Advice Requested

[Republibot 3.0]

Hey, everybody. I need some advice:

I have written and self-published three books in the last three years, and a fourth one is probably coming out in less than a month. I've got 'em up on Amazon and Smashwords, I plug 'em on both my sites (Which have no readers) and I plug 'em on Republibot (Which still gets a fair amount of traffic), and I'm generally well reviewed. I even got a celebrity blurb from Larry Niven on one, who liked a story and was willing to say so in print.

Thing is: nobody buys 'em. Last year I made $32 in royalties.

Now, I didn't expect to get rich, I have no illusions about cranking out the next Harry Potter or even the next 50 Shades of Grey. I write primarily because I like to write, and I publish because stories need readers, right? That's the purpose? And admittedly there's a bit of ego in there. Still: $32? That's just embarasing. Not so much because of the money, but just because that means no one's reading 'em, right? In this case money is more a gauge of exposure than anything else.

I've got a friend that's got 5 or 6 books in print the same way, same exact process as mine. He got in the game earlier than I did by a few years, but he on average makes between $20-$30/month. Again, money is primarily a way of judging exposure here. I've asked him how he does it, and he just shrugs. He honestly doesn't know. I have another friend who's got three books out (I even helped him copy-edit one of 'em) and he's selling better than me without any website advertising.

Anyone got any suggestions?

 

[Springer]

I work in publishing, so I have a little bit of experience. Not sure it will help, but here goes.

I checked 'em out on Amazon. I wanted to see what the titles and covers were like, cos that's what grabs the attention first of any prospective reader. The Undead at War has a decent cover and a great title, though the title doesn't seem to relate to the cover pic. I'd make that blurb from Larry Niven bigger. I really do like the graphic design of the cover for Ice Cream and Venom, love the yellow banners set against the concrete grey, but the picture on the cover is telling me the book is about murders, while the title (and I know you like the title) doesn't really tell you what the stories in the book are about at all. Without knowing it was science fiction, I'd be clueless to tell you what it was about based on the cover and title. I wasn't keen on the cover to It's Not Rocket Science either, it lacks colour and again the title seems a little misleading – it doesn't sound like it is going to be fiction and the picture (that's presumably you hanging onto the rocket) makes it look like real life, not fiction.

The other thing are that they are short stories. Absolutely nothing wrong with short stories at all, but I don't think short stories typically sell quite as well as full novels, because I think there is a tendency for the reader to think that the stories could be hit or miss, unless you're a well known author. So you might not expect sales to be quite as high.

For your fourth book, I'd recommend going for a really obvious picture on the cover, and a title that reflects that picture and the content of the book. If you look at The Undead at War – even though I like the picture, there is nothing about the undead at war in it. Assuming that title is literal, then readers want to see space zombies hacking each other to bits! Leave the reader in no doubt about the content of the book. And if you are going to have an Amazon preview, then make sure the preview is of one of the stories. The Undead at War has a preview of your introduction, which isn't going to give readers a sense of what the prose is like.

Anyway, they are something to think about for when you publish your fourth book. Good luck with it!

 

[Republibot 3.0]

I work in publishing, so I have a little bit of experience. Not sure it will help, but here goes.
[...]

Anyway, they are something to think about for when you publish your fourth book. Good luck with it!

Thank you, that's really helpful!

The 4th book (Also an anthology) is called "The Bones of an Angel," and the artwork is an angel skeleton that's being excavated by archeologists or paelontologists or whatever. I just thought it was a neat image/mood kinda' thing. It does relate directly to one of the things in the book, but maybe that's not overt enough.

I know Short Stories have sort of fallen on hard times, and are something of a dead format. I've tried my hand at longer fiction, and as yet I don't seem to have the knack for it. To me (As a guy in his late 40s) I've always really loved short SF stories. They're a really efficient idea-delivery system, read it, get your "ooooh! That's cool!" buzz, and move on to the next one. If any of the stories suck, well, hey, at least they didn't take up much of my time. On to the next one, maybe that'll be better.

(Not that my stories suck, mind you <G>)

So - and I'm not disputing you, I'm just trying to understand - to me it seems like a book of a dozen short stories would be less risk than a novel. If a novel sucks, then it just sucks and that's that. If there's one klinker in an anthology, then the book as a whole doesn't suck, the damage is more compartmentalized. Clearly this is not the majority opinion anymore (If it ever was). Any opinion as to why?

Again: Thank you very much, this is very helpful!

 

[Springer]

I'm honestly not sure why short stories have fallen out of fashion. They just don't seem to be in vogue and haven't for a while. Sure Gardner Dozois's annual collection does well, but there are lots of big name SF authors in that. Apparently the short story malaise hits most genres, apart from erotica for some reason.

There is an interesting article about it on Salon; it doesn't really say why short stories are not popular amongst readers (or, more precisely, the publishers) but it is an interesting read nonetheless.

http://www.salon.com/2013/02/21/sorry_the_short_story_boom_is_bogus/

There are also Kindle Singles: you could try selling individual stories on the Kindle? http://www.alanrinzler.com/blog/2011/09/04/new-ways-to-sell-short-stories/
and http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2013/sep/05/amazon-kindle-singles-short

 

[Republibot 3.0]

I'm honestly not sure why short stories have fallen out of fashion. They just don't seem to be in vogue and haven't for a while. Sure Gardner Dozois's annual collection does well, but there are lots of big name SF authors in that. Apparently the short story malaise hits most genres, apart from erotica for some reason.

The Erotica thing isn't hard to figure: it's hard to read a book with only one hand, and when you're other hand is free you kinda' don't feel like reading any more. <G>

There is an interesting article about it on Salon; it doesn't really say why short stories are not popular amongst readers (or, more precisely, the publishers) but it is an interesting read nonetheless.

http://www.salon.com/2013/02/21/sorry_the_short_story_boom_is_bogus/

There are also Kindle Singles: you could try selling individual stories on the Kindle? http://www.alanrinzler.com/blog/2011/09/04/new-ways-to-sell-short-stories/
and http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2013/sep/05/amazon-kindle-singles-short

I *have* toyed with the idea. I haven't really done anything with it, but it would be cakework to do. That's a good idea. I'll give it a shot.