I Finally Published a Book! Be one of the first to read it...

Congrats on publishing your first book. Believe me, I know from personal experience how much hard work writing a book can be...and writing it is just half the battle. Getting one published, is a nerve-wracking adventure unto itself.

How you were able to get the ATS site owners to help you promote and sell it...is another impressive accomplishment.

reply to post by westcoast


A BIG congrats, WestCoast!

I had also personally wondered where you'd "disappeared" to, as I've always respected and enjoyed reading your posts in the Fragile Earth forum.

Did you by any chance give yourself any wiggle room for a sequel?

Sweet, e-book is the way to go. I can grab this on my Kindle, for one. It's got to be interesting if the author is an ATS reader. There we go... purchased and ready to read in less than a minute. I'm always up for supporting "local" artists, writers, etc. as I am one myself :-)

Sorry to take so long to get back to you all...I was gone a couple of days (Spring break!) and my newer phone didn't have my login for ATS.

Thank you all so much for the encouragement!! I didn't expect so much.

First; yes it is on Amazon as a download for the kindle. I don't see it yet on Barnes and noble, but I think just about every other tablet format is available.

As to the word count, it's right around 62,000 words. It's a young adult novel, so I tried to keep it in the middle range since it my first book. I am still going to try and solicit traditional publishers so word count is important.

The sequel question? Oh, most definitely!! I am already forming the backstory (about 10,000 yrs ago) and all the different ways I could go with it.

I really hope that those of you who have downloaded it enjoy it. I'd appreciate feedback if you care to give any! (I can take it!)

I would appreciate any feedback, if anyone has read it yet??

Thanks!!

I just downloaded the sample, i'll be reading it tonight

So I have to say that this time period after first putting the book 'out there' has been the hardest. The way the system is set up at Booktango, I only get a sales report for the other sellers (like Amazon) once a month, so I have NO idea how many copies have been sold, or what people are thinking.

I have gone from "You know, I think this is pretty good!", to "Oh, I hope someone likes it!", to "Groan..this must really suck. What was I thinking?"

I guess that I just have to have more patience, and wait. I am counting on the people here at ATS to be honest with me though. If you think something about it is weak (okay, maybe don't flat out tell me it sucks...but be honest ) let me know. I was all charged up for a sequel, but if the general reception for Bloodline isn't good, or if there are things I really need to work on, I want to know before I start any planning for the second book.

Thanks again for taking your time to look at, read or just discuss this with me!! Once again, ATS helps to keep me from feeling quite so alone.

FYI...the book is currently on sale for a great discount at Amazon....still waiting for it to be available on barnes and noble.

I would love any feedback! Hopefully at least one of you enjoyed it.

reply to post by westcoast


Congratulations on your publish!

I am also an Amazon author, published 2 years in June.

Forget about wherever you read it being $20 for each paperback book. Head over to Createspace (Amazon company) where you can set up your paperback as Print on Demand (nothing's made til it's ordered, then Amazon makes it & ships it for you).

With print on demand services, there will be a flat cost to your book, mine range between $4-5, and anything above that is profit. I sell between 50 and 100 paperbacks per month and make $2-3 on each sale. That's ON TOP of ebook profits.

All you have to do is set up your book. Amazon will add it to your ebook's product page, print and ship it when someone buys it, and CUT YOU A CHECK!

For the record, I have found ebook sales to jump when paired with a paperback version, as it makes it more
"real" to readers.

You pay nothing upfront, bottom line, all you do is collect money while providing your readers a chance at a paperback.

Originally posted by westcoast
I only get a sales report for the other sellers (like Amazon) once a month,

Furthermore, you can see LIVE, DAILY reports of your sales at Amazon. If you haven't figured this out since your last post, I will tell you how. I check my reports like 20 times a day.

reply to post by Ameilia


Wow...thanks for that info!!! I am going to check that out ASAP. I have a few people ask me about a printed version option, and I just didn't know how to go about that. That's cheap, too.

No, I haven't figured out how to check the sales at amazon. Would love a little help on that too.

Thanks again!!

reply to post by westcoast


Okay, you probably know this part, but first you must log on to your KDP account with Amazon. That's here:
kdp.amazon.com...

When you are logged in, you will see this page, which shows you your title(s). I have blocked out some of my personal information, but everything you can see here, you will also see on your account when you log on.


You want to click on Reports which I have circled in red. You will then see:


You want to click on Month to Date Unit Sales. You will then see:


This page shows you your title, then your AISN (mine are whited out) followed by units sold, units refunded, net units sold, units borrowed, free units, and free units pricematched. In red, I have circled "View Report for Amazon.com (includes India)" showing that this screenshot is showing my US sales only. You can use the drop down arrow to see your sales for UK, DE, FR, ES, IT, JP, CA, and BR. Each of these reports separately.

This page is live. These are my sales for this month, April 2013, from the 1st to the 19th. This will update constantly throughout the day. It will roll over at the end of the month.

For Excel reports for previous months, you click on Prior Six Weeks Royalties and Prior Months Royalties, these links are viewable in the second screenshot I have posted, underneath my red circle around Month to Date Unit Sales.

I hope this makes your life easier, I would be crushed if I couldn't see my sales every day! Let me know if you have other questions, if I happen to know the answer I will answer, or maybe can point you in the right direction at least.

reply to post by Ameilia


Ugh....thank you for all of that, but I don't think it will work for me. I went to it and tried, but since I published my book through Booktango, it is not direct through Amazon. I don't see any way to add it through my amazone account, without actually publishing it with them direct. I don't think I can do that since I have already gone through Booktango?

reply to post by westcoast


You can absolutely publish with Amazon. How much is Booktango paying you? Amazon pays 35% commission on books priced $0.99 to $2.99 and 70% commission on books priced $3.00 to $9.99. Unless Booktango is paying you more than Amazon would, you may as well go direct with Amazon. Then you can use their Support if you need to.

reply to post by Ameilia


I get 80% for any sold on the Booktango site and 70% from everyone else, no matter what the price of the book. So it seems to be a wash...except that I can't tell how many (if any) are selling!! ugh...not fun.

I definitely want to look into the option to have the printed book available though. very cool.

Looks like you have had a very good sales month!! I don't expect to sell nearly that many, although honestly I have no idea what will happen. If it will be 2 sold or 200. NO idea.

Greetings and Hallucinations! Well done. It's late here but hit the link and checked the teaser! Very Tease-y ! ! ! !
I'll be interested to read a bit more I think! Bon Chance Mon Ami ! Now, when is the next one coming out ?

reply to post by CarbonBase


Hi there! Glad you liked the 'tease'. A couple fo those sites have huge samples of the book...

As to the sequel; I am already working on the concept. Waiting until my son graduates to actually write it (so I have time to obsess properly) but if I follow the same time frame as the first one, it should be available by july or august.

Hope you like the story!

So I have to share this link!

While doing my normal daily search of my book title to see if there are any new listings, I came accross a site that will track Amazon sales! I don't know what the cut-off is, or what initiates it, but it just started tracking my book a couple of days ago. I have no idea how many I have sold up until that point, but I sold three in the past two days...at least that is something!

Here it is: sales tracker

I should add that it does more than track just amazon...pretty cool site!

I still haven't had much feedback...but at least what I have heard is all positive. Would really still like to hear from anyone here on ATS that has read it. Good or bad!!!

Okay...I am giving this one more shameless bump in the hopes that someone who read it will respond!

I would really love to get some feedback, as I am starting the outline for the sequel. If anyone has comments either good/bad it would really help me in not making the same mistakes with the next book...or continuing on the same track.

Thank you again for all your support!!

reply to post by westcoast


You can change your profile to Published Author instead of just writer lol nice one westcoast i hope your book does really well, i will let my friends no so they can buy it to, fame and fortune.

reply to post by westcoast


Hi Tara,

Can I just start by saying that I think you might need to change your price, in the Kindle Store in the UK your book is over £8, to put that in perspective I can pre-order the new Dan Brown book for £7. I am all for reading a new book by a new self-published author but not for £8. The last one I think I got from the kindle store from a new author about £3-4 and it was twice as long.

On saying that I did get the sample and for the most part I liked what I read, the plot does seem interesting and I really like reading a book that has been written in the first person style. I would say that I felt it was going a little too fast for my licking but in a short novella targeted at a younger audience I can understand why you chose to write in this way. Also, just to be really pedantic you said at one point something about one of the characters taking “1000 milligrams of chewable vitamin C”, would make a little more sense to say 1 gram of the stuff. Again I know I am being pedantic but if that’s really the only fault I can find then I guess you’re doing well but you did ask for feedback.

Like I say the plot does sound very interesting but because of the price I don’t think I will buy the book. oddly the first few chapters that I did read made me feel the same way I did when reading the Lorian trilogy. I don’t know why but again I guess that’s a good thing because I did really enjoy reading those books.