Share you're self-published ebooks!

DHYNZY

I hope mine does well.. Anyone else have any self-published books on Amazon? How are you promoting it?

pickarooney

YOUR

coffee_cake

i was going to report the thread and ask you to fix it :pac:

Toasterspark

I didn't want to go all grammar Nazi on you either, but in all fairness if you're expecting people to go to read/buy your e-book you have to spellcheck your post.

I also think it's common courtesy to spend time reading and contributing to a forum like this before you start linking us to your work in every post. You've posted a handful of times to this forum the last few days and every post was a link to your work.

That said, I took a quick look at the first few pages of your story and it shows promise. I do feel that it's heavy going though - too much explanations. Best advice I could give you - jump straight into an important scene at the beginning, and pepper the story with snippets of background. Let the readers figure stuff out along the way instead of doing a information dump in chapter one.

wilkie2006

DHYNZY wrote: »

I hope mine does well.. Anyone else have any self-published books on Amazon? How are you promoting it?

This is a really interesting thread. How did you decide to self-publish? Is it easy to do? If the mods would allow it, I'd love to have a look at the link that's been removed - perhaps you could PM me (if it's permitted?)

At the moment, I'm in two minds about self/e-publishing. On the one hand, I think it's great that it affords writers an opportunity to share their work with a wider audience and, hopefully, make a living out of something they enjoy.

On the other hand, aren't publishers the litmus test of quality? Is e-publishing akin to self-fellatio; an illegitimate indulgence? If something's worthy of print, wouldn't it be backed by a third party?

Before a barrage of criticisms are leveled against me, I'd like to make it clear that I'm still considering my opinion of self/e-publishing. I appreciate that thousands of books now recognised as works of genius were rejected initially by publishers but there's also a lot of rubbish out there thanks to the Kindle etc (at the hands of both self-publishing authors AND publishers, I accept).

As someone who would like to see his novel being read widely, I ask whether people think that e-publishing is a credible way to circulate work? As pretentious as it may sound, I'd be more interested in having a novel out there because of its merit than simply because I can.

Kinski

wilkie2006 wrote: »

On the other hand, aren't publishers the litmus test of quality?

No, because even major publishers release an awful of crap. But e-publishing means that wannabe authors can cut-out the midde-man and offer their crap straight to the customer.:pac:

PurpleBee

I don't see the point of epublishing, its like blogging, people think they have their own space in which to communicate with the world, but its irrelevant if the world isn't listening

DHYNZY

pickarooney wrote: »

YOUR

Apologies, was just awake when I posted, if you can fix the mistake in the title that would be great.

DHYNZY

Toasterspark wrote: »

I didn't want to go all grammar Nazi on you either, but in all fairness if you're expecting people to go to read/buy your e-book you have to spellcheck your post.

I also think it's common courtesy to spend time reading and contributing to a forum like this before you start linking us to your work in every post. You've posted a handful of times to this forum the last few days and every post was a link to your work.

That said, I took a quick look at the first few pages of your story and it shows promise. I do feel that it's heavy going though - too much explanations. Best advice I could give you - jump straight into an important scene at the beginning, and pepper the story with snippets of background. Let the readers figure stuff out along the way instead of doing a information dump in chapter one.

All great advice, thanks very much! This is a trial effort, and I'm bound to make a lot of mistakes along the way. In the final draft it will definitely have a more eventful opening.

And I guess thats the problem of being a long-time lurker, but not so much a poster. I felt I could just go ahead and share! And as for the title mistake, again, I'm sorry. It was early.

DHYNZY

wilkie2006 wrote: »

This is a really interesting thread. How did you decide to self-publish? Is it easy to do? If the mods would allow it, I'd love to have a look at the link that's been removed - perhaps you could PM me (if it's permitted?)

At the moment, I'm in two minds about self/e-publishing. On the one hand, I think it's great that it affords writers an opportunity to share their work with a wider audience and, hopefully, make a living out of something they enjoy.

On the other hand, aren't publishers the litmus test of quality? Is e-publishing akin to self-fellatio; an illegitimate indulgence? If something's worthy of print, wouldn't it be backed by a third party?

Before a barrage of criticisms are leveled against me, I'd like to make it clear that I'm still considering my opinion of self/e-publishing. I appreciate that thousands of books now recognised as works of genius were rejected initially by publishers but there's also a lot of rubbish out there thanks to the Kindle etc (at the hands of both self-publishing authors AND publishers, I accept).

As someone who would like to see his novel being read widely, I ask whether people think that e-publishing is a credible way to circulate work? As pretentious as it may sound, I'd be more interested in having a novel out there because of its merit than simply because I can.

I totally agree with your analysis of epub as being more prone to poor work than traditionally published material, but that being said I don't see the harm in testing the waters with your ideas first. How many drafts does a writer go through before settling on a story? This is a good way to receive feedback on your work, and also if you're lucky pay for a cup of coffee every now and again.

I haven't approached traditional publishers with this work, its not quite ready yet. But as a blog I read recently said, I can charge .99c for my work, whereas the big names charge $9.99. The great thing about epub is that I don't have to prove my work is worth .99c, but that their work is worth ten times mine!

I can PM you the link if you like?

DHYNZY

PurpleBee wrote: »

I don't see the point of epublishing, its like blogging, people think they have their own space in which to communicate with the world, but its irrelevant if the world isn't listening

Totally true, but if your goal isn't to reach the global masses and conquer the world with your pen, but instead to just get feedback on your work and like I said, buy a cup of coffee to help you through the jaded nights, then I reckon epublishing is worth the minimal amount of hassle!

pickarooney

The whole point of the forum is really to give feedback. We'd have been happy to help before you ran off and published it.

DHYNZY

pickarooney wrote: »

The whole point of the forum is really to give feedback. We'd have been happy to help before you ran off and published it.

Haha (:

well another positive of EPUB is that once published you can go back and upload another draft of the same story without interrupting sales. So once its up you can always go back with new/updated edits etc...

Its great! Nothing is set in stone when its electronic

and the title of the thread is actually starting to annoy me now.. *cringe*

DHYNZY

wilkie2006 wrote: »

This is a really interesting thread. How did you decide to self-publish? Is it easy to do? If the mods would allow it, I'd love to have a look at the link that's been removed - perhaps you could PM me (if it's permitted?)

Actually, what was I thinking. Just go to amazon.com and search Daniel Hynes. Should be first up.

Toasterspark

DHYNZY wrote: »

I totally agree with your analysis of epub as being more prone to poor work than traditionally published material, but that being said I don't see the harm in testing the waters with your ideas first. How many drafts does a writer go through before settling on a story? This is a good way to receive feedback on your work, and also if you're lucky pay for a cup of coffee every now and again.

*

well another positive of EPUB is that once published you can go back and upload another draft of the same story without interrupting sales. So once its up you can always go back with new/updated edits etc...

Its great! Nothing is set in stone when its electronic

I think this is absolutely ridiculous, to be honest. So you're saying that you are uploading first/second drafts and charging people to read and give feedback? Personally I would be insulted if I thought a book that I purchased was a beginner's draft of a work that is still in the editing stage.

I know reader's can download updated versions for free, but to be honest I usually like to read a story once, in its entirety. I certainly wouldn't read a semi-edited book and come back 6 months later to read the 'better' version. Because that is essentially what you've said.

If you want to make money, fine. But edit the story first and then sell it. Don't put up a half-finished story to try to earn a few quid while you're editing the 'real' story. That's insulting to readers.

This is why I hate self-e-publishing.

DHYNZY

Toasterspark wrote: »

I think this is absolutely ridiculous, to be honest. So you're saying that you are uploading first/second drafts and charging people to read and give feedback? Personally I would be insulted if I thought a book that I purchased was a beginner's draft of a work that is still in the editing stage.

I know reader's can download updated versions for free, but to be honest I usually like to read a story once, in its entirety. I certainly wouldn't read a semi-edited book and come back 6 months later to read the 'better' version. Because that is essentially what you've said.

If you want to make money, fine. But edit the story first and then sell it. Don't put up a half-finished story to try to earn a few quid while you're editing the 'real' story. That's insulting to readers.

This is why I hate self-e-publishing.

There's nothing wrong with prototype stories being sold, authors have always floated articles/ideas for sale in periodicals/compilation books before embarking on the definitive version of their story. Yes, the prototypes are being sold, and yes the author gets paid.

If the idea works with people, they expand on the world and the themes that they put in their work and come out with a definitive version of their work when and if it gets published. Orson Scott Card did a lot of this with his Ender's Game, as do a lot of other authors who publish regularly in SF Review etc..

There is absolutely nothing unfair with what I said. I didn't say the work as it is now was full of errors, half cocked in terms of story, or not true to the universe created. What I'm saying is that if I wanted to alter a contradiction in the story I never noticed, add a prologue as suggested etc. then I could, its not set in stone. If it ever came to the traditional publishing stage I could review the online publication any time I want and compile as many volumes of these stories into one edition as I like.

I said if people want over 100 print pages of my work for 99c, and tell me what they think of the world, its characters etc., then great! That's invaluable! I sure as hell can't get something that length disseminated to any sort of audience through the old print medium.

And I don't appreciate you implying I 'want to earn a few quid' while I'm editing the real story, I would never put something out there that I wasn't personally proud of. If Amazon offered a free option for the ebook that is what it would be set as. I'm using the platform to put my work out there, not to money grab. Lightheartedly I suggested it could earn you a cup of coffee, hardly 'a few quid', now is it?

That was almost an attack on my character, which I don't appreciate, even on a forum. Whatever your disagreements are about e-publishing and changing structure and content of your work on the fly, there was no need for your post to be so personal. Surprised to see a moderator thank it to be honest.

Toasterspark

Let me begin by saying a few things.

Firstly, you are but one example of self e-publishing, and though I am mentioning your work (because this is your thread) I'm also talking about the broader self e-publishing market as a whole.

Secondly, when I think about what a 'real book' is, I think about a finished article. I think about the books I've picked up and bought from a bookstore. I think about stories that have been written, and then submitted to publishers and then edited, and edited, and edited some more. I'm talking about stories that were good, but needed polishing before being deemed good enough to put in front of a reader.

People that buy books (or e-books) have expectations before spending their money. They expect that they will have a full story to read, a finished full story. They expect that story to be good (one can hope!). They expect that the writer has done EVERYTHING in his power to hone and polish that story to its best. That what they are reading is the best that is to offer.

I hate tit-for-tats on forums, but I have to go on. Here's what you said:

...that being said I don't see the harm in testing the waters with your ideas first. How many drafts does a writer go through before settling on a story? This is a good way to receive feedback on your work, and also if you're lucky pay for a cup of coffee every now and again.

I recognise how useful e-publishing can be for writers that overlook a word, or a name, or need to sharpen a reference or two. A sentence here or there. That's a really handy thing.

What you said, is that you are throwing out ideas and looking for feedback. That's not a finished story. That's a first/second/whatever unpolished draft that you are looking for feedback on. And to me (and I can only speak for myself, others can disagree or berate me or ban me) that is a story that is not ready for publication.

Feedback is great. You get your writer friends or whoever to tell you what you can improve on. Selling your story at this stage is akin (to me anyway) to charging people to critique your story idea. And I don't think that's right.

You mentioned the ease at which you can upload your revised story ("without interrupting sales" was what you said) so I can only assume you were hoping to make a few quid from the endeavour. It's not an invalid assumption.

I think your story looks very promising. I'm not disputing your story's worth or your abilities in any way. I just don't agree with charging for a draft version of a story. You should wait until your story is polished to its best, and then publish it. If I downloaded your story as is, I'd be tempted to discount you in the future. I would have a completely different outlook if the story was edited to its best.

DHYNZY

Toasterspark wrote: »

What you said, is that you are throwing out ideas and looking for feedback. That's not a finished story. That's a first/second/whatever unpolished draft that you are looking for feedback on. And to me (and I can only speak for myself, others can disagree or berate me or ban me) that is a story that is not ready for publication.

You mentioned the ease at which you can upload your revised story ("without interrupting sales" was what you said) so I can only assume you were hoping to make a few quid from the endeavour. It's not an invalid assumption.

I think your story looks very promising. I'm not disputing your story's worth or your abilities in any way. I just don't agree with charging for a draft version of a story. You should wait until your story is polished to its best, and then publish it. If I downloaded your story as is, I'd be tempted to discount you in the future. I would have a completely different outlook if the story was edited to its best.

I think this is a misunderstanding over my possible misuse of the word draft.. I'm not suggesting in any way that my story isn't complete, but it's not in novel form, more of a long short story. And many, many writers publish short stories before they take the ideas that were found to be most receptive and working out a full-length novel from there, not necessarily using the same story, but the same world, possibly characters and theme structures.

I totally understand you think Im pushing an unfinished product to a customer, I'm not doing that. It is finished, and in my opinion its a good opening to a three-part short story series. I'm suggesting that if I had to edit any aspect of the story I could do so. Not a complete overhaul like you think I'm suggesting, but little changes if necessary, like small edits or addition of a prettier cover or a prologue explaining some background, without interrupting sales (by which I mean publication status on Amazon, not sales in the fiscal sense).

I don't write with the intention to make money, I write because I enjoy it, and I enjoy getting feedback on it.

wilkie2006

DHYNZY wrote: »

I can PM you the link if you like?

Yes, I'd be interested in seeing that. I found your Kindle edition in Amazon.com but unfortunately I gave my Kindle away last month (I used it about 3 times over 6 months)

D for Dubious

I self published a novel on Amazon a shade under six months ago and a novella about four months ago. Thus far I've sold about three and half thousand of the novel and two hundred of the novella. Thus far my experience has been pretty positive but I would say getting feed back is a bit of a tricky one. So far the novel has got twenty six reviews including one on Amazon.fr which was a bit of a surprise considering I've only sold two copies in France. The novella however has exactly zero reviews after four months so feedback isn't something you can be sure of getting. Plus while in my experience most reviewers do so in good faith you will get the occasional waste of skin who simply wants to tear other people down. Which bring me to - be prepared for negative reviews and ready to accept them. I keep an eye on a couple of writing forums and every so often a writer blows off at a reviewer. It never ends well for the writer. Take good faith negative reviews in silence, take bad faith reviews in ABSOLUTE silence.

The real downside of going down the Amazon self pub route is the proofreading and editing. My reviews have left me in no doubt that while the storyline is good (possibly even great) the standard of the proofreading isn't. Since the novel is book one of a three book series I have undoubtedly lost some possible customers for books two and three. So putting your work out with errors still in it is risky, you may effectively kneecap books two and three before they ever see the light of day. It's tricky a question, getting things as good as they can be means professional level editing, which means serious expense, which means selling a lot of units just to cover costs. With the benefit of hindsight my novel might have been able to justify such an investment, the novella definitely couldn't. So you may be better to delay taking the plunge until you at least know how much professional editing would set you back. One of the best observations I’ve come across on the subject of publishing is that not all genres are made equal. My novel is a Military Science Fiction piece, a relatively small area, so less potential readers but less competition. The novella is in the far more mainstream area of urban fantasy, so it up against some very serious competition. So one of the questions you have to ask is what are you up against.

There’s a lot of negatives in the about so I’ll finish with this, the Amazon self publish it is a fantastic opportunity for the want-be and amateur writer. You get to sidestep the gate guards of the conventional publishing industry and directly compete with the professional writers and potentially be read by anyone anywhere in the world.

That's my two devalued cents, take from it what you will, good luck.