Continuing from my last post below, I've been looking into other variables that contribute to the success of independent-published authors.
I'll set aside the matter of quality and won't name specific authors or books, because the quality of writing is rarely a factor in the success of a book; there's some atrociously written books that are hugely successful.
And these successful independent authors have a lot of things in common: Really slick, professionally made covers (that probably cost in the $600-1,000 range at least), a very strong social media presence, paid advertisements around Amazon, physical copies of their books available, multiple and frequent books in ongoing series, and lots of reviews very early on.
Some of these are things I'll be working on.
I've already been more active with this blog (which has correlated to more views and sales), and now I have a Good Reads page up and running, with an author Facebook page on the way. At least as a test, I'll try paying for advertising on the pages of related books on Amazon.
Physical copies of the books are also something I'm looking into. (Even though independent authors generally have low sales with physical books but really high sales as ebooks. Maybe readers just think a book is more legit and professional if it has a physical release).
I also want to increase my productivity. From what I observed, the more you publish the more customs on Amazon see your work. I didn't publish a book last year, because I cancelled COBRA, and my sales took a huge dive during this period of inactivity. I'm aiming to have two books published next year (one will be an Avery book, the other will be COBRA).
I've already been more active with this blog (which has correlated to more views and sales), and now I have a Good Reads page up and running, with an author Facebook page on the way. At least as a test, I'll try paying for advertising on the pages of related books on Amazon.
Physical copies of the books are also something I'm looking into. (Even though independent authors generally have low sales with physical books but really high sales as ebooks. Maybe readers just think a book is more legit and professional if it has a physical release).
I also want to increase my productivity. From what I observed, the more you publish the more customs on Amazon see your work. I didn't publish a book last year, because I cancelled COBRA, and my sales took a huge dive during this period of inactivity. I'm aiming to have two books published next year (one will be an Avery book, the other will be COBRA).
As for reviews, this is a bit out of my control. Early on, I wondered how all these brand new books/authors suddenly have dozens of 4 and 5 star reviews coming in overnight, but then as I looked into finding ebook cover artists, I fund numerous sites providing "ebook services," which also entails paid reviews. I suppose it's also common for an author's friends and acquaintances to leave positive reviews to support the book, but I'm not going to ask people to give me positive reviews. For a price, one can also pay professional reviewers to review a book for their publication.
This is the first time I've really looked into the marketing and promotional side of things. It's a bit daunting and it takes a lot of the fun out of what is basically a hobby for me, so I've decided my time right now is best spent writing and finishing more books.
Also, apparently I have some sort of following in Russia. A lot of this blog's traffic comes from Russia, and it's come to my attention that there's a pirated copy of Scorpion available for free on a Russian website. Not sure what's up with that.
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