Kobo Releases the Book

Well another milestone day with Kobo releasing the book. You can find it HERE 

...and click the book picture to order it on Kindle

New Release on Kobo

I still feels a touch weird to see my work out there and available on the internet! The sales on Kindle in the few days since release have been very encouraging, and the reviews have been as well. 

Interestingly Kobo have elected to price the book at $7.99 which is less than on Amazon's Kindle. I wonder if the bots at Kindle will see this and reduce their price as well? 

If any seasoned authors have had experiences with ebooks, retailers and pricing - please chip in and let me know all about it.

Amazon changed the Link to my Book!

I'm awful glad that I'm the patient type! Soo, my ebook: POLICE DON'T MOVE! was released on Amazon a couple of days ago. I busily took the URL and spread it out there for all the right marketing reasons. Then 2 days later, what does Amazon do? They change the URL for the book, leaving all the interested parties with a 'not found' screen. AARRGGHH!

Obviously I have now retraced my steps and am getting the new link spread all about, but what a nuisance.

And so with great fanfare (again), here is the link to buy it

Has this happened to any other authors out there?

Ebook Published on Kindle

A big day today with my very first ebook appearing live on Kindle! A big surprise is that Kindle had elected to price it at $2.99. They are actually taking a fair hit here, as I supply it to them at a higher price. I have heard that they do this from time to time to ensure that they have the price edge on their competitors.

Up to them I guess - they'll be paying me the agreed price whatever.

And ... without any further ado, here is the link to the book on Kindle; 

POLICE DON'T MOVE!

My publisher, Bookbaby tells me that the book will be available on the other chosen readers;

Apple ibooks, Kobo, and a few others.

If you have friends that you feel might enjoy a fairly light true crime book, feel free to pass the link on!

... and of course, if you read and enjoy the book, please know that you're welcome to post a comment here, or a review on Kindle.

BookBaby has my Manuscript!

Well yesterday was a biggy! I finally submitted the manuscript for the true crime book - POLICE DON'T MOVE! to my chosen publisher; Bookbaby.

I had a good look around online, and amongst a crowded field, I went with BookBaby. I liked the fact that they charge upfront, and in turn they don't hold onto any of your sales income. No, I do not have any commercial relationship with them - I'm just a new and expectant customer.

In an early sign of professionalism, they managed to find and fix a typo I made in the submission form. Instead of the sub-title reading; 'well sometimes we do', I spelt the 2nd word as 'sonetimes'. How dumb! But as I said, BookBaby picked it up and corrected it.

Which famous author once said something along the lines of; 'Authors don't finish their books - they are simply abandoned.' Well whoever it was, they were spot on. I went through several phases of 'no not yet - I can fine tune this book some more', and 'perhaps I should proof read it again.' Then after much hesitation the moment was at hand, and with a few clicks of a mouse - it was gone. Off into the hands of a publisher in faraway Oregon.

So now what? Well some more promotion efforts I guess and then, after a bit of a break, a brand new book!

Ebook Royalties - a New Battleground?

As the time to publish my ebook draws near, I have been looking at the royalties offered by the big names in the ebook reader market.

Amazon's Kindle store is the definite industry leader, with around 70% market share. Interestingly they also have one of the better deals for authors. Provided that you price your ebook between $2.99 and $9.99, they pay back 70% of the sale price in all of their major markets. While this $10 ceiling has angered a lot of established authors - used to selling a heap of printed book at well over double that; it remains the equal best royalty deal out there. There is a slight annoyance though. Kindle tends to charge customers in smaller markets a hidden 'delivery fee'. Hidden? Well they say it's free, but they add anything up to $2 onto the agreed cost of an ebook, and then the customer gets it electronically delivered 'free'. Not my idea of free - yours?

Apple's iBooks comes in next with around 15% of ebook sales. They also offer a 70% give back to the creator of the work. They take their time with publishing though, with a lag time of around 3 weeks from submission to availability in the iBook store. In contrast Kindle promises a turnaround of just 3 days.

The remainder of the market is basically split up amongst the other known electronic reader distributors.

Sony with a small percentage of the market elect to retain 50% of the sale price of the books in its catalog. It would be interesting to hear their justification for keeping half of the books gross price - simply for hosting it on their site. I do not believe I will release my ebook with them, and I believe from what I read, that I am far from alone. Barnes & Noble with a similar market share also think it reasonable to snatch 50% as a commission. Nope, not them either.

Lesser known players like Kobo and Copia currently match the big guys and return 70% of the sale price to the author. Finally an outfit called Gardners manages to split the difference by offering a 60% return to the creator.

So from what I have learnt so far, for around 90% market penetration, and a 70% return of the sales price, it is advisable to go with Kindle, Apple, Kobo and Copia.

What do you think? I'd welcome feedback from both fellow writers and avid readers.

Pecking typos out of my True Crime manuscript - Is this writing, I ask?

Well writing my book did seem like some hard work. Some long sessions tapping away at a largish chapter left me brain and finger sore. Re-arranging paragraphs and sentences; and then arranging them right back again, was - for me - strange and arduous duty. (Yep it's my first book).

Now with the manuscript - for all intents and purposes - done, I am into the pre-publication error pecking phase. Now, I realise that actually writing the book was a comparative breeze! I get to a certain point each proof reading session, where all the words - and particularly all the punctuation - turns into one nauseous spiraling river of letters and symbols before my crazed eyes.

Hmm, time for a break!

Coffee and fresh air done, I  return to the coalface - determined to press on - seeking out and murdering rogue spelling that spellchecker breezed right over; finding and fixing the my very own tortured punctuation. Why did I create so many? I feel at times like I wrote the darn thing in Latin, and am now converting it one line at a time, to English.

Who was that famous writer who said something very wise along the likes of: 'Authors don't finish a work - they simply abandon it'?

Well I truly get him; I really do.

Share with me your proofreading agonies - go on, make me feel better will ya?