Don't Watch The Scale or The Psychology of A Sales Ranking

So, today I reached another milestone in my venture into self-publishing. My books are no longer free. Both Books 1 & 2 in the Grace & Witherbloom series—The Girl Who Died Backwards and The Flood Lily—will now set people back a whopping $.99 each (or the equivalent in other countries.)

Now, I was fully aware of what was coming next. After a surge of downloads of well over a thousand books for the first story and hundreds and hundreds of downloads for the second book, things would slow down. Also, the books would go from being listed in Amazon's free book rankings (where they sat comfortably around #1,000 of all the millions of Kindle books and occupied the top 10 and top 20 of their subgenres, reaching #1 a couple of times) to being listed in the paid section. In the paid section, all of those downloads would no longer be counted.

What I wasn't quite ready for was the psychological effect of going from about #1,000 or so to #280,000 in the rankings. Kindle provides this little graph of your sales rank, and there was a VERY long red line indicating the plummet in rank of the books. It felt as if Amazon had cast my books out into a deep and dark pit.

I had been obsessively checking the downloads, reveling in shock at the huge number of people snapping them up. Now, things have gone quite a bit slower. But I realized something. When you are trying to lose weight they tell you to not check the scale every day. With weight, this is because your weight can fluctuate a lot from day to day due to water weight. It's better to only check your weight once and week so some of these fluctuations are smoothed out and you can concentrate on the accomplishment of the full week. I realized that by checking the sales of the book constantly I was really only driving myself crazy in the same way as someone jumping on a scale every day. And I was letting the heady (and artificially inflated) rush of free book downloads get in the way of enjoying my REAL accomplishment.

As of today, about 12 or so copies of my book have sold for money. Now, that's small potatoes compared to the numbers I was getting, but they are no less special and important than the hundreds and hundreds of downloads that came before. They mean that someone saw the description and perhaps read the sample on Amazon and decided they were worth spending real, hard-earned money on them. And that's an amazing feeling.

Now, I should point out that this doesn't mean I'm not eternally grateful for the people who downloaded the first or second book for free. Quite the opposite. They helped get the book exposure. They are reading them now. They are writing lovely reviews on Amazon and rating it highly on Goodreads.com. They are all wonderful people who saw something completely new and gave it a go. And now hopefully they'll keep wanting to read the books. And they'll tell their friends. But all of these benefits take time to sink it. It's a long game.

So it's time to step off the scale. Sales ranking be damned, I say! I want these books to be successful. I'd love to be a writer full time, and I'm committed to making it happen. So sales are important. They are critical, in fact. But I think it's good to keep them in the proper perspective and really enjoy even these early days, no matter how many red arrows and plunging graph lines Amazon might show me. Oh, and it should be pointed out that it only took a few sales and now the books have shot up to around #40,000 or so in the rankings. So a little goes a long way, and that all happened in a day.

To conclude with, I have posted the synopsis and title for Book 3, due out February 21st on Facebook. I thought I'd share it here too.

Grace & Witherbloom: The Village That Sleeps, Book 3 in the continuing series. What happened to the residents of the picturesque Welsh village of Ddubryn? And why have the authorities closed it off to the rest of the world? Josiah Witherbloom must enter the village alone to uncover its secrets, but finding answers to the mysteries of the village that sleeps will become—quite literally—a matter of life and death.

Schedule Change! Two Weeks is Just Too Long...

So, I had a realization today. Two weeks is just too long between book releases. There are a couple factors involved in this, but part of it is the way that Amazon handles the Kindle releases. I'm fast approaching 1000 downloads for the first book (which is great!) but I found out that once that book switches over to a paid book, all of those sales just disappear ranking-wise. So the visibility of the book will drop down again from the heights it reached when it was free. Of course, the free promo is still great to get readers to try the book, but I think two weeks is just too long to go for a new book series just starting out. So... I'm changing the schedule!

The new schedule is:

Book 2: Tomorrow, February 14! Just in time for Valentines. You know what your loved one might like? An e-book, of course. (Hey, you can't blame me for trying.)

Book 3: February 21

Book 4: February 28

Book 5: March 3

Book 6: March 13

Book 7: March 20

So now the books will be coming out weekly and available on Tuesdays! Thanks for everyone who has supported the book so far... and I can't wait for you to read the rest.

855 and Counting...

855... that's the number of book downloads of The Girl Who Died Backward that have occurred so far at the moment I write this. The free promo period for the first book has been a big hit so far. The bulk of those were on Friday and Saturday. Sunday seems to have slowed down a bit but that only seems natural. There are two more days to go, but I have to say I'm already excited. The book placed in the top 10 of the two sub-genres it's listed in (even making it to #1 on the chart for a while) in the US, UK and Germany. I'm intrigued to see what happens once it's no longer free and starts to sell at the list price of $.99 (or the equivalent in non-US countries) and I'm also interested to see if people will start reviewing it.

There has been a lot of talk about free (or even $.99) Kindle books and whether people actually read them or just end up collecting them, despite their intention to read them eventually. It's an interesting question, and one I probably won't be able to answer in terms of my own experience for a while yet. I think with this sort of thing it's a marathon and not a sprint. Most people have a big reading list piled up (I know I do!) and a new book by an untested author might not jump to the top of the pile. So I'll have to be patient. But I have to say—at the end of the day—I'm delighted that 855 people (so far) could potentially be reading my book. I would love to make a living at writing and hope people will buy this book and the future installments... but I've got to admit, just getting the book out there is really exciting for me.

I just "locked down" Book 2. If you've got Book 1 you already know the title, but I'll announce it on the website (along with the synopsis) on February 17. Having read it several times again in the last couple of days while making final edits, I realized that although I think Book 1 is a great introduction to the characters, Book 2 actually feels a bit more representative of the series in both its tone and execution. I'm really happy with the way it turned out because writing Book 2 ended up being the hardest of all of them, with the possible exception of Book 7. But I'm exceptionally happy with the way it turned out and can't wait to share it with everyone February 24.

Now, I'm off to watch the return of The Walking Dead... I hope they get off that farm soon!

The Girl Who Died Backwards is out... and FREE!

Well, the moment is finally here! Book I: The Girl Who Died Backwards is out worldwide and it's totally free for five days until 2.14.12. So, it's really real at last. I woke up very early today. Which was good because I needed to update the website, post to Facebook, post to Twitter, update the relevant message board posts I'd made and so on and so forth! Now that all of that is done, I'm finally exhaling and enjoying the moment.

Eleven people have already gotten the book as I write this, and I find this utterly amazing. I'm not sure how many of those were before or after the book was free as Amazon doesn't seem to break that down. But I don't care either way, of course. I'm just so happy people are reading it. To me it is amazing that eleven people were interested enough to give it a go. And most of my close friends are still asleep at this early in the morning so I know it wasn't all them. So far people in the US, the UK and Germany have all downloaded the book. As I said... utterly amazing.

There is a huge sense of relief with the release of the first book, of course. And a bit of trepidation. You see, I really want to know what people think. Whether it's good or bad, I want to hear all of it. Of course anyone on a creative endeavor hopes people think it's good and I really hope people will come back for parts 2-7. One of the things I really like about the book is that just seems to ramp up more and more with each book and gets wider in scope.

Thanks to everyone who has supported me so far and thanks in advance to all the people who give my book a shot. It really does mean a lot.

Who Was the Idiot That Set This Release Date?

Seriously, why did Book I—The Girl Who Died Backwards—have to come out on February 10 instead of last Friday? No reason, really. It's all done and edited and uploaded. It has been for some time now. I just have to hit a button and it's all done. I guess I had this notion in my head that I wanted a week or two of buffer time. Just in case I needed to go back and change something before release. But I haven't, and I don't need to. But everything says February 10, and even though I know there are very few people who are even paying attention at this point, it would be weird to just release it on Amazon, right? Right?

I will admit I'm not always the most patient person. I used to be very patient, actually. It was probably one of my best qualities. But as I've gotten older I seem to be less patient. There's probably some reason for this but I can't say what that might be. But one of the side effects is that the past week has driven me nuts. I just want the book out there. I want people reading it! I want to see if anyone will read it! In my first post I talked about feeling like someone setting up for a party and worrying if anyone would come. Well now I feel like someone who set up that party a month early!

The fact is, there is plenty for me to be doing. I should start doing the final read through of the next book in the series, for a start. It'll be out a short two weeks after the Girl Who Died Backwards, after all. Plenty of time to get it properly formatted for Amazon and do a last series of edits before publication, but I could get started now. I think I just needed a break after the intensity of getting the site up, getting the trailer done, and doing all the final edits of Book I.

But what a gloriously intense time it's been though. I really could do this full time for a living. Maybe I will start the final read through on the next book...

The trailer is here, and the site is live...

Well, here we go.

It's the start of... oh, what is it the start of? Time will tell, I suppose. It's partly up to me and partly out of my hands, like everything else.

But it's an exciting day for me. The trailer is now available at the brand-new GraceandWitherbloom.com and you can find it on YouTube here.

I thought a lot about the trailer. I knew I wanted to do one for a long time. I think I decided to do it about halfway through writing the book. But the contents of what it would be changed a lot in my head. I wanted something fairly straightforward that also gave a real taste of the "feel" of the book. Some were probably a bit too ambitious and above my means currently and some just felt too much like a boring advertisement. So what I settled on was presenting the speech that opens the first book, The Girl Who Died Backwards.

(Oh yes, I forgot to mention... the first title and synopsis is up! You can read it on the website if you haven't already.)

But I digress. Once I decided on that speech it just felt right. I found some really wonderful music from composer Kevin Macleod that felt absolutely perfect, as though it had been written for Grace & Witherbloom. I put together the words with the music, with myself providing the dramatic reading. Maybe I was up too late, but while recording it I thought it didn't sound too bad and maybe I could use it as-is for the trailer. It would certainly be easier than going out to find someone to record the lines.

I woke up the next day and listened to what I had recorded, and realized I might have gone temporarily insane the night before. Just to confirm, I had my partner and my best friend Laura listen to it. Laura laughed out loud about 10 seconds into it. Everyone should have a friend like Laura. She saves you from doing some really stupid things. She and Paul both agreed that, while it was nicely dramatic, it had one flaw. My terrible, terrible British accent. Now, I was under no illusion that I was able to mimic a British accent well. But I thought it wasn't terrible. I was very, very wrong. I am no Gwyneth Paltrow.

This realization firm in my mind, I then reached out to various message boards I was a member of for a suitable reader. A volunteer stepped up. His name is David Nagel. His website describes him as a "spiffingly nice guy" and I certainly can't disput that. He went through about seven takes, patiently listening to my feedback and doing a great job in the process.

We are only ten days away from the launch of The Girl Who Died Backwards! It's almost impossible for me to comprehend that all the time working on the book is now going to see an actual result. As I said, it's impossible for me to gauge what sort of reaction the books will get. But to me it's going to be an accomplishment just getting them out in front of people.

Book 1 is Locked... and a bit of Art.

Book 1 is "locked." This is my fancy way of telling myself to quite reading it over and over and move on to other things! So yes, it's all ready to go. So why not release it tomorrow? Well, I have one more thing to attend to before then. That thing would be the book trailer. My voice artist sent a first go and it was very good. I gave some notes and am awaiting the next round of takes. I'm very excited to see how it turns out! Once that is completed to my satisfaction I can add the music and do some mixing. I still have to put the visuals together for the trailer. I've got solid ideas on what I want that to be, it's just a matter of waiting to see how the timing on the sound works out before putting it together.

And with that... all will be set! Amazing.

The plan is to launch the website officially along with the trailer very early in February. Then the reveal of the first book's title and synopsis will follow about a week later, followed by the book itself a week or so after that! And then it's all officially on.

In the meantime, I thought it'd be fun to share a "mood" drawing I did shortly before writing the book. One day I'll go into detail about the genesis of Grace & Witherbloom. But the basic idea has been percolating in one form or another since the end of 2007! Before I started to write the actual book in October of 2008, however, I wanted to get a quick visual down to get into the mood I was trying to evoke with my words. In fact, you could interpret this scene as taking place mere moments before we first meet Josiah Witherbloom and his niece Helen Grace...