I’m celebrating right now. In the great scheme of things my little victory is small fry; so small in fact that I’m a little embarrassed to mention it publicly for fear of being laughed at by ‘successful’ authors (what the fuck is a successful author anyway?). For me though, it’s a huge victory that bring a tear of triumph to my eye and helps my fragile self esteem to swell a micron further.
My scifi series, The Lilean Chronicles is three books into a four book series. Up until last week I gave the e-book versions away free. This was for many reasons. I know that, as an unknown writer the most important thing I have to do is get my name known, get a following and to do this, I need readers. People are reluctant to spend actual money on an unknown writer so I figured the easiest way would be to give them away. In the three books out so far, I’ve had over 5 hundred downloads whilst they were free. Another reason was lack of self esteem. I worry that people won’t like my work so I was scared to charge for it.
In recent weeks I’ve read articles and blogs from authors who say that they only started making money from their e-books when they gave their first book away free and charged a small price for the rest. A hook to reel them in so they’re happy to pay for more once they’ve sampled and liked the free bait. Then my cover art guy encouraged me to do the same so thought “what the heck, give it a go” so a few days ago I set my price at $1 for each and waited.
Tonight I sold 1 copy each of volumes 2 and 3 and made $1.40 and I’m so happy I could cry. To know that a complete stranger has made the conscious choice to spend their hard earned on my work, and also to know that they’ve obviously already read volume 1 and still chosen to spend their hard earned on a further 2 volumes, is priceless. It gives me a huge boost and when (not if. Note the positive vibe here?) I’m a rich and famous author with a swanky pad in LA, I shall remember this first $1.40 and smile and give a silent thank you to the universe. Every single dollar will be greeted with a grin and a punch in the air but this first $1.40 will always be special.
Dwayne Johnson has his famous $7 story and now I have my $1.40 story. Maybe when I’m entertaining him to lunch in my swanky LA pad we can swap stories of our poor days..!
Congratulations! I’m in the process of self-publishing, myself, and I can only imagine how wonderful those first few dollars must feel 🙂
Hi Michelle, yes that first sale is wonderful indeed. I hope the process goes smoothly for you.
congratulations! I hope to see your novels in argentinian bookshops soon! =)
Thank you Colin.
I still have my first royalty check stub from the publisher of my first two books. I think it was $24 and took about 2 years to get.I know how you feel. The only advantage I have is I sell my books after my comedy shows and I’m lucky because I’ve sold a couple of hundred, maybe more. Selling online is very hard for us authors who are not well known. Keep getting your name out there Merita. Here’s a video trailer I made for free on Animoto. Maybe you can make one for each of your books, then another one for them all. Here you go & here’s a link to my internet radio show in case you need a laugh. My co-host also does author interviews by the way. http://animoto.com/play/Oq1UP1IJc12Z002JzRhr4g http://www.blogtalkradio.com/trianglevariety/2012/09/13/triangle-variety-comedy-show
Thanks Brian. I have made promo vids for my books and although not that slick a job, they were fun to do. Marketing is the hardest part of the job and I suck at it lol
I’m still learning myself. I FB and Twittered your post, maybe something will come from that.
Awesome, thank you so much.