Discounted promotion via The Masquerade Crew. With a catch ...
For those of you who do not know, the Masquerade Crew is putting together a series of time-travel anthologies, the first of them hopefully to come out in the next few months. No final date has been set and probably won't be until right before we are ready to release the hounds. This has been a project a year in the making. It's about time we got somewhere with it.
In addition to keeping track of the editing process, lining up book covers, and other stuff, I'm researching ways to promote the series and drive sales. In addition to ranking on Amazon, another concern is royalties. Not only are the writers earning their portion via sales royalties, but so are the editors. This has kept my start up costs low, but it makes me concerned about sales. If we don't sell enough copies, the editors won't come close to making what they would normally make, which isn't the best business model for us moving forward.
If successful, I'd love to do this over and over again, and not just with anthologies. I'd love to help authors publish their novels. I think the future of indie publishing will be with small indie presses, ones with enough power to drive sales, with enough momentum to actually stand toe to toe with some of the big guys. I can dream anyway. Whether that future becomes a reality doesn't change the fact that many small indie presses today do not do enough for their authors in my opinion.
I've got lots of ideas to help our books rank on Amazon, hopefully driving an ever increasing volume of sales. But should those ideas not work, I'd still like to be able to sort of guarantee a return on our investment. The writers and editors may not make a fortune, but I'd to offer them something. The best way to do that is raise revenue.
Now, I could have a donation drive, the proceeds going to the editors and writers (or some other marketing program). And I may still do that, but I've got another idea to combine actual sales on Amazon and drastically raise revenue in a short period of time. I'd like to offer promotion on this site in exchange for a book purchase.
Here's how it would work.
The anthology will be released at the astronomical price of $9.99, but it will only stay that price for about a week. This time will be enough for family members and friends who want to support us financially and authors willing to buy a copy in exchange for promotion to make their purchases. Once an author has made a purchase, Amazon will send them an email confirming their purchase. That email will be forwarded to me to confirm the purchase, at which time the author will get $15 worth of promotion on this site.
You heard right.
An author spends $10, and I will give them $15 worth of promotion.
If enough authors are interested in doing this, editors and writers will earn some royalty right away and this venture might actually help us rank. Not on the bestseller list necessarily since my research shows that the number of books sold play a larger role there, but with some of Amazon's other lists, such as their popularity lists, or other places were price plays a large roll.
Also, if I combine this idea with a major price drop the week after to push as many units as we can, the $10 purchases will help us rank, and if the price paid plays any part, we might even hit the best seller list. And hopefully stay there.
The first obstacle to hurdle will be if people in general are OK with this idea. It's a little outside the box. So, let us know in the following poll.
If this is something that would interest you, add your name to this special contact list, and if and when the time comes to implement this idea, I'll send you an email.
In addition to keeping track of the editing process, lining up book covers, and other stuff, I'm researching ways to promote the series and drive sales. In addition to ranking on Amazon, another concern is royalties. Not only are the writers earning their portion via sales royalties, but so are the editors. This has kept my start up costs low, but it makes me concerned about sales. If we don't sell enough copies, the editors won't come close to making what they would normally make, which isn't the best business model for us moving forward.
If successful, I'd love to do this over and over again, and not just with anthologies. I'd love to help authors publish their novels. I think the future of indie publishing will be with small indie presses, ones with enough power to drive sales, with enough momentum to actually stand toe to toe with some of the big guys. I can dream anyway. Whether that future becomes a reality doesn't change the fact that many small indie presses today do not do enough for their authors in my opinion.
I've got lots of ideas to help our books rank on Amazon, hopefully driving an ever increasing volume of sales. But should those ideas not work, I'd still like to be able to sort of guarantee a return on our investment. The writers and editors may not make a fortune, but I'd to offer them something. The best way to do that is raise revenue.
Now, I could have a donation drive, the proceeds going to the editors and writers (or some other marketing program). And I may still do that, but I've got another idea to combine actual sales on Amazon and drastically raise revenue in a short period of time. I'd like to offer promotion on this site in exchange for a book purchase.
Here's how it would work.
The anthology will be released at the astronomical price of $9.99, but it will only stay that price for about a week. This time will be enough for family members and friends who want to support us financially and authors willing to buy a copy in exchange for promotion to make their purchases. Once an author has made a purchase, Amazon will send them an email confirming their purchase. That email will be forwarded to me to confirm the purchase, at which time the author will get $15 worth of promotion on this site.
You heard right.
An author spends $10, and I will give them $15 worth of promotion.
Why would I do this?
Also, if I combine this idea with a major price drop the week after to push as many units as we can, the $10 purchases will help us rank, and if the price paid plays any part, we might even hit the best seller list. And hopefully stay there.
The first obstacle to hurdle will be if people in general are OK with this idea. It's a little outside the box. So, let us know in the following poll.
If this is something that would interest you, add your name to this special contact list, and if and when the time comes to implement this idea, I'll send you an email.
