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[Delio]

No sales yet but two borrows.

 

[timetokill]

Just went live! Yay

edit: DAMN IT I forgot to hit the damn "enroll in unlimited" checkbox.

 

[AngmarsKing701]

No sales, no borrows yet.

I'm using the following keywords: kindle unlimited romance, first time erotica, stepsister, coming of age, short stories, women's fiction, forbidden sex


Maybe I need help with keywords. I also went with Fiction>Erotica and Fiction>Romance>Fantasy as my two categories.

 

[H.Protagonist]

Still at 1 sale, 1 borrow.

I think maybe I'll get everyone's numbers at the end of the week since things seem to need a bit more time.

I published.

Around an hour late but it fucking counts.

No sales, no borrows yet.

I'm using the following keywords: kindle unlimited romance, first time erotica, stepsister, coming of age, short stories, women's fiction, forbidden sex


Maybe I need help with keywords. I also went with Fiction>Erotica and Fiction>Romance>Fantasy as my two categories.

Those seem pretty specific (aka good), but hard to say at this stage. We'll see what the next few days bring.

I am live. No sales or borrows yet. If I don't have any by tonight I'll adjust my keywords.

Does changing keywords help? I haven't really looked into that part much.

 

[AngmarsKing701]

Does changing keywords help? I haven't really looked into that part much.

I changed mine up for Ahvarra once I saw sirap's comments about using more than one word per keyword. I also changed the age ranges on mine, as technically Ahvarra is "noblebright" and can work in the teen range. I have seen a couple of sales since changing them. Not sure they were explicitly tied to the change, but *shrug* maybe?

 

[timetokill]

2 sales. No borrows because I forgot to hit the stupid Unlimited checkbox thing.

I think what I'll do is switch the first book to Unlimited when we publish the second book next Monday.

 

[Delio]

Three borrows now but no sales. I wonder if my keywords arent good enough. I have kindle unlimited and stuff like College and gay but maybe that isnt enough.

 

[Crash Station]

Looks like the reports might be borked for me. The 3rd short is ranked, but that wouldn't happen with 0 borrows/sales. Fuckin hell, Amazon :/

2 sales. No borrows because I forgot to hit the stupid Unlimited checkbox thing.

I think what I'll do is switch the first book to Unlimited when we publish the second book next Monday.

Just switch it to unlimited now. It might take a few hours to update, but it takes like 2 seconds to do. Wouldn't want to lose out on borrows in that time.

 

[Delio]

yay my first sale!

 

[AngmarsKing701]

I still got bupkus.

 

[H.Protagonist]

I changed mine up for Ahvarra once I saw sirap's comments about using more than one word per keyword. I also changed the age ranges on mine, as technically Ahvarra is "noblebright" and can work in the teen range. I have seen a couple of sales since changing them. Not sure they were explicitly tied to the change, but *shrug* maybe?

Hmmm, food for thought, then. Couldn't hurt anyway.

I've heard it does. I've also been doing some research and I really should have approached this differently than I did. I picked a random 'tamish' kink I've run into a lot in fanfic circles, yeah? But after searching a bit, I've found that Amazon has ALL the fanfic kinks. All of them. I even used some of the same terms while searching. One in particular I am pretty good at writing only has a few books but each have a TON of reviews. Next short might be in that vein.


Tonight I am going to fuss with my keywords a bit, try and word it more like someone on AO3

And I am stupidly excited about my very first borrow.

Yay, and give it a go for sure! I think you should follow any insight to the market if you have some. This whole process is still somewhat mysterious. A bit frustrating too when you're not quite sure how make your book more appealing.

2 sales. No borrows because I forgot to hit the stupid Unlimited checkbox thing.

I think what I'll do is switch the first book to Unlimited when we publish the second book next Monday.

2 sales is great! Might be worth doing what cosmic has suggested, though.

yay my first sale!

Yay!

I still got bupkus.

Boo!

 

[Crash Station]

Sixth short complete.

With that, I am done with this pen name unless there's a significant sales spike. Gonna see how the final three and the bundles perform, and if they amount to very little, I'll move onto whatever kink is popular at the time.

 

[toddhunter]

One sale on day 1 for my 0.99, ~3k word effort.

Mind you, I purchased that myself, so it probably doesn't count.

...

It counts.

 

[H.Protagonist]

No changes in my reports, but my rank shot up about 60,000 places for some reason. Yay?

Sixth short complete.

With that, I am done with this pen name unless there's a significant sales spike. Gonna see how the final three and the bundles perform, and if they amount to very little, I'll move onto whatever kink is popular at the time.

6 shorts... -_- I wish I had half your energy.

One sale on day 1 for my 0.99, ~3k word effort.

Mind you, I purchased that myself, so it probably doesn't count.

...

It counts.

It counts!

 

[Crash Station]

6 shorts... -_- I wish I had half your energy.

It's not so much energy as it is the amount of downtime I have these days, even at work. Good chunk of the time spent writing this nonsense is me staring at a document being all OCD over wording despite that one book saying to NOT worry about that.

Also, sirap pumped 10 of these things out in a single weekend, so he's the guy you want to strive for, especially since he seems to know what he's doing with those nonsensical numbers he's posted. Hell, I'm not even sure I'll have the motivation to do more shorts under a different pen name, but damn if that extra stream of income that I desperately need right now isn't alluring.

Where do you find your rank? I didn't see that.

Book's store page. You might not see one if it's super new even if you have sales/borrows. It might take a day to show up.

1 sale/borrow will usually put you in the 100,000 range.

 

[H.Protagonist]

My report seems unchanged, yet my sales rank got better again. -_-; So mysterious...

It's not so much energy as it is the amount of downtime I have these days, even at work. Good chunk of the time spent writing this nonsense is me staring at a document being all OCD over wording despite that one book saying to NOT worry about that.

Also, sirap pumped 10 of these things out in a single weekend, so he's the guy you want to strive for, especially since he seems to know what he's doing with those nonsensical numbers he's posted. Hell, I'm not even sure I'll have the motivation to do more shorts under a different pen name, but damn if that extra stream of income that I desperately need right now isn't alluring.



Book's store page. You might not see one if it's super new even if you have sales/borrows. It might take a day to show up.

1 sale/borrow will usually put you in the 100,000 range.

With work right now, I'm just striving to complete my own challenge.

But, it sounds like a good, productive use of your downtime. Anything (or nothing) could happen with this stuff, after all. Even a couple of bucks here and there can make a big difference. If the erotica doesn't work out, maybe try the sci-fi/short fiction stuff Angmars was considering before?

 

[Crash Station]

My report seems unchanged, yet my sales rank got better again. -_-; So mysterious...

It may just have been lag from before if you got 2+ sales/borrows in quick succession. Either that or Amazon is borked and it'll show up later. I've once had a sale show up 2 days earlier despite there being nothing there before.

With work right now, I'm just striving to complete my own challenge.

But, it sounds like a good, productive use of your downtime. Anything (or nothing) could happen with this stuff, after all. Even a couple of bucks here and there can make a big difference. If the erotica doesn't work out, maybe try the sci-fi/short fiction stuff Angmars was considering before?

Yeah, I'd much rather be writing more fantasy/thriller stuff. Would love to start this zombie serial I've had an outline of for a while now, but not until I get the supposed method for finding out what's viable that sirap promised. If it's not, I'd rather work on the prequel to my third work.

 

[H.Protagonist]

It may just have been lag from before if you got 2+ sales/borrows in quick succession. Either that or Amazon is borked and it'll show up later. I've once had a sale show up 2 days earlier despite there being nothing there before.



Yeah, I'd much rather be writing more fantasy/thriller stuff. Would love to start this zombie serial I've had an outline of for a while now, but not until I get the supposed method for finding out what's viable that sirap promised. If it's not, I'd rather work on the prequel to my third work.

Maybe? When I first got the sale and borrow I was at 59,000ish. Then nothing for the next day and half and it dropped to 156,000. Then suddenly it went to 93,000 a couple of hours ago and now it's at 63,000. Perhaps it's people looking at it? Maybe looks bump you?

As for writing shorts, if you suss out the magic in the erotica nsystem, do share some tidbits. Otherwise, just have fun with it. At the least it's giving you an idea of how to market/publish the zombie shorts.

 

[AngmarsKing701]

I'm pretty much gonna resort to begging on Twitter at this point.

 

[Ashes]

My effort sorta spiralled. Might need a while to get done. I'm wondering if I should just publish what I already have (a story I wrote a while ago that's 90% complete].
But seeing as those ones will have a lot more effort plugged into it... wondering what to do.

 

[mu cephei]

I didn't manage it I'm not good with deadlines. Following everyone else's progress is great though!

 

[Freeza Under The Shower]

.

 

[Crash Station]

I would speculate that new releases are favoured over older stuff, meaning a newer publication gets a 'balloon' if you will. Basically a score multiplier within the algorithm that multiplies positives and devalues negatives for a certain amount of time, after which it normals out and your product (most likely) drops like a rock. Like every other thing on the list does, which is what I mean with a 'balloon'. Everybody (who is not a topseller) is going down, but your publication is literally kept aloft due to being new.

Also keyword popularity may factor into how it is calculated, as well as people changing theirs, or even unpublishing older works.

This is what Sirap was referring to with that 30-day window or whatever he called it being real. Without sales, it probably stay up a bit for a week or so, and then vector downwards. I imagine this will be a lot faster in the 'romance' sector, so don't be disappointed when your rank goes from 30k to 300k in a matter of days in a week from now.

But this is all speculation, obviously. The 'drop' is real though, from my experience.

She's talking about sales ranking, not search ranking, which is what sirap was talking about.

 

[AngmarsKing701]

I put the cover reveal out for short #2 for Monday. I've started writing short #3.

While I know where this story is headed (over six parts) and I figure I might as well write the whole damn thing out considering my brain has put all the pieces in place, the fact that I haven't made a single cotton pickin' sale (nor gotten a borrow) makes it a little hard

Spoiler

well, what I'm writing makes it a lot hard if you know what I mean

to continue.

Good gods, six parts in the 5k range... that's bloody 30k I could've put into The Forsaken Path.

Vader nooooooo!!!!

 

[Soulfire]

I published the sequel to my 40k SciFi romance today. I was surprised at how nervous I was waiting for it to go live. It only took a few hours and currently no sales or borrows, but I updated the back matter in my first book and it averages 12 borrows and 2 sales a day so hopefully that gets it noticed. I also emailed my mailing list. We'll see what happens.
Congrats to everyone that got their smut out there and good luck!

 

[AngmarsKing701]

I published the sequel to my 40k SciFi romance today. I was surprised at how nervous I was waiting for it to go live. It only took a few hours and currently no sales or borrows, but I updated the back matter in my first book and it averages 12 borrows and 2 sales a day so hopefully that gets it noticed. I also emailed my mailing list. We'll see what happens.
Congrats to everyone that got their smut out there and good luck!

Congrats!

 

[H.Protagonist]

Not a huge change, but 3 borrows, 1 sale now.

I'm pretty much gonna resort to begging on Twitter at this point.

That's what I'm doing.

My effort sorta spiralled. Might need a while to get done. I'm wondering if I should just publish what I already have (a story I wrote a while ago that's 90% complete].
But seeing as those ones will have a lot more effort plugged into it... wondering what to do.

Aww. Well, I say get the 90% one out there and learn from how it goes. I definitely have a lot of things to tweak for my next one after all this. Just get it done and don't linger over it. It's kind of like NaNoWriMo. Just do it! ^_^

I didn't manage it I'm not good with deadlines. Following everyone else's progress is great though!

Nothing at all? You can still jump in for the next pub dates. If you have anything at all, I say bear down and push that puppy out!

I would speculate that new releases are favoured over older stuff, meaning a newer publication gets a 'balloon' if you will. Basically a score multiplier within the algorithm that multiplies positives and devalues negatives for a certain amount of time, after which it normals out and your product (most likely) drops like a rock. Like every other thing on the list does, which is what I mean with a 'balloon'. Everybody (who is not a topseller) is going down, but your publication is literally kept aloft due to being new.

Also keyword popularity may factor into how it is calculated, as well as people changing theirs, or even unpublishing older works.

This is what Sirap was referring to with that 30-day window or whatever he called it being real. Without sales, it probably stay up a bit for a week or so, and then vector downwards. I imagine this will be a lot faster in the 'romance' sector, so don't be disappointed when your rank goes from 30k to 300k in a matter of days in a week from now.

But this is all speculation, obviously. The 'drop' is real though, from my experience.

As cosmic said, it's more the sales rank than that. I think you're right on the search stuff, though. I feel the drop coming on...

I put the cover reveal out for short #2 for Monday. I've started writing short #3.

While I know where this story is headed (over six parts) and I figure I might as well write the whole damn thing out considering my brain has put all the pieces in place, the fact that I haven't made a single cotton pickin' sale (nor gotten a borrow) makes it a little hard

Spoiler

well, what I'm writing makes it a lot hard if you know what I mean

to continue.

Good gods, six parts in the 5k range... that's bloody 30k I could've put into The Forsaken Path.

Vader nooooooo!!!!

Don't be discouraged! Get it all out there and then bundle away! Bundling might find you a whole new audience, so there are many options still.

I published the sequel to my 40k SciFi romance today. I was surprised at how nervous I was waiting for it to go live. It only took a few hours and currently no sales or borrows, but I updated the back matter in my first book and it averages 12 borrows and 2 sales a day so hopefully that gets it noticed. I also emailed my mailing list. We'll see what happens.
Congrats to everyone that got their smut out there and good luck!

Congrats! Glad to hear your Sci-Fi romance is still going strong. 12 borrows/2 sales a day is great! Keep us posted on your progress~

 

[timetokill]

No borrows or sales since those initial two sales. Trying to do a little more marketing now while I get short 2 formatted.

Have you all figured out some favorite places or recommendations for stock images yet?

 

[timetokill]

This is what I did, and it felt real good. It's total shit but GODAMNIT I published a book, and I have a sale and a borrow, and that feels real good. Also, it's got me encouraged to do it again and do it better.

Great job! It's definitely a thrill, isn't it? Made me ask myself: "Why wasn't I publishing stuff earlier?"

 

[Ashes]

Aww. Well, I say get the 90% one out there and learn from how it goes. I definitely have a lot of things to tweak for my next one after all this. Just get it done and don't linger over it. It's kind of like NaNoWriMo. Just do it! ^_^

I was going to get someone to do a real nice cover.. but sorta feels like I ought not go to all that trouble to make five pounds. The writing is what counts.

PS. Gonna go 100% cheap. Gaffers will already have read this. So please don't go buying this even if it is just for charity.

gonna publish some time today.

 

[Delio]

This is what I did, and it felt real good. It's total shit but GODAMNIT I published a book, and I have a sale and a borrow, and that feels real good. Also, it's got me encouraged to do it again and do it better.

This is how I feel. I know the writing is shit but I got a sale and four borrows. Someone read it and that's awesome.

 

[timetokill]

After a whole lotta nothing yesterday, I have 4 borrows today.

 

[H.Protagonist]

Hubba-Hubba Challenge

The first publishing deadline has passed, but your chance has not! This challenge is your push to finally get a book out there in the market. They're short, they're silly, there's no pressure to be perfect, and there's no reason you can't conquer your procrastination demons with these meager objectives.

Currently, the following players have made it over the line:

Me - Medieval
Delio - Superhero
timetokill - Virgins/Daddy Issues
toddhunter - Theme? What theme? Sex!
cosmicblizzard - The Strange and Bizarre
Fiction - Heaven and Hell
AngmarsKing701 - Fantasy/Monster
360 pages - Various smut


Those that still need to pull the trigger:

Nappuccino - Friends and Benefits
Gaz_RB - Doctor-Patient Fling
Blargonaut - Cyberpunk Heist Caper
Jintor - Lesbians?
Nudull - ???
mu cephei - ?????
FlowersisBritish - Historical/Dinosaurs?
Cyan - Tiger/human love
Petit Melon - Vampire/Paranormal
besada - Housewives/Occult
sirap - Werewolf billionaire stepbrothers kink (serial)
SolVanderlyn - ???
Ashes - Thinking Man's Erotica
cr_blah_blah -


You guys can do it! Since some of us have already gone through the process, any lingering questions or fears you have can easily be answered. It's a good feeling (and very instructive for later, more serious publishing) to complete this run, so I encourage you guys on the trigger list to hammer out what you have and just hit that publish button. If you don't believe me, just listen to them:

This is what I did, and it felt real good. It's total shit but GODAMNIT I published a book, and I have a sale and a borrow, and that feels real good. Also, it's got me encouraged to do it again and do it better.

This is how I feel. I know the writing is shit but I got a sale and four borrows. Someone read it and that's awesome.

Great job! It's definitely a thrill, isn't it? Made me ask myself: "Why wasn't I publishing stuff earlier?"

I was going to get someone to do a real nice cover.. but sorta feels like I ought not go to all that trouble to make five pounds. The writing is what counts.

PS. Gonna go 100% cheap. Gaffers will already have read this. So please don't go buying this even if it is just for charity.

gonna publish some time today.

Yup. People get hung up trying to make things perfect and in the end they never finish. As you said, the writing's the thing, so hoping to hear that you did hit publish yesterday and you've gone live.

After a whole lotta nothing yesterday, I have 4 borrows today.

Woohoo!

 

[timetokill]

Seriously peeps, do it! It's pretty fun to get to see the complete experience without having to worry about failure or everything being perfect.

 

[FlowersisBritish]

This might be confusing time to mention as everyones talking about their adventures in self publishing, but I just got a PDF of a journal with one of my short stories in it. Kinda disappointed its not a print book. They're only doing 50 of them, but hell I am gonna get one. Anyway it's still weird to see my name on stuff. I'm thinking about getting a twitter more and more to promote myself and maybe make my writing easier to find?

Anyway I've been kind of working on a mile stone system, and currently I'm at "try to make some big money/get published in a big journal." It's weird for me to think about, but I think I might get there. Then it's "publish a collection of Short Stories." That's even weirder for me to think about :<

 

[AngmarsKing701]

No sales, no borrows. With part 2 targeted for Monday, I'm going to make part 1 free from Tues-Sat to see if that generates interest.

 

[Ashes]

SERVANT. (Modern Shorts) by Ashes de Villiers.

UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00Y1CDEQ0/
US: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00Y1CDEQ0/?tag=neogaf0e-20

So I er didn't exactly publish it under a throwaway pen name. LOL.

The blurb:

A Brit goes to Sri Lanka for a summer holiday where he is compelled to seduce his maid. Yet like all good relationships, the penis can't really lead the way. Can it?
A short** exploring the brain & the heart in the pursuit of sex. And how our lives tend to want to intertwine with our partners when we want to sleep with them.
[Note: £1* per copy of this book will go towards charity [National Literacy Trust]. It is my own choice. And I am not affiliated with said charity.]
*or converted to local currency.
**2600 words.

Give us a few minutes... Going to locate the thread it was originally posted in. And you guys can see what gaffers thought of it.

 

[Ashes]

Spoilers of course. But here's what some gaffers thought when I posted for the fortnightly creative writing challenge thread earlier this year:

.
Ashes - "Servant."
Well this came out of nowhere. Completely not expecting that in the middle of all the batman jokes. Veered between creepy, sweet, and tragic in a short space of time and finally managed to end at a good spot in the middle. I think you really knocked it out of the park.

Ashes - This was a great story. Well written with real characters and real emotions. Fantastic work!

Ashes: Felt weirdly abbreviated to me, which is odd because I reread it and it&#8217;s really not. You just seem to cover an awful lot of ground, but not all of it gets equal shrift, so the end result feels like oscillating between time dilation and contraction. When he started going on about how he enjoyed dominating her, I thought we were trending into some sort of enumerated shades of monochrome, but then he realizes that he&#8217;s being kind of rapey, pulls up short, and then he&#8217;s back in awkward territory. So much building for what felt like no pay off for me; the story ends teetering on a precipice and could fall either way, but we don&#8217;t get to find out until the following morning that never comes. But this is probably just me being a speculative fiction guy who&#8217;s never satisfied with anything.

Ashes - "Servant."
It feels almost like stream of consciousness, though it is riveting.

Ashes- At first I didn't like the writing style, but by "Not sexy, is it?" I came around and really did like it. The quick pace really helps give it a kind of translated fell. I also really like how self aware he was, about why he liked her and such. Small thing of note, I get why he'd be suspicious of her, but would he really think she's just using him for money (and be upset) right after he bought her a bunch of sexy bras? I just feel he bounces back and forth between the two mindsets too much.

Ashes
Man, what a captivating read. The punctuation was an interesting choice, and I think a few sentences could have flowed better together instead of being broken up, but I truly enjoyed reading this one. And I'm probably being dense, but I didn't really see the theme much.

 

[Mike M]

I thought we were trending into some sort of enumerated shades of monochrome.

Mike, step away from the thesaurus.

EDIT: Relevant!

 

[Ashes]

Mike, step away from the thesaurus.

EDIT: Relevant!

I thought it was a good metaphor.

 

[Conkersbadfurday]

Finally got around to starting The Grimoire Library. Three pages in so far. Normally do four a day, but I found a good stopping point. Think this'll turn out well.

About a kid who goes to sleep and finds himself in a library filled with books on magic. He studies and it carries over into the real world.

The person who owns the library is not happy about this.

 

[360pages]

Got two shorts done. Only had 2 borrows and 2 Buys overall, and they were super cheap. It looks like Quantity over Quality.

 

[Vincent Alexander]

I need to get myself a damn room off by itself, with no technology, so I stop getting distracted. I swear tonight I'm 5 minutes writing, 10 minutes looking at shit online. Including here. All because I wanted to ask "In Manhattan, do people say taxi or cab?" I'm seriously using one damn word as a reason to stop writing and go online, when I should just move the hell on and keep writing.

How sad is that? lol. Back to writing.

 

[show me your skeleton]

story of my writing life.

 

[Jintor]

gosh i completely forgot about the erotica challenge. i'll peck away at it I suppose, but it's been a painting kind of month...

 

[mu cephei]

You guys can do it! Since some of us have already gone through the process, any lingering questions or fears you have can easily be answered. It's a good feeling (and very instructive for later, more serious publishing) to complete this run, so I encourage you guys on the trigger list to hammer out what you have and just hit that publish button. If you don't believe me, just listen to them:

This did get me motivated to continue, but today was so beautiful I sat outside and read instead Maybe I'll have more willpower tomorrow, I'm going to try to get at least one short out while this is going on.

 

[H.Protagonist]

Total this week: 4 borrows, 1 sale, 1 review

No great change there, but the 5/5 review is a relief. I guess it's not complete shit.

No sales, no borrows. With part 2 targeted for Monday, I'm going to make part 1 free from Tues-Sat to see if that generates interest.

Ooo, keep us posted!

SERVANT. (Modern Shorts) by Ashes de Villiers.

UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00Y1CDEQ0/
US: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00Y1CDEQ0/?tag=neogaf0e-20

So I er didn't exactly publish it under a throwaway pen name. LOL.

The blurb:


Give us a few minutes... Going to locate the thread it was originally posted in. And you guys can see what gaffers thought of it.

Yay! You got it up! Good work, Ashes!

Got two shorts done. Only had 2 borrows and 2 Buys overall, and they were super cheap. It looks like Quantity over Quality.

That does seem to be the name of this game. I'm finding that my energy levels might not be up to the task, though. Haha.

gosh i completely forgot about the erotica challenge. i'll peck away at it I suppose, but it's been a painting kind of month...

Get movin'!

This did get me motivated to continue, but today was so beautiful I sat outside and read instead Maybe I'll have more willpower tomorrow, I'm going to try to get at least one short out while this is going on.

You must publish at least 1! Even if you just bang out (ha) a few words a day, you'll make it. Get busy!

 

[NipplesAndToes23]

I need to get myself a damn room off by itself, with no technology, so I stop getting distracted. I swear tonight I'm 5 minutes writing, 10 minutes looking at shit online. Including here. All because I wanted to ask "In Manhattan, do people say taxi or cab?" I'm seriously using one damn word as a reason to stop writing and go online, when I should just move the hell on and keep writing.

How sad is that? lol. Back to writing.

What worked for me was going to Panera Bread and writing in my notebook. Being there rather than home made it feel like I was setting out for a task to do like when I'm at work or in a classroom. This helped me to focus on what I'm writing only. It's an option to consider.

 

[Crash Station]

Total this week: 4 borrows, 1 sale, 1 review

No great change there, but the 5/5 review is a relief. I guess it's not complete shit.

Damn, haven't gotten a single review over 3 releases and 1 bundle. Congrats!

 

[Delio]

After another week I settle on 7 borrows and 2 sales. Also holy crap the next one goes up tomorrow? Geez.