Increasing Visibility

As noted below, I have recently included my blog in the Kindle Publishing for Blogs service. This makes my blog available to those with Kindle devices (and apps too, I believe) for a small monthly fee of $1.99. The idea to do this originally came from my friend Mat, who runs a blog on aquaponics.

Creating an account and linking the kindle feed to my blog posts took about 15 minutes. It was very easy and straight forward, though there is a substantial amount of personal information I needed to divulge for payment. This is primarily because Amazon reports my earnings to the IRS (they also report to the tax collection branches of several other countries) for income purposes. It also costs $8 for Amazon to mail out a physical check, compared to the direct deposit that is 100% free. However, direct deposit requires a bank account number and routing number.

Creating the blog link is very simple, and requires basic information about the nature of the blog and how frequently it will be updated. The minimum frequency for blog updates is 1 or 2 times per week though, so anyone who has very infrequent blog posts may want to strongly consider posting more frequently.

After a short content review process, my blogs were up and available in the Kindle market. Amazon advertises 24 to 72 hours, but mine were up in just a few. Though the content review may seem harsh, it isn't very strict. I have a second blog on information security, and includes many references and guides to hacking. This blog was also approved without incident, which surprised me.

The interface is extremely simple. It shows the numbers of active subscriptions to your blog, the number of trial subscriptions, and how much you can expect in royalties.

Despite the positive experience, there are still some things to be aware of. While Amazon claims no rights to the contents of your blog (you retain all rights to the material you post), Amazon retains the right to republish any work and at any time they see fit without compensating you for it. Also, they can hold specials or promotional events where your blog is available for free up to 30 days. And no, you don't get compensated for it.

Of course, the primary question is "why would anyone pay $1.99 a month to read something that they could get here for free?" Well, the easy answer is that they would be paying for the convenience of reading this blog on their very expensive Kindle or smart phone. But, as a writer who is trying to market the literature, the point is not to make money from the blog.

By making my presence visible on the Kindle market, I'm increasing my marketing surface area. Even if someone is not necessarily interested in purchasing a subscription on their Kindle, they may very well decide to come to this website and view my blog for free anyway. This brings me to the main point of this blog entry.

One thing that all self-publishers struggle with is increasing the surface area of their market and product visibility. Simply releasing a book by itself does not produce enough attention to generate revenue. A blog is a good start, but still limits your potential reader base. So, what exactly is this surface area and visibility thing?

Imagine you have the money to put a commercial on TV. Let's say $10,000. You can buy a single time slot for $1,000. If you buy 10 time slots on one channel, then only those people who watch that specific channel at that specific time will see the commercial. You will most likely get interest from less than 5% of the viewers. Because each channel has a theme (History, Sports, Movie, Biography, etc), you are getting the same demographic. In other words, you're showing the commercial to the same people over and over again.

Instead of wasting the money to show your commercial multiple times on the same channel, what if you bought 2 time slots on 5 channels instead? In this way, you are reaching more people by adding viewers from 5 channels instead of 1. You are also appealing to a wider demographic. You expose more people by diversifying your marketing approach.

Now, let's take a step back and look at a larger picture. You decide to advertise on the radio and in magazines. No longer are you only reaching people who happen to be watching TV during that time slot, but those who are reading magazines and listening to the radio as well. Your surface area increased again.

As a self-published author, you should be continuously looking for an additional outlet for information. When people begin to see your work in multiple places, you will build a small amount of reputation, and they are more likely to take a chance with your literature.

So, what of Amazon and a small (if not pitiful) stream of revenue? As a writer, you should not be selling blog posts about your literature, but your literature itself. Any money you make from your blog is a good bonus, but should not be your main concern. Just consider it advertising that you are getting paid for instead of the other way around.

Chapter 1 finished

I have completed the first draft of chapter 1. I'm having certain individuals look it over for me. I think I have decided to eliminate a lot of the technology descriptions. The companion encyclopedia will not only streamline the original work, but add an additional (free!) gold mine for those who live for the technology. This will be a living, breathing document, so I will update it as future publications are completed and made available.

Though I am excited to be making progress, I am tempering this enthusiasm to make certain the proper amount of time is spent on review and improvements. As much as I want to release the book to the world, I want to do it right.

While I'm not yet prepared to start giving details about the chapters, I would like to spend a moment talking about publishing. The typical publishing process is long, tedious, and unpredictable. Authors can easily spend more than a year trying to find a suitable publisher for their book. When they do find this publisher, it will take at least another 6 months for the book to hit shelves (assuming the editor does not want sweeping changes made).

While the publisher usually advances money to the author, this money is advanced against future royalties. This means if the publisher advances $10,000, the author will need to sell $10,000 worth of royalties before they see another cent. Even with a well known publisher backing them, most authors don't sell more than a few thousand copies. This means that they don't even make back their advance. The average novel is out of print within a year of it's initial release.

Traditionally, a reputable publishing house was the only way to go. Self publishing companies (often referred to as vanity publishers) often charged a lot of money up front for a run of books. The author then had to literally sell their book door to door. Self publishing doomed any chance that a book or author had of succeeding.

This has changed dramatically in the last few years. Where mass-print publishers with an army of marketers once reigned, now stand empty buildings. The publishing houses of old are driving as fast as they can towards digital distribution. Those who refused to change are now going bankrupt. Many companies are also offering print on demand- a method of publishing that allows books to be printed as they are sold, with royalties paid to the author.

Amazon's Kindle and it's digital library make up 60% of book sales on Amazon, and a substantial portion of large retailers like Barnes and Noble. Other digital distribution companies like Scribd are seeing a massive influx of traditional publishers, who are now posting professionally published works in digital formats to save money and increase their customer base.

Considering the best deal an author can get from a traditional publisher is 15% (and that is a hard limit. You simply aren't going to earn any more), the substantial offering of 50% to 80% given by companies like Scribd and Amazon make far more lucrative prospects to Authors.

What does this mean? Well, mostly it means that publishing has become worlds easier for would-be authors. Where once they could expect only rejection letters, they now receive royalties. It also makes marketing self-published books far easier. With companies like Google and Facebook allowing cost effective advertising to millions of potential customers, the only true advantage of a publisher has been eliminated.

And to be fair, that was the only true service a publisher could offer. Writers could pay a freelance editor, cover artist, printer, and make their own website. The one thing that was of great difficulty was marketing the book to large outlets and libraries. In the digital world, everyone is equal.

There are no concerns about under printing, losing shelf space, or going out of print. Everyone has the same chance to sell. In fact, an author can discount their books substantially (heck, the publisher would only pay them a $1.50 per book anyway. Why not sell it for $2?) and severely undercut a publishing house who has substantial overhead.

While the internet is no longer a new oddity in our culture, it is still a new frontier, and an excellent place for enterprising individuals to carve a living. That is, if they know where to look and are willing to commit to hard work and constant learning. The possibilities are truly endless.

Phase 1: Code Name - Firestorm

I have begun writing in earnest again, with the Firestorm universe being the most salient option at this point. I have weighed my options and currently consider digital publishing mediums such as scribd and Kindle to be the most lucrative choices. While I hold nothing against traditional publishers, I don't envy the idea of spending months on rejection letters before receiving a lukewarm entry bid at a low percentage.

I also understand that many people would prefer a physical copy to purchase, rather than depend on a digital volume that holds no resale or bookshelf value. For those, I am looking into createspace.com, a service which prints books as they are ordered at no cost to the author. This allows said authors to earn royalties without an extensive upfront cost. However, the cost of purchasing a physical copy of my literature will be 50% to 75% more than the digital copy. The price increase covers the physical material and shipping of the product, and is unavoidable.

Economics aside, I have outlined 5 of roughly 10 chapters from the first book of the Firestorm series. I'm not yet prepared to post any specifics aside from a brief synopsis as follows:

The discovery of time compression using the Gelvin theory (first published in 2190), leads to the theory that an enveloped of compressed time can be created to dramatically slow time for all those within its wake. A series of ships given the class "Einstein" test the theory, travelling from Earth to Unity Station orbiting Pluto, prove the theory works. Over the next 80 years, focus on creating ships that can generate a field large enough to cover an entire fleet commences.

In the year 2315, the population of Earth has reached a critical level. Though colonies exist within the whole of the solar system, they are underdeveloped and not yet prepared to handle the influx of potential immigrants. The discovery of the star HG5581 and it's orbiting planet (HG5581a) behind the dark nebula Hadrien impels the governments of the world to force an exodus of up to 10% of all armed forces and 10% of the general population.

By 2320, a coalition of armed forces departs 5 years before the colonists to establish a secure environment for the colonist to arrive establish a solid human empire among the stars. Both the journey and arrival of these forces is met with strife. All the hardship and suffering endured by these new arrivals is but a footnote in the vast and deep expanse of the Helix Stars and their many other inhabitants...