Sorry.

How do you start a blog post after about 6 months away?

Um, I'm back?

It's as good a start as any, and I think the coming back is the most important part. 


I've finally moved into my own little place (which is neither my own as I a) rent it and b) share it with my brother and soon another house mate, and not little considering where I was before, but it sounds poetic). The big advantage of this place - for the blog at least - Unlimited, fast, cable internet which doesn't block my own website (problems of living at a school)!

So, I am determined to become faithful again with my blogging.

Just to catch up on the writing side:
- Finished the initial edit of Virtually Ideal, where I outlined all the changes I needed to make.
- Am now up to Episode 4 of making those changes, only another 8 episodes to go!
- I spent a large part of my holiday writing a boarding manual for work, which was fun and interesting, but took up way more time than I thought it would. (I had initally offered just to edit it and do the layout, but as I was going through I realised it needed quite a bit more in there. So I took it from basically a 10 page document to a 100 page one. Whoops. But they kept nearly all of it, which is cool.)
- I got A Little Bit Of Leaven ready to publish on Amazon, and just before I did my grandparents told me they would really love it to be published by the Scottish magazine 'The People's Friend'. Ok, that's fine, I can do that. Oh, wait, their submission guidelines say they take serials of up to 50,000 words or pocket novels of up to 40,000, and our manuscript is currently 80,000. Oh, right.
So started my epic adventure to try to cut a manuscript down by about half. And you thought Stephen King's 10% requirement was harsh. I don't know if I'll be able to do it, but it is making a much tighter book, with nothing that's not directly related to moving the story forward. I'm currently up to chapter 3, I think.
- I've started a blog for my boarding girls/parents. I hope to update it every few days, but will rely on photos being worth a thousand words quite often.

So that's all my writing since I last saw you.

My goals this year:
I'm moving away from the draft every two weeks to actually do some indepth, hard core editing. You learn a lot about writing by doing good editing, which will hopefully mean that my future first drafts will require less work.
I have three projects in mind at the moment:
1. Cut A Little Bit of Leaven down by as much as I can, then submit to The People's Friend.
2. Finish two more edits of Virtually Ideal (major changes in place + final beautifying polish) and publish it episode by episode.
3. Re-work Sally Hunt Book 1 with all my new found knowledge and try again for an agent/publisher.

As always, I'm torn between projects, always wanting to jump from one to the other. I had settled that I would work on A Little Bit of Leaven, but then one of my girls has been reading the first few episodes of Virtually Ideal for me, and came up the other night demanding the next one. I gave it to her, and she's already halfway through it, and the one after that isn't ready! So I feel I should push ahead on that. So many choices!
Though, in the end it doesn't really matter which one I work on as long as I keep working! I have not been writing nearly as much over the past few months as I wanted to, and now I'm going to turn that around. Writing is back to being one of my top priorities.

So, don't have an official goal, except to write something most days. I'll start with that and see where I go. Oh, and I want to get back into reading about writing again. That's gone by the way side.

See you soon.

Buffy. 

Tackling the Unwieldy Task

Virtuall Ideal is done.
Well, that is to say, the first draft is complete.
That is to say, I have most of the story, from one end to the other, 15 episodes, 200,000 words, even though I've changed bits part way through and know I have to chop/add scenes.

Now I just have to sit down with this behemoth and force it into some sort of order. I need to pull apart each scene like individual pieces of lego; line them up, discarding the unsightly ones and straighten out the ones that have accidentally been bent out of shape. Then I can start to rebuild my masterpiece.

Moving away from my lego metaphor, I then need to place each scene under the microscope, peer into its very cellular make up, to make sure it is perfect, that it is adding to my masterpiece, not detracting. A healthy, life giving scene, not a cancerous, death bringing one.

And that is pretty much why I haven't done anything on the manuscript since I finished the first draft. I'm scared. I'm overwhelmed by the sheer size of the project. My mind becomes blank in panic as I think of making that first dissection.

I have brained stormed. Written out nice to do lists. Given myself deadlines. And yet, still for 21 days I've done nothing. Well, that's not completely true. I've tried a lot of the great advice that I've given others; I've listened to podcasts, I've read books, I've sat down at my computer, only to get up a few minutes later.

Alone and by myself I could not get anywhere.

Then last night I was talking with a friend over sugar-free hot chocolate (yes, San Churro makes such a thing, and it's delicious. As long as you don't burn your tongue on the first sip) and he asked me how I was going with the story. So I started talking. And then I continued talking. And then I talked some more. And he very kindly asked intelligent questions such as: but why did that character do that? And what made that male unsuitable? The more I talked about it, the more excited I got, and the more I wanted to fix it up. I wanted to get it ready for other people to read, so that they could enjoy what I've already had fun with. Also, as I talked I realised that I couldn't just leave Laurie in the mess I've created. She deserves to have her story written out well.

So tomorrow I aim to summarise on the Scrivener cards each of the scenes. Well, start at least, I must have close to 100 scenes. Once I have that, I'm going to rearrange them and put in blanks to show me what new scenes I need to write.Then it will be onto the internal scene analysis.

Step one is worked out. And now that I've told you all, I have added incentive to do it.

So thank you.

Tune back in to find out if I've done.

Or, if you sign up to receive this as an email (see top left hand side bar), then you'll be automatically updated. Nifty, huh?

Anyone else have good advice on how to push yourself into an unpleasantly large task? Taking into account I've given up refined sugar so can't bribe myself with chocolate?

Writing Realities: The Truth About Self-Publishing Book Sales

Image courtesy of Sheela2010 at Free Images

I've decided to address the elephant in the room for most of those interested in self-publishing: book sales. The rumours around self-publishing sales range from the extreme of those who published a book and the next morning woke up to find $10,000 in their account to the thought that self-publishers only have their family buy their books. 

To give you a real insight into average self-published book sales, I'm going to show you mine. (Yes, it is as scary for me as it is for you). Each month I'll do a post on the sales for that month. I will detail it all; the number sold across different platforms (Amazon, Createspace, Smashwords), gross sales and net sales (ie. my percentage). I want to give you an account of the reality of being self-published, while also showing useful info such as which platforms have performed well for me.

Today I'm going to detail out my book sales so far, from my first ebook released in 2013. All figures are taken from vook.com which tracks my sales for me across the various platforms (except in person sales). Please note that the most recent sales are not always up to date as vook does take a while to register some.

At the moment I consider myself a very good indication of what an average person can expect. Before bringing out my first book I had no platform, and I have not done any particular feats of marketing or had any unlikely occurrences of good fortune. Everything I have is totally achievable by other people. And hopefully over the months and years my sales will support my thesis that all it takes to make it in self-publishing is to continue producing quality content. 

The Five Day Writer's Retreat:

My first book, The Five Day Writer's Retreat, initially came out as an ebook on my birthday 10^th March 2013 (though I used it as a sign up gift for my email for the first few months) and the print on demand version came out the week of the 29^th September, 2013. All sales are until 20^th July 2014. Below is a table with a summary of all sales in this period across the platforms, followed by a week by week break up (leaving out weeks where there were no sales).

Price of the book has changed over the time, and those registering sales with no gross are free promotions.

Summary:

Retailer	Unit Sales	Gross Sales	Net Sales
Amazon Kindle	23	$146.18	$85.62
CreateSpace POD	16	$160.08	$44.61
Smashwords	15	$11.14	$7.81
Total:	54	$317.40	$138.0

Now to look at how these sales have trickled in over the weeks.

Individual Weeks' Sales:

week	retailer	units	gross	net
28/07/13	amazonkindle	2	40.27	14.09
28/07/13	smashwords	13	6.19	4.84
25/08/13	amazonkindle	2	9.84	6.8
29/09/13	amazonkindle	3	15.55	10.76
29/09/13	createspacepod	3	30.11	8.88
27/10/13	amazonkindle	2	10.07	5.27
27/10/13	createspacepod	1	9.95	3.13
27/10/13	smashwords	1	0	0
24/11/13	amazonkindle	4	20.64	14.27
24/11/13	createspacepod	2	19.9	4.27
29/12/13	amazonkindle	2	10.38	7.18
29/12/13	createspacepod	1	9.95	3.13
26/01/14	amazonkindle	3	14.85	10.26
26/01/14	createspacepod	1	9.95	3.13
23/02/14	amazonkindle	2	9.9	6.84
30/03/14	amazonkindle	3	14.68	10.15
30/03/14	createspacepod	1	9.95	1.14
27/04/14	smashwords	1	4.95	2.97
18/05/14	createspacepod	1	9.95	3.13
25/05/14	createspacepod	4	40.42	11.54
1/06/14	createspacepod	1	9.95	3.13
29/06/14	createspacepod	1	9.95	3.13

On top of this I've sold 8 copies in person, for a gross total of $120, and a net sale of about $80 (don't have those exact figures on me).

Of all these sales, none of them were to my family who staunchly refused to buy my non-fiction (except for my wonderful brother and uncle who bought the very first ebook copies).

As you can see, even with a small/non-existent launch, the beauty of self-publishing is that books can continue to sell. Since July 2013 I've sold a few copies every month. A traditional publisher would take this book off the shelves after a year, and that would be the end of its run. I, on the other hand, will keep it there for years to come, slowly building its audience and writing more in the series. With each new book I bring out, my other sales spike a bit.

The Nice Guy's Guide To Online Dating Profiles

The second book I brought out first as an ebook in November, and then as a paperback in February. It has only been added to Smashwords in the past few weeks, having been locked into the Kindle Select Program prior to this. Please note the large Amazon sale numbers include free promotions, so see the dollar figures for how many paid copies were sold.

Summary:

Retailer	Unit Sales	Gross Sales	Net Sales
Amazon Kindle	217	$36.08	$24.98
CreateSpace POD	1	$10.10	$2.49
Smashwords	0	$0.00	$0.00
Total:	218	$46.18	$27.4

Individual Weeks' Sales:

week	retailer	units	gross	net
24/11/13	amazonkindle	80	0	0
29/12/13	amazonkindle	29	10.03	6.98
26/01/14	amazonkindle	2	5.98	4.12
23/02/14	amazonkindle	100	0	0
23/02/14	createspacepod	1	10.1	2.49
30/03/14	amazonkindle	2	6.03	4.18
4/05/14	amazonkindle	1	3.07	2.12
11/05/14	amazonkindle	1	0.99	0.66
22/06/14	amazonkindle	1	2.99	2.06
6/07/14	amazonkindle	1	6.99	4.86

After The Winter

My first fiction book came out at the end of April, and is yet to be loaded onto Smashwords (end of this month it comes off Amazon KDP select).

Summary:

Retailer	Unit Sales	Gross Sales	Net Sales
Amazon Kindle	24	$111.76	$76.98
CreateSpace POD	8	$103.60	$30.24
Smashwords	0	$0.00	$0.00
Total:	32	$215.36	$107.2

 I've also sold 2 copies in person.

Individual Weeks' Breakup:

week	retailer	units	gross	net
27/04/14	amazonkindle	9	44.62	30.74
27/04/14	createspacepod	4	51.8	15.12
4/05/14	amazonkindle	2	4.95	3.41
4/05/14	createspacepod	4	51.8	15.12
18/05/14	amazonkindle	2	9.95	6.87
25/05/14	amazonkindle	6	25.83	17.75
1/06/14	amazonkindle	3	14.95	10.3
22/06/14	amazonkindle	1	4.95	3.41
6/07/14	amazonkindle	1	6.51	4.5

For the time it's been out, this has been the best seller, but that was largely because I had built up my audience in the six months between my first book and it.

Overall Performance:

Sales for all my books (including the kindle version of my Dad's book Colostrum which I published) look like this:

Retailer	Unit Sales	Gross Sales	Net Sales
Amazon Kindle	365	$304.83	$194.75
CreateSpace POD	25	$273.78	$77.34
Smashwords	17	$11.14	$7.81
Total:	407	$589.75	$279.90

Thoughts:

It is interesting to note that both The Five Day Writer's Retreat and After The Winter have made significant sales with POD, while for The Nice Guy's Guide To Online Dating it probably wasn't worth putting in the effort to create the paper back (except for the value of having copies I can hold up and call my own, which should not be underestimated). It is something to consider when publishing your own books. 

So far Amazon has been my best platform (though only The Five Day Writer has been available on both the whole time).  However, as it takes little effort to load it onto Smashwords (once you know what to do), I see any extra sales on this platform as an added bonus. Therefore, I will continue to upload on both. 

Conclusion:

I hope this series gives you some insight into the realities of self-publishing. It is a very slow way to succeed, compared to a publisher offering you an advance for thousands of dollars. However, unlike traditional publishing you don't have to make it in the first year. At any point in the future I can re-promote these books and increase their sales. For now I want to get more content out there. 

I hope this hasn't put you off self-publishing! There are people out there doing much better, either because: a) they have a larger platform (people ready to buy their books when they first come out) or b) they have more books out there. These are the two things we are writers can control to get more sales. And I'm working on both of them. Slowly.

Because of the potential pessimism, I haven't shown you the actual profit and loss statements: how much it cost me to produce a book compared to how much I've made. But I have a long term view. Most small businesses make a loss for the first five years. You just have to look beyond that. My plan is 10 years as an apprentice, and then I expect to be making a full time income from it (if I've continued to work consistently for those ten years).

So, keep watching to find out if I can!

What are other people's experiences with sales? Does Amazon generally outperform other platforms for you?