Thank you for seven great years

Today I looked at the newly revised ebook reports in Amazon KDP, to check out the enhancements made, including lifetime sales history. Since February 2010, I've sold over 45,000 ebooks. At first, the number didn't impact me so much; I know of authors who've achieved that amount in much shorter spans of time, including sales per month. Much of my sales as expected are generated by the first book in the Sultana series. Six years since its debut, that novel still does far better than all the others before or after it. If I died tomorrow, that fact alone would be enough because the series has been a part of my life for more than twenty years. The fulfillment of a dream.

So how do I feel 45,000 ebooks later? Grateful. When I consider every difficulty that's gone into my novels. The years of tireless research chasing down the smallest details and the most elusive facts, while struggling to find an agent who would help me traditionally publish. Finding agents, losing agents. Being told the books I wrote were too niche to ever sell more than 100 copies at most. Ha! Bad reviews that made me want to curl up under the covers and never write again. The slings and shots of a few historical fiction authors I once admired who believed that because I was self-published, my work didn't deserve any recognition. Add to that, the never-ending bid for an audience who would appreciate the novels. My promotions of the work are minimal, almost non-existent; I would rather just write and publish. But who can buy a book if the author won't let them know it exists?

Contrasting all those difficulties have been the joys and small victories that come with a writer's life. What do I look forward to most? Emails from readers. Each one still gives me a thrill. The offer of my first translation deal, something that once seemed elusive as a self-published author. The times I've spoken about the books or read to an audience at conferences, libraries, and universities. The connections I've made with fellow writers in the historical fiction community, especially those whose work is so stirring, I know I'll never write anything half as good as they have. The majority of whom are incredibly supportive and share my love of the past. The backing of others outside that group, especially my mom and other loved ones, including a trusted editor and a talented cover artist.

For every person among the naysayers who pushed me to strive for better and every supporter who has encouraged my writing, I have the same two words in reply:

  

Promoting and selling ebooks with Ganxy

Visitors to my author website will notice a change on the page where books can be bought. I'm using Ganxy to facilitate the delivery of ebooks to readers who want to buy direct from me (at a discount) and I'm providing links to major retailers. If you're looking for a simple, easy to use interface for delivery of digital content, Ganxy is a great tool.

To get started, use the link above or go to http://get.ganxy.com/ to set up an account. You have the option to create an account with your email address and password, or sign up through Facebook or SoundCloud. Personally, I prefer the first approach - you never know when FB may tick you off and make you want to delete your account! (That would be another blog post, for another day.)

At Ganxy, you have the option to create two types of campaigns; to sell direct and provide access to retailers or set up time-limited giveaways. I'll be trying the second feature with Sultana: Two Sisters when it's available this winter. There are minimal costs involved with both approaches. If you're selling through Ganxy, you'll receive 90% of the revenue directed to a PayPal account. Note; PayPal charges additional fees for non-US account holders. For giveaways, there's a small fee as well; details to follow in a future blog post.

Step 1: To get started with sales, click on "Sell Directly and Generate Sales" and setup your ebook, adding the title name, author and description. At any stage, you can preview the process.

Step 2: Next, you have the option to sell directly and list retailers who are already selling your content. All the major retailers are there: Apple, Audible, CreateSpace, Kobo, Sony, Smashwords, Walmart, Target, Barnes and Noble (who knows for how long), and of course, Amazon.com and Amazon UK. On Amazon, since there are now multiple sites beyond the US and UK areas, I tried to use my Viewbook.at links (which routes interested buyers to their particular Amazon regional store) only to discovery that Booklinker is now  in charge of this site. Hmm. Will muddle through all that later. I'll update this post if the Viewbook now Booklinker URL's work. 

You can also specify the format(s) offered at each retailer; ebook / print / ebook and print or audiobook. So I've specified On Falcon's Wings as being available as an audiobook through Audible and as an ebook and print from Amazon.com. One issue I found was that every retailer through whom I currently sell books isn't indicated. For instance, my ebooks are available online through Casa del Libro, one of Spain's chain bookstores, but I'd need to have Ganxy approve the link.

On selling your own work, you must provide the formatted files yourself; Ganxy does not offer conversion services. Upload your own DRM-free mobi, ePub or PDF files. Ganxy will review these files before you're allowed to sell directly. If you do want to provide your content for direct sale, be sure to indicate the price. You do not have to enable the direct sales feature; if you want to use Ganxy just to provide links to retailers, no problem.

For each ebook, you also have the option to include social media links to post your showcased work on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Google +, AND visitors can subscribe to receive emails from you. I'm using MailChimp already, so I'm not sure about that last bit.

Step 3: Almost done! Now add your ebook cover image (JPEGs and PNGs only) up to 2MBs, any excerpt and YouTube book trailer. Click Finish to share your content via social media or embed it on a website.

Edited to add: Best of all, make ANY updates to your Ganxy product and the changes will appear on your website without you having to reformat anything on the webpage.

What I like

• The ease of adding ebooks
• The seamless integration into my website; I'm still muddling along with HTML, but copying a couple lines of code and inserting them into my website was very easy. The final result looks great.
• Speaking of which, the visual appeal of each showcase for an ebook

What I don't like

• That I didn't know about Ganxy until earlier this year
• That it took me so long to get my act together and showcase each of my ebooks.

All of which are issues outside of Ganxy's control. They have made the process incredibly easy and I haven't found anything I don't like about their system for delivering ebooks. Anyone else using Ganxy? I'd love to have your feedback.

Want more information on Ganxy? Find helpful details on how it works.

Here's an example of a finalized Ganxy showcase:

"Sultana: Two Sisters (A Novel of Moorish Spain)" by Lisa J. Yarde on Ganxy

Power of Free: A Continuing Debate

In a sea of freebies available through from authors through Amazon KDP Select and online sites that curate the listings of available free e-books for their visitors, it's becoming increasingly difficult for authors to leverage the power of giveaways. How can we, rather our titles, stand out?

In almost three years of of self-publishing, I've offered a few freebies to grow an audience and encourage readership, and discussed the pros and cons HERE and HERE. The latest is for Sultana on the two-year anniversary of its publication via four channels; Amazon.com, Kobo, iTunes and Smashwords. This giveaway ends in five days, so get a copy before the offer expires. The goal is to boost interest in the series leading up to the third book, which comes out later this year. Since February 10, there have been 19,012 downloads of the title on Amazon, 2,319 on iTunes and maybe 120 via Smashwords; haven't paid as much attention to the latter. Kobo doesn't provide information on freebies downloaded, but the total tally is around 21,451 downloads in almost two weeks. I view this figure in a variety of ways; some will like the title and want more, or never read it, or just added another free book to their growing list. It's 21.5K people I didn't influence before the title was free.

If you're considering offering freebies, be prepared for the following:

• You won't be entirely able to control pricing updates, particularly if you're not enrolled in KDP Select or channels where you can easily edit the price. 
• You can't control when or if Amazon decides to price match, based on a  freebie offered elsewhere. Outside of KDP Select, experience suggests it takes up to a week for Amazon to offer a title for free and up to two weeks to revert to the original price. Why do you care if Amazon price matches? Because they have the most impact in the e-book market. For now.  
• You can't assume freebies will gain you additional reviews or sales of your other books; mine typically do, especially last year at this time when I offered Sultana for free and saw the boost in sales of Sultana's Legacy. Not so much now. Experience suggests going free works best when you have a series; I would never suggest it to an author who has only one book available, and slightly on par, if you write stand-alone books. 
• You must accept that some people hoard free books which they will (1) never read (2) never review  (3) trash with one-star reviews because it's not a genre they normally read (4) truly, only downloaded the title because it was free.  

So, what can you control?      

It still starts with the book. If you've written and edited the best book you could, you've laid the groundwork for lots of interest in your freebie. It might surprise you to know, but I think Sultana's Legacy is the stronger of the initial books in my series; Sultana sets up the relationships and conflicts to come, but the consequences that follow in the sequel make it richer and more poignant. But it's not one readers automatically gravitate to after they've read the first book. Interesting, but what do I know? I'm just the writer.

What happens if you haven't produced your best work? Be prepared for those one-star reviews. No amount of planning and promotion is going to help you if everyone thinks the book is a dud. Remember, you can lessen scathing comments by offering up your best work. Mistakes happen, which most except the truly unforgiving trolls will overlook in favor of a good story. Don't feed the trolls by giving them a half-baked book they can devour and spit back at you.  

Setting up distribution channels. You can determine when to make a book available for free via certain channels. For authors still enrolled in KDP Select, one of the benefits is having the power of free at your fingertips are at least for five days in your KDP dashboard. What about the rest of us?

Since removing my titles from KDP Select, this has meant relying on making a title free through Smashwords and its distribution channels. An action that more often than not led to wasted time, tremendous effort and nightmares in general, as certain channels took forever to alter the pricing. In the meanwhile, I'm sitting on my hands waiting for Amazon to price match - here's how it happened this time. I set the title free on Feb. 10. Sales during the week boosted it to the top 100 on Kindle in the Biographical category. Just as it's taking off, Amazon price matched. Figures.

Did you know that if you make your book available directly through Kobo, you can set the price as zero? You do now. Even better, there's now Draft2Digital, which lets you upload a title and distribute via Barnes & Noble, iTunes, Kobo and Amazon (I haven't verified the latter due to my direct uploading to KDP). Even better, using Draft2Digital, you can alter your price to free AND see the number of downloads. Draft2Digital is still in its infancy and doesn't have access (as yet) to Sony, Diesel, Page Foundry, Axis 360 or Blio as Smashwords does. If you're like me and selling next to nothing on these sites, it may not matter. What does, if your title is going free or reverting to the normal price, is the ability to edit and see a change reflected in a business day. Keep an eye on Draft2Digital.  

Planning promotion. Another area you can influence is the number of sites that feature and promote your freebie. You aren't planning to do it all via your website, blog, social media outlets and newsletter, right? Word-of-mouth is key in building momentum for your freebie, especially when you want your title to stand out among the rest. The good news is that most if not all of these sites have Twitter and Facebook accounts that will gain your title more exposure. Experience shows there are tons more sites that will feature your title if it's free on Amazon than any other distribution channel AND there are many that expect you to pay for promoting your free title.

Yup, you read that right - expect to pay something to promote your free title. Seems strange to pay someone to promote what you're giving away, doesn't it? Doesn't mean you have to do it. Your title just won't be featured of those sites that ask for payment. The largest are E-Reader News Today (ENT) and Pixel of Ink (PoI), but BookBub is growing. So are their prices. BookBub did a free spotlight for me so I could test drive their abilities. Otherwise, I wouldn't necessarily want to pay a couple hundred to promote. I'm keeping an eye on them though.

These sites often operate as affiliates and earn commissions off of the traffic they deliver to the online retailers. Most affiliate sites book slots early and often. Here are a few you can approach that have little to no cost associated with featuring a freebie. Also, they don't just highlight Kindle titles.

AddictedtoEbooks.com: free titles on Kindle, but with links to distribution channels at Barnes and Noble, iTunes, Kobo and Smashwords
AskDavid.com:  free titles on Kindle
Epubdeals.com: free and bargain titles on Kobo
Ereaderperks.com: free titles on Kindle, Kobo and Nook
Trindiebooks.com: free titles on Kobo

Some sites indicate they don't take erotica. The two that I found, Free Erotica and Spicy Romance are either defunct or closed for submissions.

Interestingly, Amazon fired off an email to these sites and others participating in its Amazon Associates program that suggests sites which heavily promote freebies will see negative consequences. This might mean those sites would have less ads featuring freebies and more paid books, AND increase the likelihood of authors paying to promote. Personally, I like the latter scenario better than paying to promote a freebie. Author David Gaughran dissects the email in part HERE.

The debate remains whether free is a viable strategy for growing readership. As I've outlined above, there are ways to make it profitable but no guarantees. The takeaway from this post should be about the planning; (1) write a great book worth reading, (2) schedule distribution via channels where you can control the pricing and (3) promote the title as much as you can, through paid and free means. Your mileage may vary, but those three factors within your control will help you expand your reach as an author.      

Sold!

Something's been brewing for a bit that I couldn't talk about until now: I've agreed to sell the translation rights of my Moorish Spain series, Sultana and Sultana's Legacy to a Turkish publisher!

At the start of the month, a Turkish agency in Istanbul contacted me directly to verify whether the rights to publish a translation of both titles were available and indicated that there was a publisher looking to buy them.  As a writer, if you have yet to understand the importance of a visible web presence with an easy means for others to contact you, here's the proof - the agency first contacted me through my Facebook author page and later sent an email via my website's contact page. After the initial email and screams in delight over the phone with my mom, I researched the agency and contacted a few Kindleboards authors, who had also been previously approached.

Later, I replied to the agency that the rights were available and sent off PDF copies of both books. Rather than sitting around waiting for word, I continued working whole-heartedly into the next book in the series, Sultana II: Two Sisters. Of course I was happy and anxious, but hey, I also have more books to write and they certainly aren't going to write themselves while I wait on emails. Today the offer came along with broad strokes of the contract, including the advance, term, royalties, retail price and first run. More details to follow, but since my morning in New York is Istanbul's late afternoon / early evening, some communication delay is expected and reasonable. The potential appeal of the novels to a Turkish audience is grounded in the country's past, with a history of powerful women in harems and the still prevalent Muslim population,  like Moorish Spain in its heyday. As things move forward, I'll know more about when and where the books will be available. Can't wait to see the final covers, but I guess I'll have to go to Istanbul to see them on bookshelves.

All this is definitely foreign territory for me, but some contract elements are familiar, being on par with what I've heard of US contracts for authors. I hope to have the full details soon. In the meantime, I've spent some time on the publisher's website and Facebook page this morning, enough to note the great covers of their books. But mostly, my day will revolve around doing this:

 

Milestone Moments

This week, I silently celebrated a nice milestone: over 2,000 ebook sales of Sultana. Didn't mention it to any of my friends, co-workers or loved ones. If you're reading this blog, then you heard it first. My mother is probably wondering why I'm so cheery, despite a dreadful cold.  

For many of my writing friends, that figure is small, but it's very significant to me, as I recall my struggles to get this title published by traditional means. Along that journey, there were the nagging fears and self-recriminations involved in being 'agented, not sold' and one spectacularly bigoted rejection, something about "a positive portrayal of Muslim society post-September 11 will never sell." I keep that 'gem' along with a few other ridiculous letters from industry insiders tacked up on my desk for a good laugh. Reaching this milestone on what is the anniversary month of Sultana's publication is also gratifying, because I have done very little to promote the title.  

Last month, in celebration of the upcoming anniversary, I offered the book for free over a two-week span, which resulted in over 15,000 downloads, some additional good reviews and 108 sales of the sequel, Sultana's Legacy. It keeps getting better. Amazon's been a bit wonky all day, but for the first time, Sultana broke into the smaller genre categories at #92 in Family Sagas (yes, I took a screenshot for posterity). I don't expect things to stay this way forever - that's my inner pessimist / realist talking - but I'll enjoy while it lasts. Lest you think I'm planning on grinning like an idiot all night watching KDP data, I have a book to put out in the spring that I'm steadily editing. No rest for the sick or highly motivated. 

To all those who read and critiqued early drafts, supported and believed in the strengths of Sultana, and those readers who've bought the book and / or its sequel, you have my undying thanks.

  

How to sell books from your author website with PayPal

A website is one of several ways you can increase visibility online for you and your work. Before I ever blogged, tweeted or established a Facebook page, my website had been up and running for at least 3 years. That the initial design was crappy minimal is besides the point.

If you don't already have a website, get one. Now. Find an affordable web designer or, if you have some tech savvy, build your own. Even unpublished writers should have a website. By the time you've finished your manuscript and have it out on submission, agents and editors will be searching for you on the internet. A perfect manuscript and query letter aren't enough - the decision-makers in the industry are also looking at your online presence. Some want to know whether you can market or promote your own work. Do you really want to be building a site in the midst of edits and rewrites?

Are you self-publishing your work? Your personal website is essential to helping people find YOUR book among the millions of available titles. Invest enough time in your site and it becomes one of your best marketing tools. After all, potential readers can't buy your books if they don't know about them. Once your book is available, feature it on your website. Encourage sales by adding links to where the book can be bought; offline and online locations.

You can also grow your readership and maximize potential profits by selling from your own website. If you've featured buy links for your book, why shouldn't one of those include an opportunity for you to sell your work directly? When I've spoken about this to other writers, three responses typically occur. "Wow, that seems so hard." or "Oh, I don't know to do that." I'll talk about the third one later. Let me show you how to address the first two.

What you need 

• Inventory on hand ready to be delivered to readers as soon as they order, whether it's hardcover / paperback copies or ebooks. Nothing says 'amateur' or ticks off potential readers more than being told, "This book is not available for purchase at this time."
• Some reviews or testimonials that inform your potential readers about the book(s) and the benefits to them for buying your product direct.  
• The ability to process orders online in real-time. Unless you already run a secure business site that processes online transactions, you'll need to establish a merchant account. 
• Software that can process credit card orders, safely. 
• If you're selling more than one book, you'll need to develop a virtual "shopping cart" experience to allow for multiple orders.
• Immediate notification of payments processed with orders that must be fulfilled.
• An order fulfillment or completion process. Learn the shipping rates of your hardcovers / paperbacks to various locations and build that cost into your pricing structure.
• A feedback form or visible email address that lets readers communicate with you.        

What your readers want

• A secure shopping experience. They want to know that their credit card will be encrypted in each transaction and their address information will be safeguarded.
• Instant or fast delivery of their orders
• Ability to communicate with you, to provide feedback or let you know if there is problem with fulfillment.

If you've read all that and think it's daunting or not worth your time, PayPal allows you to do all these processes and met reader expectations. There are other sites where you can do the same activity, including eBay. Since I have no experience with it, but tons with PayPal, that's my focus.

Steps for selling via PayPal

• Establish a PayPal personal and / or business account at https://www.paypal.com/. Notice the URL; the typical http followed by 's' which indicates that this is a site to allow credit card authorizations and secure transactions. Something that will give you and your readers peace of mind. I recommend both types of accounts. The personal account allows me to pay my cover artists and editors, while a business account lets me transact sales of books online.  
• At minimum, PayPal will need your real name, physical address, email address and a funding source for your accounts, be it a bank account or credit card. The latter allows you to process payments through your personal account and have a link to where you can transfer monies received from your business account.
• Be prepared for low fees dependent on the number of transactions you're filling each month on the business account. A business account will also be helpful for tracking what you've earned when the tax man cometh. Yes, you should report sales through your website as income earned. 
• Once you have completed the setup, take advantage of PayPal's tools for merchants, including shipping and tax calculators, accepting multiple currencies, tracking inventory and my favorite, buy buttons for your website.       

Configuring PayPal buy buttons for single orders or virtual shopping carts for multiple transactions takes some forethought. How do you want to sell the book(s)? Are they available in varying formats? If you have more than one book, do you want potential readers to buy one book in one transaction, or offer them the ability for multiple selections in one transaction? The Merchant Services section can help you determine the best approach. Here's how I did it.

Since I have more than one book in multiple formats, I chose to setup a virtual shopping cart with two buttons, one for ordering paperbacks and another for ebooks. Setting up the virtual shopping cart was simple:

I set multiple prices on each type of book and added comment fields for readers that enable fulfillment; e.g. for someone who wants an autographed paperback, I need to know who I'll be dedicating the book to or in the case of ebooks, the specific format my readers want. After saving each button, an HTML code was  generated, which I copied to my website:

The virtual shopping is the best experience for your potential readers, allowing them to place orders for multiple products, with totals automatically calculated. Each time an item is added, the shopping cart is updated, all in one transaction. Here's an example of how it might look to readers. Notice the exact quantities and pertinent fulfillment information is visible, and will be transmitted to the author when a transaction is completed. 

 Even better, if your readers don't have PayPal accounts, they can still complete the transaction. There's nothing to stop them from purchasing off your site. Except... 

"Readers won't buy sites they're not familiar with!"

Sad but true. The average person would rather go to Amazon or any other online retailer they're familiar with than buy from an author website. However, this shouldn't stop an author from making the option available. For instance, I recently purchased Dara Marks' Inside Story: The Power of the Transformational Arc on the recommendation of a friend. So far, it's an excellent read. I tried to buy the book direct from the author website, where it was cheaper AND shipped faster than from the Amazon affiliate site where it's offered. A problem with the author website wouldn't allow me to submit the transaction. So, guess which giant online retailer (or its affiliate) got my money that day? Money that could have gone directly to the author. 

As authors establish trust with their readers through good storytelling and a well-crafted online presence, the perception about buying direct from an author website will likely change. No reason you should be caught flat-footed when it does. 

Royalties: Mainstream vs. Indie

Show me the money! No kidding, Jerry Maguire.

This weekend, I received my first payment from CreateSpace for the copies of my book sold in August. My earnings are $2.86 per $12.99 paperback sold; although Amazon has now discounted the sale price to match Barnes & Noble.com's price of $9.35, I'm still receiving the same share. The Kindle version of the book is now $2.99. My earnings are $2.04 per sale, based on the 70 percent royalty.

Today, I checked in on one of my favorite blogs, JA Konrath's A Newbie's Guide to Publishing. His post on Friday covers the cost of e-books, but he's provided some information on traditional earnings that almost made me fall off my seat:

"...So, for a $7.99 paperback, the author earns 64 cents per copy sold.

For a $13 trade paperback, the author earns 75 cents.

For a $25 hardcover, the author earns $2.50 to start out, though it can get to $3.75 if it sells well...."

Do you have a headache too after looking at those figures? Pretty dismal.

I still believe mainstream publishing offers a level of exposure I may never have by going indie. When I compare my royalty percentages to those in traditional publishing, I'm more than happy with my decision. In fact, it makes me consider whether I really still want to chase that big print deal. Especially, if I get to do most of the hard work, and earn much less than a potential publisher will.

Indie Publishing: Let's Talk Sales

For the indie author, once your book is printed, another hurdle remains: how to sell it.

But before we get into those details, I just had to talk about one of a book's great selling points - the cover. The cover of a book is like that inviting stranger across the room - you're drawn in, or curious. You like what you see on the outside and you wonder whether it's worth it to find out more. The cover is important; most book buyers won't immediately be able to judge whether you're a brilliant storyteller without sampling the writing, but they do make assumptions based on the quality of your cover.

For indie authors, great writing and a terrific cover are only part of the consideration in how to sell the book.  The pressure is on, if only to recoup what we've spent. How have Gemi, Michelle, Peter and Kristina made their beautiful books available among the millions of available titles?  

Gemi: "Since my book is print-on-demand through Lightning Source, this is all taken care of via Ingram. The majority of my sales are carried out online through the various Amazon outfits and Barnes and Noble. I do have a small supply of books for signed copies that I can mail directly, but for the rest I don’t ever have to physically handle a book that I’ve sold. The biggest difficulty I’ve encountered is that various components (like the cover image, the product description and Amazon’s Search-Inside feature) go up in bits and you do have to keep track of where and how to follow up on them. Aaron Shepard’s POD for Profit was particularly helpful in that regard. I’ve recently uploaded The Crown in the Heather to Kindle and will also make it available in other e-book formats."

Michelle: "I used Lulu’s distribution package (ISBN, entries in Bowers Books, listing the book on Amazon, etc.). In order to get a copy in our local library, I had to donate a copy and it’s in the local authors section, but I don’t know how visible it is."

Peter: "Available through Amazon, audible.com and IndieReader. I signed up for the Amazon service that distributes to bookstores, but I don’t think it works very well. It also took Amazon some time to integrate the paperback and audiobook listing, but that’s solved."

Kristina: "My book is currently only for sale through Lulu.com. I have a direct link on my website, RoeingOaks.com; otherwise a search has to be done on Lulu using my name and/or title. I have had difficulties with other distribution channels. If I were to use another channel it would be Amazon.com for the sake of getting my name out there, but it’s much more profitable per book to sell it through Lulu.

I did have a few books placed in a local bookstore, but by the time my eight week contract was up, they’d been moved to the very back shelf where even I couldn’t find them!"

As for me, On Falcon's Wings is now available exclusively through Amazon; the Kindle version began selling on June 25 and the paperback will be ready shortly.  I've made links or the book available on my blog and website. The Kindle publishing was a logical step - digital books are the future. Last night, I was bemoaning this with Michelle via email. I see electronic publishing as a wonderful and inevitable tool, but I will miss the printed word when it becomes passé. There's something about opening a brand-new book; the crisp feel of those pages in your hands. It's one of many pleasures for me whenever I read. I wanted the same feeling with my own paperback.

Self-publishing has been an exciting journey for me and my fellow indie authors, but also a learning experience. We gained valuable experiences as much by what we each did right, as the things that we did wrong. Later today, Gemi, Michelle, Peter and Kristina will blog about their most meaningful lesson - Indie Publishing: Lessons Learned

In the meantime, share your comments on book buying - where do you obtain most of your books; online or in brick-and-mortar stores? Are your books mainly in digital or paper formats? How do you feel about digital publishing?

My First Sale

Since On Falcon's Wings became available for the Kindle, I have compulsively tracked its Amazon sales' ranking. If I didn't already know I have the perfect personality traits of a masochist, this little obsession proved it. Why else would I "subject myself to unpleasant or trying experiences", like writing and publishing something, while discreetly ignoring the fact that publication means someone might actually come across my little story and (gasp) read it?

Here's a little insight into how the crazed mind of a true masochist works, one selling her work for the first time on Amazon:

"Hmm...no change...no one's buying the book on Kindle... maybe people don't even own Kindles any more since that &*#$^*@ iPad showed up. What if no one ever reads the book? Oh holy Jesus. Have I totally wasted my time here? This is it – they hate me and they hate my book. Why else would they be ignoring it? It's right there! If I can see it, they can see it. What's the *&^$ problem? Goddammit all to hell. I knew I should have waited and did the paperback first. Aw, crap."

That all changed the day the sales' rank changed too, indicating that someone had bought my book. I don't know too many other authors as neurotic as me (well, yes, I do know one or two. Don't worry, your secret's safe with me), but here was my reaction. Not what you might think, or maybe if you know me really well, it's exactly what you'd think!

"OMG! Someone bought it! Someone really bought the book? OMG, that means they're going to read it. What if they don't like it? What if I get a bad review? Who is this person, who told them they could buy my book?! Oh holy Jesus. This is it – they will hate me and they will hate my book even more. How did they find it? From my blog, my website? What are they doing on my website or blog? Goddammit all to hell. It's probably just a pity buy from one of my family members…does anyone of them even own a Kindle? Aw, crap."

Do you notice any patterns here?