[Howietzer]

My co-author and I have been working on a plan on how to release our story. Actually finishing the thing is pretty high on the list, but since we aren't quite there yet we started looking at the marketing/mechanics of how the publishing side works. From what I've gathered by reading the threads here on KB and articles posted by various authors is that pricing, content release (frequency) and promotional programs (such as Amazon select) can have a huge impact on a book's success. If it's decently written that is.

These basics may seem obvious for those of you who've been in this business awhile, but harder to truly understand for newbies such as myself.

Anyway, below is a flowchart of a strategy we created specifically for our story:

Of course this all may change in two weeks, considering how fast this publishing stuff is shaking down, but for now, this is what we hope will happen. Suggestions?

It would be great to hear what kinds of strategery you guys and gals are working on.

PS. We finally have some writing up on Wattpad. The link is in my sig. It'd be great if some of you could check it out and give us a hand. You all are a pretty savvy group and I value your opinions. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[SBJones]

My advice would be not to have any of the titles limited to Amazon through select if any of the other books are available outside Amazon.  It doesn't make sense that you can get all the movies but one at best buy but the only place to get the first movie is Walmart.

If you want to leverage KDP select, either go all in with it with all your books, or put Book One in but don't use the promo until you get the side stories launched.  That way you can use the promo at the end of your 90 days and immediately roll out to other markets and not be exclusive.  I don't think you will be happy if you start select when you launch the side stories and now have book one stuck for a quarter of a year on Amazon.  Think about it, even if you launch book one with select today.  It won't be free until April 15. 

You need to look at that 90 day window in your Stratergery.

Don't get me wrong, I like select.  I think it is one of the most powerful tools a new author can leverage and I would recommend it to anyone starting.  However once you get it all down, it doesn't offer anything you can't get elsewhere and the exclusivity clause gets worse and worse.

 

[Howietzer]

If you want to leverage KDP select, either go all in with it with all your books, or put Book One in but don't use the promo until you get the side stories launched. That way you can use the promo at the end of your 90 days and immediately roll out to other markets and not be exclusive. I don't think you will be happy if you start select when you launch the side stories and now have book one stuck for a quarter of a year on Amazon. Think about it, even if you launch book one with select today. It won't be free until April 15.

I see, very nice. Thank you.

 

[AndreSanThomas]

Let me add that you can also "bundle" books 2-5 once you have them all.  As long as you're clear in your title and description that this isn't new material, but rather a combo of the others, that's good.  You could put them at a price that gives a small discount and that puts yet another title up for your visibility.

 

[Howietzer]

Let me add that you can also "bundle" books 2-5 once you have them all. As long as you're clear in your title and description that this isn't new material, but rather a combo of the others, that's good. You could put them at a price that gives a small discount and that puts yet another title up for your visibility.

Most excellent idea... we had played around with the idea of bundling all seven books together but that seemed a little unwieldy. Your proposed strategery is something we hadn't considered. Much thx!

 

[H.M. Ward]

I think the fall off rate between book 1 and book 6 is too large to justify continuing the series at that point. Reader retention is HARD. You might do better to make book 6 a spin off, so that it's a stand alone and then copy your model again - 100K word book, 4 novellas.  It might work great, but there is a big drop off after book #3 in a series. Just a suggestion. I think book 6 and 7 will under preform if readers have to go through the character novellas to get there.

 

[jvin248]

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You don't have to create complete sets when you bundles.
Do a kindle ebook search on "Livix" or look up my Amazon author page and see what I did with my vampire trilogy in my sig: three novels released last August plus two short stories released in December transformed into ten products just before the holiday rush). Works well if you can do covers inexpensively. Those ten products are all in KDP-Select and I have 45 days of free every 90 to promo something or not (the omnibus in my sig gets bought and borrowed but not free). This pile of products gave better exposure to more downloaders than previous runs in the POI/ENT/etc/etc sites that you have to beg/pay for placement now.
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I'll have to check out your fantasy series .. I'm doing something similar with mine except starting with the individual character novels then putting them together for the final push.
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[John Daulton]

Sweet covers!

 

[DRMarvello]

It's an interesting approach. If I were doing it, I'd go for the full novel trilogy first and maybe do the character-focused spinoffs afterward (in fact, that *is* my plan), but I understand your rationale.

The only thing that concerns me is that your approach might confuse readers, and a confused mind takes no action. I think it's great to try an innovative experiment (and I'll be watching with interest while you do so), as long as you accept that experiments don't always succeed.

Regardless of what you decide to do, I wish you success with your books. If your experiment does work out well, I may try the Howeitzer/Reinke Method myself in the future!

As for KDP Select, I agree with most of what others have said here. I put the first book of my series into Select for 6 months (it's out now), but I don't think any of the subsequent volumes will go into Select. Select seems to be all-or-nothing for a series, although I'm open to opposing arguments on that. I considered putting my Book 2 into Select, but I can't see how that would work.

 

[Howietzer]

I think the fall off rate between book 1 and book 6 is too large to justify continuing the series at that point. Reader retention is HARD. You might do better to make book 6 a spin off, so that it's a stand alone and then copy your model again - 100K word book, 4 novellas. It might work great, but there is a big drop off after book #3 in a series. Just a suggestion. I think book 6 and 7 will under preform if readers have to go through the character novellas to get there.

That's an interesting angle... Generally when I like something I'm in it for the long haul (even if it takes 5 years in between book releases). But not everyone thinks that way.

You don't have to create complete sets when you bundles.
I'll have to check out your fantasy series .. I'm doing something similar with mine except starting with the individual character novels then putting them together for the final push.

Thanks jvin, I'll definitely check that out!

Sweet covers!

Much appreciated!

It's an interesting approach. If I were doing it, I'd go for the full novel trilogy first and maybe do the character-focused spinoffs afterward (in fact, that *is* my plan), but I understand your rationale.

The only thing that concerns me is that your approach might confuse readers, and a confused mind takes no action. I think it's great to try an innovative experiment (and I'll be watching with interest while you do so), as long as you accept that experiments don't always succeed.

Regardless of what you decide to do, I wish you success with your books. If your experiment does work out well, I may try the Howeitzer/Reinke Method myself in the future!

As for KDP Select, I agree with most of what others have said here. I put the first book of my series into Select for 6 months (it's out now), but I don't think any of the subsequent volumes will go into Select. Select seems to be all-or-nothing for a series, although I'm open to opposing arguments on that. I considered putting my Book 2 into Select, but I can't see how that would work.

We have some fears about reader confusion as well... The novellas will take place at the same time (in story time) and the story will converge at the beginning of the next novel, book six. This made us wonder if it wouldn't be better to either release one book with all of the stories wrapped together or release all four novellas at the same time. We will definitely rework our ideas on Select. Much thx!