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For all of my marketing and promotion, I could not touch the toenails of what Amazon.com has done. Since We are the Monsters became free, the book has been downloaded 6,418* times in less than two days.
My best month for any book, even at 99 cents, was 37 sales.
37. If I wait a half-hour, I'll have 37 more "sales" at the free price. Probably more.
We are the Monsters is now #1 in Kindle Store>Kindle eBooks>Fiction>Genre Fiction>Horror>Ghosts and #23 in the Free Store.
Talk about scary. It's even bumped sales of my other books (The House Eaters in particular--24 copies in two days). I couldn't pay for this kind of advertising, but I guess I am, in a way. The book is FREE. It's a good little book. I thought about sending it out on submission, but went the Kindle route instead. Glad I did. I'll speak about "writing magic" in another post; for now, just believe this little ebook is special. I need special right now.**
* 6450 by the time I finished the post.*** ** Not only is our house in pieces on purpose (remodeling), we lost our phone, my computer (hands cramping on the netbook right now), and the fan on our furnace/air conditioner due to last night's thunderstorm/too close for comfort lightning strike. Not good. Not good at all. ***6456. Scary.
Holy cow, that is Awesome! Congrats on the sales and the bump in sales for your other books.
Question. You said, "I could not touch the toenails of what Amazon.com has done." Do you mean to say Amazon.com dropped your book price to free, or did you simply mean that by your making it free Amazon.com became a form of marketing?
Fantastic news, my friend. I'm thinking that you've crossed that 'hump' and your name is now out there in a big way (perhaps from the freebies you've given away this past year).
Yeah, perhaps you've worked a bit of magic there...
That's great stuff! I'm kinda behind the times, here - I didn't know you could set the price to 0. My KDP says 99c is the minimum. Am I missing something, I wonder?
Congratulations! That's a good story, and I'm glad it's out there resonating. Your anthill just got a lot larger, brother!
Sorry to hear about the misfortune on the utilities and appliances. When it rains, it pours with that stuff (we did the drier, front door, washing machine in the last few months)...
I slowed a bit, not so sure if I wanted the wax relic to notice me. Something wasn’t right. His hair was weird, wispy and thin like stretched bits of cotton, and he hunched over, sort of like his spine was cracked in two and he learned to walk without it.
Maybe the House seeped into my brain a little too much. Maybe I was already missing my friends. The Hollow was cell phone black hole for sure; I lost service as soon as Dad steered around the final curve in our approach to town. The clouds didn’t help—not the best omen on moving day, especially in the usually dry midsummer heat.
“Nick,” Mom said, smiling her best, though exhausted. “This is Mr. Sanderson, one of our new neighbors.”
The relic poked his hand at me, and I mean relic. I thought at first he lost his hand in the war, whatever war he was young enough to fight. Then I noticed fingers unfold from the splotchy thing he offered me. When I touched it, though, my heart eased into a cruising speed. Not the clammy paw I expected.
“Nick,” I said.
“Hello, Nicholas. I’m Jeb Sanderson. I had a son like you, once.” His voice eked out, small and quiet. I almost had to ask him to repeat himself. Then his grip tightened on my hand, and he leaned closer, looking me over with his eyes, two wet marbles with too much white. He smelled a little like black licorice. “Welcome to the Hollow… or Evergreen Estates, as it stands now.”
Jeb Sanderson was the first person to call the place “the Hollow,” and, for me at least, the name stuck. He looked hollow, especially his eyes—like something was missing.
“Jeb was telling us a bit about the new development,” Mom said. “Says one other couple has moved in.”
“Great.” I slowly retrieved my hand from Sanderson’s grip. “I’m going to head in, see about sorting my clothes or something.”
“Nice to meet you, Nicholas.”
I nodded quickly, trying to smile at least a little, then brushed past Mom on the way inside. Sanderson watched me the whole time, burning me with those wet marble eyes.
~
My sister, Tabby—althoug
0 Comments on #samplesunday The House Eaters Chapter 2 as of 1/1/1900
This week for your listening pleasure, "The House Eaters" from my short story collection, The Saints are Dead. Now available in dead tree format (paperback) or e-book (Kindle) from Aqueous Press. This story has absolutely nothing to do with my YA novel of the same name. Lousy marketing on my part? I don't know.
But it is one of my favorite shorts and an homage to both Julio Cortazar and Shirley Jackson.
2 Comments on Saturday Podcast: "The House Eaters" (short story), last added: 5/29/2011
Wow, brilliant! I guess if they had taken anything from the home the nothingness might have come with them... or is it themselves that carry the House Eaters with them?
Back in the summer of 1988, my brother and I started a lawn service. He'd taken care of several lawns when he was in high school in the late '70s/early '80s, and figured I needed a job. I was fresh out of seventh grade and wanted a Nintendo (original 8-bit variety).
Our base price? $5 a lawn. The going rate at the time started at $10. Of course we charged more for bigger lawns, but never more than $15. We worked together. He mowed around trees and did the trimming; I tackled the big, wide-open spaces. It was hard work. By mid July, I had my Nintendo.
Why charge less than competitors?
Volume, I guess. At the apex of our business, we managed something like 35 lawns a week.
Here's the e-book connection: volume = more readers. More readers means more potential fans. More potential fans means more potential "built-in" sales for your next book.
I've just released Borrowed Saints at $2.99. It's a YA novel, right around 50,000 words, and I spent plenty of time polishing it. Sales have been weak. Very weak. Sure, I need to so some more promotion, etc. Whatever one wants to argue about value and how much a consumer should pay--I believe e-book readers have come to expect $0.99 books from Indies. I didn't start it, and I sure didn't make it happen by myself.
Let's look at the math:
One e-book at $2.99 nets the author around $2 at 70% royalty rate. An author would need to sell six times as many books at $0.99 cents (35% royalty) to make (roughly) the same amount of money.
The math seems to argue for the higher rate, right?
But I think something else is going on, something more important. Even if you only make four sales at $0.99 to each one at $2.99, you've quadrupled your readers (or potential fans). Yes, less money now, but more potential money in the future. Like an investment, right?
When VT managed The House Eaters I sold one e-book at $4.99 in two months. Since they folded, I've sold more than 30 in a month. And yes, I'm only selling it for $0.99.
Volume can work wonders, even at very low prices.
Victorine E. Lieskehas sold more than 100,000 copies of Not What She Seems at $0.99. That's a success story I'd take all the way to the bank. Granted, I don't write in the same genre and Victorine has spent a good amount of time marketing her book. But wow.
So what will I do with Borrowed Saints? What do you think I should do?
4 Comments on The Going Price for Lawn Service (and E-books), last added: 5/10/2011
I'd set it at $2.99 for at least 2-3 weeks...maybe even a month. That way, when you drop it to $0.99, you can market it as a "sale".
While I'm not selling quite as many as you, I have noticed the huge difference in sales for The Masks of Our Fathers when I dropped the price to $0.99.
Also, by having books out at $0.99, I think it makes it totally acceptable to charge $2.99 for a new release.
Personally, I abhor "the race to the bottom" on pricing for anything. In this case it devalues one's intellectual property and the effort one put into the resulting endeavor, in my opinion. Having said that, I can see the value of 99¢ pricing for a loss leader in a series, but right now I don't have a series out there (but will later this year).
Yeah, Aaron, I think you are being impatient (and this is coming from a guy who's very impatient). I mean, jeez, you only released the book last week! Give it some time. I will say, though, that a 99 cent price point will help it get spread throughout Amazon's system better. When I released The Calling last month, I did so at the introductory price of 99 cents and sold about 150 copies. Now at $2.99, I've sold maybe 40 copies, which is earning me more money. The Dishonored Dead, though, which I started at $2.99, has only sold about 20 copies so far, and it's a zombie novel for pete's sake! But at the same time, we haven't even hit the middle of the month yet, so I'm not too worried. And then, of course, a new month starts and we can do it all over again. Remember: it's a marathon, not a race.
Fair warning: It's one of those "Big Experiment" posts.
I should have started this "indie publishing" thing six months ago. Am I going to retire soon? No, not at $0.35 a book, but my sales are definitely growing month to month. And when I write "sales" what I really mean is "potential readers". This week alone, I've seen more sales than the entire month of March. The Bottom Feederscontinues to be my bestselling book, with 22 copies and counting out the virtual door. Notice: I'm not selling a ridiculous amount of any one book, but several are selling modestly well. Each book is a potential reader--note I use the word potential. Do you read everything you buy?
Will the trend continue? I hope so. It's a pretty steep curve.
For the first time I feel like I might be able to actually contribute to my family through writing rather than taking away. Think about it: years spent banging at the keyboard when I could have been doing something else. I've taken myself away from my family for my fictional worlds. It isn't as simple as that, but the kernel of truth is there.
Look in the mirror, Aaron: You are not evil because you want to be compensated for your time and effort. Got it? Good.
Yes, I've been releasing e-books faster than Jerry puts the smack-down on Tom. I have a pool of over 100 published short stories, some of them smelly as last week's garbage (don't worry about seeing them again) and several unpublished shorts which were "that close". Why let them fester on my hard drive? It's taken me years to arrive at this point. Years and thousands upon thousands of words.
After my current round of edits on The Sons of Chaos and the Desert of the Dead, I'm going to put the finishing touches on Borrowed Saints for a May release. I'm toying with the idea of writing a House Eaters sequel this summer.
The bottom line: I want to be read. I might be able to spread some good fortune to my family. Sounds like goals are meeting reality, right?
I just wish I would have started six months ago.
What are you waiting for?
17 Comments on What I Should Have Done Six Months Ago, last added: 4/25/2011
Exactly! Congrats on making the decision. You're right - .35 a copy isn't much but it garners potential readers. Keep multiplying the novels and it builds. And no, I haven't waited. :) I've .35 my way to over $500 last year. That may be only a month's worth of groceries, but it's better than sitting on my hard drive.
Rings true enough. I'm slogging away in hopes of having something publishable. Don't dare rush into anything, as I'd hate to put out a shoddy piece of work or naively sabotage my efforts on a good piece of work.
Congrats on the sales! I hope they go up and up. Every time I think about self-publishing, I dread figuring out the formatting and covers and so forth. Other than that, I'm starting to think more kindly on it. It's certainly better than letting stuff sit on my hard-drive forever.
At the risk of sounding like a massive snob, you are precisely the person I want doing this, too. I keep trying to push the point (to the naysayers) that the independent spirit, the ability for authors who don't fit into some BOX to get their stuff out there is SO FUNDAMENTAL to the exchange of good ideas--fictional or otherwise (what's one but a way of exploring the other?).
I'm so, so happy to know that your sales are on the rise. Like, for you, for me, for the whole effing world of publishing. This is what it's about.
The greatest thing about the e-book revolution is that your stories never have to languish. Personally, I'm still pushing all my work at the traditional markets first; but with the knowledge and know-how to do it by myself if a particularly story runs out of markets.
Katey - Thanks, Katey. If all I do is stir the pot a little, I've done my job.
Thanks, Cate. (I try, too)
Daniel - The technology has really made it work. The best gatekeepers have always been readers.
Ben - And I encourage you to do so. I'm still trying the market for short stories. Most (75% or so) of my collections are previously published work. Kindle is just placing those stories in front of more eyeballs.
I can second that. While I don't think my numbers are rising as significantly as yours on a monthly basis, I can see a definite upward curve in week by week sales. I think your "experiment" back up Mr. Konrath's belief of success also hinging on how much virtual shelf space you are occupying. I have also started looking closely at a few things that were "that close" (including a novella) to try to take up some more of that same shelf space.
Ricky - I'll be following your journey as well--best of luck.
Barry - Bottom Feeders is at 26 copies for the month (as of just now). Not burning up the world, but I might hit 100 overall. I can't complain about that.
Every time I read one of your posts, I get a little kick in the ass to keep writing. If my ebook does half as well as your have, I'll be uber-impressed. It's all about gaining readers. After all, what is a writer creating if no one ever discovers it?
My Friday morning started with a deluge of emails from the Virtual Tales authors' group. Two of the four board members had resigned. My contract was declared "NULL and VOID". A year ago, I would have been devastated. The House Eaters has traveled a rough road. I thought it would be the book to land an agent--in fact, it came close. But that was a long time ago.
I'm glad you re-released it, this book deserves to be read. This was the first of your longer pieces I ever read, and boy, did I love it. In fact, during a time when I had no freetime for reading and hadn't read a book in weeks, The House Eaters was the first to get my ass in a chair and read cover to cover. Killed it in 2 days. Awesome stuff.
Good for you, Aaron!! It's the way the world is going and I'm thrilled that you're empowered! I promise, I will buy it. And the cover is frickin' awesome.
Have to echo the sentiments here on the cover. Haunting and classy. Rights, rights, rights! When you can produce such a nice book on your own, it makes you question ever signing those rights away again.
Love the new look, and congratulations on keeping the controls on your art!
An old high school buddy sent an email the other day. He'd just read Loathsome, Dark and Deep and told me "[I'm] Still reading two to three books a week and just wanted to tell you how impressed I was by yours."
This guy used to read about a book a day. No shit. He'd read all day at school, and then, in the evening, tell me everything he read. A true speed-reader. We haven't seen each other in years, part of the tragedy of adulthood, but used to hang every day. A note like that means more than a professional review.
Speaking of Loathsome, I went to the Lawrence Public Library last night to pick up a copy of Roald Dahl's Dirty Beasts for a forensics kid, and found Loathsome, Dark and Deep on the "new fiction" shelf. Pretty cool. Now someone please check it out so it doesn't have to sit there and let all the bigger books bully it.
Appreciation means everything, doesn't it? I got my own heaping helping this morning and I'm high on it.
Congrats on the signing, the praise, and on being a writer. It's hard, often thankless work and too often dismissed as a hobby by those not down here in the trenches.
You're on my to read list. I'm looking forward to it.
Excellent that your friend loved your book. And that it's in your local library. Squee.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if everyone who entered a Goodreads comp (or marked a book to read) actually bought and read that book. I do love to daydream.
Well, I managed to get a piece of flash out into the ether this week, a short little thing titled "Why Susie McTavish Believes in Angels". I'm not sure it works, but it gave me shivers when I wrote it. We shall see...
I'm doing okay on the writing side of things but falling behind on editing and revising. I will not send a story out before it's ready. So, I have three longish tales (3K or more) written and waiting for editing/revision and another flash story in the queue. I suppose I should hammer them into shape before writing another word.
Speaking of hammers, one features as an important prop in The House Eaters, my YA horror book (which adults should dig, too) which was released this week. How's that for a segue?
If you're interested in a signed copy, drop me a line ([email protected]). I'm selling them at cover price + shipping, so no gouging here. Maybe I should offer a discount...(haha)
8 Comments on Write 1 / Sub 1 Weekend Update #write1sub1, last added: 2/7/2011
Great stuff all round Aaron. I know what you mean about falling behind on the editing. Sometimes I wonder if Bradbury did any redrafting at all. I mean, I guess he must have.
Thanks, Jarmara...the internet is sooooo addictive.
Anthony - It feels weird, but right. I try to let a story sit before revisiting it, but now I find myself writing more and editing less. I'll hit my stride.
Because The House Eaters is now available in paperback. I'm excited, of course, because I love this story and its sarcastic, wise-cracking narrator, Nick Gillingham.
Nick Gillingham knew that moving before his senior year would really suck... but he never imagined a nightmare like Broughton’s Hollow. It’s bad enough that Nick hears disembodied voices after moving near “the House”—a crumbling relic with a sinister past. But then the local football team decides to make him their new tackling dummy, the “hot babe” at school starts manipulating him for her own nefarious purposes, and his parents’ marriage falls apart. When Nick’s elderly neighbor hints that whatever lurks within “the House” might be the cause of his troubles, he sets out to uncover the truth behind the local Indian legend of the “Eating Monster.” Nick will to have to rely on a band of social outcasts from school—and his looney kid sister—to put his life and family back together again. But even if he survives a close encounter with “the House,” Nick will still need to find a date for the homecoming dance...
Really, I don't mind. In fact, I encourage you to steal my book. The way I figure it--and I'm stealing the idea from Cory Doctorow, proving piracy of ideas is pretty common--anyone who steals my book wasn't going to pay for it in the first place.
What am I talking about? Well, I discovered (through the magic of Google Alerts...if you are an author and don't have one set to your name do it now) The Bottom Feeders is available through a file sharing site. Another site has it available for $1.99. Ha! Good luck selling it, folks. I'm not doing so hot at $.99. (5 sold in January so far...)
But I digress. Please, feel free to trade my book "illegally". Any of my books, actually. If it means more people read the books--awesome. The problem, see, is that most book pirates probably don't read all those files. Pirates pirate because they can--I'd say some are addicted to file downloading. I want to meet readers who are addicted to reading. So steal my book. Steal it all over the place. Just leave my name on it, okay, because not to do so would be the real theft.
Speaking of free things and reading, you can sign up for a free preview of The House Eaters. Just fill in the appropriate info off to the left. The book is coming. Soon.
In fact, it goes to print tonight...barring any major problems.
I read an interesting article the other day on some agent blog, discussing the most important aspects of a good cover. I recently came to realize that one of the most important things a cover should do: be a good thumbnail.
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And you can sign up for a free sample when The House Eaters is available. Go on. Do it. 
Holy cow, that is Awesome! Congrats on the sales and the bump in sales for your other books.
Question. You said, "I could not touch the toenails of what Amazon.com has done." Do you mean to say Amazon.com dropped your book price to free, or did you simply mean that by your making it free Amazon.com became a form of marketing?
Also, another update to your book's rank. You're now #20 in free, #15 in free fiction, and #1 in free horror.
Plus you're up to 3 reviews.
Sweet!
Sweet! This will definitely boost your sales. Plus, once Amazon reverts it back to 99 cents, you'll keep selling more.
Fantastic news, my friend. I'm thinking that you've crossed that 'hump' and your name is now out there in a big way (perhaps from the freebies you've given away this past year).
Yeah, perhaps you've worked a bit of magic there...
Anthony - A writer can't set a book for free on Amazon. I did set it as free via Smashwords, which Amazon noticed and "price matched".
Robert - I've been plodding along at the same level for some time--it's kind of a shock to my system. Definitely a positive shock.
Alan - If this is magic, I like it.
I've got a copy and as soon as I get around to reading it, I'll be sure to throw up a review on Amazon and elsewhere.
Glad to hear the free downloads are working a little in boosting sales. Good stuff, man.
Awesome news, and yes, folk will pick up your other books after reading We are the Monsters. Let us know how many go in all.
Hooray for price matching!
Once I get up the cajones to try (priced "free" still scares me), I might just have to try this with 13 Broken Nightlights.
Awesome progress. Rock on!
That's great stuff! I'm kinda behind the times, here - I didn't know you could set the price to 0. My KDP says 99c is the minimum. Am I missing something, I wonder?
Hi Aaron,
Congratulations! That's a good story, and I'm glad it's out there resonating. Your anthill just got a lot larger, brother!
Sorry to hear about the misfortune on the utilities and appliances. When it rains, it pours with that stuff (we did the drier, front door, washing machine in the last few months)...
Alls I can say is: WOW. To have that many readers? To dream the impossible dream...
How about a hearty F#%K YEAH from me? Cuz dude. F#%K YEAH!
Nice! That's a sweet cover too. Reminds me of camp.
Very impressive download figures. Of course, who wouldn't want to read it :)
You did a ton of work to be ready to capitalize on your lucky moment. Big congrats!!!