I finished a short novel about a year ago, but I did not feel it was worth self publishing it after sending it out to a number of publishing houses, with no luck.
So for no cost, I published it as an Amazon Kindle e-book yesterday. It was very easy to load the book from the word document and add a cover. There are sites that they recommend to help you prepare your book, but in the end I just loaded it straight from word.
You can set your price and the countries where you would like it for sale. I set it at about three Euros and will get about two back. So the book is available worldwide at no cost and if it sells well, then I might consider going to print with it.
I am sure many of you have wondered about publishing and I feel that this is a very good way to start.
My book is 'Vantastic France' by Steve Bichard, just search kindle e-books to give you an idea of how it looks.
Hi Sharon
The good news is that Amazon will do it all for you, I did create a twitter page but that mainly is to push free download days and keep in contact with other authors.
Many people do not bother and do as well or better, if your book is in the right category and you get a few reviews it all takes off. The free days gets you book noticed more on what other people downloaded and boosted my sales from one a day to eight to ten. It cost nothing to publish and a small fee to sign up for Kindle select.
I am looking forward to an e-book download in the future!
Hi there
I was really shocked a publisher took on the mss direct - just a fluke that I sent it in at a time when they thought that the market might be right - then soon found out that all the publicity was down to me!! That's the side of it I just can't stand doing - discovered I loved putting pen to paper but I'm definately not one of life's self-publicists (guess that's where the agents come in handy)!!
I will give it a whirl as I would have nothing to loose (except any dignity that might be left), though I'm in UK at the moment and all my stuff is back home in france - in the meantime, I've got a e-book to download!
Hi Sharon
If you look at the KDP forum there is a lot of advice and everyone helps each other, with the odd nutter thrown in.
I sent my novel to at least 30 agents, so nearly gave up as they all said it was not for them.
Then I stumbled across Amazon and you have seen the results, so it is never too late.
You can email me any time that you need advice, so that I can point you in the right direction.
Hi Steve
thanks for your encouragement! Got a bit sick of the whole thing, but my OH says to have another go!! I'll have to make sure that I'm not contravening the **!!** contract but seeing as they sent me a letter this year to say that they are no longer printing any more copies, I think I'm a free woman (in literary terms!!!) Yes I guess the feedback could be a bit of a downer though I have had only nice comments from people so far (they weren't by me or family honest) but I did give people in the book false names just in case!
Hi Sharon thanks for your kind comments.
The first thing is that nearly all my sales are on Kindle, paperback sales trickle in.
You did not have that advantage when you launched your book, so in a way you did better than me. Can you put it on Amazon kindle now?
If you are exclusive to KDP select you can have the free promo days, which really helps, I have well over 2000 downloads now and my book is very average as it is just fiction, but obviously appeals to a certain market.
The great thing about publishing on Amazon is that you can do your bit to promote your book and not rely on book shops. It is so easy now to market on-line and easy for readers to download.
The downside is that people can publicly slate your pride and joy, but you learn to live with that and when some people really enjoy it then that makes up for it.
At risk of wearing out the 'wow' word - 'wow'!! You certainly seem to have gone about this the right way Steve, I had a book published in 2008 (along a similar vein: family shennagins in france etc) through a 'conventional' publisher, but sold less than a 100 copies and made nowhere near the amount you've already made!! I know that I didn't really work very hard at publicizing the book, but I have a very poor impression of the industry as they did abosultely nothing apart from putting it on their web site!! I will follow your adventures with interest....well done!!
Hi Joe
I think 'How to publish an Ebook has been well covered, but I have put some advice and good links on my website. If I can do it I am sure anyone can.
Hi Steve, Great initiative. I might well go done that route myself. Perhaps there is another ebook for you in "How to publish and Ebook". Or mayby that has already been done.
That's kind of you Ron, any links to the book on Amazon or to my website will always help.
I have pushes it a bit on Twitter which seems to be better than my Facebook page for the book, a couple of people from Twitter even gave it a review on their websites.
The low reviews were a bit of a downer, I even thought about pulling the book, but as my novel it a tongue in cheek look at ex-pats, I realised that not everyone would appreciate my portrayal of them. Well that's my excuse for poor reviews, lol.
The follow up will feature a chip van, a couple of yanks to capture the US market more, plus maybe a few characters from SFN, as if!
looks like you have cracked it Steve well done! anything I can do to push things along?
Hi Ron
Well my first cheque was £26 for Jan. Feb will be about £200. March will be over £300.
Proper sales are rising monthly, and the free offers always gives it a boost as your book is featured in what other people purchased.It seems strange to give away downloads, but it seems to work for some.
So when I have a few novels on Amazon it could work out quite well. I am amazed that I sold more than 50 actually.
that's great Steve....so the question literally is Emmachew Made?
Just a little update on Vantastic France.
I have had over 1600 downloads and a few dozen sales on the paperback version.
A number of 5 star reviews and a couple of low ones, I think I upset a couple of ex-pats!
Via Twitter I have a radio interview about my book on a ex-pat radio station.
I have also just received my first little pay cheque from January sales and the next one will be in the hundreds.
For those with a Kindle I am having free download promo days on 13th and 14th of this month.
A special offer on Amazon for 15th Feb, download Vantastic France for free on Kindle. This is a promotional offer to help keep my rating up..
If anyone takes advantage of the offer and enjoys my little novel, then a review on Amazon would be much appreciated.
Anybody know IvaNovello online publisher? Heard about it recently but since I write 'serious' social science that is for expensive paper, hardbacks that make no money, well not much use to me.
Thanks Steve - and well done! May the downloads continue thick and fast. :O)
Hi Wendy
I do not think my book would have found its way into a publishing house, so it was the best route for me. Also it is out in paperback on Amazon.com.
I have now had nearly 600 downloads in 6 weeks, so it seems to be working quite well. Just ask if you need any help or visit my website stevebichard.com
This is really interesting for me, as I'm in the process of querying agents and am keen to know more about the epublishing world. :)
Hi Steve
That's great. I shall be visiting your blog and following your progress. What a great idea and so useful.
Thanks
Nikki
