Shameless promotion

[dkersten]

I mentioned in the 'loot' post that I was going to try to finish up my book on my holiday vacation, and I am kinda feelin good about it, so here is the link if anyone wants to check it out.

The genre is Post-Apocalyptic Fiction.  The coolest part is I sat down exactly 6 years ago to try to write a book, and on the anniversary of that day I decided it was time to stop fiddling with the story and just publish it.  The title is "The Freezer", and if you are gonna search for it on Amazon, you gotta search for "The Freezer by David A Kersten". 

I put it up on Amazon and did the Select program which means if you have a Prime account, you can read it for free!  They recommended I put it up for $2.99, so that was the price point I chose.  Was going to do $.99, but they talked me out of it, lol.  In all reality I might see $20 in royalties out of this, so it won't be funding my next arcade project, but hey, I got a book on Amazon, which is payment enough for me.   

If you are into that genre and want to get a chance to give me your honest feedback, I would love if you took a look. 
http://www.amazon.com/Freezer-David-Kersten-ebook/dp/B00ROILFFU/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1420189816&sr=1-1&keywords=the+freezer+by+david+a+kersten

P.S. If the mods don't like self promotions like this, I totally get it, you can kill the thread.

[wp34]

I went ahead and bought it.  I'm on a post-apocalyptic kick right now and you have me curious. 

Kudos to you for sticking with your dream.  That's really cool man.

[pbj]

Very cool, man.  I purchased a copy.

 

[Le Chuck]

I bought one.  Whipernetting to my Kindle now.  I just read Maze Runner and Scorch Trials by Dashner in the last two days so I'm down for some post apocalyptic what-have-yous. 

Good on you from going from Wannabe Author to Published Author.  Most people never make the jump.  Congrats!

[BadMouth]

Bought it to support a fellow BYOACer, but might not get around to reading it for a long time. 

In hopes of you selling as many copies as possible though, I'd like to state that I'm a bit critical of the cover. 
IMO, it looks amateurish.  I understand that it is amateur, but I think you'd sell more copies if you ripped off the text and style top sellers are done in.
Just my $.02 and it is not my intent to knock your book, as I haven't read it yet. 

It's pretty awesome accomplishment to have completed an original work of fiction and put it out there.   

[Generic Eric]

RE: The cover


There was a make your own pulp magazine cover referenced somewhere here, but I think I saw it on reddit first. 

Also, there is definitely a pulp sci fi type of cover.  Title on top, Author on bottom both in an over the top obnoxious font.  Kinda like Rap album covers. 

Something to consider if there is an opportunity to change it. 

[wp34]

I bought one.  Whipernetting to my Kindle now.  I just read Maze Runner and Scorch Trials by Dashner in the last two days so I'm down for some post apocalyptic what-have-yous. 

We watched Maze Runner this weekend and I'm going to start reading the series soon.  If you haven't read them yet check out the Wool series by Hugh Howey.  They are fantastic.

[Le Chuck]

I don't really like Dashner as an author that much.  I usually enjoy YA lit but he isn't really clicking for me.  It feels really forced.  Maze Runner was a good read but it had some holes you could walk through, and Scorch seemed a bit worse. 

[wp34]

I don't really like Dashner as an author that much.  I usually enjoy YA lit but he isn't really clicking for me.  It feels really forced.  Maze Runner was a good read but it had some holes you could walk through, and Scorch seemed a bit worse.

The Movie had some holes in it as well but I enjoyed it enough.  Divergent on the other hand bored me to tears.

[Le Chuck]

I've grown up on a steady diet of King, Straub, Stephenson, Gaiman, and Koontz with King being the lodestone.  I am constantly judging against those guys which really isn't fair.   

[dkersten]

You guys are awesome!  Thanks so much!

About an hour after it was approved and available, my girlfriend bought the first "copy", and I was so excited about it all I couldn't sleep.  It truly has been one of my dreams all my life, and when I sat down 6 years ago, I did so in complete secrecy because I had no idea if I could even make it past the first hundred pages and didn't want to tell anyone I was going to start until I was sure I could finish.  I was married at the time, and I managed to keep it hidden from even my wife, which was really no big feat since she didn't care what I was doing anyway (nearly 1000 hours over 4 months and she never once asked what I was doing, lol).  I didn't even tell my mother until I was far enough along that I was certain I would at least finish a first draft before burning out. 

It was certainly an eye opener, and wow what an experience, I highly recommend giving it a shot if you are into reading.. Shortly after I spilled the beans to my mom, I got an email from her sister who was working for NewsWeek at the time.  She sent me an article saying that in the next decade it is estimated there will be more authors out there than people who buy books.  I did make a half hearted attempt to get an agent (sent out a half dozen manuscripts) with nothing but form letters in return that looked like they had been photocopied about a hundred times.  Getting picked up by a major publisher is like winning the lottery, only a few thousand books are actually picked up and printed each year, with hundreds of thousands of authors out there trying to get in on it.  Self publishing is pretty much the only way to go, especially if you are like me and have no illusions of doing this for a living. 


Regarding the cover: I literally went into my office yesterday afternoon (I haven't put photoshop back on my main home pc yet) to do up the cover.  My limited artistic capability churned that out in a few hours (spent like half the time trying to do some fancy text effects that I ultimately threw out because they didn't pop).  I was going for a nondescript rusted metal door in a hillside, and I actually started with a photo of Coulee Tunnel that was nearly exactly what I had envisioned when writing the book.  I am about 85% satisfied with the cover as it came out, but it wasn't as if the finished product knocked my socks off.  I simply lack the artistic skill to come up with what I have in my head, and no way I could come up with some kind of pulp sci-fi type cover, although that would be pretty bad ass and make things look so much more professional. 

I will look into more alternatives because I can indeed change the cover if I can get something better.   

[Generic Eric]

RE: The cover

There was a make your own pulp magazine cover referenced somewhere here, but I think I saw it on reddit first. 

Found it:

http://thrilling-tales.webomator.com/derange-o-lab/pulp-o-mizer/pulp-o-mizer.html

[SavannahLion]

I was going for a nondescript rusted metal door in a hillside, and I actually started with a photo of Coulee Tunnel that was nearly exactly what I had envisioned when writing the book.  I am about 85% satisfied with the cover as it came out, but it wasn't as if the finished product knocked my socks off.  I simply lack the artistic skill to come up with what I have in my head, and no way I could come up with some kind of pulp sci-fi type cover, although that would be pretty bad ass and make things look so much more professional. 

If you had clued me in on that need, I could've snapped some photos of the rusted door near my mothers house. It is a rusted metal door in the hillside. It's open about 12" or so, enough for me to stick my head through, but not enough for my fat ass to get in.

[Generic Eric]

You should draft up a press release, in a tweetable, facebookable format; picture I guess.  I don't know many people, but I'd share that on my fbook and twitter and the other forum I read. 

I got an email from her sister who was working for NewsWeek at the time.  She sent me an article saying that in the next decade it is estimated there will be more authors out there than people who buy books. 

ebooks and the internet and the hole trend to be different/hip/trendy and read different books help this, like college radio for books.

*shrug*

Back to the cover one last time.  Give it a few days for people to read it and maybe you'll get some suggestions for a cover.  We have a foot of snow coming at us over the day/night/ so I might have it read soon.

[dkersten]

lol, I got my daughter Maze Runner on dvd for Christmas, and last night we were going to sit and watch it (seen it in the theater already), but once me, my GF, and my 2 daughters got settled in to the theater room, we ended up browsing Amazon and went with Sixteen Candles, lol.  My daughters had never seen it.. "Oh sexy giiiiirfriend"    

I cut my teeth on Fantasy (Piers Anthony, Terry Brooks, Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, etc) in my early teens, but it was books like "Lucifer's Hammer" and "Alas, Babylon" that I have gone back and read over and over.  Larry Niven is a God of sci-fi to me, and there is some influence in my own book.  I really should write an afterword referencing many of those authors and books that I got many of my ideas from.  The hardest thing for me was coming up with something original.. it really came down to taking all the stuff I liked in books and putting it together in what I think is a fairly unique spin on things that have been done over and over by the real masters of writing. 

(thanks for the link for the cover thing, I will check it out!)

[dkersten]

You should draft up a press release, in a tweetable, facebookable format; picture I guess.  I don't know many people, but I'd share that on my fbook and twitter and the other forum I read.

So far I have a facebook page up for it if you would like to share that, that would be sweet!
https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Freezer/814977581898518

[BorgDog]

Just finished up a book last night, so just bought this for my next read, as soon as I figure out how to get it from Kindle into some format I can actually use  .  I've read my battered old paperback copy of Lucifer's Hammer many times over the past 30+ years, still enjoy it. Looking forward to it, and congrats on getting the first one out there.

[yotsuya]

Dave-

Congrats on getting this done. As someone who once had similar aspirations, I love seeing things go to completion.

For you (and anyone else interested in becoming "a writer"), some free advice I got from friends I know who HAVE been published and have been through the process:

If you have something you want to get published, don't self-publish it first. This means e-books, small bound runs, etc. Agents and publishing houses **hate** this. It may be an antiquated way of thinking, but they see any sort of "vanity press" as a person trying to jump the gun and circumventing the process. Maybe they feel threatened that they'll get cut out of the equation, maybe their own vanity means they want to be the ones to "discover" an author, but if you have something you want people in the publishing world to take seriously, avoid putting it out there yourself. It'll make things easier for you down the line.

Here's what my writer friend wrote about the process:

Vanity publishing will stigmatize any writing career with mainstream publishers that you may want to have down the line. They view it as just that: a writer vainly trying to get their work out there. The stigma is there because vanity publishing is a way for anyone to publishing anything if you've got the cash to do it. With the mainstream publishing route, at least if you get accepted and published, it's a sign that you were good enough to get to that point.

As for publishers being hostile to new writers, I don't see that at all. If anything I see a trend the last few years away from the blockbuster known authors and into new authors writing fresh literary fiction.

Chris found several agents that state they look especially for new authors. These agents have some nice credentials. I don't doubt he'll do just fine getting published the acceptable route.

Just an FYI if you are serious about this. Kudos to you for sharing your work, either way! 

[pbj]

Self publishing worked out fine for Anna Todd and E L James

 

[yotsuya]

Self publishing worked out fine for Anna Todd and E L James

 

I KNEW I should have put money on "PBJ with the exceptions to the rule" within an hour. I would have been a rich man.

[HaRuMaN]

P.S. If the mods don't like self promotions like this, I totally get it, you can kill the thread.

No problem at all.  Congrats on the book!     Gives me hope for mine... lol

[dkersten]

Actually, the landscape has changed DRAMATICALLY in the last 4 years regarding self publishing.  Keep in mind that in the U.S., something like 2,000 new books are brought out each year by the publishing houses, and most of these are from existing authors.  Each year, over 1 million new authors attempt to get their works published.  Maybe a couple hundred of them will land a book deal.  Even if you are an exceptional writer and have a guaranteed best seller on your hands, if you don't have dozens of published works already, you have pretty much zero chance of getting picked up by an agent, and without an agent, you can't even get your work looked at by a publishing house.

It is, quite literally, like trying to win the lottery.

On the other hand, in a matter of minutes you can publish on a site that has a potential market reach of hundreds of millions of people.  I have already talked to a handful of people who self published a few books that were good and they can pay their rent each month with the royalties.

Keep in mind, 5 years ago Stephen King couldn't get a book self published, and today anyone can do it.  Now the publishing houses and agents pull most of their new talent from the best selling self publishers.

Frankly though, shooting for getting on with an actual publishing house is like trying to go to Hollywood and become an A-list actor.  Or even a b-list actor.  I have no illusions of doing something like that, I just wanted to get my book out there and see if people like it, and if so, write another and maybe make a few dollars for my time.  If I end up selling 3,000 books this year I would be doing the happy dance.  Hell, I have hit nearly 40 sales and I am already dancing.  If I can figure out how to keep things rolling and keep marketing my book, then write a couple more, I might even get to be one of those people who can pay the mortgage with the royalties. 

I have learned a LOT in the past couple weeks, and if anyone here has questions about how to go from a manuscript to a published book, feel free to ask, I can help you get pointed in the right direction really easily, and I am learning more and more each day.

[pbj]

Here's what my ex-president contact wrote about yotsuya:

Your weird little friend likes to make ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- up.

Sincerely,

Abraham Lincoln

[BadMouth]

What's really hurting self publishing is the huge amount of copy and paste blogger books (non-fiction).
Good stuff is buried in mountains of "books" that would be more at home on content farms like ehow or fixya.

These "authors" usually offer their books free for a time in hopes of getting some reviews and raising their download count.
When I first got a kindle, I would grab every free How-To book that pertained to something I might want to learn about someday.
I might have even paid a dollar for one or two of them.
Now my library is cluttered with these books, which are mostly useless general overviews (with nice looking covers).

None of this really pertains to fiction, but I wanted to rant. 

[yotsuya]

Here's what my ex-president contact wrote about yotsuya:

Your weird little friend likes to make ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- up.

Sincerely,

Abraham Lincoln

Ok, you keep telling yourself that.

Trust me, they have tons of rejection letters, too, but their persistence paid off in the end. I'd trust them over some guy who's too cheap to go to the deli.

[yamatetsu]

Just finished up a book last night, so just bought this for my next read, as soon as I figure out how to get it from Kindle into some format I can actually use  .

There's a free program called Calibre which can access the Kindle directly. Open the kindle library, click on your book, click on 'convert' and use your favourite output format like mobi, epub, text, etc.

[BorgDog]

Just finished up a book last night, so just bought this for my next read, as soon as I figure out how to get it from Kindle into some format I can actually use  .

There's a free program called Calibre which can access the Kindle directly. Open the kindle library, click on your book, click on 'convert' and use your favourite output format like mobi, epub, text, etc.

Thanks, I have and use Calibre for all my ebooks, it was the getting the Kindle book to my computer I had to figure out, I usually never by ebooks from Amazon, so I had to load the Kindle program first, then download the book to my computer, then get it into Calibre, then convert to epub so I can read it on anything (Nexus 6 is now my main reading device/phone).  It sounds like you are saying there is a shorter way than what I did this morning, maybe in a couple years when I buy another Kindle book I'll try it out 

[yamatetsu]

Just plug the Kindle into your computer and start Calibre. There will be a tab called "Device", where you can click on "Show books in the main memory of the device". This will get you a listing of your Kindle's books. Right click on the book will let you save the book to disk, after that you can switch back to the Calibre library and convert it.

[yotsuya]

Just plug the Kindle into your computer and start Calibre. There will be a tab called "Device", where you can click on "Show books in the main memory of the device". This will get you a listing of your Kindle's books. Right click on the book will let you save the book to disk, after that you can switch back to the Calibre library and convert it.

Thanks for the program tip, Yamatetsu! 

[dkersten]

From what I have been reading in the community forums for the KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) site, there is a ton of junk out there.. I guess a lot of people will cut and paste some stuff from google and try to publish it and make money.  Some even come on the forums there and complain that Amazon is screwing them when their stuff isn't selling. 

The sheer number of authors blows me away.  My first day sales (units actually purchased, doesn't include the Prime downloads or Kindle Unlimited people) was 10 units.  That put me at a sales ranking of about 20,000.  The next day my unit sales were 3, and I dropped to #47,000.  That means that there are over 27,000 authors who are selling between 4 and 9 units each day.. Keep in mind, in that range the typical author is making around $3-10k per year if those sales hold up.  And only God knows how many authors are out there with less than 3 sales, or aren't selling at all.  If the number of authors complaining on the forums are any sign, it is a ridiculous amount.  I did 8 sold units (and 6 of the others which I still get paid for) yesterday, and hit 23,000 in the rankings. 

Aside from the nook, I don't know of a device you can't download a Kindle Reader program for.  I read my Kindle books on my computer, my android phone, my kindle hd, and my kindle paperwhite.  Mostly on my Android phone because I have it with me when I get stuck in a line or waiting for something.  I prefer the paperwhite at home, but when I travel I usually take my kindle hd so I can watch movies and stuff too.  Amazon has made it pretty darn easy to buy and read their ePubs, even if you don't want to buy their hardware. 

One successful author said his sales were 60/40 between Amazon and Nook, with nothing appreciable in any other format.  Oh, and PBJ mentioned goodreads.. Amazon just bought them, so I am sure that soon my book will end up there as well, lol.  After the 90 day Select program I am in now, I will switch to a different site that publishes to 5 major ebook sites.  Until then I have to be exclusive to Amazon, I can't even give away copies to friends or so much as post the first chapter on my website..  It is worth it though, I have nearly 20 sales through the KOLL, KU program (in five days) and I get royalties for them too, just not quite as much as a regular unit sale.

Hoping to hit the 50 total sales mark today, I am at 47 right now  woot woot!

[Generic Eric]

Do you get  paid less from prime customers?   Is your book in the Kindle lending library?

[dkersten]

Yes, when in the KOLL/KU programs, (Kindle Owner's Lending Library, which is the Prime deal, or Kindle Unlimited) there is a pool of money and you get a percentage of it if someone checks out your book and reads 10%.  From what I have heard (since I won't get my first statement for 90 days), last month for a $2.99 book, that royalty is $1.38.  On a regular sale, I get 70%, or about $2.09.  Considering I don't think everyone who uses the lending program would have bought it outright, I see it as a win. 

[Generic Eric]

Yes, when in the KOLL/KU programs, (Kindle Owner's Lending Library, which is the Prime deal, or Kindle Unlimited) there is a pool of money and you get a percentage of it if someone checks out your book and reads 10%.  From what I have heard (since I won't get my first statement for 90 days), last month for a $2.99 book, that royalty is $1.38.  On a regular sale, I get 70%, or about $2.09.  Considering I don't think everyone who uses the lending program would have bought it outright, I see it as a win.

So you get $1.38 if I read 10% of your book from Kindle Unlimited?  Wow.  Is there a minimum page limit? 

If I read 10% your book from Kindle Unlimited, you get paid once.  If I buy it after reading 10% from Kindle Unlimited, you get paid again?  Is it the full $2.99 or the difference up to $2.99?

[dkersten]

Honestly I can't answer that.  I would assume that if you checked it out and read at least 10% before returning it, then bought it, then I would get both royalties, but they might very well have something in place to stop that from happening.  It is a good question.

As far as minimum length, I am not too sure on that either.  I would bet they have something that prevents stuff that is super short from even qualifying for Select, and they do review everything before allowing it online.  My understanding was the royalty for KOLL/KU units is based on the price you set for a regular unit, but they might also factor length into it as well.  Until I get my first statement I won't have that answer for sure.  An author there told me that his $2.99 book was paying him $1.38 per unit for KOLL/KU sales, so I am going by that at this point.

[yotsuya]

I would bet they have something that prevents stuff that is super short from even qualifying for Select, and they do review everything before allowing it online.

*me decides to stop writing his PBJ Fan Fiction...

[dkersten]

Just found the answer to one question:  Yes, you could publish a 10 page "book", set it up on Select, and get the $1.39 per unit for each person who downloads it and reads 10% before doing the "return".  This is apparently why the price has dropped (used to be about $2 per sale) for the KOLL/KU.  This is also why a lot of established authors are dropping out of the program.

[Generic Eric]

When you get your statement, I'd be curious to know if you can determine how many people read/purchase on kindles verse the Kindle app for Android or iOS. 

[BorgDog]

Just plug the Kindle into your computer and start Calibre. There will be a tab called "Device", where you can click on "Show books in the main memory of the device". This will get you a listing of your Kindle's books. Right click on the book will let you save the book to disk, after that you can switch back to the Calibre library and convert it.

Ah, that assumes you have a Kindle...  and I refuse to load the Kindle crap.. errr app on my phone.

[dkersten]

Just got word that you can indeed collect two royalties, one from a KU/KOLL "borrow", and one from the sale..  I will have to ask all my friends who bought one to now do the borrow, lol..  Apparently when in the Kindle Select program, the KU/KOLL borrows also go toward sales ranking, which is a huge part of how much more "relevant" your book will be when the genre, keywords, or title are searched.  I am up to a best seller rank of  #16,197, and even though earlier today if you searched for "the freezer" in books I was on the second page of results, I am now the second result to come up (the first is the other book called "the freezer" that is on Amazon, lol).  I don't think his book is selling though, his rank is #559,156 ..

[BorgDog]

Dang, had I known I would have borrowed first then bought (prime member), but i no longer see anyway to borrow it now that I own it.

Edit:  fixed spoiler Started reading last night, pretty good read so far, certainly didn't see the chapter 10 Wendy scene coming.