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Messages - Wayne Stinnett

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1
Writers' Cafe / Re: Bookbub Question
« on: December 09, 2020, 10:44:07 am »
Six months from the date of the promo. The same restriction applies to a box set the featured book is in, or if the featured deal was a box set, the same six-month restriction applies to all the books in that box set.

2
Writers' Cafe / Re: Talk Write Podcast, Season 1, Episode 8
« on: December 09, 2020, 10:42:12 am »
Quote from: Randall Wood on December 08, 2020, 07:11:07 pm
Good stuff Wayne!

Thanks, Randall. We're talking to people at KDP about being on the show. We had ACX on a couple of months back. We want to mix a few industry guests in with authors and narrators.

3
Writers' Cafe / Re: Help someone, please. Has the youtube upload on here stopped working?
« on: December 08, 2020, 12:59:39 pm »
You mean like this?
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTKL4nlpow0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTKL4nlpow0</a>
Copy the YouTube link, https://youtu.be/lTKL4nlpow0, then strip it of everything before the /, highlight the remaining YT identifier, lTKL4nlpow0, and then click the YouTube button.

4
Writers' Cafe / Re: Creating a 2nd edition of a book. How do I avoid problems.
« on: December 08, 2020, 12:52:41 pm »
If you want to release it as a true second edition, contact KDP beforehand and give them the ASIN of the original book. Let them know that it's being published as a second edition and you want your reviews, ranking, and everything changed over to it. They'll reply with further instructions. Then publish the second edition as if it were a new book. Once it's live, reply to their email and give them the ASIN of the new second edition. They'll move everything over in a few days. Some readers might want to read the new version and they will buy the second edition, even though they've already bought the first.

If it's not drastically changed, like moving chapters around, you can just upload the new manuscript file to the existing book and you're done.

5
Writers' Cafe / Talk Write Podcast, Season 1, Episode 8
« on: December 08, 2020, 08:19:08 am »
Another episode is in the can. Last night, my narrator, Nick Sullivan and I had Trop-Author Nicholas Harvey and his narrator, Kim Bretton on our live interview show. We stream live at 6:30 PM Eastern on the first Monday of every month. Last night we talked about writing, recording audiobooks, NASCAR, scuba diving, and rum. If you'd like to know what all these things have in common, watch the show.
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZJbd9iS7OQ" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZJbd9iS7OQ</a>

6
Writers' Cafe / Re: Written Word Media Author Earnings Report
« on: December 08, 2020, 08:00:54 am »
Quote from: Louise Bates on December 08, 2020, 04:26:49 am
Really helpful charts and breakdown of the data. Some of it seems blatantly obvious--of course people with more books published are going to earn more money! Of course those who spend more on editing and covers are going to see a greater ROI!--but honestly, when you are looking at dismal sale numbers and asking yourself if it's worth keeping on with this next book, if it's worth getting that editor, etc, it can be hard to see things so clearly. Because all you see is you pouring yourself into the work and nothing coming out of it. So having that chart is really helpful, to be able to say, "yes, it is worth continuing, it is worth making everything as professional as possible, eventually perseverance will have its reward."

Keep in mind, those numbers are averages. For every average, there are highs and lows that can be far removed from the average. For instance, I spend more than double the editing cost shown in stage five, more than $2000 per book. Including audio recording costs, I'll spend in excess of $7000 before a book is released. And I've a long way to go to reach the average number of books published for stage five, my 24th will be out in two weeks. I'm no longer in Select, so my income from KU is now less than 10% of gross and falling by the day. If they were to carry it further and create a Stage 6, you'd probably find that authors at that stage spend less time writing. At he most, I'll write 20 hours a week.

But if Stage 5 were $10,000 to $25,000, they'd have to create a new stage for me and many others. I'd be really interested to see the numbers for those who are earning $500,000 a year.

7
Writers' Cafe / Re: POLL: Pricing - - Have indies shot themselves in the foot?
« on: December 08, 2020, 07:34:19 am »
Quote from: kwest on December 04, 2020, 09:05:06 pm
You sir, are an inspiration. For some reason I just have this image of all my fans rebelling if I raise my prices from $4.99 to $5.99 as ridiculous at that sounds.

Some will. No doubt about it. But consider the revenue produced by a lower number of sales. If 100 sell at $2.99, that's roughly $200 to the author. You can make that same money with a third of those sales at $7.99. Understanding your sell through and your audience is key. A reader picks up book one at $2.99 and enjoys it, so they go back and get #2 at the same price, then #3. After that, the price of #4 is only $1 more. Same with #5 and #6, then there's another $1 increase to #7, #8, and #9. In a really long series, the reader is already involved with the characters before they get that first $1 increase.

You have to also understand supply and demand economy. With eBooks the supply is unlimited, so you can't raise the price due to a supply shortage. In a long series, demand for later books is far higher than the demand for the earlier ones. High demand can justify a higher price.

8
Writers' Cafe / Re: POLL: Pricing - - Have indies shot themselves in the foot?
« on: December 04, 2020, 12:17:33 pm »
I write long series--about to release #19 in my longest. The first is usually $2.99, as are books two and three. But through the holidays, book one is only $.99. After that, they step up a dollar in price for each subsequent three books. With books 16-19 at $7.99.

And before anyone asks, my four most recent books, priced at $7.99, averaged 38 sales per day across all four titles last month, ranging from 172 to 399 sales/preorders for the month. So, yes, higher priced Indie books can sell.

9
Writers' Cafe / Re: AudibleGate & what you can do about it!
« on: December 04, 2020, 12:04:22 pm »
I refuse to accept Audible's "concession" as anything other than gas-lighting. Sure they've reduced the number of days they'll be encouraging listeners to "exchange" without dipping into our pockets. But it doesn't stop them from continuing to do so. Nor does it address the monies already taken, or better accounting of these "exchanges."

Basically, all that email said was they know they've been caught stealing, have no plans to make right the injustice, and they will limit how much they steal at a later date.

10
Writers' Cafe / Re: Literary agent or straight to publishers?
« on: November 21, 2020, 01:16:14 pm »
The chances of being picked up by a publishing house are very slim
The chances of self-publishing it are 100%.
The royalty you'll get on the slim chance will be 20% of 70% at best.
The royalty you'll get on the 100% chance will be 100% of 70% at worst.

11
Writers' Cafe / Re: AudibleGate & what you can do about it!
« on: November 21, 2020, 06:44:38 am »
Author's Guild has set up a petition page in advance of it's cease and desist letter. If you've been affected or just want to stand with those who have been, please consider signing on.
https://www.authorsguild.org/industry-advocacy/sign-our-letter-and-tell-audible-to-stop-charging-authors-for-returns/

12
Writers' Cafe / Re: AudibleGate & what you can do about it!
« on: November 21, 2020, 06:39:21 am »
Quote from: Kathryn Meyer Griffith on November 08, 2020, 04:48:24 pm
I've just asked to be admitted to your Facebook group. I have 35 ACX/Audible audio books and have been selling with them since 2013. I had NO IDEA about any of this 'returns' problem. I tried to look on my ACX Dashboard to see if I could see any signs of returns, etc. I can't. Maybe I'm looking in the wrong place? Anyway, I will keep following this.

You have to look at individual days not a week or month. I've recorded daily sales of everything since I started seven years ago. If you look at a single day (and October 20 would be a good day to start with), you'll see that if a book had no activity on that day, it's simply not listed on the dashboard. If it did have activity, the cumulative number of sales for that day is shown. Even if it's zero. One sale and one return is a cumulative zero. So, count zeros as a known return. But it could just as easily be two sales and two returns. You might see a one, which would indicate one sale, right? Or it could be two sales and one return. Or five sales and four returns.

Audible's reporting is totally suspect.

13
Writers' Cafe / Re: Amazon preorder and how the sales are counted...conflicting info.
« on: November 21, 2020, 06:26:17 am »
Quote from: Amanda M. Lee on November 15, 2020, 10:32:47 am
gotten their letters

I still snicker when I hear that phrase.

14
Writers' Cafe / Re: $97 Cinematic Book Trailers - Video Book Promos For Self Publishing Authors
« on: November 09, 2020, 10:46:37 am »
I love that voice over. I clocked it at about 15 seconds of dialogue for the 45-second spot. So, maybe 20 seconds for a 60-second spot? I can have my narrator record that when he goes into the booth in two weeks to record the audiobook.

15
Writers' Cafe / Re: Time to Hang it Up
« on: November 04, 2020, 01:28:10 pm »
I'll chime in and say that, like a few others, I don't like you. You come across as arrogant and pompous when your lack of sales should make you humble and suplicant. Have you stopped to consider what you're doing wrong? Be objective, step back and look at what you've done with a cold eye. Find out what's wrong and fix it, instead of trying to reinvent the wheel all the time.

The thing's round--it rolls.

When I was a kid, my dad gave me a few pearls of wisdom. He was a 9th grade dropout and could barely write his own name. He went on to become a general contractor, but had to have my mom read the questions to him for the test. He built a lot of things during the Central Florida construction boom of the 60s and 70s, surrounding the space race. One thing he told me really stuck. He said, "If you want to be successful at anything, it's not hard. Just look around at how successful people are doing that thing, and do that."

16
Writers' Cafe / Re: Anyone not get their amazon royalties for August (usually sent on October?)
« on: November 04, 2020, 01:12:01 pm »
All of mine were deposited on the 29th, except ACX/Audible. That didn't come through until November 1.

17
Writers' Cafe / Re: Amazon preorder and how the sales are counted...conflicting info.
« on: November 01, 2020, 10:58:27 am »
Dumb question, but is being on a list have any monetary value?

18
Writers' Cafe / Re: What's the longest series you've written? Or read?
« on: November 01, 2020, 10:52:37 am »
The longest I've read is probably Randy Wayne White's "Doc Ford" series, which is up to 25 books.
I grew up reading John D. MacDonald's 21-volume "Travis McGee" series. He only stopped because he died. I've also read several other very long series.
The longest I've written is my first series, coming up on 19 books in December, with no end in sight. My spinoff series is up to five and will be six by spring. I just started a second spinoff and both of these have no end in sight.

I've also heard people say you should write trilogies. I say don't limit yourself. Why stop a good selling series at three, just because someone said that's the thing to do? Don't call your first one the "first in a new trilogy." Just call it a new book. If it does well, write a sequel. If that does well, just keep going.

19
Writers' Cafe / Re: AudibleGate & what you can do about it!
« on: November 01, 2020, 10:40:06 am »
I'm hoping that this is some ill-conceived idea by some bean counter who had no knowledge of how a credit return works, to get the Audible ship across shallow Covid waters. In times like this, when people are out of work, the first sacrifice they'll make is where their entertainment dollars go. I can see Audible having a very high rate of unsubscribers through this.

Then someone came up with an idea to keep those subscribers on. Instead of one credit per month for $14.95, they can now have unlimited.

It'd be a great idea if the huge juggernaut that is Amazon took the hit, but to pass it down to the rights holder is borderline grand theft. While not directly taking part, an accomplice is usually found to be as guilty as the perpetrator. "But Your Honor, I was only driving the robbers' getaway car. I didn't kill all the bank hostages." Guilty on all five counts of first degree murder.

20
Writers' Cafe / Re: Publishing around Christmas...avoid???
« on: October 24, 2020, 11:46:18 am »
I always try to publish just before Christmas. This year, it will be on December 21st. Imagine all the new Kindle devices under the tree and when they're turned on, the user goes to their favorite category. If it's Action/Adventure, they'll see my latest release, right there at the top. This one will be #19 in the series, so I expect a surge in sales of book one. I only advertise book one, and my budget will double on December 24, giving Amazon an extra $1000 to spend in the last week. January has always been a good month for me.

21
Writers' Cafe / Re: Is It Possible To 1-Star a Book Without Reading It, Under Current Rules?
« on: October 24, 2020, 11:37:59 am »
Yes, it is. I recently got a one-star because of a Facebook post. She even said so in the review.

22
Writers' Cafe / Re: $2 million advance for debut author
« on: October 24, 2020, 11:34:54 am »
Hopefully, she sets that $2M aside. It might have to last through 2024. It might not even earn out the advance.

23
Writers' Cafe / Re: Scenes with non-POV characters
« on: October 24, 2020, 11:25:31 am »
I primarily write in first person from my main character's POV.

But I also have chapters from other characters' points of view, usually the antagonist's. I never write 3rd person omniscient, where the reader knows what everyone is thinking. The third person chapters are always from one character's POV or another. I get confused reading third person omniscient, hopping from one character's head to the next. So, I break those into separate chapters when I write.

As a reader, I like knowing something the main character doesn't, having read the previous chapter from the antagonist's POV. It's like when you're in the movie theater and you know the girl shouldn't open the door, because you saw the guy with the axe hid in there in an earlier scene. "Don't go in there!"

As a writer, I look for those moments, where I can give the reader some insight that my protagonist isn't aware of.

24
Writers' Cafe / Re: How do you choose names for your characters?
« on: October 19, 2020, 02:42:03 pm »
Try www.fakenamegenerator.com. It not only creates names, but complete fake bios, based on your input of ethnicity, national origin, sex, and age. Just because Chloe is a popular name today, doesn't mean it was in 1965.

25
Writers' Cafe / Re: 5000 sales in 1 Year as a new author ... Realistic?
« on: October 19, 2020, 02:36:30 pm »
Selling 5000 copies of one book can be tricky. My first year, I had 35,000 sales of five books in a series with the first book in the series selling over 11,000 in that first year. My first two took eight months to reach 5000 sales each. That happened a month after releasing a prequel to the first three books. That prequel took a little over two months to hit 5000 sales, which it did one day before it was in BB. Twenty-six days after that, the prequel went over 10,000 sales.

It's far easier to sell one book if it has a couple more in the series after it.

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