Hello, my friends,
Seeing as I haven’t been in touch since The Black Eye’s release I feel it only fair to crawl out of my cave and keep you all up to date with what’s been going on.
The Black Eye sold roughly 20 copies since release, putting it at #287,292 on the kindle store as of this writing. Definitely my best launch yet, but I still only made like $15, *crying and laughing noises*. I suppose that’s to be expected of such an experimental series in a hyper-niche genre (eldritch-inspired fantasy science fiction thriller?) with a handsome but genre-vague cover, all part of the writing/publishing life I suppose.
For those curious readers and writers reading, here are the main takeaways from Nocturna League Episodes 1-5:
-Making the first three episodes free was a good decision and increased my readership for the series a hundred fold. It decreased the risk of getting smashed with a bad review as the reader can simply move on to the next episode to further decide if they like it or not. Thankfully none of the NL books have a 2 or 1 star as of this writing, only 3 and above with most as a 50-50 between 4 and 5 stars, so I think that making so many of the episodes free was a good choice, and definitely sold copies moving on in the future. So free=good when developing a sales funnel, though it may not work for everything.
-Pay your dues and get your readership before you branch out into exciting new genres and trope-defying stuff. I’m finally starting to realize that most readers tend to buy things they are familiar with when it’s an author they’re not well acquainted with. So clear, trope-obeying genre-fiction with a clear cover and a descriptive blurb is the way to go when attracting new readers. I’m going to give this a shot for my next project. Once I get more readers and a huge mailing list, perhaps then will be the right time to return to Nocturna League, which I’m placing on hiatus until either I run out of other projects in the docket (there are many) or I receive significant reader feedback (reviews and emails).
-Covers are way, way important. I kept phoning it out and slacking on my cover selection for book after book, not realizing the massive power of the cover. For a long time I thought just a good looking cover that vaguely suggested the genre was fine, but I realize now that this wasn’t practical. My most successful short story (release, even) was Solution, which averaged 30 free copies a day for months. I only realize now that it’s the only cover in my library with a decidedly-clear genre. I don’t think it’s coincidence that my most genre-specific cover was also my best-selling release. I think I’m getting the hang of all this madness, finally tearing apart the riddles and seeing the light.
-Freebooksy’s a pretty great advertising service for the price. I would indeed recommend them. I should have tracked my sales through links better, but I’m pretty sure they were responsible for roughly 80% of my sales. ❤
-Every time you release a new project, analyze, analyze analyze!
That said, this new project has me all in squiggles as I write it.
This new one’s a military/adventure sci-fi that I keep jumping around with prospective titles for. I’m thinking of something like Outlaw, or Wanted, but those are pretty generic sci-fi book names, and it’d suck to have my search results colluded with competition… I’ll think of something.
Anyway, this new project (We’ll just call it Project 0) is slated at a 60,000 word goal, which is around the genre average. I’ve been on this project for nearly two weeks now, and have pushed out 23,000 words! With my mysterious job taking up most of my time, I’d consider that a very good speed. I’ve been getting into the habit of waking up early and smashing out those words before hauling off to the soul-gem mines at day and the divine scribery in the evenings, it’s quite productive and you can definitely color me encouraged.
So let’s do to projects reports like we used to:
Project 0: 23,000/60,000 – expecting it to be done by April 30th
Xtreme Force 1 Edit (probably my next project) roughly 1/2 done considering I have the sequel almost done as well.
Walking the Scar: Going to be a bit slower because of how much effort I’m putting into the bigger projects, but this one is still going. Don’t lose hope!
Nocturna League #6: The Emerald Current (that was the name, wasn’t it?) –hiatus-
Last thing: podcasts!
How do you folks like podcasts or youtube video readings? Email me at kellr.inkston@gmail.com or comment below to let me know. There’s a part of me that wants to give it a shot.
As always, thank you for your support and I hope you have a wonderful day,
All the best,
Kell
Coffee... WRITING!... COFFEE!! 