If you've been following my blog you know I've been spending a lot of time writing and illustrating and then publishing my own ebooks. My first experience with itunes was a bit disappointing as sales for Monkey and Croc have dropped, Amazon is in limbo since they haven't released a color kindle yet, finally have my books on Google, but Barnes & Noble has been a pleasant surprise. I'm posting my sales reports for the last two days from Barnes and Noble's Pubit site so you can decide if it's something you wish to pursue. I may look at this data and see one thing while you might see something totally different.
I don't think it's a coincidence that Monkey and Croc is doing the best since it was uploaded first. However I did spend twice as much time on it as I did the other two. Also, I think it's important to note that Monkey and Croc has more of a "story" feel while the other two perhaps don't. It's really hard to know whether investing time in an ebook will pay off or not but I'm posting my results so you might have a better idea if it's for you.
Again, these are my sales figures for the last two days which have been trending up for the past two months. I can tell you that usually each day is very similar to the day before so when you're trending up or down it usually goes gradually. However sometimes B&N will make a major change to their site and you will see a greater change. One of the reasons Monkey and Croc is doing well now is that B&N added a category that you can only see on the Nook called something like: "hot deals" of which they added Monkey and Croc.
Of course I hope that these figures continue for years to come (I never imagined getting over $100/day) but of course most good things come to an end and I've never been the lucky type. Anyway as always good luck in your ebook projects! I know many of you are working on ebooks right now and I hope to see your books out there as I cruise around the internet.
Thanks again for posting about this. It's so great to see all the aspects of your e-book venture and very generous of you to share your experience. So glad that it's working out even better than you expected, especially since you've put so much time into it. You're blazing the trail and sharing your map with the rest of us. That's an incredibly kind thing to do. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteThanks again for this Will. I think more artists need to think long term and consider passive income sources. E-books are proving to be one of the potential answers for that.
ReplyDeleteWith the publishing industry slammed and losing sales we have to find new ways to get ourselves noticed amongst the crowd. E-books allows us to showcase our artwork and writing skills. Plus receipts like yours prove that you have an audience that would be willing to pay for what you are providing. As well as provide a potential steady income avenue should the market drop and freelance become hard to come by. So I look at your sales and get very excited.
The process of writing a book is new to me and I am taking great pains to make sure I get it right. The library my new best friend and there are numbers of books that go into how to write for specific age groups and audiences.
My question for you is, would you consider selling your book to a publisher so that it could be published traditionally if someone were interested. Would the fact that it has been e-published work for you or against you?
Thanks for your help! Also, I finally saved up my pennies and bought the, How to Illustrate A Childrens Book series! I'd be interested to know how well those educational video series are doing for you. Especially since they have such a higher profit margin than your e-books! I look forward to going through the videos and learning all you have to teach. Thanks so much Will! You're an inspiration!
WOW!! Congratulations Will!! This is so cool! I'm so glad your having this kind of success!
ReplyDeleteThanks Sheralyn, This is the kind of information I would want to know if I were thinking about indie publishing ebooks.
ReplyDeleteWilson, Yes the sales are very encouraging but keep in mind that not everyone will have the same experience and some will do way better.
You bring up a really good question about selling my books for print rights. I believe EVERYTHING is negotiable. Even the guy who says, "it's not for sale" can be talked into parting with "it" if the price is right in most cases. I would definitely sell the print rights to any of my titles as I have no plans to take on the risk or time of printing hard copies.
I think that selling print rights would mostly depend on the success of the ebook. I don't think most publishers would be interested in buying most ebook titles because there would be additional complications. However, if an ebook were generating tens of thousands of sales - and most definitely hundreds of thousands of sales - I'm sure publishers would be enticed by the sales record to overlook the additional contractual complications. There have been quite a few self published properties that have been picked up by publishers but most have had the sales to prove their value first.
Also, I hope you really enjoy the videos! I've been surprised at how well the videos have done. But more importantly how satisfying it has been to receive so much positive feedback. Putting my thoughts and insights down in more permanent record is very rewarding.
The world is changing so rapidly and I've tried to involve myself in many different types of projects mainly to stay viable. I've been afraid of doing the same thing day in and day out and one day finding that I've become obsolete. I've seen it happen to fellow advertising illustrators a decade ago and vowed to never let it happen to me.
Thanks Rob! You taught me everything I know! :)
This is incredibly generous of you to be so open about your process. Find people in the visual arts tend to be so competitive they shy away from sharing anything this concrete. I'm going to document my own e-book process too, inspired by your openess, on my own blog to hopefully help out other artists that are less tech savvy. Thanks, and it's a beautiful book my 19 month old loves it!
ReplyDeleteYes, thank you Will, for being so open and willing to encourage other e-book authors! Your blog, as well as your short courses have been a huge help to me!
ReplyDeleteKim
Thanks Kirstan and Kim!
ReplyDeleteI think that the artists that withhold information, tips, and techniques really don't understand how big the world is. They think they're in competition for a tiny slice of the pie when really there are millions of pies out there. It's way more fun to share ideas because it always comes back ten fold.
:)
Fantastic Will! Thank you for sharing your knowledge and for your transparency. You Rock! ....Loved the video series as well :o)
ReplyDeleteWill, I appreciate your series and candor. I've been thinking of epublishing (will actually publish some adult fare under a pseudonym, but was wishy washy as to my PB/graphic projects. Now I'm convinced). Did you publish yourself to the platforms? Is there tutorials and such? What format did you record your book in (jpeg, gif, pdf?) I just finished viewing your How To Illustrate Children's Books and appreciated the entire thing. I'm a professional (you can view some of my work as well as my critique group's work at www.Yellapalooza.com)and still I got a lot from it. When I finish with the second course I will be reviewing it for Yellapalooza, my blog and FB. Thank you again. It was the best $30.00 spent.
ReplyDeleteI'm posting this for Agy because bloggers having major problems:
ReplyDeleteWill, I appreciate your series and candor. I've been thinking of epublishing (will actually publish some adult fare under a pseudonym, but was wishy washy as to my PB/graphic projects. Now I'm convinced). Did you publish yourself to the platforms? Is there tutorials and such? What format did you record your book in (jpeg, gif, pdf?) I just finished viewing your How To Illustrate Children's Books and appreciated the entire thing. I'm a professional (you can view some of my work as well as my critique group's work at www.Yellapalooza.com)and still I got a lot from it. When I finish with the second course I will be reviewing it for Yellapalooza, my blog and FB. Thank you again. It was the best $30.00 spent.
Thanks Jack!
ReplyDeleteAgy, I did publish direct to B&N, Amazon, and Google and I worked with friends to publish on itunes. I saved all my files as jpegs and my brother in law made an epub file from those. If you scroll up on this blog you can see a post titled "Monster ebook Junkies" and if you read through it you will find an amazing epub file tutorial for free. Just click the link and download the pdf....and thanks for your kind words on my videos.