A Little Wonky

My blog is getting a little wonky, a little writerly if you know what I mean, but I had to pass along this great blog post today from Phoenix Sullivan about the ins and outs of how the Kindle Direct Publishing free trials work, and the hidden benefits of running a free trial.

Not all books will benefit. Not all books will achieve the downloads needed when free to compare favorably to other books in their categories. Not all books will resonate with readers and benefit from a free run whether they're in Select or not, whether they get prominent category placement or not.

I'm currently writing works that are far out in the fat tail of the publishing world.  That being said, many of Phoenix's insights apply even at the extremes.  I have now run two free trials with moderately successful results given my low expectations. As I learn more with each passing day, it is now apparent that the apprenticeship at this craft will be a long one.  I advised today on Kindleboards that building an audience is a marathon, not a sprint, and that it takes time to get out of the doldrums of free trials with several hundred free downloads to numbers greater.

There is reason to hope, even as the Kindle Store becomes the new slush pile of the publishing world. Why am I hopeful? Because there is a huge, untapped audience out there who don't yet have e-readers. And of the ones who do have Kindles (and the ones to come), many of these readers haven't yet signed up for Amazon Prime, which is looking to foster additional new readers and new income for writers.  I'm amazed to read reports of genre authors with borrows ranging in the upper three-figures per month.

Although the payment rate for borrows for January hasn't been set yet, it could very well turn out that a few of us in the fat tail slush pile who are trying to claw our way out and find an audience could make as much or more from borrows than from actual sales.  The wisdom of the crowds from an informal survey seems to put the January expectation at around $2.10 to $2.20, although my latest assessment is that it will be closer to $1.75.  We should learn the final answer this week.

By this time next month, I hope to have my first longer work in the store, what currently looks to be a 15,000-word novella serving as the first book in a new series, and which will be my first entry at a higher price point.  It's time to step things up.

There's a marathon to run.