Ciao, Reader
No-name indie authors have it tough. We only seem to get readers when we offer books for free or under a buck. You are likely on my mailing list because you nabbed a free read from me. And that's cool.
Some "experts" suggest Indies like me set our books at higher prices to convey value to potential readers, so I tried that. The idea is that people will assume a book offered for free or less than a dollar is poorly written and not worth more (or their time).
๐ Let's flip that. Reality taught me that readers are more likely to give a nobody author a shot when they have zero or little investment to waste. For that reason, I have my newest books in Kindle Unlimited, where subscribers can try me out without dropping a single penny.
The catch
Many of us invest in our writing to produce quality books. I pay editors, cover designers, and proofreaders. I spend time working with beta readers and assembling an ARC team. On top of that, I do all my own marketing, including some paid advertising. All this knowing I will never recoup my investment through royalties from book sales.
So why do it? I write because I love writing. I love the creative process, inventing worlds and situations, and crafting characters on meaningful journeys. As a bonus, sharing my stories gives me great fulfillment. And when a reader tells me they enjoyed a book, connected with the characters, or were moved in some way by my story, the reward far exceeds recouping my costs.
So, I have declared myself a 99-Cent Author.
If you hop over to my Amazon page, you'll see all my books currently marked down to .99 (and one free) and many in Kindle Unlimited.
โMy Author Page on Amazonโ
Something Unexpected Happened...
Book marketing gurus (if such a thing exists) often say a series is one of the best forms of marking. They call it "read-through". If someone enjoys book 1, they go on to book 2, and so on. No one needed to market books 2-9 of The Expanse to me. I gobbled them up one after the other.
While Songs of Children is my most popular book by a landslide, when you go to my Amazon Author page, All Books, you see the second most popular is one currently on pre-order. Yep, book 2 of The Outlier series, the action-packed follow-up to Harbinger of Darkness, is my second most popular book (with only preorders).
And guess how much marketing I've done for that book? If you said zero, you're starting to get the idea. I marketed the crap out of Songs of Children to get that to almost 2,000 readers. Preorders for Echo of Silence from 4 countries cost me zero investment of money and time (outside of writing, editing, etc).
๐ฃ๏ธLast call for ARC readers for Echo of Silence. Hit me up.
โQuestion for you...
Which series (besides The Outlier) have you recently read where getting the next book was automatic?
Ready to give more Indies a shot?
โFree Adventures in Sci-Fi & Fantasyโ
โThe Survivors - A free prequel to the Infinite Void seriesโ
For those willing to spend just a little...
โThe Control Room - described as Romeo and Juliet meets the Matrix and Total Recall. I haven't read it, but that description intrigues me.
Thanks for getting this far ๐,
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