SFFMP 171: Lindsay’s Launch Numbers (Earned vs Spent), Targeting International Sales, and Increasing Mailing List Open Rates
Our three hosts were by themselves today and answered some listener questions that had been stacking up. They ran the gamut and included selling more audiobooks, selling more paperbacks, selling more in international markets, increasing newsletter open rates, and what you should do to start gathering a mailing list of interested readers before you launch your first novel. Lindsay also shared her numbers from her recent fantasy launch.
Here are a few more of the specifics that we covered:
- What it takes to get a KDP All Star bonus these days.
- Whether Lindsay found Bookbub CPM, Facebook PPC, or Amazon CPC ads more useful for her epic fantasy/sword and sorcery launch, and how much she spent overall on advertising, cover art, and editing.
- Jeff’s foray into audiobooks — can you have a narrator that speaks too slowly?
- Jo’s experiments with reworking some of his old newsletter bonus material and publishing a short story a month (are ebooks published at 99 cents worth it?).
- Tips for increasing open rates with mailing lists and what’s considered a good rate.
- What kinds of subject lines work best with newsletters.
- How ACX users can promote their audiobooks (we forgot to mention getting codes from ACX for giveaways, but you can email for those and use them selectively with new releases).
- Tips for getting more sales in the UK, Australia, Canada, and other English-speaking (and reading) markets.
- Tips for selling more paperbacks.
- Whether Wattpad is worth it for a marketing platform.
- Whether a pen name needs its own Facebook author page.
- If an author in the UK needs to make a special edition for American English readers.
- If it’s okay to publish shorter novels so you can get stuff out more frequently.
- What’s the best way to start your writing/publishing career if your number one interest is gaining a steady readership?
- Your hosts share which of their characters are most like them and what the hardest things for them to edit out were.
Want to see what the hosts are up to?
You can check out Jo’s new 99-cent prequel novella, Beta Testers or preorder the Book of Deacon short story collection he mentioned in the show.
Jeff’s latest release is one of his mystery novels, Case of the Pilfered Pooches (Corgi Case Files Book 4).
Lindsay’s short sci-fi story “Bearadise Lodge” is up for free on her blog.
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According to Bowker, you cannot use a friend’s ISBN’s, which I believe means you can’t re-sell your ISBN’s. Might demand a closer look, though. . .
I don’t have anywhere close to the sales, page reads, or revenue that Lindsay has (I made $3,000 on my first indy book launch in November of 2017, about $2,000 in the first month, the rest in the remaining months), but I sold roughly 300 paperbacks through both IngramSpark (roughly 150) and Amazon (Again, roughly 150). If you want to sell paperbacks, either reach out to libraries more, utilize PR and tap into more traditional book marketing sites, etc., or sell physical books in person. But again. . . you’re killing it in e-book sales and pages read and I wish I could do the same, but sadly I think my niche is too tiny. Hope to slowly shift into more traditional mainstream fantasy once I finish this dang series. Thanks so much for sharing your launch details! Very interesting and helpful.
Yes, you can certainly sell more paperbacks if you’re more proactive about it! My eye twitches at the idea of going in person to ask someone to stock my book. I’m so happy the internet exists, so I can avoid all forms of in-person selling! 😀
Long time listener/lurker and finally had to say something. I loved this episode and love listening to you guys. So, thanks for doing the podcast and sharing your knowledge. I’m very grateful to all 3 of you!
Thanks for listening and popping in to comment, Evan! Glad you’re finding the show useful!
Just want to say Thank you for answering my question, and especially for the financial inside – not many Indie authors share numbers, so that’s hugely appreciated!
You’re very welcome, Stephan. Thanks for listening!
Thanks so much, Linday, for being so transparent and honest with your numbers. Many writers say “I’m doing well” or “I’m selling in good numbers,” but it is much more useful to know what is possible. You’re a true inspiration for me, as I plan to enter into the SF market.
Blessings,
E
You’re very welcome, Ethan! It still amazes me as to what is possible with self-publishing right now. Hope you rock the SF market!