Well, this part of it anyway. I've been doing tons of reasearch. My book Frank and The Werewolf Tamer is almost complete. I've decided on the perfect images for the cover art (which I'll be making myself). Actually, I seem to have a knack for it. Don't get me wrong, it isn't perect, but with some effort, I think I could be really good at this.
As it stands now, I'm about 15-20 thousand words away from the end of the book. I wrote 5,ooo just this morning. My fingers are tired, but my brain won't stop. Once I finish the book, I'll need to edit it once more (because I've already edited it up to this point 3 times). Then, my writing partner will go over it again for me. Next, I'll work on that smoking hot cover art. And last but not least, I'll learn how to format and upload my book to Amazon Kindle.
I am so excited! At first, when I read that they have a 35% royalty option or a 70% option, I thought it was a no brainer. Then, I looked into the matter further. In case anyone else is wondering, here's what I've learned about Amazon's Kindle program.
- You can only earn 70% royalties on titles priced $2.99 - $9.99
- Anything $2.98 and under automatically earns 35% royalties
That means that for a .99 cent book (which is what I was originally going to offer), I would only earn .35 cents a copy. As much as I want readers to have a bargain, I can't live on that. And I do this for a living.
- 70% royalty books are also charged a small download fee. (0.15 per KB) This mostly hurts those with lots of graphics. The fee is deducted from your royalties and not charged to the author seperately. Honestly, I haven't heard anyone complaining about this. From what I understand, the average fee is only 3-6 cents per book.
After much debate, I've decided that Frank and The Werewolf Tamer will be priced at $2.99. This will still offer readers a good price and allow me to pay my bills. I consider that win/win.
I'm really looking forward to seeing how this works out and thought I'd share my experiences/research thus far.
8 comments:
Thank you for sharing. I agree...win/win!!
You're welcome:) I figure if I've got a lot of questions about this stuff, then other people do too. Glad I could help.
This is something I've recently started looking into. I've heard so much about self-publishing and know many people who are trying it. Thanks for sharing the info!
I had someone refer me to BookBaby.com. Have you heard of this company? Looks like a great way to self-pub. I'm looking in to it, especially since I have no knowledge on file format, book cover art, etc.
I've heard so much about self-publishing and know many people who are trying it.
British Food
Thanks so much for all the comments:) It's nice to know I'm not the only one looking for information on the subject. While I do all right on my income from traditional publishers, I'm looking to be able to pay all my bills. LOL
It would appear (even upon closer inspection) that this may be possible with Amazon. :)
Jannice, I've never heard of BookBaby.com, but now I'm curious.
Congrats on venturing into the world of self-publishing. I recently joined the ranks with my first book, a fantasy, in October.
If you have a lot of questions, I would suggest some great author groups on Goodreads.com. There are tons of helpful threads from people that have been there and done that already.
Wow. Congratulations! great website. I totally agree that the explosion in self-publishing has been driven by advances in technology, which have allowed authors like you to print books more quickly and at considerably less expense.
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