Self-publishing on Amazon

>How do you get paid?
I think direct-deposit is the most common method; it's how I get my money from Kindle, and though Kindle can take care of my paperbacks as well I do my paperbacks through CreateSpace... which is kind of annoying, but it's how I started out, and I don't really feel like mucking about with what works. It's because I'm in Canada; for some reason I can't get direct deposit for the royalties with CreateSpace, instead it's done via cheque. Their process is that dollars, pounds, and euros are separated. So far I've not gotten any British or Euro paperback sales so we'll ignore that but just know it's on its own separate 'meters'. With dollars, I have made $19 and change. I cannot get it. The reason for that is because I have to earn $108 US (or 108 Pounds for pounds or 108 Euros for euros). Once I reach that magic number of 108, I get a $100 cheque. The $8 is spent in actually sending the cheque to me, I assume from the US.

With Kindle though, it's direct deposit. For some reason Oct/Nov/Dec were all put together and the payday was 3 months later (March). I barely made any money whatsoever, but anyways now it's a monthly system instead of a quarter-yearly system. I get paid for individual months, 2 months after the month ends. I got paid for March in May, paid for April (my best month so far) at the end of June, and at the end of July I'll get paid for May. What I made in June (worst month since February, unfortunately) I will get at the end of August. As for paperbacks with CreateSpace, as mentioned, $108 is needed and I'll get a cheque for $100 in the mail. I'm only at $19.32 (just checked) and I anticipate that, unless I suddenly become REALLY popular, I won't be getting my paperback money for over a year. The real money is in eBooks and KENP. There's not many paperback sales, and I even have my prices fairly low. Most expensive book is $9.99 USD, the rest are $8.99 or less. Lowest is, I think, $5.50 USD.

SO! Any questions?

Then get to writing...

The money starts coming in when the KENP pages begin accumulating

Very interesting, thank you for sharing.
Genre? How do you advertise?
This one might be strange but how do you deal with covers for your books, is it just a title on a background or you hire somebody to draw it for you?

Do not listen to these guys telling you to self publish. Self publishing is an absolute joke and the industry just laughs at it and the people who participate in it. If you have short stories that you would like to make money with and have published, there are plenty of fiction contests with deadlines all throughout the year that you will be able to win if your writing is worth publishing. There are also magazines that have free reading periods every now and then. If they like your stuff, they will PAY YOU for the right to publish your short story. And it will not be the few pennies that these guys make with their fan-fiction on amazon. You will make thousands of dollars a short story if it has merit. Do not go for volume, go for quality. Eventually you can put them all together and a publisher (who you have probably met via your success) will be glad to publish them all as a collection. I even know of a couple fiction contests going on right now that offer agency reviews to the winner and even honorable mentions. If you self publish on amazon though, you will never be taken seriously by the publishing industry. Self publishing is only for people who already have an audience with their huge social media followings.

What's the name of YOUR published book?

I'm not giving my name away on here. I come here when I have some free time to offer advice and critique to aspiring writers. I'm not looking for any recognition on here, and I certainly do not care to prove myself to people who choose not to take my advice.

there is a massive amount of information on blackhatforums

Self publishing is the future user.

I can't think of any books self published on kindle that went viral and huge, anybody prove me wrong.

>the contract is for 3 months and renews itself
So if i decide NOT to renew it i can sell it to someone else again?

How do you decide the price of a story? Is there a rule of thumb of what people are usually willing to pay?

Would you recommend putting up a few short stories separately vor 35%, or put them together in an anthology to get into the 70% range?

Im from europe and i write in german, and while there are usually a few contests up they are mostly shit.

The Martian by Andy weir.

Amanda hocking made a million bucks selling her stuff on Amazon before a publisher picked her up

Chuck Tingle, but admittedly this is a cheeky answer

I won't say so, it shows that a niche can have a cult following.

I'd say whether or not you take chuck tingle seriously depends on whether or not you consider what people buy from him as writing or as novelty items. I personally am inclined to say the latter, but only because his success is so unorthodox and his branding as a writer is so laden in irreverence that it's difficult to get to the actual writing.

How many did you get on June 21st? 155? Or is it perhaps 75? If it's around 300 then buddy you've been having 19 pretty damn good days! But yeah, the big money seems to be in KENP, or at least the most consistent money. Sadly I haven't gotten an eBook sale in 2 weeks now, as seen in pic related. Been over 2 months since my last release, and I definitely think to maintain good sales/KENP, it's best to be putting out books pretty regularly. Got 3100 words written today though, so that's great, VERY productive. In fact if I can maintain that (doubtful) I could have this novel finished in about 10 days, give or take, depending on how long I want this novel to be. 50,000 words at least, of course. Can't wait to try NaNoWriMo.

>Self punlishing is an absolute joke
Well memed, my friend. Makes me feel like it's still the 20th century.

Once you stop renewing it and the 3-month contract expires, yes, you can sell eBook versions of your book on other sites. The book I took off KDP Select is currently free on Lulu, I'll provide the link, but I'll say ahead of time that I know there's some grammatical errors in it. I wrote the novella within 5 days, it's almost 29,000 words long, and the first 15,500 was written within a 24-hour period, the first 10,000 words being within a 6-hour period.

FREE BOOK (Another One Please, to Dull the Pain)
lulu.com/shop/j-n-morgan/another-one-please-to-dull-the-pain/ebook/product-23229284.html

You can price your eBook anywhere from $0.99 USD and up. At $2.99 and up you can get 70% royalties. A $2.99 sale gets you $2.05 USD, which in Monopoly money (Canadian dollars; we have colourful bills) is about $2.65 CAD, perhaps $2.70 Australian. The US dollar was stronger than the Canadian dollar a few months back so $2.05 USD used to give about $2.80 CAD. Anyways, my first 4 books are $0.99 to encourage people to buy them. My 2 sequels are $2.99 and this 3rd sequel will also be $2.99.

I don't plan on making an eBook over $2.99 unless perhaps I write one that's around 100,000 pages or more, and even then probably just $3.99. Still, I know someone who recently released a book for $4.99. I think that's far too expensive for an eBook, but she DID get 13 sales within the first few weeks. Admittedly 6 of them were from friends/family, but I did the math, and I recall it being around $50 CAD at least. I told her how incredible a start that is; it's her first book, but inevitably her sales did eventually cool down. She'll probably lower her price in time.

I hear that selling short stories individually for $0.99 a piece or $2.99 at most is where big money is, but I'd feel terrible doing that. I want to give better value for my readers, so while I AM writing some short stories on the side, they will be released in a compilation that will perhaps be $2.99 but I haven't decided yet. Might just be $0.99, depends on how long it is, but there will be several short stories and/or novelettes in it.

So yeah, I'd go with the 70% royalty of $2.99, not so much for more money, but so that it's of better value for the reader. I figure a lot of short stories for $2.99 is better than one at a time for $0.99 each. Also... and well... this is a bit of a greedy thought, but if someone opens up that compilation book on Kindle Unlimited and only wants to read one of the short stories near the end, they might just flip through all the pages leading up to it, which means it's a lot of KENP for me. So there's also that. Anyways, ultimately, it's up to you.

I also submitted one of my books for a contest with Kindle or Amazon or something. It's actually the very book that is now for free. Kinda doubt I'll win, but still, it was fun wishful thinking to submit it. I think it was for about 20,000 British Pounds, which in Canadian dollars is probably up around $35,000 or so. Veeeeery enticing...

Self-publishing being a joke is a Veeky Forums meme. There's literally people making $5000-15000 a MONTH with Kindle, and I hear there are some people making even more than that. Personally, I live a pretty simple life. All I need is $1250 a month and I can live fairly comfortably. $1500+ a month and I'm absolutely laughing. Hell, I've only made around $145 or so thus far and I'm already laughing! I'm getting paid to do something I genuinely enjoy, and I'm having a blast learning the complicated process of being a successful self-published author! Not only that, but honestly, I think it's an inevitability that I'll become traditionally published someday. Honestly though, that's not something that's on my mind much at all. Even if I did get traditionally published I would maintain full rights for eBooks with Kindle. The traditional publisher simply will not get rights to distribute digital versions of my books. Only physical copies and MAYBE audio books if that's something they're into. In my view, physical copies with traditional publishers and eBooks with Kindle is the best of both worlds. Kindle dominates eBooks by a huge margin, and to my knowledge, traditional publishers dominate physical copies by a huge margin, so it's perfection! I absolutely would deny a traditional publisher if they demanded full rights of distribution. For me to consider leaving Kindle, it would have to be a substantial advance from the publishing company, and the contract could only be a year.

Self publishing being a joke is not a Veeky Forums meme, because a lot of people on here use the platform to publish their shit. All the people making money on kindle already had a large audience from elsewhere, and they simply sell to that audience which consumes and even advertises for them. You're not going to find someone with a large social media following on Veeky Forums. Being traditionally published is not hard at all. If your writing has any merit it will be published. I know the biggest idiots and guys that have barely even studied the classics or traditional writing skills who were able to get a book published. If self-publishing is your only option you are doing things very wrong.

Well thanks for all the info, i wish you the best for your future.

I have a steady job, im just writing for fun so im not planing to be the next stephen king. But if im going to write the stories anyway, i might try to sell them too cause why the fuck not.

>Self-publishing is your only option you are doing things very wrong
I haven't even put a serious attempt into traditional publishing, and I'm not interested in doing so at present. Self-publishing is slowly but surely working out for me, and is as legitimate a start for writers as traditional publishing, in fact I encourage people to self-publish WHILE actively seeking traditional publishing, if they even want to bother with that route. Anyways, that's my view on the matter, yours is different, mine isn't going to change and I doubt yours is going to change, so you may make your rebuttal but I will likely not bother replying to it. As far as I'm concerned, it is absolutely a Veeky Forums meme that self-publishing is a joke. People have done very well with self-publishing, and even though I have no platform or internet audience at all I am already making money. Someone I met online has likewise started self-publishing VERY recently and made $50 in her first few weeks, which is great, and she's eager to write more. Neither of us are particularly interested in getting involved in traditional publishing, though as I've mentioned, I believe it's inevitable that traditional publishing will come to me.

No problem at all, good luck to you as well! I write because I love to write, but as you say, if people are willing to pay for it then why the fuck not? I've already gotten a dozen ratings/reviews, and I'm liking what I see. There is absolutely a market for what I write, even though I've written for nobody but myself. Through self-publishing I will become a full-time writer, and though I do not actively seek out traditional publishing I do believe it will be in my future too but like many other modern writers I will get a very respectable start in self-publishing. Cheers!

what about the Greeks. Infinite Jizz, my diary f.a.m?

Is digital self-publishing the new pulp periodical?

it's whatever you want it to be, sweetie.

All erotic novelists before amazon had to purge its ranks because some journalists got pissy.

and what about the Greeks, were they purged as well?

More or less.

Imagine my shock. Go on..Imagine it.

I, for one, would like to see more variations on this image. I request Super Saiyan BAS.

okeydokey

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I find this quite amusing. I wonder what sound it would make while powering up.

This desu
I agree

I'd publish something online free first and build up a following before attempting to charge someone. Most people are unwilling to pay for a story by an author they've never heard before.

Until you want to start charging. Perceived value m8.

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That's a fantastic strategy, one that Derek Murphy has used. He has decades of experience in traditional publishing, sees the value of self-publishing, and so is trying that out. For 6 months he averaged $5,000 per month. I assume that's US dollars so it's somewhere around $6500 per month Canadian or Australian. Now he's setting his sights on multiplying that tenfold; over half a million dollars a year via self-publishing, but he's blatantly going for what is likely to sell, he's playing the market. Literally, mermaid books, and a focus on young adult stuff. The dreaded YA, which I imagine on Veeky Forums is the worst of the worst of the genre fiction, likely for good reason.

Anyways, yeah, he set his books to free for quite some time though had to jump through some hoops to do it. Apparently with Amazon/CreateSpace/Kindle alone, you can't set your books to free for extended periods. With KDP Select you can have 5 free days in a 3-month span, and that's it. Then you can have two discounted weeks per book after you've kept your price stagnant for at least a month. One week in the US, and one week in the UK. Anyhow, he set his books for perma-free for a while, got people reading them, got his name circulating, got people talking, and when he monetized them again, well, sales boomed. As mentioned, $5k per month for half a year.

I've also found that, if I do it right, free promotional offers from time to time can result in some pretty damn good sales. I guess it's from the generosity. "Hey, this guy has some of his books going for free today, I think I'll download them. Oh, some of them aren't for free... but I've already gotten all these without paying a cent. Weeeeell, I guess I could buy one or two of his non-free books since I'm getting so much. The first few pages don't seem overly bad from the free ones!"

One possible view, perhaps. Anyways, it's good to get your name out there. Once people get your book for free and read it, if it's good, they'll like it, perhaps leave a good rating (helps sales), and might even tell friends about it (could help sales there too). If they don't like it, they might give a bad rating, and either won't tell friends at all or will tell them to avoid it. Capitalism at work. Want to make money? You have to work for it, play your cards right, and provide what the people WANT. If the people DON'T want it, then you'll flounder, and rightfully so. You make money in Capitalism by improving society or at least the quality of life of society by giving people joy or happiness, or if they want drama then give them sadness, but the key is they have to want and LIKE it.

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Creative. Got over 1100 more words written. Wrote in a couple Muslim characters. Should prove to be interesting.

Something new I learned about Kindle.

>Kindle Owners' Lending Library

This is different from someone buying a Kindle eBook and lending it to someone to read. KOLL is for people enrolled in Kindle Prime or Amazon Prime or some such thing. They get one free book a month to I think essentially rent and read. The author of the book receives KENP royalties when it is read by someone for the first time. It would also seem that when a book is lent out by KOLL, it counts as a purchase, so the sales rank increases.

Also, yeah, that bottom book is an erotica and easily one of my worst-selling ones. Still, it demonstrates that if you continue not to get sales, the sales rank decreases more slowly, however immediately after getting a sale if you don't get subsequent sales/KOLL lends pretty quickly, then the sales rank decreases quickly, even hundreds of thousands of positions within a single day.

Nope, I was wrong, it was an actual sale, but yeah I've gotten jumps in sales rank on many occasions without getting an actual sale so I assume that's from KOLL.

Where do you go to get cover art?

Did that just come in a few minutes ago? Cause that would have been me. You offered me some good advice a month or 2 back and it's helped me a great deal. I saw this thread and it reminded me that I had meant to check one of your books out.

There is a cover creator program available with CreateSpace. Absolutely free, and through CreateSpace is how I get my books on Amazon. Once the book had gone through CreateSpace's system, I can then very easily send the info over the Kindle to get the eBook version done and it also uses the cover art.

If I actually paid an artist for cover art then I'd have higher quality stuff, but considering it's 100% free, I think I'm doing alright with what I've got.

Oh wow, awesome, thanks a lot! I hope you enjoy the book! Got the 4th in the Living amongst the Dead series around half finished, possibly even over half finished, depends on how long it turns out. Anyways, thanks again for the support, that's awesome. Here's a freebee; a novella I wrote in less than 5 days back in mid-March of this year, got it perma-free on Lulu. Cheers!

lulu.com/shop/j-n-morgan/another-one-please-to-dull-the-pain/ebook/product-23229284.html

The title is a little bit melodramatic, but it suits the story.

>One more note on Cover Creator
Check out the white a little centre-left at the bottom of pic related. I made this on CreateSpace, along with almost all my other covers.

Oh yeah, and you can include your own pics if you like, though I dare say if anything improper was used then they'd take your book down. The photo used for the cover of Firearm Valhalla is a pic I took around... oh... 2010-11 perhaps? Absolutely fantastic rifles, all three of them, very historic, and all of them from early-mid WWII.

7.62 internets for anyone who can name them.

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Oh, you're from the UK? Awesome, most of my sales have been to the US but I've been getting the occasional few in Canada, UK, and Australia. I think of the four, UK has been getting me the least sales, so it's awesome to see another one going across the pond to the homeland. My ancestry is largely from England and Ireland (though mostly Republic of Ireland I think, but before the island split up)... waiting to find out you're from Scotland or Wales now lol

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How about a BAS Captain Morgan?

More info? I was planning to publish erotic novels on shitmazon

>When her "no" means "yes"

Had a gf when I was a teenager who was into rape fetish. Introduced me to it. I was a huge beta and all "b-but women should be r-respected n-no matter w-what..."

I took that, tossed in a dash of PSAS 'persistent sexual arousal disorder' or whatever the other term for it is, along with a bit of Newfie culture, a little crippling social anxiety for the female, and so on and so forth. Ultimatly, yeah, probably still shit, but it does have some aspects that are pulled directly from real life experience. As a side note, that sweet little teen remains the best lay I've had in my entire life.

I might be too drunk to be posting online...

Non-fiction.

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Not entirely untrue. The story is not what you think.
Hawt.

The front cover is pretty good but I find your back covers somewhat lacking and amateurish, maybe it's the massive unaligned text.

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yo this is retarded my guy.

To be entirely honest, I do value your... is criticism the right word? Feedback! I do value the feedback, but for the time being my goal is to continue writing and producing more work. I am still very much ashamed that it's been over 2 months and I've finished nothing. Had over a month and a half of writer's block and it's been Hell but I'm back to writing! Anyways, once I come upon some money, I'll find myself an artist and get something on the cover that looks good and proper. God am I drunk, and I fucking love love it.

My dude, I believe it is. Let us basque in its gaiety. Huzzah!

Eh, I think you can do it yourself in CreateSpace - then again it doesn't really matter if it's in kindle version.

>Mine is J N Morgan

> open up one of your books on amazon

> first few sentences barely coherent, pretentious

I mean all the power to you to keep self-publishing, but submitting to publishing would be a good ego-check

My guy, from a purely graphic design viewpoint, that cover is very unappealing, trust me. The photograph makes it look very amateurish and that can turn a lot of people off reading it. You'd be better off just making the cover a red background with a white sans serif font. Covers are very important when it comes to selling books so I'd advise that you look up some contemporary book covers and get a feel for minimalist design aesthetics. It could help you a lot in the future. Even if it seems uneccessary to you, I think it would help a lot with your future projects.

Do what myself on CreateSpace? Make covers? That's what I've been doing. I'm a bit confused.

You think my writing is pretentious, that is unfortunate. Maybe my writing style will change someday but my hunch is that I'm set in my ways. Been writing for over half my life, but only as a hobby, and I've been complimented many times for it. If my writing is not fit for the market, that is unfortunate, but as of right now I'm doing not terribly bad. Most new self-published authors don't make $100 in their first year. I made that in something like 2.5 months.

Things have slowed down considerably, sadly, but I've got my next book finally coming along in good time. I might make note to you that I'm Newfie, and not only that but I've absorbed a lot of UK and Irish media. Newfoundland is an island off the East Coast of Canada and we pretty much have the funniest accent and most distinct culture of Canada, along with a specific tradition when a Newfie gets in a serious relationship with a non-Newfie which takes place when the non-Newfie comes to meet the Newfie family. It's called getting 'Screeched In', and they become an honourary Newfoundlander.

Anyways, that might be the source of why my writing might seem pretentious. I've also been told my writing seems very old-school, like it's something out of the 50s. I dunno. I'm drunk at present. Anyways, thanks for the feedback, I very much appreciate it, and though I'll give it thought I'll also give thought to the potential fact that what the rest of the world might see as 'pretentious', to me, it might just be Newfie or British or Irish. Cheers to ya, and thanks again for the feedback. A proper attempt at traditional publishing might indeed be an ego-check, but if nothing else, it will absolutely and most certainly be a learning experience. At any rate, for now, I'm in no rush whatsoever to pursue traditional publishing, but I imagine it will be in my future at some time or another. WOO! Praise rum!

I agree with you entirely. New authors generally, myself included, want a super-detailed and seemingly super-complex cover that has all kinds of different details and nuances. Simplicity can help a lot. As for specifying a red background with a 'white sans serif font', which I would have to look up to fully understand, ultimately I am stuck with what I have available. Once I have the money to hire an artist, I'll more than likely replace just about ALL my book covers. For now, I deal with what I have available, but I think the cover(s) for Firearm Valhalla (and potential sequels and/or prequels) will involve my own personal firearms which I have many pics of due to being something of a frequenter of /k/.

Jesus Christ I'm drunk, thank God for rum. Anyways, thanks for the info, and though I'm questionable on the red bit I do know that my books are in great need of new covers and also that proper PROFESSIONAL covers would most certainly improve my sales and/or KENP. Thanks again!

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Damned, I was hoping there was a free to use image cache somewhere.

I planned to photoshop a crows head and wings onto a black wolves body, then place it on a snowy background for my cover art but it looks like I'll need to photograph all three myself to do so legally.

Still better than prince of thorns desu

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You know, I've been meaning to go check out /pol/. There was once a time I held some Liberal views and thought they were all just racists, but they're just evil geniuses with weaponized autism. I bet they're ultimately pretty cool.

I dunno, I suppose you might, but there's probably publicly available work of all three, no? What about photographs that are extremely old? Are those still copyrighted? I still feel drunk from last night.

MAGA! Down with Antifa fascists!

Damn this might actually be a good way to get around the jewish fiction mafia which has been my biggest concern. I have recurring nightmares of neil gaiman breaking into my house and raping me to death because I didn't write enough strong women of colour.

White whatever you damn well please. One of the lead antagonists in the Living amongst the Dead series lately has been a lesbian black woman. Not really made out to be a stereotypical dyke, but I think she could be adequately described as a 'bull dyke'. Quite dominant. She's tall, thin, toned, fairly strong, but in Living amongst the Dead: On the Road Again, after 2 novels of giving a white guy shit just for being white, he finally snaps. Well not so much snaps, but decides to be as awful as she thinks him to be; he calls her a "nigger dyke". It's there, in the book, and it's a book I've earned some money on. So feel free to write whatever you damn well please.

SPOILER ALERT!

In the 4th instalment of the series, which I'm in the process of writing (over 32,000 words in though, so likely half way finished at LEAST though probably over halfway done), she ends up getting wounded by Richard finally shooting her with his M1911A1, but he doesn't know for sure if the shot connected or not. It was through a door. The reader does find out how she got wounded by it though, but just saying, he doesn't know. I've also written in two Muslim characters. I think it's coming along well. The older bearded dude is a huge prick, stifling, and I've actually done research into 'ghusl' (religious bath before prayer) as well as how the Muslims pray, so I'm going to make it as realistic as possible. Ultimately, I don't know how it'll go. He'll probably end up being killed for beating the girl, who is described as his daughter, or he might just try to force himself on Tiffany. We'll have to wait and see.

The girl is coming along nicely though, I'm quite liking her. Described as likely not yet quite being a teen yet, she has two differently coloured eyes which is the first time I've written such a detail on a character (right eye green, left eye brown, if memory serves), and in secret from her father she's been learning to read and write Arabic as well as English with the help of two copies of the Quran, one in each language. In a previous group an ex-teacher taught her to speak English as well as how to read and write it a little, in secret from her father of course since he'd never allow such a thing. Now, with her basic knowledge of English, she's using the two Qurans to better her English as well as to learn to read and write Arabic. Quite a bit of symbolism there I think; the leading language from the west used to educate a girl from the Middle East.

SUPER SPOILER!

The girl is his child bride, not his daughter. Though kudos to him; the girl's father requested the husband not lay with her until she is at least 13, and he's been obeying the request, and thus the girl has not been fucked by this old bearded guy yet in spite of everything that's been going on.

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KENP so far today, 162. Average going rate for KENP? Roughly .47 to .5 of a US penny per page read.

162 x 0.47 = 76.14

So 76 US pennies is a reasonable minimum of what can be expected of 162 KENP. Three quarters and a penny. Canadian dollar and Australian dollar are roughly 1.3 dollars per 1 US dollar.

76.14 x 1.3 = 98.982

So damn near $0.99, roughly, in 'Straya or Canuckistan.

>How is KENP figured out?

It's not done until the end of the month. To my knowledge, and correct me if I'm wrong, but this is how I think it's worked out. ALL the money people spend on Kindle Unlimited subscriptions is added up. The amount that is to be given to the actual content creators (self-published authors like myself who contract their work to KDP Select, which is what I do with most of my books) is figured out, putting the profit for Kindle/Amazon aside. Next step is to add up all the Kindle Unlimited page reads for all books, though only the first time someone reads a book on Kindle Unlimited counts. If I were to buy a Kindle Unlimited sensorship and flip through my books over and over and over to try and rack up the KENP, I'll only be counted for the FIRST time I greedily swipe through the pages. Anyways, once ALL the KENP has been added up (God only knows the ridiculous number of page reads there must be every month), the money for the authors is divided by the KENP. Generally, as mentioned, about .47 to .5 of a US penny per page reads.

Below are the amount of KENP I made for just one book, and in US dollars. I didn't specifically check, but likely it's all for my first book; Living amongst the Dead. The 2 page reads I got from Brazil in October earned me 0.03 Brazilian... dollars? Don't know what they call their currency, but I got .03 of it.

>October 2016
15 page reads had earned me $0.08 USD (.53 US penny per page)
(I also got 2 page reads besides that from Brazil, which is cool)

>November 2016
I literally got no ebook sales or KENP this month

>December 2016
182 KENP earned me $0.95 USD (.52 US penny per page)

>January 2017
Absolutely no ebook sales or KENP this month

>February 2017
219 KENP earned me $1.09 USD (.497 US penny per page)

>March 2017 (The month I really started getting sales/KENP)
1750 KENP earned me $8.06 USD (.46 US penny per page)

>April 2017 (My most profitable month thus far)
818 KENP earned me $3.74 USD (.457 US penny per page)

>May 2017
1246 KENP earned me $5.41 USD (.43 US penny per page)

>June 2017 (least profitable month since February)
I checked but it would seem they're still doing the math for June. I get paid for June ebooks and KENP at the end of August so they still have plenty of time.

Well... sadly... it would seem my previous assessment of "average of .47-.5" hasn't held true for a few months now. There seems to be a steady downward trajectory, which is very unfortunate. Either people are giving up Kindle Unlimited memberships, or KU members are reading more books per month these days, I guess...

This is your brain on self-publishing. Forced to stagnate and value literal pennies a month, the elusive self-publishee begins to shill his work to anyone that will listen. It's due to a strange phenomenon where the self-publishee has been cut off from the traditional tribes that would have aided him in the task of advertisement, yet he believes that self-advertisement on anonymous imageboards will give him that $5 boost a month he so desires. The typical specimen also defends his fan-fiction tier writing to the death, because after having written half a dozen novels he refuses to change and reform his ways. He no longer enjoys and evaluates new information on writing. He has stagnated, like a water buffalo who has left the nourishing comforts of water to laze about in the mud. Will the self-publishee return to the river and rejoin the tribe? Or will he chase zombies and tumblr and oh my, even a black protagonist. Find out next time on Literature In The Serengeti.

>Someones original book, album, podcast, or artwork is only legitimate if the establishment industry middlemen gatekeepers say it is

Fuck off grandpa, people can share and sell their own work over the internet now

>a namefag wants to lecture us on desperation and disconnection from reality
>a namefag roleplaying as a Roman living in Athens, for some reason
>Just in case you were worried that he knew what the fuck he was talking about.

Maybe some people just want to share the book they wrote with the world, the couple of bucks they make off it isn't the point

>believing that small time publishers are shills

m8...

The back looks like a shitty powerpoint slide

The font and layout of the front is a ripoff of some real book about Africa I can't remember right now

Anons, he's just a troll spreading memes. I'm literally the poster of the majority of the messages he (you)'d here and I don't care. We know self-publishing is legit, he's still living in the 20th century, so I suggest doing as I do and just ignore him; continue discussing self-publishing.

Anyone have any questions, either new ones or ones relating to things I've discussed? The discovery that the value of KENP seems to be steadily declining is quite unfortunate but it's still a method of income. I've been at this for less than a year but I'm already making hundreds of dollars, and in KENP alone the first book I wrote made over $20 since its release in October. If I sought traditional publishing and ONLY traditional publishing, I'd likely have a hard time getting taken up unless I focused only on markets that currently sell (like young adult or fantasy or something like that, which doesn't interest me). Ultimately, my choice of going with self-publishing was just that; a choice. I chose self-publishing, because to me it seems to be a simpler and easier way to start than traditional publishing. It's also clearly a legitimate way of making money since there are people making several thousand dollars a month at it, and I've made $100 in the span of just 2 months.

The process of traditional publishing is, as I understand it, waiting up to 6 months while the publishing company goes over your work to decide whether or not to accept it. Once it's accepted and the terms are agreed upon it must then go through a professional editor, a graphic designer must make the cover, and once all that is done the book must be mass-produced, and from there it must be distributed to stores. That's a long time. Granted there is an initial advance upon being accepted ($5000 minimum I hear for the main publishers) but as mentioned it takes up to 6 months just to find out if you've been denied or not, and it is infinitely more common to get a letter of denial than a letter of acceptance, unless you go to a vanity publisher who will demand you pay THEM to get your book published.

Ultimately, I chose self-publishing because it costs me nothing, it is quite easy, and I have the potential of making money essentially immediately. As I become more familiar with the process of self-publishing and get more books out I continue to make money. I am getting fans from other countries, communicate with them regularly, continue to get ideas for and to work on books, and steadily expand my bibliography. I will become a full-time writer/author through self-publishing. As for traditional publishing, either they'll come to me or an agent that will contact the traditional publishers on my behalf will come to me. When I have many books, when I'm a better writer than what I am today, when I works of particular note, but for now I am merely starting out. I've been self-published for over 8.5 months, and thus far, it's truly been a lot of fun.

>The font and layout of the front is a ripoff of some real book about Africa I can't remember right now
Well to be fair, there IS a black character and the book features the word nigger so it's not entirely irrelevant. But yeah, I know what you mean, every time I look at it I think it's gonna be about some journey through Africa or Jamaica or something. The main thing is that it's free. One of these days when I have money, I'll pay a designer to create covers for probably ALL my books. GOOD covers, and I'll probably even give him almost entire control to do it. Hopefully I'll get a hold of someone with experience in book cover designing and also know what will sell. Me, I don't know stuff like that. Anyways, I do know that the covers are nowhere near as good as they can be, but I work with what I've got. I guess what I've got is Africa for now.

Don't know if this thread is the best place to ask this or if a should make a new thread but...
Which is the best place for you to post the stuff you write? fb, instagram, twitter? or like you should make a blog and post it where? its better to focus on one genre for quality or you should do a blog to post ALL your work?

I know its so many questions but I have been fighting procrastination and finally writing, I'm sitting on some content but don't know where to put them... ( some people say free websites are bad is that true? )

...

You should have an Amazon Author page when you're self-published where people can find all your books. A blog can potentially help. You should have a website that has links to your books. If you're good with social media (I'm not) then that is probably a good place to communicate with people but if you bring up your book in every fucking tweet or wall post or whatever then you're likely to just come off as a total prick. I DEFINITELY don't think you should stick to one genre; write about what interests you, and I doubt you're interested in only one thing. Not only that but there's an advantage to writing int multiple genres; it's like a net. If you write only one genre, it's a small net, and most people go around it because they're not interested. If you write about more genres, the net expands, since different people are into different things, but first and foremost do not skimp on quality. If the book sucks, nobody will like it, no matter the genre.

When trying to promote your book(s), the key is to not be obnoxious. If you mention a book, make sure it's relevant to the discussion, and only mention it in passing unless there's a VERY good reason to focus on your book itself, or specific scenes in the book. If you're talking about walruses, don't decide to bring up a book you wrote about a dolphin just because they're both animals that happen to like water. Y'know? I think a blog would ideally have more to do with your own thoughts and what you're up to rather than just talking about your books. A blog should be an insight into you as a person rather than just talking about books. At least that's my view on it. If I check out a favourite author's blog and the posts are months apart and it's only about books he's releasing, I'm gonna be disappointed.

So does this help answer your question? Being familiar with Facebook and Twitter is probably a big help; I've got no interest in either, and can't be arsed to get into it even though it's undoubtedly a VERY efficient platform on which to contact people with similar interests.

Oh yeah, and it REALLY helps in getting sales if you put some books for free. If you put books for free, that gives you an excuse to border on obnoxious in promoting your books. Make sure to take part in discussions to provide something of substance, but adding on "by the way I have some books for free today, you can check them out at such-and-such a link". Offering a book or several for free is a GREAT way to get readers to check your stuff out when otherwise they may never have bothered. If your writing is good and they want to read more, they will pay. If they dislike it, then they won't Capitalism at work; if you want to make money, you have to earn it by providing a good product. Since becoming a writer I've learned that I fucking love Capitalism.

...

you know bloody well, or ought to - that publishers never ever publish a collection of stories by an unknown author first. They want a first novel, yes, perhaps based on the back of some portfolio of published short stories, but never the collection first, or even second.

stop shilling for the New York J00s

This is truly an ebin shitpoast I wish o could read one of ur books

I've only studied self publishing at a distance but ...

Post on Wattpad or Smashwords.

FB is good in lieu of an actual website for promoting yourself.

IG is for pics. Twitter requires witty or interesting tweets. For both of these, you can't just post links to your book for sale. These are content driven and shilling is not content.

I've heard your should be on the forums other self-publised writers hang out on, make friends with them, and plug their stuff so that they'll plug yours.

Good luck.

Publishers will put out a short story collection by someone who's proven themselves to be great at the form. But you're correct--a novel is vastly easier to get published.

Hot take:

Self-publishing is a valid thing you can do and there is a very real potential you can earn enough money from it to completely support yourself, however, 99% of people self publish for the wrong reasons (because their writing isn't very good and there's no way they'd ever get traditionally published). They also don't realize that if you want to turning writing into a career you need to treat it like a job (this goes for both traditional and self publishing) and pay at least some attention to market and genre trends.