New cover for the Feb. 19th release of the Thomas&Mercer edition of Bones
by Christine Kling
When the end of the year rolls around, it always makes me think back on the past 12 months. This has been an amazing year for me – a year full of changes in my own place in the world of books and in my view of myself as a writer.
When I made the decision in December of 2011 to self-publish my fifth novel, Circle of Bones, I really thought I was making an irrevocable break from the world of traditional publishing. Readers of this blog over the past two years will know that it was a decision I did not make lightly. When you get a publishing contract with a big publisher, you think you’ve made it and you can’t imagine that you will ever choose another path or make the decision to walk away. Yet I did just that. My editor at Ballantine still had the option on my fifth book. I submitted Circle of Bones to him and he sat on it. My contract said he had to make a decision in 45 days, and I kept hoping he would call, but after 4 months, I’d had it. I sent him an email and told him I was withdrawing the book from consideration and I was going to self-publish it. I felt certain I’d live to regret that grandstand move.
For so many years, self-publishing has been looked down upon by the world of traditional publishing, and it seemed to carry with it a stench of failure. Mike J. will remember the many conversations we had when I railed against the idea that self published books would ever be able to compete with traditionally published books. Back then, I was still under the illusion that self-publishing was synonymous with using a vanity press. Even this recent article in the New York Times failed to recognize how so many of today’s self-published author/entrepreneurs are different: “They used to call it the ‘vanity press,’ and the phrase itself spoke volumes. Self-published authors were considered not good enough to get a real publishing contract. They had to pay to see their book in print.” The article went on to extol the virtues of Simon & Schuster’s recent partnership with Author Solutions (a real old-fashioned vanity press) which only showed that the author of that NYT article was just as blind as I once was to the changes that have taken place in publishing in the past three years.
I didn’t just pay somebody else to publish my book. I hired a developmental editor and a copy editor ($1100), a cover artist ($150), bought ISBN numbers ($250 for 10), taught myself how to format books, created a business called Tell-Tale Press and registered it in the state of Florida as a sole proprietorship. I opened a business bank account and ordered business cards, and I read blogs, books, and articles and everything I could find on this new business model.
I’m also still learning everything I can about how to market my books. After self-publishing Bones, I got the rights to my four Seychelle books back from Ballantine (even though the ebooks were still in print) because my contracts stipulated that if my sales from all editions did not number more than 300 per title for two consecutive 6 month periods, I could get the rights back. I submitted my royalty statements to prove that was the case, then I set about getting the cover art done. After editing and formatting those books, I self-published them. In July, the first month I had all four editions of my self-published Seychelle books available at $3.99, I sold a combined 2500 copies across the four titles in one month. Take that, Ballantine!
One reason I’ve been so successful at selling my self-published books is I work hard at the marketing. Initially, I contacted dozens of book bloggers and sent out copies for reviews – with no luck. Then, I tried ads on Facebook and Google. Finally, it was through Amazon’s Kindle Select program whereby authors can make their titles free for 5 days every 90 days that my books found legs. It doesn’t work as well today as it did prior to April, but it still certainly helps. For example, this month I offered Surface Tension for free on Dec. 7-9. When I have a promo, I try to contact as many places that list free books as I can, and I also pay for some listings and ads on certain sites. This is the list of what I did for my December promo:
PAID PROMO
1. Paid promotional Boost on Digital Book Today $30.00 2. Kindle Promo (David Weeks) 2-day tweet special $16.95 3. Book Bub free day ad for $150 4. Author Marketing Club $15.00 5. Kindle Nation Daily $29.99FREE LISTINGS
1. Pixel of Ink 2. Ereader News Today 3. Books on the Knob 4. Free Booksy 5. Bargain ebook Hunter 6. Free Kindle Fiction 7. Free Book Dude 8. Indie Book Promo 9. Free Kindle Books and Tips 10. Book Goodies 11. Ebooks Habit 12. The ereader cafeAs of December 7th, I had sold 35 copies of Surface Tension for the month. Over the course of the 3-day giveaway period, the book was downloaded for free 29,476 times and it made it to #2 on the Kindle Free Bestseller list. As of today, I’ve sold 415 copies and the book has been borrowed 233 times (which should pay as much as a sale this month). The great part is that the promo on the one title also pushes sales across all my titles and this has resulted in my being able to make a living as a writer for the past year.
And as a result of these kinds of efforts, in the past 12 months I have sold or had borrowed over 17,000 copies of Circle of Bones, and the ebook has had some 97,000 copies downloaded for free.
How it happened, I’ll probably never know, but somehow, Terry Goodman at Amazon’s Thomas & Mercer imprint got hold of my book and even better, he liked it. Others have sold far more copies than I have, but back in August, I signed a 3-book contract with T&M, and I suddenly found myself in a place I never thought I would be – back with a traditional publisher (albeit a controversial one). What a crazy year, right? And as you can see from the image above, the new edition of Circle of Bones, re-edited and repackaged by Thomas & Mercer is soon to be released as an ebook, trade paperback and audiobook – with what I think is a fabulous new cover.
But, a funny thing happened to me during this year of great change. I discovered I really liked having total control over my books. I liked the marketing and the designing of formats and watching my sales change hourly on my author dashboard. I like being my own publisher. So back in August when I was having the conversations with Thomas & Mercer about them re-issuing Circle of Bones, Terry asked me if I wanted to sell them the rights to the Seychelle books, too. I didn’t even have to think about it. I said no. I want to keep some self-published books in addition to having some that are traditionally published. In this new world of self-publishing, they call it being a hybrid author. Sorry about the cliché, but it is truly the best of both worlds.
When I returned from my recent 5-week research trip to Thailand and the Philippines, I found two huge heavy boxes containing 25 ARCs of the hefty new paperback edition of Circle of Bones. It’s been over a week, and I can’t figure out what to do with them. It would cost a bundle to mail them to reviewers. When I first published a paper version of my self-published edition of Bones I sent about 10 paper copies and 15 ebook copies to book reviewers, and I never got a single review that I know of. I’m not sure I’ll have any better luck this time around. If you have any thoughts on what to do with paper ARCs in 2013, I’d welcome your suggestions.
As exciting as 2012 has been, 2013, aka the year of the Tablet, promises to be even better. I anticipate increased book sales, more reviews of navigational apps (:-), more sailing, and the completion of The Dragon’s Triangle, book #2 of the Riley and Cole trilogy.
For a techie, writer, sailor, it doesn’t get any better than that.
Fair winds!
Christine
Share on Facebook
Christine, great new cover! And it’s great the way things have come together for you. May you have even more success in the coming year!
Thank you so much, C.E. I have so much to be grateful for, not the least of which is my wonderful friends here at Write on the Water! (even Mike who was finally able to knock some sense into my hard head on the self-publishing issue
CK
Chris, thanks for the open and informative blog post. Sharing these types of details can be encouraging and eye-opening for all writers standing on the edge of the indie-publishing cliff. When my co-writer, Lynn Sholes and I finished our #6 thriller, we submitted it to our publisher who immediately issued a contract offer. It would have been easy to take it and run, just as we have with the previous 5 novels. But we chose instead to turn them down and try the indie route. As a result, our new standalone, THE BLADE, will be released in February. Was it a wise decision? Don’t know yet, but the idea of being in charge of our own destiny, at least in this case, was too tempting to ignore. We’ll see what happens.
I had one question for you. You said: “I got the rights to my four Seychelle books back from Ballantine (even though the ebooks were still in print).” Does that mean that the publisher will stop making the e-book versions available? Or will there be e-book versions, yours and theirs, competing online?
Best of luck with the T&M contract. Great cover!
Once again, your clear, honest, generous details of the nuts and bolts are like shaking a reef! I can feel the energy, anticipate a little quicker arrival, revel in the new motion of this boat called self-publishing. SO happy for you. Your work is paying off, well-deserved!
Love the new cover. The divers are a brilliant addition, symbolically communicating the subject matter even at thumbnail size.
Re: ideas for the 25 ARC.
1. There’s a guy up in Washington state named Oscar Linde who used to/maybe still does rep all/most titles to NW region bookstores. While Oscar wouldn’t “review” the book, he talks to EVERYBODY – all the marine bookstores up N, including BC. I can email you his contact info or email ahead for you, if you think it would help.
2. I’ve got friends in Long Beach who own an Indie store – Apostrophe Books. They do fantastic author signing events and used to run a totally different store in Port Townsend where they moved pallets of books. Lisa, one of the owner was at Borders for 20 years, starting as a kid… then took off on her own doing remainders and $3.99 books long before Costco and Kindle:) She and Val are always innovating and open to win-wins. Their store draws from LA & UCLA residents. Since it’s a boating region, I could inquire to see if they’ve got ideas/interest. It’s not the Caribbean, but you know us boaties:)
3. Donate the books to raffles (where you get the name and email) at Strictly Sail, Gail Hine’s Southern California Women’s Sailing Seminar, other women’s sailing orgs. I’ve got some contacts if any of this sounds like it might work.
You’re doing an incredible job thinking of great ideas, so if none of these spark, that’s fine. Just wanted to pass them along, in case.
Happy, Prosperous New Year!
All the best to you.
Kaci
Joe,
Thanks for the kind words on the new cover, and I think you and Lynn have absolutely chosen the right path. With your web skills and energy, you will be able to sell so many more copies and make more in royalties as well.
As to your question, on the last royalty statement I got from Ballantine, Surface Tension had sold 43 mass market paperbacks and 45 ebooks over a 6 month period (ebook price was $7.95). On my contract (thanks to an excellent agent’s negotiations), the books didn’t have to go out of print for the rights to revert to me – they just had to sell less than 300 copies in two consecutive royalty periods. Once I got my rights reversion letter, Ballantine no longer had the right to sell the books (although I gave them the right to sell any remaining mass market paperbacks in stock). It took me a while to get them to take the ebooks down from all the sites where they had them listed, but now only my versions are available online.
One thing I take away from all this is that these big publishers don’t understand the value of a digital backlist. They are still in the old print mindset that a book has a given shelf life and then it is useless. That was based on the fact that bookstores had limited shelf space along with a small regular clientele who always wanted to see what was new. In the new digital book paradigm, shelf space is unlimited and books can continue to sell to the ever-growing huge clientele of ereader owners that number in the millions. That makes it a wonderful world for authors of good books who are willing to work at making their books gain visibility.
CK
Christine- I own Cypress Paperback Book Store- Fort Myers, Florida. If you could please send me a arc of your new book. I have quite a few customers that love your books. And I myself would love to read your new one. I don’t do e-books. So I am a real paper book person!. Thank You.
Cypress Paperback Book Store
9541 Cypress Lk. Dr.
Fort Myers, Florida 33919
Christine, regarding those Arcs – I’m not sure how this would work for you, but a Goodreads give-away has worked for some authors. Sign up for a give-away and many will sign up. The winners are highly encouraged to submit reviews (and evidently most do) and must say they were winners of your give-away. Goodreads recently told of one first-time author who made best-seller lists that way – over several months, I believe. There may be other readers’ groups who operate similarly.
Love your cover and your very informative post.
Christine, your story is inspiring, not just your mysteries, but your life. As one who has also retired early on a small pension in exchange for publishing rights to my TIME, I applaud your decision to go direct with your art. I know so many talented artists in music and writing and art, but so few of them are able to generate a decent living doing what they love. Your step by step process of marketing is very helpful. Let’s hope that by networking and promoting authors and artists of all types, we can find a way to get people doing what people do best, CREATE ART!
One thing that I would offer anyone who wants to run a one wo/man show is access to my old speakezee.com website. While I haven’t done anything with it in years, most would be entrepreneurs have the traditional stage fright of talking to crowds-small or large. With my public speaking methods, people of any age (I taught elementary school children with this process and had enormous success) learn to direct their GESTURES and POSTURES in a conscious manner without having to think about WHAT they say. After they have confidence in how they look from the audience’s perspective, they are then free to direct energy to the CONTENT of their speech. No one can multi-task unless all but one of the tasks is a HABIT.
Great post, Christine — and that cover is simply gorgeous.
Christine, congratulations on your success. As someone who hopes to follow in your footsteps (baby steps first) this post was very encouraging and highly informative. Switching from traditional to indie is a major decision but your hybrid model allows for the kind of flexibility and control I need. Thanks for sharing.
PS – love the new cover and can’t wait to read it and your Seychelles series! Is it time to start a sailing book club?
This is very helpful, Christine. I would be afraid of not making back the money spent on editors, ISBNs, etc. but clearly you did. It’s scary, though, to pay all of this up front and take the risk no one will buy the book. What did you learn about marketing that was successful?
Christine,
Thanks for sharing your story. I like your philosophy–I too found I like having control. The hybrid idea is great, and I’m glad Thomas & Mercer found your books. They did a beautiful cover. But I’m looking forward to the Seychelles books and what you do as well.
Best of luck,
Ellis
DOUBLE WOW? NO TRIPLE WOW!!!! Chris, I didn’t expect to read anything as motivating as you current Blog today. This is a New Years type of read. Only a day or two left to catch our breath before going someplace else. Earlier I had thought to spend a few days doing other things, like raking leaves, playing with a new puppy, and sliding the editing in a dark corner. But now, some clean air out of the South East, causes me to tighten the jib sheet, the two extra days need to be sailed on a close haul to complete at least five knots of editing. I am so amazed reading the bios. of different readers who have been writing since birth, or shortly after. But, there is plenty of time left for us all. Its good to have others like yourself blazing a path, leaving nothing but bubbles to follow. Happy New Year Chris, continue raising the mainsail, and I liked the old cover just as well.
Kudos to you, Christine. I also made the decision to self-publish after two years with an agent. Unlike your experience, no publisher, big or small, picked up my books. I’ve been thrilled with the Amazon KDP program. My books, four of which I’ve put up on the free days, have tolled close to 150,000 downloads and great sales after. I agree sales have dropped off as more people take advantage of the program. In December, Kindle picked one of my books for their holiday special, which resulted in sales I wouldn’t have had otherwise.
Best to you. Authors need to hear the success stories. Yours is a terrific one.
Big congrats, Christine! Thank you for sharing with us. My debut novel is out now with a small press, but I’ve made the leap into indie publishing, and that releases April 8th. Like you, I invested in a developmental editor as well as a line editor. I’m still working on the formatting, but I’ve got a fantastic cover artist. Marketing has been the big question mark for me, and your breakdown is very helpful.
My question is this: how do we find readers? FB and Twitter are full of authors marketing to each other, and that’s great, but there are tons of readers out there who aren’t paying attention to any of that.
I haven’t been sure about putting the book into Select with all the Amazon changes, but it’s still a consideration. And congrats on signing with their imprint!
Stacy
You go, girl! Congratulations! I too have had some success with KDP Select, and still have a traditional publishing contract. So I guess I’m a hybrid, too!
Chris, your success is so hard won and well deserved. I’m totally thrilled for you. But for your encouragement, I would not be where I am today and don’t think I’m ever going to forget that. Best of luck on all your new ventures and especially wherever the fair winds take you in 2013.
Best,
Diane
Hi Chris, congratulations on your hybrid success! It’s never easy to walk away from what’s familiar and seems safe. Thanks for sharing your path.
Chris, what an inspirational post. What a thrilling sail you’ve had this year and those who love your books couldn’t be more thrilled for you. Like Diane, I’ve been following your career path and can say that self-publishing has been very very good to me! May your success continue in this new year. It just shows what hard work can get you!
Thank you for sharing your story. There is so much those of us just starting down the publishing path can learn from you brave souls who have gone before. I do have a question that I’m hoping you’ll answer. Who did you hire for your developmental edit and for your cover designs?
Good stuff. I can relate. I’ve had 4 books published. Self published, but had help from Florida’s fine Signalman Publishing to get my memoir available on Kindle and Nook. Continued success with your writing. I will stay tuned.
Wow, way to to Christine! So glad to see you reaping the rewards from all your hard work. I thank Diane Capri for introducing me to you. What a great example of how it can be done. Thank you for sharing this good news! Congratulations!
Hi Christine,
Thanks for an informative post about your indie experience. I’m curious, of the paid advertising you did, were you happy with the results? Would you use all the same venues again for the next time? Congrats on your success and your sharp business sense.
Someone above mentioned the Goodreads Giveaway program for a few of your ARC’s. I agree, I’ve seen an uptic in sales using them and suggest you check it out. Also, the International Thriller Writers organization has a great giveaway program, too. If you’re a member.
David DeLee
Author of Crystal White
Chris — You have often wondered what kind of post really gets WOTW readers involved? Yeah, this is it. Thank you more please.
I wonder if you would share your thoughts about using a developmental editor? What can one expect; hope for? Do’s and don’t's?
Congratulations and welcome home!
Christine, what a great year 2012 has been and I’m sure 2013 will prove a whirl wind of adventure. I think keeping control of your career is a great idea and one you’ve earned.
You blow me away! Congrats on your much-deserved success. And all this entrepreneurship from your little vessel in our little neighborhood marina . . .
Christine,
Thank you for sharing your information. Your story is inspiring. After 40 wonderful rejections, (they were excellent rejections, if a rejection can be wonderful) I am self-published. Your blog has given me avenues to pursue and I thank you. Good luck in 2013.
Rosemary Dronchi, author of Blood Feud