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I hit a new milestone (1k a month) & what I've learnt so far.

2K views 27 replies 22 participants last post by  FFJ 
#1 ·
I thought maybe some fellow prawns might like to hear this. Maybe it'll inspire some people. Either way, I'd like to try and give back after everything I've learnt around here.

Ssooo... I earnt over $1,000 in the last 30 days! That's a nice milestone to hit. ;D

My story so far, what I've done, what I've learnt, etc.

I do not have lots of money to throw into promotion. I have a small budget that I do my best with, but I can't afford AMS ads, Facebook ads, or any of that.

I write Urban Fantasy. I released book 1 in the Infernal Hunt series on July 1st last year. Book 2 was released a week later. Book 3 a month later, then the last book in the series, 3 months later. The Ink Born series was started this year.

Before we go any further I think it's important to highlight the differences between the two series.

Both series are comfortably in the Urban Fantasy genre. They both make use of familiar Urban Fantasy tropes. They're both told from first person POV with the narrator having at least a little snark.

This is where they differ: (I have no idea why the lists went weird and don't have it in me to fix it).

Infernal Hunt series.
  • In a reasonably classic Urban Fantasy world, but set in Prague.
  • Has a reasonably classic plot line of saving the world from a big bad.
    • The protagonist is a kick-ass hero type.
    • The protagonist has no magic of her own.

    Ink Born series.
    • In a huge fantasy kitchen sink world (that I'll be setting a good few more series in).
    • The protagonist is not a willing hero. He's happy with his quiet life dammit.
      • The protagonist is a tattoo magician - this is the big hook that readers seem to love.
      • A primarily gay cast with an asexual character and a number of bi characters.

      Launching the Infernal Hunt series.

      Book 1 is a prequel novella about 30k in length. Readers can start the series with either Infernal Ties or Infernal Bonds.

      I had no mailing list, my social media wasn't exactly stellar, and no marketing budget to speak of. I made the most of pre-orders to try and build buzz around the release and it did ok. The first two books launched into the 30k region on Amazon, I made something like $230 the first month.

      Once book 3 was launched I ran a free promotion on Infernal Ties and it got into the top 100 free. That helped fend off the increasing drop in income and made sure I earnt a reasonably steady $150 - $250 a month. Not huge money, but enough to show that there was a bit of potential there.

      I dropped book 1 down to 99c and left it there. It seemed like a good idea to help pull people into the series. I ran a couple of small promos, BKnights and things to help improve visibility. Again that kept things ticking along.

      Once book 4 was live I had the idea to try making book 2 free, as it does work as the beginning of the series. I promoted that with freebooksy and managed to get a free slot on OHFB. That did brilliantly. A good number of people bought book 1 when they picked up the freebie and that took my income up to $420 that month. Progress!

      This was when Stolen Ink, book 1 in the Ink Born series came into play. I put that up for pre-order I think it was a week after book 4 in the IH series went live. I wanted to keep things rolling and start garnering interest in Stolen Ink.

      Stolen Ink had a full 90 day pre-order, and it garnered far more interest than the IH books did. I tweeted about it once, and had a link to it in the back of the IH books. That was the sum total of my promotion for it. That achieved some 96 pre-orders that way (beating my previous 35 pre-order record), and ended up with 164 pre-orders after S.M. Reine recommended it to her readers.

      I made book 1 in the IH series permafree through January and stuck it up on Instafreebie. That brought me 1600 ish newsletter subscribers. I wasn't satisfied with the income, despite throwing money into advertising it on sites such as Freebooksy. So I put it back in KU and made it 99c again.

      I launched Stolen Ink in early February. Again I didn't have money to throw into promotion, I moved country earlier this month, so no spare pennies. Thanks to Patty I managed to arrange a couple of newsletter swaps, and sent out the news to my own newsletter. That combined with S.M. Reine recommending the book to her readers meant that Stolen Ink achieved a rank in the high 3,000's. It's been doing wonderfully since.

      Stolen Ink is a completely different kettle of fish to the IH books. It earnt more in its first week than the first 2 IH books in their first month. It has out-earned the IH books (all 5 of them including the boxset) by a good way, on its own.

      I launched Stolen Ink at 99c and left it there for 10 days to try and make the most of the newsletter slots. I've dropped it 99c again since then and run a BargainBooksy, ENT, and RobinReads on it. That's been enough to keep it in the top 15k. (It's been sitting pretty between 9k - 11k for a good few weeks now).

      Last week I made book 2 in the IH series free again and ran that with Freebooksy and RobinReads, that boosted the IH books income again. It wasn't amazing, they'll earn about $280 this month. The rest of it is coming from Stolen Ink, all by itself. The sequel to Stolen Ink has gone up for a 90 day pre-order, the link is in the back of Stolen Ink. That currently has 145 pre-orders on it, and it achieved those over just 6 days. I tweeted about it once, and mentioned it to my newsletter.

      The biggest thing I'm taking away from all of this, is just how important it is to stand out from the crowd and give readers something they love. Urban Fantasy is getting incredibly crowded, but readers leapt on that tattoo magician idea. Lots of readers have said it was those two words that made them grab the book. I get the impression that the LGBT+ cast helps, a lot of people are looking for that right now. I can't say I planned on writing it that way, but as a bi woman myself who grew up within the LGBT+ community that's just how my brain works.

      The series could probably do better if I had money to throw at promotion, and I will continue to promote in the ways that I can afford. I'm currently lining up promo sites around the launch of Ink Born 2 and I'll be looking at newsletter swaps in that time period too. Stolen Ink will be down to 99c again.

      I think a regular release schedule and a completed series is doing me some good too. It shows readers that I'm not going to leave them hanging.

      Anyway, there you have it. My prawny little journey so far. I hope maybe it helps some people as I wouldn't have gotten this far without this board and the generous writers on it.

      [edited to try and fix the weird formatting]
 
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#5 ·
David Brian said:
Congrats, Holly! And I love your covers! ;)
Congratulations!
Awesome covers and it sounds like really interesting stories!

P.S. I really love the name "Stolen Ink"!
 
#11 ·
JaclynDolamore said:
Great story, thanks for sharing. The series does sound really fun, I just added it to my TBR! Standing out is definitely important, now if only we could predict what stands out...I'm struggling with the blurb for my upcoming UF right now! ;)
You're welcome :D I struck it lucky with the tattoo magician thing. I kept looking for tattoo magician UF for a good 18 months and just couldn't find any. I had a tattoo magician character ready to be written, so off I went!

I've noticed a shift towards darker themes in UF as of late. Necromancers, voodoo practitioners, part demons. There seems to be more interest in worlds that are a bigger step away from the real world too, which I suspect is part of why Stolen Ink did so well. Ella Summers' worlds are the first that popped into my head.

I put off writing the blurb as long as possible. I swore Blood & Ink (Ink Born 2) was going to be "Bad stuff happens to poor Dacian who continues being a tattoo magician," and call it done lol.
 
#13 ·
Congrats! I'm grabbing a copy of book 1. Sounds like something I would love. And a recommendation from SM Reine? Considering she's one of my favorite authors, that is all the push I need :)

I sent you a PM about something else.

I have a feeling you're going to keep seeing more and more success.
 
#14 ·
Unless you need the income from your books to eat, you're missing the boat by not promoting your books. I've read the first one and you don't have a problem there. Covers are good. Start lining up 1-2 promos a month, plus Patty Jansen's promos. With two series, you have two entry points to your writing. You can do that for $100 a month. AMS can be done for another $2 a day for added visibility. I think you can double or triple your revenues with just that.
 
#15 ·
KhaosFoxe said:
You're welcome :D I struck it lucky with the tattoo magician thing. I kept looking for tattoo magician UF for a good 18 months and just couldn't find any. I had a tattoo magician character ready to be written, so off I went!

I've noticed a shift towards darker themes in UF as of late. Necromancers, voodoo practitioners, part demons. There seems to be more interest in worlds that are a bigger step away from the real world too, which I suspect is part of why Stolen Ink did so well. Ella Summers' worlds are the first that popped into my head.

I put off writing the blurb as long as possible. I swore Blood & Ink (Ink Born 2) was going to be "Bad stuff happens to poor Dacian who continues being a tattoo magician," and call it done lol.
I hope you're right about worlds that are a step away because that's why I have! Although mine is very humorous along with being dark in places especially as it goes. I watched too much anime as a teen, ha. The classic anime plot arc of beginning a story totally goofy and by the end it's super serious... The cool thing about urban fantasy is that the tropes seem pretty forgiving to quirky writers. I've been reading a lot of them lately and sure, there's a fair amount of cookie cutter stuff but also a lot of creativity and diversity of tone.

I do agree with BR Kingsolver...if you have any money to spare, you'd probably see a good ROI on promos. You can even do $1 a day with AMS ads.
 
#17 ·
Going to pick up the Stolen Ink series now.. you got me.

As a reader here's the two things that piqued my interest...

- A new and interesting kind if magic I haven't seen before [Tattoo Magic]
- Gay male protagonist in UF [Oh hooray.. these are hard to find]

So anyway.. off to fire up my KINDLE! :D
 
#21 ·
brkingsolver said:
Unless you need the income from your books to eat, you're missing the boat by not promoting your books. I've read the first one and you don't have a problem there. Covers are good. Start lining up 1-2 promos a month, plus Patty Jansen's promos. With two series, you have two entry points to your writing. You can do that for $100 a month. AMS can be done for another $2 a day for added visibility. I think you can double or triple your revenues with just that.
I'm promoting them as much as I can afford (like I said, I've used RobinReads etc :) and I've been making the most of Patty's promos ), at the moment the money's going on visa/emigration stuff and husband's medicine. We haven't had leisure time in well over a year, all money has gone on essentials (which include book promo). It'll be a good six months before that's quietened down, so if the books keep picking up the way they are I'm hoping to have a larger promotion budget come autumn. It's not great, but I'm pushing as hard as I can. :)

Yayoi said:
If you made $1000, about how many sales did you make?
Oh gods, erm, Stolen Ink had 301 sales and just over 101,000 pages read. The IH books had 90 sales and 19,000 pages between them. That took me over the $1k mark, but gives a vague idea. Keep in mind that those sales were a mix of 99c and $2.99.

JaclynDolamore said:
The cool thing about urban fantasy is that the tropes seem pretty forgiving to quirky writers. I've been reading a lot of them lately and sure, there's a fair amount of cookie cutter stuff but also a lot of creativity and diversity of tone.
That's part of what I love about it too. There's so much scope there. I'm starting a new series in autumn set in the same world with a treasure-hunting alchemist. That'll be more on the adventure Indiana Jones end of the scale which I'm pretty confident there's room for.

Good luck with your series and world, I hope to hear your success story soon! :D
 
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