Three Business Things:
ONE Amazon
-I've released my first science fiction Volume: Deep Sleep and Other Stories. I managed to make a table of contents work (...at least in Calibre) and everything! Sexy Geek Skillz.
-Regarding Apple vs. Amazon (vs. B&N)? I feel that the more thingums there are selling my stuff, the better and let them figure it out amongst themselves. That's competition. I'm even giving Book Hatchery a try...but thus far no real results. No hurry, no hurry.
-As soon as I have a decent pile of ebooks ready (~200), I'll make my own damn fancy website/webstore too and stock it with .pdf and .epub. Not really time-efficient to manage one right now.
TWO Collection Deluxe & Pricing
I've been operating under the inventory items/price points of:
"1-story" = $0.99
"5-series" = $2.99
"10-volume" = $4.99
and will continue to do so, but I've been pondering Print-On-Demand of late and have concocted two higher inventory item/price points of:
"20-collection" (ePub) = $7.99
"20-deluxe" (POD) = $14.99
and I think it'll work.
The idea is to put twenty stories together with super-pro cover art, pro interior art for each story, pro formatting both for ePub and POD, and as high quality a POD book as I can wrangle while still managing to make a profit at $14.99. I want it to be higher quality than the regular anthologies I buy. If you own "The Essential Ellison", you'll be able to visualize the level I'm shooting for.
It'd be a showcase for David's Writing, thus drawing more people into my ePub work.
THREE David's Sexy "Naughty Tentacles" Theory
Let's expound One and Two's heads together and smash forth my sexy theory of smallpub business. Let's take a look at some numbers, then I'll explain. (I'll use Kindle because that's where most of my sales have been. ~ for <$0.05 in delivery fees.)
Inventory/Price Point @ Rate = Royalty:
ONE Amazon
-I've released my first science fiction Volume: Deep Sleep and Other Stories. I managed to make a table of contents work (...at least in Calibre) and everything! Sexy Geek Skillz.
-Regarding Apple vs. Amazon (vs. B&N)? I feel that the more thingums there are selling my stuff, the better and let them figure it out amongst themselves. That's competition. I'm even giving Book Hatchery a try...but thus far no real results. No hurry, no hurry.
-As soon as I have a decent pile of ebooks ready (~200), I'll make my own damn fancy website/webstore too and stock it with .pdf and .epub. Not really time-efficient to manage one right now.
TWO Collection Deluxe & Pricing
I've been operating under the inventory items/price points of:
"1-story" = $0.99
"5-series" = $2.99
"10-volume" = $4.99
and will continue to do so, but I've been pondering Print-On-Demand of late and have concocted two higher inventory item/price points of:
"20-collection" (ePub) = $7.99
"20-deluxe" (POD) = $14.99
and I think it'll work.
The idea is to put twenty stories together with super-pro cover art, pro interior art for each story, pro formatting both for ePub and POD, and as high quality a POD book as I can wrangle while still managing to make a profit at $14.99. I want it to be higher quality than the regular anthologies I buy. If you own "The Essential Ellison", you'll be able to visualize the level I'm shooting for.
It'd be a showcase for David's Writing, thus drawing more people into my ePub work.
THREE David's Sexy "Naughty Tentacles" Theory
Let's expound One and Two's heads together and smash forth my sexy theory of smallpub business. Let's take a look at some numbers, then I'll explain. (I'll use Kindle because that's where most of my sales have been. ~ for <$0.05 in delivery fees.)
Inventory/Price Point @ Rate = Royalty:
1-short $0.99 @ 35% = $0.35
(x5) $1.75 ; (x10) $3.50 ; (x20) $7.00
5-series $2.99 @ 70% = ~$2.09
10-volume $4.99 @ 70% = ~$3.49
20-collection $7.99 @ 70% = ~$5.59
Let's assume that my inventory is shaped like a Sexy Octopus. As you can see, 5-series is the best deal for everybody (cheaper for you but better royalty for me), making that the Mouth. 10-volume is the most convenient for everybody (book-length for you & same royalty as 10 individual stories for me), that's the Head. 20-collection is the coolest for everybody (great presentation for you and a solid chunk of change all at once for me), that's the Brain.
Which leaves 1-short. Those are the Naughty Tentacles, because I can do anything with them and the more I have the better. Their entire purpose is to draw folk into the Mouth, the most numerous of my packaged short stories. Not only do all these 1-shorts increase my market footprint and thus visibility, I can also do a variety of promotion types with a 1-short because I'd only be out $0.35 at the most, and I'd stand to gain $2.09 at the least. And I'll have at least 100 to play with in as many markets as care to host me. Maximum Flexibility and Profit.
THIS IS WHY I'M WRITING SO MANY SHORT STORIES
(x5) $1.75 ; (x10) $3.50 ; (x20) $7.00
5-series $2.99 @ 70% = ~$2.09
10-volume $4.99 @ 70% = ~$3.49
20-collection $7.99 @ 70% = ~$5.59
Let's assume that my inventory is shaped like a Sexy Octopus. As you can see, 5-series is the best deal for everybody (cheaper for you but better royalty for me), making that the Mouth. 10-volume is the most convenient for everybody (book-length for you & same royalty as 10 individual stories for me), that's the Head. 20-collection is the coolest for everybody (great presentation for you and a solid chunk of change all at once for me), that's the Brain.
Which leaves 1-short. Those are the Naughty Tentacles, because I can do anything with them and the more I have the better. Their entire purpose is to draw folk into the Mouth, the most numerous of my packaged short stories. Not only do all these 1-shorts increase my market footprint and thus visibility, I can also do a variety of promotion types with a 1-short because I'd only be out $0.35 at the most, and I'd stand to gain $2.09 at the least. And I'll have at least 100 to play with in as many markets as care to host me. Maximum Flexibility and Profit.
THIS IS WHY I'M WRITING SO MANY SHORT STORIES
#
If anybody feels like drawing a graph of that theory in the form of a sexy octopus, feel free.
Disclaimer: I might suck at business.
Disclaimer: I might suck at business.
Disclaimer Disclaimer: But I don't suck at writing, so it'll work out upon contact with reality.
----
Story:?
Story "Title"
- - - -
Reading - ?
*198
Here's a question: themed compilations? I don't know your library enough to know what themes they encompass, but at the very least I'd hope for a "Jeremiads: The Jeremiad Cycle." (Hah! I'm so witty yeah right?) Although it will be a little while before I have enough work to e-publish a collection, I've already envisioned "Wild Space: A Six-Shooter of Laserbeam Tales" and "Rifted Worlds: Tales from Other Timelines." All my stories, of course, are tales.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I'm just curious if you intend to collect your stories according to themes, or whether they're already collected according to such. If so, you should come up with witty titles for your collections. I know you've got The Wit in you and to be honest "Science fiction series" and "Science fiction volume" don't have The Ring to them.
The first series of Alan stories will come out presently, The Jeremiad Monologues (the ACTUAL hier-title) will be collected when I get a few more done, and I've got four Serial Novels rolling along.
ReplyDeleteI've always been partial to the "and other stories" format when it's a single-author work, and the volumes and series names are just to keep things simple. Any short story that develops a sequel before it gets put into a series will get spun off into its own non-generic line. "Ostracon" is the most likely candidate for that.
In any case, short stories are flexible, and their flexibility increases with number. After I've got 100 stories out, I can get fancy. Perhaps a "Theme Sampler"-style collection for my own work, and that collaborative anthology (which I will pull together someday if it kills me).
Dream-storm: In the future, David's website will be a magical shopping adventure where customers can mix-and-match to build their own anthology and pick it up in an hour at their friendly neighborhood book printer which is also a pub.
Wow, very profe.
ReplyDeleteCool! I like your stories no matter what; I'd was just wondering. Write a story called dream-storm? I'd read it.
ReplyDeleteI've written a few stories with the working title "dream-storm", but I've always come up with a more appropriate title before sending it out. Soon a story will deserve it.
ReplyDelete