Okay, all of the info that is to follow is just my opinion, based only on my personal experience. Because some folks have been asking me about my take on self-publishing versus traditional publishing, I figured I’d share my thoughts.  So here they are. 🙂

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When I think of self-publishing and “traditional” (NY) publishing, I don’t see this as an either/or situation. Some authors may–that’s fine. Again, these are my opinions and folks are certainly entitled to have their own take on this situation.  For me, publishing comes down to this:

I want to reach readers. I want to attract new readers. I want to deliver quality stories to my readers. I want to keep my readers coming back for more books. I want my readers to tell their friends about my stories. I want them to enjoy my books.

It’s all about the readers.

When I decided to self-publish BOUND BY BLOOD (paranormal romance novella) in early April, I published the story because I wanted to provide my readers with a bonus read that hadn’t been scheduled for the year and because I hoped to reach new readers with the low price point that I used for the book (.99).   I believe that self-publishing and traditional publishing both can work for the author.  As I said, I want to reach as many readers as possible.  My print books get into the stores, and they reach readers who want print copies of my books.  My .99 novella reached those readers who read primarily on their ebook devices–folks who didn’t mind spending a small amount of money to try out a new-to-them author.

Currently, BOUND BY BLOOD has sold just under 14,000 copies.  With my publisher’s permission, I included an excerpt from NEVER CRY WOLF at the back of BOUND BY BLOOD.  The thought process here?   I suspect you know where this is going…it would be free promotion for NEVER CRY WOLF.  BOUND BY BLOOD featured a werewolf hero, so did NEVER CRY WOLF.  If folks enjoyed BOUND BY BLOOD, it stood to reason that they might also be interested in checking out NEVER CRY WOLF.

Did that strategy work for me?  Well, ebook sales are exploding right now–that’s for sure.  I don’t have concrete numbers to share with you (sorry, it will take months before I get royalty statements for NEVER CRY WOLF), but I can tell you what I saw during the book’s release. For the first week that NEVER CRY WOLF was out, it stayed in the top 100 Nook Books list at B&N.  This was the first time that any of my books had made the top 100 for Nook Books.  And to stay there for the first week?  Yes, I was very happy with that information.  As for Amazon sales?  Well, a month after it’s release, the book is (numbers change so this will alter throughout the day) ranked #899 on the Kindle.

My ebook sales are showing an upward trend, definitely.  Is it because more folks are switching to ebooks?  Certainly part of the upswing. Is it because folks read BOUND BY BLOOD and decided to give NEVER CRY WOLF a try?  I think that helped the initial swing–I think it helped b/c Amazon and B&N both send out those lovely emails that say, “Since you read…” (and suggest folks try my latest release).

What does all this rambling talk mean?  Well, it means that I believe an author’s self-published works can lead to additional sales of her traditional stories. I believe that an author’s traditional sales can lead to more sales of her self-published works. I don’t think one method is better than the other. For me, they both work very well together.

Now, let me spend a few moments talking about price point.

BOUND BY BLOOD is available for .99. Why .99?  Well, because this story is 20,000 words, a novella. I wanted to price the novella affordably. I also believe that if you are a reader looking for a new author, you are more likely to spend .99 on an ebook.  After all, you only have .99 to lose if you don’t enjoy the book.  Low price points are good tools for attracting new readers.  They certainly attract me when I’m looking for something new to read on my Kindle.

As far as the actual method of publishing–it was easy.  Amazon has a series of videos that walk you through self-publishing on their site.  I’m a visual learner. If I see something being done, I understand and can learn faster. Those videos were super helpful for me.

I realize that this post is getting long, so I’ll end things here for now. (Though I may be back with a 2nd part tomorrow.)  If you have any questions for me about my self-publishing experience, please ask.

Thanks!!

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 28th, 2011 at 7:44 am and is filed under Romance. You can follow any comments to this entry through the RSS feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.