Would you turn down a 500K advance?

Well, Barry Eisler did.
I confess, I'm doing the Kindle thing, and following the e-book revolution, but this still made me go "Wha---???"
Well worth a read.
Link to it is here:
JA Konrath and Barry Eisler interview.

Oh Barry, my Snarky Muse wants to know what you're doing Saturday night.

THIS WEEK: The Snarky Muse RETURNS

A writer friend--N--approached me as to why my Snarky Muse has not made any more appearances lately.

Well, evidently she was touring with some rock group---I'm not sure which one---and she will be back for:

THE TOP TEN KEYS TO FINDING YOUR WRITING INSPIRATION

For those of you who may not know my Snarky Muse--- to give you an idea...she's, well...Snarky. She doesn't suffer fools gladly. She's been kind of put out with me for not writing as "dangerously" as I should, and I think that's probably why she ran off with Matchbox 20 or Nickelback or whoever.
Anyway, I will also be offering writers, artists, etc. , the chance to be interviewed by my Snarky Muse here on my blog, but before you agree to, please see her previous entries through the search feature. She is somewhat blunt and unforgiving.

Sampler Sunday --Chapter 18 from "Saint Jude"

You can read Chapter 18 for "Sampler Sunday" at Carraway Bay Press.

I'm going to have St. Jude on sale for 99 cents only until the end of March, when I'm raising it to its "regular" price of $2.99.

I have seen a trend upwards in sales---I've sold 10 copies of St.J and 6 of my "Shangri-La" short story collection.

Enjoy the free read!

Now on Goodreads

I've just now joined Goodreads, which seems to be a pretty cool forum for both authors and readers.

The "Saint Jude" experiment is going okay. I've sold 9 of "Saint Jude," and when I did, my short story collection started selling. I've sold five of "Shangri-La."

This is still more than I sold of "Saint Jude" last year (it's been out-of-print for a while)

I'm going to continue this 99 cent experiment until the end of March, when I'll take it back to the "regular" price of $2.99.

Is 99 cents the key to Kindle sales? Are JA Konrath and Co. right?

Well, I'm not sure, but as JA Konrath has posted so much, it may be a big chunk of it.
To recap, I'm doing my own scaled down version of the Kindle experiment JA Konrath is doing, because I wanted to see this for myself. Since I have two books that are out of print [and yes, yes, have been "vetted" edited, yada, yada, yada] since these books were from smaller, traditional publishers and have been out for several, several years, royalties have dwindled, so I felt I had very little to lose.

So this month, I wanted to make more of an effort to sell them. I tweeted them the link to a sample on the Carraway Bay Press website: http://www.carrawaybaypress.com/ , lowered the price and started posting on the Amazon Kindle boards.

In its category, this is what I'm getting,
Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #19,491 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)



#14 in Kindle Store > Books > Nonfiction > Psychology & Counseling > Mental Illness

Once again, not clear where the non-fiction is coming in because it clearly has been tagged fiction, unless these are books that are being bought by folks who are shopping in these categories?
Just to be safe, I placed "novel" more prominently in the book's description..and hey, it's tagged that way. Obviously this is not a counseling book.

Basically, this morning, it started at #40, the climbed to #38 and then one of my friends e-mailed me to let me know it was #14.

Then I discovered that as a result, my short story collection [also lowered to 99 cents] had started to sell as well. I'm hoping kind of as a crossover effect.

So, what I'm seeing is:
1. lower the price
2. post on forums / tweet/ whatever
3. Make sure you use your tags and labels---i.e. when people search for "bipolar," this blog should come up.

Once it gets in the top 100, I think it has more of an impulse item effect---i.e. "I wasn't getting a Snickers bar, but hey, since they're 3 for a dollar, why not?"

And of course, write a good book. I'm not pretending that I'm Faulkner, but "Saint Jude" got a "we love this, but close but no cigar" from several big houses [including Rondom House] before it was picked up by a smaller, regional publisher. so this was vetted.

What does the royalty at 99 cents equal to? Not much. But it's already earned more in these last few months than it did all last year as an out-of-print book.

Conclusion: putting up an out-of-print book on Kindle should be a no-brainer.

"Saint Jude" reaches #28 in a Kindle Store

I had checked my Kindle out of curiosity to see where "Saint Jude" was moving, and I noticed it's overall sales rank had gone up to 35,000----and so I went on-line to see where "Saint Jude" was ranked in the Kindle store.

#28

Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #35,082 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)


#28 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Psychology & Counseling > Mental Illness
I'm not sure why this is showing up under nonfiction. I didn't label the book that way, I'm not sure what's going on with that. I'm double checking how I listed it in my bookshelf because the last thing I want is to be accused of some James Frey debacle.

But wow. I'm stunned. I've always believed "St. Jude" could be useful to those who are struggling with mental illnesses, and we all know that although something is "fiction" it does have a lot of elements of truth to it...
I'm just happy that it is selling. It's kind of taken a bit for it to sink in...wow.

Maybe Nick Carraway has a spare bedroom? Gatsby house to be demolished

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
Mansion linked to Great Gatsby to be demolished

Saint Jude made top 100--and sold in UK store---is Konrath's 99 cent Kindle suggestion helping? I think so...

Woo hoo!

It seems the 99 cent experiment may be working out a bit..."Saint Jude" has made the top 100 in its category--making it to #50!!!!

Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #51,920 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
The ranking was (and I pasted it below)


#50 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Psychology & Counseling > Mental Illness

Read first chapter of "Saint Jude" for FREE

Hey,
As a part of  FREE Sample Sunday--a new Twitter promotion I'm working on--- if you want to read a free chapter from "Saint Jude," skip on over to  Carraway Bay Press at http://www.carrawaybaypress.com/ . BTW, the book is on sale for a limited time for 99 cents.

Carraway Bay Press.

Entertaining. Unexpected.



Kindle experiment update

Sold 5 copies of St. Jude in February--which is not a lot, but realizing that since the book is out of print, I've only been selling around 5 a YEAR, that's really good. Also, Shangri La has sold an additional copy, so that's 6 copies.

For those of you who ask why I'm recording the numbers here, I'm trying to implement strategies similar to those by JA Konrath as outlined in his blog "A Newbie's Guide to Publishing" (highly recommended btw).

I'm going to try something to try to boost the sales into the top 100---for a limited time, I'm selling the books for 99 cents.

Will it work? I don't know. We'll see.... I will get fewer royalties on books at 99 cents and a smaller royalty percentage, but, if sales are stronger, it may actually work to my advantage.

Stay tuned.