History: Part 1:  4 Units Sold at 70% Royalty: $8.16
• Family History: Part 2: 1 Unit Sold at 35% Royalty: $1.40
• The Dowry: 5 Units Sold at 70% Royalty: $10.25

Total Amazon US Sales: $19.81

Amazon UK Sales

• Family History: Part 1: 1 Unit sold at 70% Royalty:   £1.16 (~$1.84)

Total Amazon UK Sales: $1.84

The UK trend is troubling, because I haven't had a single sale in the UK since the week of February 11th, and even when I offered my entire library (minus The Night Life: Chapter 1) for free, each book only got twenty-something downloads. In January though, I did relatively well in the UK. So, what's going on? (Because I honestly have no idea).

Without giving away too much, things are better this month (though not substantially). A freak KDP Select Promotion Bug actually worked in my favor, so I'm doing about as well as I did in January. Other than that, though, there's not much else to report. So, I hope y'all enjoy, and I'll probably doing this again in a few weeks come March. Have a lovely Sunday.

My Personal KDP Select Experiment, Part 2

First off, to anybody paying attention, I'm sorry I haven't posted anything since March 4th. All things considered, it's been something of a hectic week, and I just haven't made time for other things. For those interested, tl;dr: Applying for badass smart-person job in research for the summer, application requires a lot of work, oh, and I got a new iPod. (Not that the latter has anything to do with anything.) Don't worry - I've made hardly any time for Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, and even The Night Life.

Anyways, on Sunday, I made a post about how I put everything (excluding Chapter 1 of The Night Life)up for free just to see what happened. I managed to post some preliminary free download numbers, but, because of a glitch in the system, they weren't the final numbers.

If I remember correctly, the glitch was fixed at about 5:00 MST.

Anyways, numbers:

US Downloads

• Family History Part 1: 425
• Family History Part 2: 361
• The Dowry: 95

UK Downloads

• Family History Part 1: 26
• Family History Part 2: 28
• The Dowry: 23

Germany Downloads

• Family History Part 1: 4
• Family History Part 2: 5
• The Dowry: 1

If I recall, Family History Part 1 made it into about ~#33 in Contemporary Romance, while Part 2 was ranked at about ~50-60 in the same category.

If you read Sunday's post, you'll notice that nothing changed dramatically from expected. However, the part that was unexpected were the sales that followed.

You see, I'd gotten so used to nothing in a day, that what happened immediately after the free downloads stopped was somewhat shocking.

12 people bought Family History Part 1 and Part 2 on Sunday.

Squeee.

I thought that the downloads would continue, but alas, that wasn't meant to be.

On Monday, one copy of Family Hisotry Part 1 and Part 2 was sold.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, one copy of Part 1 each day.

And now? Nothing.

So it goes.

My Personal KDP Select Promotion Experiment.

First off, I would like to thank everybody who commented/gave me feedback on the KDP Select Promotion Survey results. The post caught fire, and even after it left the front pages of Reddit and Kindle Boards, it still continues to get views pretty frequently, which is amazing.

Also, considering it was so popular, I'll probably look into doing another poll sometime later this month. Obviously, people enjoy numbers and pretty graphs.

Just to get an idea: this weekend, I got three new followers on my blog, 3 comments on the blog (very rare for me), a few more on Reddit and Kindleboards, and ~500 views on the survey post on Friday (and many more yesterday). Also, the link was retweeted about four or five times on Twitter (also rare for me), and I received another like or two on Facebook.

Again, I can't thank everybody enough, especially those who spread the link around.

Anyways, yesterday, I did my own personal KDP Select Experiment, one that probably won't interest everybody as much, but is nevertheless interesting (at least to me). I put everything - meaning The Dowry, Family History Part 1 and Family History Part 2 up for free. Of course, there were some qualifications, to make sure that one didn't get more exposure than the other.

• I told nobody - this was completely unadvertised.
• All books were free on March 3rd, 2012.

Also, here's what I expected to happen.

• The Dowry, of course, would kill in the free downloads (just like in the past).
• Family History: Part 1 would get about a third of the downloads of The Dowry.
• Family History: Part 2 would get hardly any downloads.

The results were not what I expected. Not at all.

The reason I assumed that The Dowry would do so well is because it's always done the best during free promotions. Of course, maybe I just happened to put it up during all the right time frames; however, you can't argue with facts. The first free promotion I ever did, I did with The Dowry, and it got over 800 downloads between the US, UK, Germany, and France. The very next day, I put Family History: Part 1 up for free, and it received a measly ~250 downloads. When I put Family History: Part 2 up for free a few weeks later, it received even fewer downloads.

(An aside: if I learned anything from my KDP Select poll, it's that I suck at giving away books, at least compared to others.)

What actually happened (and note, apparently, Amazon is a little slow on the uptake today, so I'm actually STILL having people download things for free! Tsk tsk, Amazon!)

In the US:

• Family History: Part 1: 332 Downloads (as of 10:55 am MST)
• Family History: Part 2: 287 Downloads (as of 10:55 am MST)
• The Dowry: 85 Downloads (as of 10:55 am MST)

In the UK:

• Family History: Part 1: 25 Downloads (as of 10:58 am MST)
• Family History: Part 2: 27 Downloads (as of 10:58 am MST)
• The Dowry: 19 Downloads (as of 10:58 am MST)

Germany:

• Family History: Part 1: 4 Downloads (as of 11:00 am MST)
• Family History: Part 2: 5 Downloads (as of 11:00 am MST)
• The Dowry: 1 Download (as of 11:00 am MST)

Those results are very different from what I expected. My only real hypothesis for why this might have happened this way is because people were excited to see they could get an entire series free, and not just one or the other. Plus, I actually only just put The Dowry up for free last Saturday (in the US, it received about 219 downloads), and maybe most people who were going to get it had downloaded it already. It's tough to say.

Either way, I'm pretty happy with the results. I'm even okay with the fact that people are still downloading the stories for free (but seriously, tsk tsk, Amazon). More exposure for me!

Self-Published Authors: Why are You Paying for these Services?

The thing about self-publishing, something I really like, is that it's very DIY. You're in control of everything. You get to make your own cover (or not), you edit and format it (or not), and you're in charge of all your own promotion (or not).

So then, why the (or not)'s?

Some people (like me, in many ways) are just writers. They write a story, edit it, it's finished...and then what? Just a few years ago, if you had just completed a 80,000 word novel, your options were pretty much either to write to agents and editors asking for representation, or store it in the back of your closet and/or hard drive and write another book. Self publishing at this point was more or less a joke - an option, sure, but it was highly unlikely you were ever going to successfully sell any copies.

Now, though, that third "self publishing" option has opened up, and many authors, both new and experienced, are taking advantage. Many previously traditionally published authors have even switched over to 100% self-publishing, because they can often make more with a 70% royalty option over something like 8%.

But a trend that I'm witnessing, and am not in favor of, is new authors throwing their money away on things that are perfectly reasonable to do for free.

Granted, before I receive death threats and a downvote brigade, I do want to point out some things that, in my opinion, are somewhat reasonable to pay for.

• Cover Art - I have seen some wonderful cover art that authors have commissioned others to design. I did not do this, because in my opinion, it wasn't worth spending money on a cover, when I wasn't sure I was going to make it back. Although, I have seen cases where a designer just purchases some cover art, crops it a bit, and adds a title. (More on this later.)
• Stock photos - This can be lumped in with "Cover Art", because I know a lot of authors purchase stock photos for their covers. This is perfectly reasonable, and I plan on doing exactly this for when I release "The Night Life" - I even already have a few in mine (there's a girl who looks very close to how I imagine Tanya Roberts, one of my main characters!). This is especially useful when you're writing about something from say, the 1800's.
• Editors - I am still wary on this one; I do believe that every author should try and proofread their own work; however, an editor might be worth the money for some people.
• Advertisements: This one is more of a "maybe", but if you find a popular website willing to host an advertisement for a day (and hopefully not a pay-per-click ad), there may be value in this.

That said, I do not think new authors, especially ones without at least a few titles under their belt, should really be paying for most of these services, save for some stock photos for their cover art. I think authors that over-promote one book are mostly ridiculous - I want to slap most of them and ask if they're even working on another book (because the time some of these people put into their single title is just too much!). 

Not to mention the things I've seen people pay for - most of it could easily be done yourself, for free. Such things include:

• Bad Cover Art Designers - I once saw a case where the designer herself just purchased some cover art, cropped it, and added a title. And the portion of the image they cropped was so small that the cover was blurry. What?
• Blog Tours - Some companies, for the low low price of $99, will set up "blog tours" for you. But, why not just email some bloggers yourself and ask, "Hey, would you mind if I did a guest post?" You may have to email a lot of bloggers, depending on what you;re aiming for, but it's much better than spending $100 for somebody else to do the same thing.
• Ebook Formatting - I really don't understand this one. By the time I published Family History: Part 2, the formatting took me maybe an hour (and that was just because I needed to go back through and reformat all the chapter heads). 
• Setting up a Facebook Fan Page - I recently saw the blog post of somebody who paid a company to set up her Facebook Fan Page. Again, you can do this yourself in a few minutes, and you don't even have to pay anybody. In this case, this particular author had even set up another Facebook page for herself for one of her books. What? You can do one Facebook page, but two is just too many?
• Reviews - Admittedly, I haven't actually run into this one personally, though I have heard stories of people who pay others to review their books for them. 

That's all I can think of at the moment, though I know there's plenty more out there.

Please, people, stop paying for some of these services. How you're willing to shell out this much money, to sell a few extra copies of a $2.99 book, is beyond me.

I'm Doing a Poll on KDP Select, and Would Love For You to Participate

Obviously, if you've never participated in a KDP Select Promotion, this poll isn't exactly for you.

But, I'm very interested to see how people have done with different promotions, and whether they see them as a valuble resource.

Again, the link to the poll can be found here.

Now, allow me to post the directions I've posted everywhere else:

I'm mostly unfamiliar with SurveyMonkey, and even though I think I did everything right, I probably did something wrong. :/

Also, I'm sure somebody's going to get all uppity and pipe in to say, "Your survey is all wrong! You should have asked/done xyz." This is the internet, after all. But really, I don't want to hear that. That's why I added the text box at the end.

Again, though, if something is wrong with the questions themselves, like say, it won't let you enter a number in the number box or something weird, do let me know of that.

Anyways, hopefully you can do this survey multiple times. So yeah, go through it once and use data from one promotion for one book, and if it lets you do it again, then feel free to add information for your other books. Please, though, just use your earliest promotion for one book - do not include later promotions for the same book (like, if you did a 2-day promo in December, and another 2-day last week, do not use the 2-day from last week at all).

I hope I've clarified myself. When people have answered, I'll do graphs and stuff and post them.

Again, I'm very interested to see the responses, so please, take two minutes to participate!

Family History: Part 1 is now $2.99 on Amazon.

At first, I thought that all of this fuss over pricing was a bit of rubbish. I've seen it all over the place - blog posts dedicated to authors musing over "raising prices". Forum posts with the theory behind the "99 cent" zone. Just the other day, I read about somebody who lowered their novel prices to $2.99 from about ~$6 per book, and found that risk paid off. when it came to sales.

Initially, I was planning on making both "Part 1" and "Part 2" at $2.99 each, just because. But, after some thought, it seemed better to try $3.99, just to see what happened. So far, not much has happened. So, I figured I would lower the price, just to see what happens. I'm not expecting much, but you know, it's an experiment.

Enjoy.

I Just Did My First Review. Was I Too Harsh?

The other day, I received a message on Reddit with an offer. The offer was simple: a review for a review. I read/review his, he reads/reviews mine.

I hope he comes through, by the way, because I can't help but wonder if he will.


Anyways, the book in entitled Agents of Light and Shade by S.L. Pineda, and follows the lives of come-and-gone super hero Captain Splendor and the recently released from prison Anton. It takes the traditional comic book-like Super Hero/Super Villain and gives them real, human qualities. The heroes, as it turns out, are flawed; while the villains are not just 100% pure evil people. 


My review from Amazon is below.


"Agents of Light and Shade" stars two meta-humans, Captain Splendor and Eclipser, in a low point in their lives.

The story starts out talking about how Anton, AKA the Eclipser, has just been released from prison after a fifteen year sentence. Meanwhile, Craig, AKA Captain Splendor, is shown to have a troubling gambling addiction and has turned to endorsements from pizza commercials to support himself.

Although it is noted the Captain Splendor is a "super hero" and the Eclipser a "former super villain," it is easy to believe the opposite in the beginning of the story. For most of the story, it is nearly impossible to see the "villain" in Anton/Eclipser, especially when he notes that he "plays by the rules" of Super Hero/Super Villain encounters. Meanwhile, Captain Splendor, a supposed super hero, is characterized as a being with many flaws. He is addicted to gambling (though we never see this first hand; we are only told this through the story of him attempting to repay his debts), he is messy, he mooches off his friends, and of course, we see how truly weak and moral-less he is as the story progresses (as in, unlike Anton, he doesn't follow the rules, and he even breaks out of his "Super Hero" role a few times throughout the story).

What I liked: "Agents of Light and Shade" tells the story of typical Television and Comic Book-like Heroes and Villains and humanizes them. Super Heroes are assigned flaws while Super Villains, as it turns out, are not all bad people. Heroes hold grudges, they gamble, and as it turns out, they're very flaky people. Villains, as we find out, stick together, work hard, and do what they can to support their families.

What I didn't like: The story is filled to the brim with cliches and unnecessary metaphors. Granted, in this novel, they are necessary to some extent, since the entire story is about traditional super heroes and villains. That said, they do not just appear in relation to the characters themselves; they also appear too often in the writing style. For example, there's a portion in the story where the author is characterizing Craig's mom. The author characterizes her with a paragraph talking about how "if you gathered all the bitchy women in the world and had them vote for their top ten favorite living bitches and then had those bitches vote for their favorite bitch, Matilda's name would not come up. She would lose to someone famous like, say, Imelda Marcos or Barbra Streisand. No one with a functioning brain would think of Craig's mother as their favorite anything." The author attempts to be humorous, though to me, the cliches and metaphors often come off as unnecessary.

Also, there are too many characters. Some of them are important, some not. There is a side story about Sara and a cook in her husband's restaurant, Matias. Sara is an ex-super villain and ex-man. In the main story, her only real purpose was to give Anton a job following his prison sentence, to show that "Villains stick together". While the back story is interesting, parts of it do not make sense (for example, I'm still not really clear on why she entered into a sexual relationship with Matias), it is not necessary to the main story, and it almost feels as if it were written in the story to shoehorn in a moral lesson on transsexuals.

Overall: This is an interesting story if the whole "Super Hero/Super Villain" culture appeals or interests you. It is a unique take on the traditional "Hero saves the day, Villain goes down" story that features both humans and villains.

Also: I don't know if this is appropriate here, but the description for the story is took clunky.

Bring it On: Why Isn't My Book Selling?

I suppose I'm in desperate need of some advertising.

That, or I just need a little more gumption. However, I am proud to announce that I did do a fair number of Organic Chemistry problems this afternoon. We're going over reactions of alkenes.

So, perhaps it's not gumption I'm lacking. After all, I did just agree to a trade: a review for a review. Also, I think I'll be nice and post that Redditor's book here. Not that it will benefit him any.

Speaking of which, would anybody be so kind of to review a book of mine?

I digress. Despite the start, this actually isn't a "I'm a new writer and I'm not a best seller!" rant. (However, how fantastic would it be to be a best seller two weeks in? I would be jumping for joy!). No. Actually, I'm writing this because I am confused. Why? First off, let me note: I haven't sold a book since Saturday, and Chapter 1 of The Night Life, though free, has had only about 120 downloads in 4 days in Amazon's US store. For comparison, The Dowry had about 750 downloads on the day I made it free.

If you're reading this, you're either thinking, "But KT, what's up? You've only been published for three weeks! Why so impatient?" or "Who are you? I just stumbled on this by Googling SOPA!" (Alas, that ship seems to have sailed with Blackout Day.)

Really, though, I'm confused because other people say it's good.

From Kindle Boards:

KT:
Your blurbs and samples are too good not to draw heat.
They are tight. They pop.
(Are you having us on?)
Give it another day or two.

Also:

I took a look over your books; they both appear to have great covers, and the sample chapters were well written and interesting. 

And from Reddit:

...this book looks interesting. I loved the sample. I think I'm going to buy it.

Okay, that all seems well and good, right? Sure, it's only three people (I actually had one or two more buried in Reddit comments), but still, if three people are personally messaging me to tell me that the book seems interesting and they loved the sample, what about the people who see it and say nothing about it?

Oh, look, a suggestion appears!

I did notice that you haven't got any reviews up however. I was selling one book week basically until I got three or four reviews up; you really want to reach that 'five' number. Ideally they should be four or five star reviews... and I honestly prefer a scattering of fours (which is all I've gotten), since I think that means they're being critical.

So, is that what it's going to take, eReaders? You want me to solicit people for reviews? Well, if that what it's going to take, then bring it on.

 

The Night Life: Chapter One is for Sale up on Amazon. However...

So, I'm pretty much an ignorant Little Spoon.

*Cough* I mean, I'm a big spoon.

Anyways, I was hoping that I would be able to offer a free preview of Chapter One of The Night Life up on Amazon; however, it seems that unless I put it up on Smashwords, I won't be able to do that for a little while.

Well, I'll get around to doing that eventually.

That said, unless you really want to fund the "KT Hall Fund" (ha), then seriously, do not bother paying the 99 cents for the book. If you're really that interested, I'm more than happy to send you a PDF.

Also, that said, it will be free for the next five days, give or take (ahem, take) for the next five days. So, you can also get it there.

FYI, here is the link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006XXOQX0

Like I said, though...don't buy it. Don't borrow it. Honestly, I'm probably going to remove it after a couple of "Free" days. This was done purely for advertising, and this is not something I want to sell. That feels dishonest at best.

Seriously, if you're reading this and are sincerely interested, just email me, comment here, or something.

$25.31

Hooray for success!

Since January 4th, 2012, I've made $25.31 off "The Dowry" and "Family History".

Come on, you know you're insanely jealous of my immediate success.

That's more than 10% of my rent for the month, after all.

Or, it could be a meal or two from a Chinese Takeout place for Boyfriend and I.

Or, it could almost pay the gas bill for last month.

Yeah, you know it. I'm a success.

Family History: Part 2; Now Available, and Free in Amazon Today.

Family History: Part 2 can be viewed here.

I'm mostly experimenting by putting it up for free...will putting Part 2 up for free boost sales for Part 1? So far it seems to have worked semi well.

Description: In the midst of a heat wave during the spring of 1992, Mark Dowling finds himself stranded in the tiny town of Northgate, where he quickly befriends one of the Mayor's daughters, Lindsey Deland. A normally stable, secure, uptight town, Mark Dowling's arrival rocks the town to the core, and even the most predictable townsfolk find their lives changed irrevocably by not only Mark's presence, but also by Lindsey's long lost and newly returned Brother, Thomas.


More than one-hundred years after the end of "Family History: Part 1", the second half of this riveting tale follows the lives of Lindsey Deland, and later, her son. After more than a century, the once-forgotten family curse will be revisited as one man finds himself attempting to solve the problems that had plagued his family's line for the past two centuries.

Anyways, I'm thinking about kind of doing one free book per weekend, since right now, seems to be what is working for me in terms of getting readers. In an impatient attempt to get readers, I put 2 of my old books up and put them for free in close proximity to one another, and considering I had no "fan base" to start out with, I'm getting about a sale a day. I would call that something of a success, considering I've only been at this for 10 days.

I'm Still a Noob at "Working" Amazon; however, I'm Pretty Sure "The Dowry" Actually Sold copies.

That's right! Three people, technically four, actually bought "The Dowry". You crazy bastards, you realize I wrote that when I was fifteen, right?
To the fourth person who returned my book: You realize I wrote that when I was fifteen, right? You're a smart man.

That said, offering a free download of "The Dowry" was a relative success. So far, there have been a total of 744 copies sold and downloaded. When I checked this morning, the number was at 741. So, at least three people actually decided that, for whatever reason, the book was worth buying. Probably that kick ass cover I created in about half an hour (re: I need to develop my 1337 Photoshop skills). So, between selling at least three copies, and the awesome thing a professor of mine said to me today, it's been a pretty good day.

By the way, for the one person who might read this between now and 1 a.m. Mountain Standard Time, "Family History: Part 1" is still free until, well, 1 a.m. Mountain Standard Time. That's 12 a.m. Pacific Time, 2 a.m. Central Time, and 3 a.m. for you Easterners. (See side bar.)

Family History will be Free Tomorrow on Amazon.

Beginning at 1:00 am, Mountain Standard time on January 9th, 2012, Family History: Part 1 will be free on Amazon.

The Dowry: Free Download, 1/8/2012

The Dowry, by KT Hall

I was going to wait until 1 a.m., Mountain Standard Time, to make the official announce it and have it be true; however, I just got back from picking my roommate up from DIA (about a 2-2.5 hour drive from here), and even though all I did was sit in a car (okay, so really, I was just the GPS), I'm tired and do not want to wait another 40 minutes to "officially" announce it like I had planned.

That being said, I have had one or two well wishers, as well as one or two Redditors who have said, "Oh! Family History! That looks like an awesome book! I want!" - I have had no bites yet. That's right, donut holes.

So, I hope this works.

Hooray!

Seriously, though. This time zone thing is working against me right now, because even though it's already January 8th for me, it's not January 8th for those folks out in California.

However, if all goes as planned, California will be in the ocean soon anyways.

Speaking of which, this reminds me of this video, which I remember watching for the first time in something like 2003-2004:

Good night, everybody!

P.S. Google searches continue to yield increasing numbers of visitors searching for slutty outfits. The only appropriate response so far: LOL.

The Dowry: Now Available on Kindle (And Kindle Select!)

Click to Start Reading

Following the murder of Alexandre Thalo, the most powerful and prominent man in a small English village, Edward Thalo finds himself suddenly desperate to find himself a wife to produce heirs for his large family fortune. When a poor village farmer offers his pretty young daughter, Edward seizes the opportunity for marriage, fearing that he may otherwise leave the Thalo family fortune unclaimed.

Elizabeth Savage is reluctant to marry Edward Thalo, especially after she happens upon a gorgeous young servant by the name of Joel Barrett, who cannot resist the urge to court her, even after her marriage to Edward Thalo.

A romance filled with suspense, secrets, and treachery; The Dowry details the lives of Edward Thalo, Elizabeth Savage and her two sisters, and the servants of Edward Thalo, William and Joel. Each one of them holds a deep secret that threatens to destroy the lives of their makeshift family in a time where they are controlled by the mentally unstable, money hungry mongrel, Edward Thalo.

A lot of people seem to have luck with Kindle Select, so I have added The Dowry onto Amazon and am currently just hoping for the best. That's all I can do at this point, right? That is, that's all I can do when I'm still at the stage of getting excited by a few more page views. Just so you know, two people viewed this page last night.

How do I get an audience without much advertising? So far, all I've done is post links in forums and whatnot. They say blog tours help, but who in the world would "host" me? I'm an amateur, a kid, basically. I mean, I would let somebody guest post in a heartbeat, but that's just because I think that would definitely be pretty sweet. That, or maybe I'm just desperate.

Anyways, I hope you all find The Dowry an enjoyable read.

Family History: Part I is Now Available on Amazon!

Please, check it out, share with your friends: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006T89E7W.

Seriously though, I'm proud of myself for doing this much. Part II will be up somewhat soon (hopefully), but it's hard to say when. Of course, I would love to sell at least one copy before putting the second book up there, which, honestly, who knows how long that could take? Honestly, it could take months, that's right, months, to even sell a single copy. In other words, I'm not exactly hopeful. I'll post to Reddit in a few days and see what happens there, etc. But, for now, it's just a game of waiting, watching, and plugging away.