I’ve got a new article up at Geeks Out! Selling Yourself at Flame Con: An Insider’s Guide covers my experiences as a vendor at the queer comic convention, and offers some tips for anyone who might consider getting a table next year. Take a look, leave a comment, show your love!
I wrote a post – which you can find here – about my preparations for my first ever comic convention as an exhibitor, which happened this past Saturday, the 12th. I woke up at 5:30 am (blergh) to get to the Best Western Robert Treat Hotel in Newark, New Jersey, for the first year of the Newark Comic Con. My brother Jon was along to help out for the day (and crashing the night before at his house in Jersey got me some extra sleep – it could have been so much worse if I had been coming from the Bronx). We got to the hotel at seven, right on time for set-up. We’d have two hours before the con began.
We found the ballroom right away and were confronted with a sea of empty tables, all decked out in alternating red, yellow, or blue tablecloths. There were no assigned locations – the con volunteer said to go ahead and choose any table I liked.
So, you know. No pressure. It’s not like location is vitally important or anything.
Not having ever exhibited before, I had to draw on my experience as a con attendee to guide my decision. I chose a table in a middle row, with a lot of space between my row and the next. And I picked a table second from the end, on the side of the room nearest the doors where the guests would be coming in, but not directly in front of a door. And hoped for the best.
Here’s the table as it looked when we arrived.
And here’s how it looked an hour and a half later.
I’m pretty darn proud of it. Let’s get a closer look…
Kate Danley had advised me not to make my table too neat – people are less likely to pick things up if it looks like they’re going to mess up a nice display, but if it looks like people have already been browsing, they’ll feel free. Uneven stacks of books are good, too, as it looks like people have been buying. With that in mind, I tried to strike a balance between looking attractive and looking inviting.
I bought online some simple display stands, which is what the individual books of Alan Lennox, Caitlin Ross, and Mark Park are standing up in. You see the four books standing up in tiered rows – that black-and-white patterned thing is just a file divider I got at Staples. The later books are kind of shoved in there (they’re a bit thick), but I knew nobody would be taking books from there anyway, and the divider provides a nice, simple way to display the books in a different way from the single stands.
I made sure there was a small stack of each book, slightly uneven. I had more of the first two books in a box under the table, if needed. You can see some bookmarks to the side there, spread messily to encourage grabbing. And they’re right next to the candy I bought as a free give-away. I forgot to bring a bowl for them, but I actually think it worked better with them just piled up on the table. I got Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups (which I think I ate most of), regular Kisses, Dark Chocolate Kisses, and some Starburst for those unfathomable souls who don’t like chocolate.
And in the back left corner, I’ve put a cardboard box, covered with a small black tablecloth, to elevate one of the posters that Jon had made up for me out of the four covers. I chose the cover to Dakota Bell to put on the table, as I think it’s the most eye-catching. The poster would have been perfectly visible without the box, but I wanted to add another level to the table, just for visual interest.
And just at the bottom of the picture you can see the rainbow flag we affixed to the front of the tablecloth. I went back and forth on this, but I decided that the diversity of my books, including the LGBT characters, is one of the things my fans seem to really like. I figured there’d be some people at this con for whom the rainbow flag would be an attention-grabber, and for those for whom it’d be a turn-off, well, they probably wouldn’t like my books anyway.
The mailing list sign-up form was front and center. I didn’t expect to actually sell many books at this con (if any), so connecting with potential future readers was my top priority, which meant getting names on that list. Hence the place of prominence for that clipboard. Yes, there’s already a name on it, and no, we didn’t put it there – another exhibitor came by while we were setting up, bought a book and signed up. We hadn’t even opened yet and I was already in business!
In the back is another file divider with the whole series (with book four in front on this one, just so that it looks different from the other), and Dakota Bell on her stand next to the clipboard. Behind are the stacks for the third and fourth books in the series. I didn’t bring as many of those – I brought twenty of book one, ten of book two, and five each of books three and four. So I had no reserves of those books – all five were out on the table. My assumption was that people would probably not take a risk on buying an entire unknown series all at once, and that most of my sales would likely be of just the first book. (You know what happens when you make an assumption?)
More bookmarks to the side there, including some stacked in a pencil cup matching the file dividers. The “Temp Job of Doom” pins are in a nice bowl borrowed from my brother. And behind that is a white board with my prices. Since I buy the books at cost, I can offer a steep discount from the online prices. Ten bucks a pop, with a discount of ten bucks if you buy all four books. And a buck for a button seemed fair. (My printing is terrible. I need somebody else to write the prices next time.) The credit card images are clipped from a sticker that came with my Paypal Here credit card reader – they’re just scotch taped to the board.
When we arrived, we were somewhat perplexed at what to do with the four posters Jon had made of the covers. There weren’t any walls behind us – the vendor behind us was setting up his own display racks, but it seemed a little tacky to ask if we could attach something to the back of it. We were going to just stand up two of the posters on the table and forget the others when a hotel employee came around and lifted up that pole you can see in the top photo, the one with the red, white, and blue cloths hanging from it. I had no idea it was going to be raised, but it solved our problem once it was. Jon stuck the posters up with double-sided tape (they’re on foam board, so they’re nice and light) and boom! Eye-catching display. I didn’t get a separate picture of it, but you can see in the photo below that we hung the banner with my name on it on the white cloth, centered behind the table.
And with that, we were ready for business! Here I am, somehow managing to smile even though the corners of my mouth are clearly pointing down.
And here’s Jon, ready to be much, much friendlier than me. Conversations with strangers are difficult for me, so part of Jon’s role was to jump in if I was stammering myself out of a sale.
At nine the con began and the first guests started to arrive. I have to say, I was very pleasantly surprised. The web site for the con was not…encouraging. (That would be my main piece of advice for the organizers for next year – hire a web designer.) But there was quite a decent turnout – I ran out into the hallway around 10 and there was a line out the door. Lots of teens, and lots of families with small kids. I’m afraid I didn’t get any cosplay pictures – sorry, I was working! – but there were some great ones, including a male Harley Quinn with a massive sledgehammer (I was afraid he was going to knock my Dakota Bell poster over but he wielded his tool cautiously), an extremely inventive MJ Watson/Little Mermaid mash-up (complete with Spider-Sebastian), and a couple of very attractive Spider-people.
I did get one pic, because I couldn’t not.
It’s Drew Drechsel, from American Ninja Warrior! I love that show. There was a panel happening at some point during the day (I couldn’t really go to any panels, for obvious reasons). When Drew wandered by my table I recognized him instantly and asked for a photo. He said it was a rule of his that I had to be in it too, which, okay, twist my arm. I almost upended my table trying to get to him. Can you tell how obviously I want to put my arm around his back? I’m doing that awkward hover thing instead because I thought it would be weird to touch him. No matter how badly I wanted to. Ahem. Okay, that was my celebrity sighting for the day. (Actually, we also saw The Amazing Kreskin and Efren Ramirez, who played Pedro in Napoleon Dynamite, but I didn’t have quite the same need for a photo with either of them.)
Actually working the con was exhausting, but rewarding. There were plenty of long stretches where I just sat and smiled as people passed me by, but I also had a lot of great conversations with some really enthusiastic readers. And I learned pretty quickly not to underestimate how willing readers are to take risks – after that one sale before the show opened, my next was of the entire bundle of four books, to a lovely couple of ladies (Rachel and Sarah, you rock). Jon gave them each a free button, which I wish I had thought of at the start – after that, I gave a button away to anyone who bought a book. (Should have put that on the whiteboard…)
So overall, sales were much better than I expected. I sold two more bundles of the full series (!!!), a bunch of copies of the first book, and even one copy of Dakota Bell by its lonesome. I was right about that cover being an attention-grabber – I think having a woman of color as the main character of a sci-fi novel was really appealing to a lot of people. (Representation matters, people! We need diverse books!) I kept having to reassure browsers that she was a main point-of-view character right from book one. But one woman really just wanted book four – I found myself almost trying to talk her out of it, as of all four books I think that’s the one that stands on its own the least (since it’s the wrap-up to the series-long arc), but ultimately she decided she wanted it anyway. I hope I did a good enough job with the recap exposition!
The buttons were pretty popular too, I sold a bunch of those, mostly to people who did not express much interest in the books. “Temp Job of Doom” seems to be a term that a lot of people can relate to.
But again, happy as I was with my sales, that wasn’t why I was there. I learned that my books appeal to younger audiences – mid-to-late teens and early twenties. (Note to self – start looking into Tumblr and Instagram ads…) I sort of knew that teen girls, particularly those who were more progressive-minded, enjoyed this series, but I was surprised at the number of teenage boys who picked up the first book (and one bought all four). Nobody specifically referenced the rainbow flag, but I can’t help but feel that being the only LGBT-identified vendor might have helped me out a little there. (At least, I was the only one I saw, but I only got a look at the rest of the floor before opening, so it’s possible I missed someone.) The teenage girls came in pairs or groups, but the boys were always on their own (one of them I had seen with a group earlier, but he came back alone later to buy).
The mailing list did well – fourteen new sign-ups, which is more than I expected. And I passed out a ton of bookmarks, so hopefully at least a couple of folks will go on to check out the website.
It turns out I had chosen my table location very, very wisely (all right, luckily). It was the widest aisle, and my neighbors didn’t have large displays blocking my foot traffic. I had almost chosen a table two rows over, nearer one of the doors, but that wound up being an extremely narrow aisle, as it faced the back of the opposite row of vendors, rather than the front, so those vendors’ chairs cut into the space. Also, as you can see, not everybody got a backdrop of patriotic cloth on which to hang signs.
A few other random memories from the day, in no particular order:
A boy of about ten or eleven stood in the center of the aisle, holding a bag in each hand, and proclaimed to nobody in particular, “This is the greatest day of my young life!” I said, “So you’re having fun, then?” And he sort of breathlessly panted, “I just met the creator of the Blue Beetle! I got a signed book!” Now I had seen the guy signing copies of Showcase Presents The Blue Beetle and it was definitely not Steve Ditko, but it was sweet to see this kid so enthusiastic, particularly about a comic that I myself loved when I was a kid. (I think who he met was actually Paris Cullins, who was the illustrator on the revamped Blue Beetle in the 80s. Getting a book signed by him is pretty cool too, so the kid’s enthusiasm was not unwarranted.)
There was an adorable little girl there in a pink Wonder Woman t-shirt. She stopped at the booth next to mine, which was selling some really gorgeous original art. She was with her father, and she was really excited about a piece of art she wanted him to buy her. Apparently they had already gone by the booth once, and she asked for it then, but he made her see the rest of the floor first, to be sure she really wanted it. She did, so he bought it for her. She was so excited I thought she was going to collapse into paroxysms of cuteness. The piece of art this adorable little eight-year-old princess wanted so badly? Deadpool, shooting himself in the head.
I met one of my neighbors (on the other side of me from the aforementioned Deadpool artists), comics creator Ramon Gil. He’s an old hand at the con game, so we had some good talks during slower moments about our various experiences in publishing and self-publishing, and the differences between comics and prose writing. I also had a good talk with his young son, who pointed out to me that Mark Park’s name is Park and his book takes place at an amusement park. Which, I swear to you, never once occurred to me.
It was a long day, and by the end my face hurt from smiling (I don’t really use those muscles very often). Here’s me, close to the end.
There are a few slight changes from the top of the day. I moved one pile of bookmarks directly under the candy, because goddammit if you’re taking some free candy the least you can do is take a fricking bookmark. (You might also notice that the Starburst, Peanut Butter Cups and regular Kisses are pretty much gone, leaving just the purple-wrapped Dark Chocolate Kisses. They were not super popular. I still have half a bag.) Also, thanks to the sale of the bundles, I had to dismantle one of my file divider displays, and the other is now made up of two copies of the first two books, rather than one of all four. By the end of the day (after this was taken), I was down to one copy of Dakota Bell, the one on the stand.
Another change I made fairly early was to flip over two books and place them next to the mailing list. Having the back cover text right there prompted a lot of people to stop and read, which often then led to more questions about the series. A lot of those people would have passed on by, I think, if all they saw was graphics. Picking something up makes some people feel like they’re committing to buying, so being able to read without touching made them feel easier about stopping. But once we were talking, they would pick up the other books to read those backs.
The initial information I got from the con said that it ended at five, but when we got there it turned out that we could have stayed until eight. I was done, though, and not too many more new people were coming through, so we packed up and called it a day. Overall, Newark Comic Con was a huge success for me. Not monetarily (although I did better than anticipated), but in terms of my initial goals – meeting new readers, getting mailing list sign-ups, making connections, getting my name out there – I consider them met. I don’t think I’ll be a con regular, given the expense of time, money and effort involved, but if there’s another where I feel like I can reach a good segment of my target audience, I’d definitely be up for giving it a go.
So barring something like that popping up in the meantime, I’m packing everything up and storing it away until August 2016. I’ve already bought my table for Flame Con. Can’t hardly wait!
I went to a lot of conventions this summer – Book Con, New York Comic Con, Special Edition, and Flame Con – and I always take a look to see how the self-published authors are doing, and how much of a presence they’ve got. I’ve been tempted for a while to get an exhibitor’s table at a con, but I’ve been wary about the expense involved. They tend to be pricy, especially when you add in the cost of materials. Received wisdom has been that financially it’s not worth it – I’d never make back the money I put in. The reasons to do a con are to connect with readers, do some networking, and build readership indirectly by getting people to sign up for your mailing list or take some swag that will hopefully get them to go look at your books once they’re home and recovering.
At most of the cons I’ve been to, the self-published authors have been a little sidelined. It didn’t seem very cost-effective to spend all that dough to be somewhere where I’d have to struggle to reach people, so I’ve held off. At Flame Con, though, the self-published authors were front and center, right in with everybody else. When I thought about how well-run it was, how friendly the organizers at Geeks Out are, and what a perfect target audience it is for me (queer sci-fi fans), it seemed to make sense to make this my first con. So, Flame Con 2016 it would be.
But two weeks ago I saw that the first ever Newark Comic Con was happening on Saturday, September 12, and that tables were only a hundred bucks (that’s pretty cheap, as these things go). It occurred to me that maybe I didn’t want Flame Con to be my first con experience as a vendor – I was bound to make a lot of mistakes the first time out, and I’d hate to waste what might be a great opportunity. So, on somewhat of an impulse, I bought a table at Newark. It’s a small con, first time out, and the stakes are low. I can screw it all up without consequence!
Of course, I don’t want to screw it up, I want it to be a day filled with magic and wonder (and book sales). So I’ve spent the past two weeks in a frenzy getting everything together. The first thing I did was email my friend, guru, and self-publishing mentor Kate Danley for advice (she was a treasure trove, as always), then searched the the Kboards’ Writer’s Forum for more tips (it’s a great source for info on self-publishing). Combined with what I had gleaned from my own experiences as a con attendee, I was ready to dive in.
The first thing to do was to order everything I’d need printed. Two weeks wasn’t a lot of time and I didn’t want to risk having an empty table. So from my printer I ordered twenty copies of the first book, ten of the second, and five each of the third and fourth. I’m not expecting to sell too many books, but I want to have a nice display, and it’s not like they’ll go bad – I’ll have what’s left over to sell at Flame Con next year.
I wanted some bookmarks to give away, because I myself always grab bookmarks at cons, they’re a great freebie for any event where readers will congregate. They’re pretty cheap to print in bulk, but I needed to design them myself. My Photoshop skills are passable for the basics, so I came up with something I think looks pretty good.
They’re double-sided, so there’s room for all four book covers, plus my name, website, the stores where you can get my book, and a new tagline I’m trying out: “Horrible Things Happening to Interesting People.” (What do you think?)
Kate had a great suggestion – pins. The main titles of my books work well as stand-alone text on a button – “Temp Job of Doom,” “Commute from Hell,” “Flume of Destiny,” “Wastes of Time.” I feel like people would like these even if they don’t know the books. (Okay, “Flume of Destiny” is a little random.) This was a little more challenging in the design department, but I was able to erase “and the” from the cropped cover and make a pretty good “Temp Job of Doom” image.
I started on “Commute from Hell,” but Caitlin’s hair overlaps with the text and it was a lot harder to isolate. Time was short, so the rest will have to wait. I was able to get these made at a still-cheap but non-negligible cost, so I’ll be selling them for a buck a pop. I think they’ll be a great attention-grabber for my table. (And if I’m wrong, well, that’s why I’m doing this test con in the first place.)
I also signed up for Paypal Here, which will let me take credit cards as payment via my phone. They sent a reader which plugs into the headphone jack – it works perfectly. And I made a dedicated page on my website just for sign-ups for my mailing list from this event, which people can do on my phone or their own tablet. I’ve also printed up a physical sign-up sheet, which I’ll have on a clipboard.
One very important thing was to register to collect sales tax in the state of New Jersey. The process was quick, if a little complicated, but after a few missteps I got my Federal EIN number, which made the whole process go much smoother. My certificate came in the mail quite promptly, so I’m all legal and ready to render unto Caesar.
The rest of what I needed is mostly for display – I want to make things look attractive and professional. There was one more item to be designed – I don’t know what kind of signage the con will provide, if any, so I designed a small banner and had it printed up at Staples.
I don’t know about the colors, but it gets the job done, I suppose. And my brother Jon (who’s coming along to help out) got some posters made out of the covers of my books, and they look fantastic.
Everything else came from an Amazon spree and a trip to Staples. I’ve got two black tablecloths – a large one to cover the six-foot table provided, and a smaller one, which I think I’ll spread over a milk crate or a box, something to add a level so the table isn’t just flat. I picked up two pretty vertical file sorters, to stand the books up in (four rows for four books), which I hope will look cool, plus a bunch of stands, each of which will display a single book. A nice pencil cup will serve to hold some bookmarks. A whiteboard, for my price list. A receipt book. A rainbow flag – I haven’t decided if I’ll hang this up or not, but I’m thinking it might not be bad to make my commitment to diversity obvious. And a rolling suitcase, to carry it all in. (Yup, the suitcase is definitely just for business purposes, Mr. Tax Man.) I’ve thrown together an emergency bag with various supplies – pens, tape, thumbtacks, scissors, clips. I think I’m ready. I’m kind of nervous. But excited.
The con is tomorrow. I’ll let you know how it goes.
(Part One) (Part Two) (Part Three)
Last time I had just uploaded epubs of Dakota Bell and the Wastes of Time onto my phone’s various reader apps, to check for any formatting errors. I had discovered that I needed to delete a page, and was debating whether I should remake, reverify, and reload all the epubs. I decided against it, ultimately – I can’t keep doing that every time I find an error, it would be a mountain of extra work, so instead I’d do one pass through them all, fix all the mistakes at once, then check again. I started with the Google Play version, and was very glad I hadn’t gone through all that work because I immediately discovered another mistake.
I had included the cover to the book in the metadata. That’s great if a book is going to be sideloaded onto a device instead of purchased through a vendor – if I send someone a review copy, I’ll include the cover in the book file. But stores ask for the cover to be uploaded as a separate file, and they attach it to the book themselves – if I include the book cover in the epub or mobi file, I run the risk of the cover appearing in the book twice.
Everything else looks good – Google Play, iTunes, Nook and Kobo versions are all fine on my phone. Back to Scrivener, my writing program, where I make a new mobi file and check it out on my Kindle desktop app. Things seem fine, all the links are working. Time to upload it to the Amazon store. Gulp.
I procrastinate by doing a little work on prepping the paperwork version – I’ll probably put all that into its own post at some point, so I’ll skip it here – and when I’m ready, I decide to go through the mobi file one more time, just because I’m paranoid. And it’s a good thing I do – I find that there are two sets of backmatter, one with all the Amazon links, one with all the Kobo links. How’d I miss that before? In Scrivener, I have a complete set of the backmatter pages for each vendor – that’s a “thanks for reading” page with a request to leave a review, the acknowledgements page, an “also by this author” page where I plug the rest of the series, an “about the author” page, and the copyright information. Every time I compile, I have to check the boxes for the pages I want to include and uncheck the boxes I don’t. I must have made the Kobo epub last before I made the Kindle mobi, and I forgot to remove the Kobo pages from the file. Double, triple, quadruple check everything!
Back to Scrivener to make a new mobi file, and everything looks good (for real, this time). So I’m off to the Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) website, to my account. Before I click on “create new title,” I open the page for Alan Lennox and the Temp Job of Doom in a new tab – a lot of the settings will be the same, and it’s helpful to be able to see what I’ve done before.
I’m asked first if I want to enroll my new book in KDP Select. I do not. This would get it into the Kindle Unlimited program, and allow me to run discounted days as a promotion, but it would also mean the book would be exclusive to Amazon. Even though Amazon is far and away my biggest money-maker, I am unconvinced that giving up all the other stores would be worth the extra borrows through KU.
I enter the basic info. The book name, no subtitle. This book is part of a series – check. Enter the series title. (I hate that there’s no dropdown menu with my series title saved – I’m afraid I’ll misspell something and they won’t link up.) It’s volume four in the series, first edition. I’m asked for the publisher – some people come up with a name for themselves as a self-publisher, but I don’t bother. I could have gone with “Brian Olsen Books” or something, but I don’t think readers really care. If I ever legally incorporate myself in some way, I’ll change it.
Next comes the description – the blurb. I hate writing blurbs, I just don’t have the knack for it, but it’s critically important. (Less so on this book, since not a lot of people are going to be starting with the fourth book in the series, and anybody who’s read the first three isn’t likely to pass on the fourth just because the blurb isn’t great. But still.)
You can use html in the book description, so I italicize the book titles. Some people really jazz this up – that’s on my to-do list, but not for right now. I notice that Alan Lennox‘s book description says that Dakota Bell is coming in 2015, but I don’t change it yet. On KDP, once you make a change it takes time for the changes to go live, and you can’t make any other changes while you’re waiting. Since I’ll be uploading a whole new copy of the book once I have the link to Dakota‘s page, I don’t want to freeze changes on the other books just for that.
Contributors – me! Brian Olsen, Author. (I still love the sound of that.) Language – English. ISBN – blank. This took me a while to figure out – for Alan Lennox and I think Caitlin Ross in some places, I would go back once the paperback was published and put in that ISBN here, but that’s wrong. ISBNs are unique to the edition or format of each book, so the ebook should have its own. But none of the vendors I use require your ebook to have one, so I don’t worry about it.
Verify your publishing rights – this is not a public domain work and I hold the necessary publishing rights. Check!
Next is to choose categories. Oh, the trouble I’ve had with this. Amazon only lets you choose two categories, and I had a hell of a time deciding what categories to use for Alan Lennox. It’s a bit of a mash-up, really. It’s sci-fi, but soft sci-fi, which isn’t a category. It’s really urban science fiction, in the same vein of urban fantasy – but urban sci-fi isn’t a category either. It’s sort of a thriller, although not in the John Grisham kind of way. I ultimately went with Science Fiction/Adventure and Thriller/Technothriller. Technothriller doesn’t feel quite right to me, but Alan Lennox is always on the top 100 free Technothriller list so I don’t want to change it… Since I want to keep the series consistent, I’ve put all the following books into those categories as well, and I do the same for Dakota.
Age Range and US Grade Range (meaning is this for middle schoolers, young adult, etc.) – both blank. My books are for everyone! Or at least I’ll let the parents decide.
Book Release Option – I can either release the book now, or set a future date and start accepting pre-orders. I haven’t tried a pre-order yet – supposedly it helps your rankings by counting all the sales during the pre-order period on the day of release, but I’ve been hearing mixed things. Also, I never have my shit together enough to feel confident enough that I’d be ready to upload by the pre-order date, so I just wait until the book is ready.
Next I upload the cover. I’ve used Damonza.com for the covers to this series, and I’ve been very happy with the results. I did the layouts for the original covers to the first two books myself, but it’s so much nicer to have somebody else figure out all those specifications. All I have to do is upload it and I know it’s just the way Amazon wants it.
Then it’s finally time to upload the book file – the mobi file I created from Scrivener. I do NOT select Digital Rights Management – I’m not too worried about piracy, and even if I were popular enough to be concerned by it, I wouldn’t put DRM on my books. You bought it – do what you want with it.
Kindle does a spell check when you upload – I love that, it’s like having another set of eyes on the book and you can never have too many of those. (“You can never have too many eyes,” said the serial killer.) It even checks names, and it caught a mispelling of Tayisha when I uploaded Caitlin Ross, which is pretty impressive. In this case it’s telling me I spelled Dr. Cheek’s first name, Shermon, wrong, but I purposely used the less common spelling, so I tell it to ignore.
I use the online previewer to see how the book will appear on various Kindle Devices. The Fire HDX is first, and yes, I go through every single page. By this point I’d be surprised if there were any issues, I’ve been over this book so often. I just do a quick look through all the other virtual Kindles, and nothing jumps out at me as an issue.
On to the Rights and Pricing page. I verify that I have worldwide rights for the book. I set my royalty rate to 70%, which means it has to be priced between $2.99 and $9.99. The other option is 35% for books outside those prices. (Or I think you could choose 35% and then set your book within that price range, but I’m not sure why you would do that. Do you hate money or something?) I set my book at $3.99, the same as the others – I chose that by looking at other, comparably-sized books in my genre when I first uploaded Alan Lennox (before it was free), and I’ve kept the price consistent, even though the books have gotten longer and longer each time. Dakota Bell is about one and a half times the length of Alan Lennox, but it doesn’t feel right to bump the price for later books in the same series. (Come on down to Crazy Brian’s! My prices are insaaaaaane!)
I set my foreign prices to be automatically converted to local currency based on the US price. You can alter them individually, if you want to mimic the “ending in 99” convention, but I don’t bother with that. It’s too complicated to keep track of and keep them consistent across vendors. I’ll have my assistant do that. Some day.
I enroll in the Kindle Matchbook program, which offers the ebook at a discount if you buy the paperback. I set the discounted price to 99 cents, although I’m considering going down to free. Very few people buy the paperbacks so it won’t cost me much, but I need to think about it. One thing at a time – I’ll come back to that in the future. I also allow Kindle Book Lending – why not? The more readers, the better.
I take a deep breath, then click “save and publish.” I did that at 4:20pm (hm, how should I celebrate?) on July 3rd. A pop-up tells me to expect it to take twelve hours before it appears in the store, but based on past experience I’m sure it’ll be less than that. And I’m right – the Amazon page for Dakota Bell and the Wastes of Time is live by six.
Now the fun really starts! But I’ll leave off here for now – next time I’ll go into what to do now that I’ve got that precious Amazon link.
