End Of The Week Update

Recapping my week, the big news is that I received my very first email threat. Yay! I'm a bona fide author at last!

My novella goes live on Monday. This is the first time I ever set up a pre-order, and I only did it because I was hoping to round up a few reviews. I got one. I do like the concept of a pre-order, however, if only because it creates a bit of anticipation (on my part; not on anyone else's). Also, it allowed me to snag a LibraryThing giveaway, which now sits at 18 requests. I did a bit of checking on the workings of LT's giveaways, since the end is drawing near and I wanted to verify their expectations of me, the author, for getting my product to the winners. The giveaway page states that winners are chosen based on a few factors, one of which is the number of reviews an entrant has done in the past and how likely they are to submit a review. If true, I like that. I'm so done with giving away books with the implicit agreement that a review will be forthcoming, but it never arrives. Sure, it's a gamble. One or two prolific reviewers could very well pan my book, but I doubt that would affect sales one way or another. I'm certainly not going to get any sales if I do nothing.

All my ARC reviewers, except one, have ditched me. Goodreads shows that one person is currently reading Lies and Love, but it's been that way for a while. Maybe people just wanted another free book to add to their collection. 

Yes, I said I wouldn't do it again, but I fell for another BookBub ad, which will run concurrently with my book's release. But no, I'm not offering it for free. Don't ask me why I did it ~ the last time I promoted a book that had a price attached (that time it was only 99 cents) I sold none. I only spent $20.00 on the current ad, which I gave myself permission to waste, and I'm only advertising in the US. Other markets have proven to be duds. I wouldn't have even chosen to run an ad, had I not received a marketing email from BookBub telling me that my pre-order had been added to their database (somehow ~ I don't know how these things work). They urged me to run a pre-order ad and I checked it out. They want $600.00 for one! Come on! Who does that?? And why? Why would a six hundred-dollar ad reap any more return than a twenty-dollar one? 

Anyway, here's my cheap one:

 

I'm not thrilled that the book cover is so small, but I had to make a choice. I wanted two sets of copy, one to highlight the new release and one to blurb the book. The other templates wouldn't allow me to do that. 

And no, I'm not reducing it to ninety-nine cents and I'm certainly not giving it away. 

But that kind of leads me to my overall pricing dilemma. Am I pricing my novellas too high? I've noticed that a lot of authors on Amazon are giving away their books, something I absolutely don't understand. You put a lot of work into a story only to give it away? Is that what your creativity is worth? Have some self-respect. I don't search for books on Amazon, unless for professional reasons. I've said before that I only search for a specific book by title. I don't browse. But if I did, I'd be hesitant to grab a free book. My first thought would be, it must be bad. If the author thinks so little of it, why should I read it? I get the whole concept of offering the first book in a series for free, but most of the ones I've run across are stand-alones.  

That said, another popular price point is ninety-nine cents. Is this what I should be doing? I did reduce Shadow Song to that price for a long while, and I still didn't sell any copies. I wonder if it even matters. Indie authors need to unionize, or something. We've got pricing all over the place and it's not helpful. There needs to be a standard. And again, Amazon needs a category for novellas. I don't want to mislead anyone into thinking they're getting a novel when they're not. 

As you can see, I keep plugging away. I won't recommence revising my second novel for a day or two, and frankly, I need a break from it anyway. Instinct tells me it's not going to turn out the way I'd hoped. Still, I need to try.

By March, I'll definitely be ready to dig into something new.