E-book Updates
Congratulations to bookblather, who won my last ARC of The Snow Queen’s Shadow [Amazon | B&N | Mysterious Galaxy]. I went with random.org to pick a winner, because there were way too many clever, funny, and touching entries. My thanks to everyone who entered the giveaway.
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In two months, Goblin Tales [Amazon | B&N | Lulu] has sold 193 copies on Amazon, 80 on Barnes & Noble, 30 through Lulu, and a handful on iBooks, Kobo, and Wizard’s Tower Press. So we’re looking at a total of between 300 and 400 books sold.
The commission on the print edition at Lulu is tiny, but even so, that means probably close to $700 for the book. At this point, it’s selling about one copy a day. Not huge, but that means $50-$60 each month if sales continue at that rate.
So as I mentioned yesterday, I’m planning to do two more collections. I’m thinking about doing six stories instead of five, and moving the price to $3.99. (Sixty-seven cents a story doesn’t seem unreasonable to me…) I don’t know that these will do quite as well as the goblin-themed collection, which tied directly into my published novels, but we’ll see.
The first collection is tentatively titled Kitemaster and Other Stories, and would include:
Kitemaster
Blade of the Bunny
Untrained Melody
Spell of the Sparrow
Over the Hill
The Creature in Your Neighborhood
The second is currently nameless, but would probably follow the same _____ and Other Stories pattern. For this one, I’m looking at:
Ours to Fight For
Sister of the Hedge
Deliverance
Heart of Ash
Bloodlines (Maybe)
Gift of the Kites (Maybe)
I’ve e-mailed an artist about cover art for Kitemaster, but haven’t heard back yet. (This happened with Goblin Tales, too - I contacted one artist and never got an answer. Very frustrating, though I’m delighted with what I got.) Ignoring my own advice, I may take a stab at cover layout myself, but if I can’t pull it off, I’ll hire a pro to do that for me. I’ll probably post cover drafts again so folks can offer feedback too, because that was incredibly helpful last time.
Things I’m thinking about doing differently this time around:
I may not do a print version. I know that will disappoint some people, but it was a lot of work to prepare Goblin Tales for print, and resulted in relatively few sales. I like print myself, and may eventually get to this, but it will not be a priority.
Possibly going through an aggregator instead of uploading to each site individually. But maybe not, since I’m a control freak.
I don’t have a schedule yet. Snow Queen comes out in exactly seven weeks, and I’ll be putting most of my energy into promoting that. So the collections may be closer to the end of the year. (On the other hand, knowing me, I might say they heck with it, dive in and obsess for a week or two, and get it done sooner…)
So that’s the plan. Any thoughts or advice? Love the idea? Hate the $3.99 price point? Are there stories you’d like to see reprinted that I didn’t include, or anything you’re particularly looking forward to?
Mirrored from Jim C. Hines.