About two months ago, I asked the authors of podcast novels available at Podiobooks.com to answer a simple question: is your podcast novel also available in print or Kindle format at Amazon.com? I wanted to track the titles of my peers on the Amazon.com bestseller charts to see how we’re all doing.
Today I gathered up the data to maybe try to find out why podcasting authors are doing as well as they are… or not. I looked at the lifetime average Amazon.com chart position of the books in question. All the books have been out at least a month, the great majority of them much longer. Keep in mind that this list is not necessarily a complete accounting of every podiobook with a presence on Amazon.com — some people may not have reported to me, some books don’t sell well enough to show a chart listing on Amazon.com at all and some books aren’t tracked by the service I used to gather the data.
My list contains 43 items available on Amazon.com. 37 are print books. Surprisingly, only five of the authors of those 37 books also have their work available for the Amazon Kindle
The Top Twenty Podiobooks In Print At Amazon.com
- “Contagious”
by Scott Sigler ~ Lifetime Average Chart Position: 5,362
- “Infected”
(paperback) by Scott Sigler ~ Lifetime Average Chart Position: 9,632
- “Infected”
(hardcover) by Scott Sigler ~ Lifetime Average Chart Position: 30,901
- “Playing For Keeps”
by Mur Lafferty ~ Lifetime Average Chart Position: 90,520
- “The Masnavi, Book One”
by Jalal al-Din Rumi ~ Lifetime Average Chart Position: 112,574
- “Earthcore”
by Scott Sigler ~ Lifetime Average Chart Position: 203,340
- “Ancestor”
by Scott Sigler ~ Lifetime Average Chart Position: 233,762
- “Brave Men Run – A Novel of the Sovereign Era”
by Matthew Wayne Selznick ~ Lifetime Average Chart Position: 251,124
- “Singularity”
by Bill DeSmedt ~ Lifetime Average Chart Position: 313,482
- “The Case of the Pitcher’s Pendant”
by Tee Morris ~ Lifetime Average Chart Position: 331,480
- “Digital Magic”
by Philippa Ballantine ~ Lifetime Average Chart Position: 400,620
- “Jack Wakes Up”
by Seth Harwood ~ Lifetime Average Chart Position: 441,850
- “Chasing the Bard”
by Philippa Ballantine ~ Lifetime Average Chart Position: 450,277
- “Griffin’s Daughter”
by Leslie Ann Moore ~ Lifetime Average Chart Position: 472,135
- “The Pocket and the Pendant”
by Mark Jeffrey ~ Lifetime Average Chart Position: 479,198
- “Billibub Baddings and the Case of the Singing Sword”
by Tee Morris ~ Lifetime Average Chart Position: 560,470
- “The Mark of a Druid”
by Rhonda R Carpenter ~ Lifetime Average Chart Position: 650,931
- “Morevi: The Chronicles of Rafe and Askana”
by Tee Morris and Lisa Lee ~ Lifetime Average Chart Position: 672,882
- “The Fox”
by Arlene Radasky ~ Lifetime Average Chart Position: 689,958
- “Clear Heart”
by Joe Cottonwood ~ Lifetime Average Chart Position: 725,273
Perhaps it’s no surprise that fully 25% of the top twenty podcast novels available in print on Amazon.com are authored by Scott Sigler. He’s the most prolific podcast novelist of the authors on this list. That relentless and consistent approach built an audience that certainly helped him attract a multiple-book deal from a major publisher. The second most successful author has only one podiobook available in print, but Mur Lafferty has also produced a number of consistently high-quality podiobooks and other podcasts over the last four years, steadily building up a huge audience.
Despite being far (far, far) less prolific than Sigler or Lafferty, I manage to maintain the number four author slot by maintaining a presence through contributions to other podcasts, dramatic voice work, occasional “big events,” and social networking that drives word of mouth.
Jawid Mojaddedi’s reading of “The Masnavi” has the benefit of being an Oxford Classic and being a bestseller in its niche. Capturing a niche is something that shouldn’t be ignored — a few dedicated and passionate fans or interested people can have a big impact, and Mojaddedi was smart to extend that by offering a free podcast version of this already popular book.
Bill DeSmedt’s “Singularity” is one of the original podiobooks and one of the few solid hard science fiction podiobooks available. Bill works hard on the book’s specific niche, as well, keeping fans up to date on related science and theory as it becomes available.
There are some relative newcomers to the podiobook world on that top 20 list — I’d love to hear from them in the comments: how are you marketing the print edition of your book? How important has the podcast version been in promoting it and driving sales?
One thing worth mentioning — even if we eliminate the imbalance caused by mega-sellers like Sigler and, to a lesser degree, Lafferty, the average chart ranking for these top twenty authors is 436,834. If we allow an estimate of about seven million book titles in stock at Amazon, that puts these podiobook authors in the top 6% — not too shabby, and probably better than most non-podcasting independent and small press authors.
The Kindle Five
Of the 23 authors on my list of 37 books, only five have their works also available for the Amazon Kindle e-book reading device at the time of my original inquiry. Here they are, along with their lifetime average positions on the Amazon.com Kindle Bestseller List:
- Mur Lafferty
- Matthew Wayne Selznick
- Mike Luoma
- Teel McClanahan
- Dave Donelson
Amazon.com touts that there are “over 250,000″ titles available for the Kindle. So, on average, the Kindle Five are sitting pretty in the top 25% of all titles offered for that device. Lafferty alone is in the top 4% of all titles sold for the Kindle; I’m hanging tough in the top 8%.
If you’re an independent, self-published or small press author and you own the electronic rights to your work, I urge you to make your book available for the Kindle and any other e-book platform you can think of. Instead of what are probably single-digit or low double-digit royalties for your print edition, you could be making 35% or more from the retail price of every Kindle edition sold. It’s fairly easy to create a Kindle edition, and if you aren’t comfortable doing it yourself, I can help. What have you got to lose?
One note about this list: I know Scott Sigler has books available for the Kindle, but every time I try to track them, the script breaks. I have no idea why. Maybe Scott can give us his lifetime average chart positions for Kindle versions of his books..?
Help Me Draw Conclusions
I can look at these books and see, pretty much at a glance, that massive self-promotion, community building and consistent personal branding — along with prolific output — make a difference driving sales for authors who offer their podcast novels in print and e-book editions on Amazon.com. On the other hand, you don’t need a list to understand that: promotion and marketing drives sales.
So I want to hear from these authors. What are they doing to drive sales? What works? What doesn’t work? Why should other authors use podcasting to promote their work… if they should at all? Let’s see the discussion in the comments of this blog post.
The Rest of the List
Here’s where the rest of the titles ended up after the top twenty print books:
- “The Next Fix”
by Matt Wallace ~ Lifetime Average Chart Position: 815,823
- “Taken Liberty”
by Steven Wilson ~ Lifetime Average Chart Position: 1,143,468
- “Hunting Elf”
by Dave Donelson ~ Lifetime Average Chart Position: 1,442,127
- “Vatican Assassin”
by Mike Luoma ~ Lifetime Average Chart Position: 1,664,651
- “Daughter of the Sun”
by Lonnie Ezell ~ Lifetime Average Chart Position: 1,810,552
- “Prophecy of Swords”
by M.H. Bonham ~ Lifetime Average Chart Position: 1,901,573
- “A Dancing Bear”
by David Free ~ Lifetime Average Chart Position: 1,960,015
- “The Chicago Connection”
by John Swift ~ Lifetime Average Chart Position: 2,130,674
- “Heirs of the New Earth”
by David Lee Summers ~ Lifetime Average Chart Position: 2,134,906
- “Vatican Ambassador”
by Mike Luoma ~ Lifetime Average Chart Position: 2,169,866
- “Children of the Old Stars”
by David Lee Summers ~ Lifetime Average Chart Position: 2,228,025
- “Pirates of Sufiro”
by David Lee Summers ~ Lifetime Average Chart Position: 2,291,142
- “Doctor Janeway’s Plague”
by John Farrell ~ Lifetime Average Chart Position: 2,661,500
- “Roadworks”
by Gerard Readett ~ Lifetime Average Chart Position: 3,131,723
- “Vatican Abdicator”
by Mike Luoma ~ Lifetime Average Chart Position: 3,364,625
- “Sellout”
by Brad Lockwood ~ Lifetime Average Chart Position: 4,460,663
- “Lost and Not Found”
by Teel McClanahan ~ Lifetime Average Chart Position: 4,911,081
These titles sit in the top 35% of print books sold at Amazon. What sets their authors so far apart from the top 6%? Again, I’d love to hear ideas from the authors themselves… and their listener / readers.
Scribtotum
Just a short observation… from my experience, Amazon stats don’t tell the whole story of how a book is doing. Pirates of Sufiro, Children of the Old Stars and Heirs of the New Earth, for example have all been science fiction bestsellers at Fictionwise.com and last I looked (about a week ago) all of them were in the top 5% of science fiction titles at Fictionwise.com. I don’t have any great theories about why that is, except that the ebooks are quite a bit less expensive than the paper copies. Admittedly this is kind of an apples and oranges observation.
That said, there is one factor about this that might be worth taking into account. Even though my books aren’t available in Kindle format at Amazon, the Fictionwise editions can be read on Amazon’s Kindle reader.
I suppose the point of all this is to say that how well a book does at Amazon probably depends, at least to some degree, on how readily available it is through other venues. In general, my books have sold significantly better than the Amazon stats would suggest.
It’s true that Amazon stats don’t tell the whole story, naturally. I’ve got books I’ve sold at conventions, speaking engagements and book signings — those sales aren’t registered. However, Amazon should be an important part of a writer’s marketing plan because of the consumer’s familiarity with the brand, the fact that many, many people are already shopping there, the trusted recommendation system and the opportunity to benefit from affiliate sales of your own books.
I thought Fictionwise required at least ten books published traditionally before they would consider an author for inclusion in their catalog… if that’s not true, please let me know and I’ll get right on that.
Unless your agreement with Fictionwise precludes it, why not create Kindle versions of you books? Always good to have as many ways as possible to get you work to readers.
I think you’re absolutely correct that Amazon should be an important part of any author’s marketing plan. That said, it seems that more people come directly to me, even for mail order books, than they do to Amazon — which I find kind of interesting. Don’t know that I have any explanation other than I think people know the books are available from me by meeting me at conventions and through correspondence.
Regarding the Fictionwise deal: The print editions of my books are published by LBF Books, which does have more than ten traditionally published books in all. Because all the details are handled by LBF, I don’t really know the requirements. However I think you may be right that you need a certain number of traditionally published books before Fictionwise will consider you — I seem to remember reading that in other forums.
LBF currently has the rights to e-book publication of my books. So, any publication of the books in Kindle format would have to be through them — or with their permission. I don’t think it’s been a priority for LBF since Fictionwise does make the Kindle format books available. However, I might ask about this, since it’s been a while since I’ve talked to LBF about this specific topic.
Just to note, the Podiobooks editions of my books are done by special arrangement with LBF.
Heck, if people are contacting you directly to buy your stuff thanks to you exposure at conventions and online, you are, as the say, Doing It Right. Well done.
As far as Fictionwise… I think I always assumed LBF was you…! Hopefully you’re getting a good cut (ie, much better than print royalties) on the electronic rights.
Thanks, Matt.
Re: LBF – Ah yes, that confusion does come up from time to time. I’ve worked with them and edited books for them from near the beginning, but I’m not an owner. That said, I am a co-owner of Hadrosaur Productions, which is also credited in my Podiobooks. Hadrosaur did co-publish some books with LBF, particularly when LBF was getting started and needed some help here and there. This no doubt adds to the confusion. These days though, Hadrosaur’s primary focus is on Tales of the Talisman magazine.
LBF does give me a good cut of the electronic sales. Which is a good tip for any authors seeking publishers. Make sure you do get a good royalty percentage from your electronic books!
Thanks for taking the time to compile this list Matt. I am so pleased to be twice in the top 20 twice- especially since I have been at this for comparatively little time. I think the lesson of this list is just sticking with it; building an audience, communicating with your fans, and generally make the most of all the social media and marketing outlets available. I know this year I am going to concentrate on the community, both fans and colleagues. It’s going to be an exciting year, and I can’t wait to see how it turns out for all of us.
You’re cooking, right out of the gate, Philippa! You’re right — building community is critical to any author’s success these days. Podcasting authors have a leg up on this… it’s just a matter of continuing to build on it.
Since your watching began, I’ve launched a new podiobook novel, Forget What You Can’t Remember, which is also available on Amazon (and through other channels). According to TitleZ, its lifetime average sales rank is 1,706,276 – which still puts it in “the rest of the list” by a wide margin, but significantly better than Lost and Not Found and Dragons’ Truth for the same period. I believe this relates to my coming on the Podiobooks scene (and really only beginning my marketing efforts) less than a year ago – very recently compared to the names at the top of the big list. It takes a long time to build an audience, and I know I’m only beginning to build steam.
One major factor that these numbers don’t take into account is other sales channels. I know a lot of Podiobooks authors in print are using Lulu – and that the price of their book is often significantly better through Lulu than through Amazon, possibly resulting in better sales. I personally have made an effort to drive sales directly to my own site rather than to other sales channels (Amazon, B&N, AbeBooks, et cetera) as much as possible, but have certainly made a chunk of sales through them anyway (my B&N sales rank for FWYCR is 434,140). Still, a significant percentage of my books’ sales have been direct.
As far as drawing conclusions go, it would be hard to do without more data, especially marketing data. Clearly, podcasting your book doesn’t magically translate into a great Amazon sales rank. There is a broad spectrum of ranks, from Scott Sigler’s high numbers (his out of print books are in the top ~3%!) to my (frankly, quite) low numbers, among Podiobooks authors – there are even new/unknown authors in the top 20.
I can’t speak for others, but I can say that for me a big problem has been that I’m not doing much of *anything* to market my books – I have a hard time wrapping my mind around “marketing,” conceptually. In a big way, making my novels available as podcast audiobooks is the biggest piece of my marketing; it’s increased my books’ visibility a thousandfold, even if sales haven’t increased by nearly as much. Old-school marketing doesn’t work for me because I don’t have the funds, and social marketing hasn’t worked well for me because I don’t “play well with others.” Ooh, but I will recommend Goodreads.com before I go – any authors who don’t have their books (and a presence) on Goodreads are missing a chunk of visibility, and opportunity for direct connections with readers (ie: for building a community around your books).
Glad to hear you’ve got another book out there! Have you done a Kindle version of “Forget What You Can’t Remember?”
There are some folks in the top twenty — Leslie Ann Moore, Rhonda Carpenter, Arlene Radasky and Joe Cottonwood — whose books have been out much less than a year (Leslie’s is a little over a year old.) Conversely, there are books in “the rest of the list” that have been out for much longer than a year. Obviously, the “lifetime average” is more vulnerable to up and down swings for a newer book… but I still want to know what the successful folks are doing to push, push push.
And yes, this list is only looking at Amazon.com sales statistics. I understand that there can be a big difference price difference for the consumer when they purchase from Amazon.com instead of Lulu.com… so much so that Lulu.com may not be the best choice for indie authors any more.
I say this because you want to be able to push Amazon.com to you customers as their first choice when it comes to buying you books. If it’s affordable, I believe a customer will be more willing to purchase from Amazon.com rather than the largely unknown (to the average reader) Lulu.com. Plus, if you’ve got an affiliate arrangement with Amazon.com, you earn a little extra from each sale of you book, and a percentage of anything else the customer might purchase while they’re at Amazon. Remember that a lot of people add to their orders once they’re on Amazon.com in order to earn free shipping.
As far as your marketing… think of it as communicating. I know “marketing” can bring to mind loudmouthed blowhards in horrible plaid sportsjackets… but communicating is what we all do. It’s what writers do.
I don’t do old-school marketing. I’ve never bought advertising for “Brave Men Run” or any of my other works. I have done a ton and a half of interviews, mostly on podcasts but also in blogs, and that has done a great deal to spread the word for free. As far as social media not working for you because you, as you say, “don’t play well with outher,” well… all I can suggest is to respond to everyone who e-mails you or comments about your work. If they liked your book, they’ll probably accept / expect you “real life” voice as well.
What is it about social media at Goodreads that works better for you than other social media outlets?
Yes, Forget What You Can’t Remember is available on kindle, as well as three other of my novels not yet on Podiobooks.com. It’s also on Smashwords, which makes it available through Stanza for the iPhone. I’ll be getting the rest of my books on Smashwords in the next couple of weeks; I think library apps will be more successful than individual book apps for the iPhone, in the long run.
In a way, doing interviews is old school marketing and part of what I don’t know how to do. This is part of my trouble; I don’t listen to podcasts / read blogs of the sorts that do interviews, and I don’t know where to begin to look to find them, let alone to figure out what I would need to do/be to interest them. People say to “build buzz” and “get the word out” but those sound like empty words to me, I don’t know how to implement them. But this isn’t really supposed to be about me / my inability to grasp marketing concepts.
Goodreads users are self-selected readers. That makes a huge difference over other social media outlets, where the % that will actually pick up a book (in any format) mirrors the world at large (ie: a minority). Everyone on Goodreads is a reader. It’s built around listing & reviewing books you’ve read, books you’re reading, books you want to read, and connecting with other readers. Readers are my “target market” – people who don’t read much probably wouldn’t like my books. People who do read a lot seem to like my books and to want more.
I agree that library apps will be more successful than individual book apps for the iPhone / iPod Touch, especially now that Apple disallows any app they deem “objectional.” Yes, that includes book apps with swearing in the text. I got the AppEngines version of “Brave Men Run” in before Apple got typically ridiculous about it all, but I’ve had other stuff rejected. And no, I’m not going to change “fuck” to “darn.” Instead, I’ve started offering ePub editions (Stanza) starting with my latest short story release.
There’s this excellent website called Google… :-)
Seriously, though — you have a wealth of resources in the Podiobooks Authors mailing list — ask folks. Also, think about what your book is about and research similar podcasts / blogs. For example, “Lost and Not Found” sounds like a book about writing… any number of writing how-to podcasts and blogs would be interested, I bet. Here’s the thing — podcasters are hungry for content, and interviews are a great way to get it. Many will jump at the chance to do an interview when the author asks.
Don’t worry if the podcast / blog has a huge audience — no matter how many people it attracts, they’re probably people who never heard of you, so that’s good. Also, when the blog / podcast links back to your site, that raises your search engine presence, which is also a very good thing.
You say, quite correctly, that readers are your target market. Listeners of podcast novels are, too, don’t forget… and they buy books. But the main point is, there are lots and lots of venues you could approach that target readers, and again, many of them will be very eager to discuss you and your work.
That’s all this “building buzz” and “getting the word out” is, really… reaching out to other people who might be interested in what you have to say. When I started this crazy podiobook / self-publishing ride in 2005, it was totally unknown territory for me, too. But it starts to snowball… and there you go.
Put it out there; you may be surprised!
[...] ready for publication, or what book it will be. This post is about how I occasionally notice that I don’t have a “marketing strategy.” This post is about feeling insignificant, [...]
Very interesting results, Matthew. Lets me know I could be doing a lot more promotionally. I think it’s more aggressive marketing and promotion that sets the top 20 apart from the rest of us. I’ve sent out press releases, done readings, some radio advertising, a couple con appearances, but don’t feel I’ve maximized the marketing potential of the books. I’m still learning by watching folks like you, Sigler, Mur and others in the top 20. That said, I don’t think I’d have much of anything for sales without podcasting my books. I have no marketing budget, so pretty much everything is word of mouth. My podcasts are primary promotional tools that continue to generate mild sales each month. Everyone go listen to Vatican Assassin right now!
The most surprising thing here – how few authors have their books available for Kindle! It’s the only way I can be in a top 3 with you and Mur… even if there is quite a drop from 2 to 3 ;)
I’m gonna get up on my podium and say that it is absolutely essential for authors at any level to have their work available in as many formats as they can. This is why “Brave Men Run” is in print, a bunch of e-book formats, and and audio CD… and why I’m always looking for new ways to get it into the hands of new readers / listeners / direct-brain-downloaders (eventually.)
Make it easy for people to consume your work in a way that is convenient for them.
Okay, stepping down from podium. For now.
It’s interesting to me that the print version of Hunting Elf, my novel that began as a podcast, has been almost entirely promoted through Podiobooks and the Hunting Elf website. Since I moved on to other things including my recent print novel, Heart of Diamonds, I’ve done nothing to reach out to book buyers for Hunting Elf.
Despite the lack of push-marketing, Hunting Elf continues to draw listeners. Some 200 audio chapter downloads are logged every day. Sales would have been better on Amazon, I think, had the pricing been different.
Thanks for the comment, Dave. You’ve got a new book out — have you contacted listeners / readers of your first book to let them know it exists? What about the reverse? A second book is a great opportunity to drive sales for a previous book.
Pricing on Amazon is a result of the Lulu / Amazon pricing issue? That’s a real shame… and is the reason I probably won’t use Lulu again.
By the way, everyone — Dave’s doing something everyone with product on Amazon should be doing — he’s utilizing the author blog feature. Points for that one, Dave!
Congratulations, MWS, on this effort of capturing and promoting the results of our self-marketing, and to each of the authors in the “top twenty” or, for that matter, all the authors on their achievements so far, and, hopefully, better ones to follow.
I wanted to establish a low threshold for my first work of fiction so I wrote a lousy book and have done absolutely nothing to promote it, other than create the podcast. However, I have begun investigating how people like you use social networks to promote their work and have registered for some of them. I’m currently spending my time rewriting my second book which, of course, I feel will be a big improvement on the first one and when I think it’s ready, you will hear more from me, I hope.
I haven’t read or listened to you book, so I can’t tell if you’re serious or not.
But!
If you are serious… I really, really recommend against releasing work you know is below either your best work or your own standards (which may not be the same thing, yet.) When you release “a lousy book,” everyone who listens to it or, worse, spends money on it will be far, far less likely to listen to or purchase anything else you write.
It’s career suicide to knowingly release a bad book. Again, if you are serious… the best thing you could do is pull you podiobooks from circulation, right now, and hope people have a short memory.
Interesting list. What time period does it cover? Does it penalize – or magnify – the ranking of books that were recently released?
As for the Kindle, my publisher (BookSurge) wanted me to pay $200 to make my book available on Kindle. That’s why it isn’t available. Is there a way I can do it myself?
The time period is as long as the book in question has been charting on Amazon.com. There are podcast novels available on Amazon.com that have never sold enough to chart, so they’re not included.
The only statistical massaging I did on my data is to remove Sigler and Lafferty’s book rankings from the “top 6% of all books sold at Amazon” calculation. Including Sigler and Lafferty brings that percentage up to 5%.
BookSurge isn’t a publisher, they’re a publish on demand company, correct? Publishers don’t charge authors — money flows from publishers to authors. So hopefully they don’t have the electronic rights to your manuscript. There are plenty of ways to create electronic versions of your work, and it’s free to create a Kindle edition and list it on Amazon.com.
Shameless plug section: if you don’t want to do it yourself, let me know. I’ll do it for much, much less than $200.00, that’s for sure.
Hi Matt,
How cool is it to see my book The Fox, in the top 20! Thank you so much for following and creating a space to see this very interesting comparison. I have a capture of an Amazon page from 2/01/09 that my book was actually at #289,375 for a while. Not Lifetime Average, but my lifetime best! That was the day Rhonda Carpenter, The Mark of a Druid, and I did our “Buy our books for Valentine’s Day Gifts” Amazon push. We started about a month earlier and contacted several websites we knew and asked to be sponsored. We were given interviews on some, promo played on others, shown and spoken about many times by a few. We massed emailed a few days ahead, Rhonda blogged, and we both spent the day on Twitter posting messages several times an hour. It was fun and we had good results. However, it was much more than I ever thought I would do.
When I wrote The Fox, my first novel, I had no idea how I was going to get it out to the world. At its completion, Rhonda and I attended a Writer’s Conference in San Diego and I came home determined to give my book away in as many forms as I could. I knew that would be a way to let people read it and that was my goal. I had also learned about Podiobooks.com from Jeremy James workshop at the conference and started at the ground level learning how to podcast.
I created my website, http://www.radasky.com and posted it in .pdf and podcast as well as listed all the other places it could be found. I also went online to find as many other free sites I could upload my book. I now have it available in sites that allow it to be read on from the computer, downloaded to a .pdf, loaded to any reader, Kindle or Sony.
Oh yes, my Amazon Kindle download has also been available for several months.
I have emails from readers in Japan, Panama, England, and Spain who have found my book online in the different forms.
My reason for going to Book Surge (an absolutely GREAT company) was to get some in print for my family and friends who refuse to join the eworld and either download or listen to books. The books I sell are all more ways to get it out to the world. I have guided all my readers back to my website and all the ways my books are available are listed there. Oh yes, I also got some free books through Book Surge, and have purchased more. I have sold some myself and am giving many away. The more who have them in hand, the more word of mouth traffic will go to Amazon and my website.
One of the best things I did, in all this process, besides finishing my book, was to go to Podiobooks.com and meet all the wonderful people there. Oh yes, podcasting was fun, too. There is a fountain of information and wisdom there and I highly recommend it to every author who wants to get started in this world.
Now it is up to me to get a handle on my next book, Sea Hawk. I want to go the same route with it, but must finish it first!
It sounds like you and Rhonda did everything you could to build a buzz before your book was out — very, very smart. There’s no reason to wait for the book release to promote the book! Get the word out early and make the book release an event — something you obviously did with some success.
You’re also on the right track by providing as many different formats as possible, and that seems to be bearing fruit as well!
Congratulations, Arlene!
PS I signed an agreement today and soon, my book will be on iPhones and iTouches. Another way to get it out.
Congratulations! I often earn as much (sometimes more) from iPhone / iPod Touch royalties every month as I do from print. It’s a great market.
Hi Mathew!
I was shocked to see that I made the list in the top twenty as my book in the corrected format has only been available since Dec mid-month. Very cool though to see it in the top twenty! Happy dance! I think for me running a strong presence on the web has made all the difference. I am luckier than most and have a niche platform from my main site http://www.lifefirst.com which simply gets millions of hits a month and has been around since 1999. That was an audience that is interested in what I do and I have used that in promoting the release of the book in a couple of ways. I have the availability on this site to front page anything I want in a nice willet box that you simply can’t miss. Because the site gets upwards of three million hits a month that is a lot of eyes seeing it and millions on my contact mailing lists that have joined to know what is going on. Makes for huge email list. We should also take into consideration that I am out there every single day talking this book and others up. I am doing these things consistently and started doing them before the book was released in an effort to expand a presence and platform for my writing.
1. I blog. Turning out 3 a week consistently on 3 sites. http://www.lifefirst.com/gotinsight http://www.themarkofadruid and http://www.rhondacarpenter.com
2. I am on the prime social networking sites and add to them at a rate of 1 every other week or so as I can manage the time constraints. And I am making some wonderful friends and contacts. Who have been happily and without my request supporting me in marketing the book.
3. I never once missed an upload to PB for any reason as I released the book. I think this is huge, because people get discouraged if you don’t do what you promised. The last episode which is due out early next week is the end of this podcast for me. I so can’t wait for the numbers to climb, when I can say it is done and you can have the whole thing for FREE!
4. I talk to my readers/listeners all the time! I am hearing from people all over the world. I thank them for the input and ask for it! I respect their input and have at their suggestion gone back and redone the stilted first two episodes. And the redone 3rd episode will go up this weekend.
5. I am doing interviews every where and I mean every where. Blogtalkradio is great for that and there are host looking to talk to authors all the time. (these interviews are out there in archive and can be listened to at a later time as well hooked up to your sites media section. Same with podcastes running the promo sometimes without me knowing. Ongoing marketing without me doing anything else. ) Gotta love that.
6. I am swapping promos with other podcasters and authors. And in at least one blog a week I am giving the readers something that isn’t about me but keeps them coming back to podiobooks which I think will help all of us. If any of you want to share your promos I am happy to blog them up! Couldn’t hurt. Just email me at info@themarkofadruid.com And we will talk!
7. I am actively asking for comments and reviews. While offering the listeners a contest in which they have to do little and get cool promotional items.
8. I am running bi-weekly contests building a momentum to the final big giveaway at year end. At which point the next book in the series should be ready to podcast.
9. Just stick my name in a Google and watch me everywhere. Even on video interviews talking about the book. And the host that did one of those tapings made it a review on Amazon. Which made the numbers really change.
10. Arlene and I teamed up and did a promotional push, I am sure some of you heard it. That day our Amazon over all sales numbers plummeted into the 80 and 60 thousands. (Arlene I have a screen shot of your book at 60,000 and change from that day) Not bad for two first timers. If that had not happened I don’t think I would have made this list.
11. I am actively contributing to other podcasters for their programs and their sites which keeps my name and the title active.
The next steps in the plan are to take this to PDF and Digital formats while staying active in the community building and the development a real book site which should be happening in the next month or so. Also Heather Roulo and I are talking about doing some form of podcast for Podiobook authors who are out there already and who are just starting out. A sort of show that will talk to the people who are doing this tpe of work. This too will help keep our names and titles out their. We are discussing format now and hope to do this very soon. I simply want to finish this one before I take on more editing time.
I used to think Marketing was a drag and I just didn’t want to do it. But Social Media Networks have not only proven to help but they can be very fun, entertaining and informative. For example I was in a great mood after I read your blog, Mathew, and I posted it on twitter. RTed the blog announcement only once. In the next 15 minutes I had 13 new followers. Now that is just cool. So I don’t know if I am doing it right, or not, this is my first time at this and so far I am very happy with the results.
Mathew, thanks for tracking this and giving the information in a way that made since. I have been asking myself what is in a number and am I doing this right and this helped me feel that at the very least while you where tracking the numbers I was doing some things right at least for this look at it. I don’t think Amazon is the only way to look at how well you are doing marketing in these formats. But they are a big boy and I am sending all of my book sale to Amazon on my sites. So that I have one place I can look to see how this or that is doing. I am no Scott, Mur, Tee or you and I don’t think I will reach that level anytime soon, but I am so having fun with this.
Cheers,
Rhonda R. Carpenter
Ladies and gentlemen, read Rhonda’s strategy. She’s all over it — even though she has a built in audience (millions of hits, but what is the unique visitor per month number? Hits are not a reliable count of traffic) she’s not depending on them. She’s out there hustling, online and in meatspace, too.
A great roadmap for other podcast book authors to follow, Rhonda. Thanks for sharing it!
Hi Mathew,
(millions of hits, but what is the unique visitor per month number? Hits are not a reliable count of traffic) My stats as you can imagine charge hourly on LF. And I can look at them in several forms. Unique visitors in Jan 2009 as a month overview analog style was 2,985,769. Almost 3 mill. But some of that is bot crawls and as you know with a site as big and content heavy as LF I have a lot of bots crawling the site every day.
And I am not counting on these hits. It is just a way to gage how I am doing. Say for instance I do a blog post about Achieving your dreams on Got Insight. ( about the book and my dream of being published) I can go in and see the next day or even hourly when the best time to post a blog is and how many and who is there and sometimes I can see how long they were on the site, what pages they went to. if they downloaded any of the free stuff, if I got them to go to the store and if they purchased from it.
Like I said, I am not counting on them to be my only audience, but if the traffic is there why not use it. Find a way to inspire folks to go for what they want. Heck it is what I do. I decided last week that I was going to switch the blogging up a little. Instead of 3 a week I was going to produce two and alternate between rc.com and tmoad.com for book and writing/podcasting promotion and stick with the got insight blog weekly to amp up LF while I am working on the new book site. Which by the way I am SO excited about. Especially because it will be cloneable and very changeable at the same time so each book can have its own look with the same types of thing for the readers/listeners to get involved in.
I just realized that you ask what doesn’t work. Myspace! I have one. I hate it. It is difficult and cumbersome and takes too much time. I use it to primarily blast when I have a interview or some event. I am having issues with Goodreads but have not given up on it by a long shot. Link-in is not so much oriented to what I am doing but I blast there as well. I am not saying don’t do these things I am saying that well, they are not particularly working for my hectic schedule at this point.
LOVE ping.fm!!! Can’t say that enough. It is fast simple and connects up all your SMN sites and allows you to really save some time. But you can’t post, everything, through it. That gets to be like you are shouting at people. I am really putting forth the effort to connect one to one with people. Thanks to coffee with, yes, you guessed it, Mr. Mathew Wayne Selznick. Nice fellow, and a wealth of information and a pretty great house concert host! That was very neat by the way. And it is a perfect example of keeping yourself out there in the masses. We are living in a time when you can literally talk for free to people all over the world and it is instantaneous. If you are not afraid to say I wrote a book.
All of the people at podiobooks who are doing this should sit up and take notice. This is where the industry is heading. This is what the wave, so to speak, of the future. And you have done something others simply dream about. I have found that when I tell people what I am doing they are proud of me and want to support me. They are excited because I am excited.
Oh and my marketing is all free. I don’t do paid ads at this point. I am not doing print ads. I just don’t have the capital to do that now. Still paying off the heart attack bills from my hub in 08. Did you know it is really expensive for you heart to give out even with insurance. And I never tell anyone who my publisher was. If they buy the book or look on amazon they will know. But I refuse to give them one more dime of my money. I simply call them the publisher in interviews or they who shall not be named.
I should write a blog about it though at some point: a comparison between self-publishing houses. Just so other authors know what happened with me.
I also carry bookmarks and cards with me everywhere I go. I leave them on counters stick them into the hands of grocery tellers. I was even at the hospital the other day saw a women reading a fiction paperback and walked up to her, smile on my face and said. Hit I noticed you were reading would you like a free bookmark? She smiled back and said yes. Oh did you write a book? I also hand out other peoples promotional materials. I am giving up the shy thing to some extent and I figure if I say it enough times and hand out enough cards then one person is going to go look and I always tell them they can get it free on itunes and podiobooks. Everyone loves free and then if they love you book they will tell others!
Rhonda
Hey Matt – Thanks for taking the trouble to put these charts together. One point about Kindle that nobody seems to have mentioned yet: you need a US bank account in order to publish as a Kindle author. (At least you did back when I tried, which was about 9 months ago.) As an Aussie author, I found this information pretty disappointing after I’d gone to all the trouble of formatting and converting my book for Kindle publication. So as far as I can tell, Kindle publication is still effectively limited to US writers. A while back I took the option of making a Kindle version of my book available for free through Feedbooks.com – don’t really get any feedback from there, but I do know that over 200 people have downloaded it …
Ah, that’s excellent information. I believe Amazon Kindle uses the same account one would set up to be an affiliate with Amazon.com — does this mean Amazon doesn’t allow Australians to be affiliates as well?
That’s unfortunate, to say the least.
You can still make it available in as many e-book formats as you can… and I’d advise that, for sure.
Matt – not sure about whether I can become an affiliate – Amazon’s FAQs are a bit vague on this point. But I’ve just looked again at the Kindle forums and can confirm that it’s still the case that authors need a valid US bank account to qualify for the Kindle program. Which remains a major bummer.
Dang, they’re shooting themselves in the foot..! There are probably Laws involved… but still.
Matthew –
Great post, first of all. This is the first time anyone has assembled this info in this fashion, this is great material. I intend to read it all a few more times when I get a moment to breathe :)
Second, there actually is a Kindle version of ‘Pocket’: http://www.amazon.com/Max-Quick-Book-One-Pendant/dp/B0015TVAD6/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1235028369&sr=8-3
I changed the title to “Max Quick Book One: The Pocket and the Pendant” for ’series-ification’ reasons — so the book titles are all obviously part of the same family of books — this is probably why you didn’t find it.
Thanks for the post, once again! And now that you have more time to write, i expect the sequel to BMR is getting written faster — I look forward to that as well :)
- M
Good to know there’s a Kindle edition of “Pocket,” Mark!
“Pilgrimage” continues apace… as well as my short story series and other stuff! I’m working on multiple projects; touching each when the muse points in that direction.
Thanks for doing all this work, Matt! The information is very useful. And thanks for the prod on Kindle. I have to admit I just dragged my feet. Taken Liberty is now available in a Kindle edition. I’m not as excited about the royalties as you are, though. As my own publishing imprint with LSI doing distribution, I get 17% of retail on every book sold via Amazon. The 35% of the Kindle price (which I set to be a percentage of the print retail comparable to how your and Mur had priced) is less than 10%. But, oh well. Exposure is worth more than money to me.
As to the POV the #22 slot (riding at about the top 16% of Amazon print, based on your numbers), I have to admit I’m not nearly as aggressive at marketing as you, Tee and Mur, and certainly not as much as Sigler. I’m working to change that. My book is SF, and that’s a niche market to begin with. And THEN it’s based on an existing audio series, which I know leaves some readers feeling like they can’t just dive in.
On the other hand, my con sales and my library sales are well more than half of my total sales. So the Amazon rankings, while very important, are telling not even the majority of my story. Taken Liberty was positively reviewed by Library Journal, which I’m told is a major coup. So it’s in libraries all over the Country. We can’t begin to include library circs into our numbers, but we know they’re important. I’d be interested to know how many of the print versions listed here have been purchased by libraries. Sigler’s of course. Anyone else?
Hey there Steve!
I’m not clear on what you wrote about the Kindle — why are you only making 10% on your Kindle books? If your retail is $5.00, you should be making about $1.75 per copy.
Library sales are something I haven’t looked into enough. Any advice you can provide us on how to get into Library Journal (my publisher refused to submit a copy of “Brave Men Run” because of his past experience not being reviewed with other books) or into libraries, period, would be valuable for all of us.
Thanks!
Sorry, should have been more clear — $1.75 is only 10% of the retail of my paperback edition. When I sell a paperback via Amazon, I get a little over $3, or 17% of retail. I think my cut of the book is higher than a lot of authors’ because I deal directly with LSI as a publisher, so I get the wholesale price (45% of retail) less the actual cost of printing. (The cost of printing quoted by third parties like Lulu is usually twice the actual LSI cost.)
Libraries primarily buy via Ingram (which owns LSI) or Baker and Taylor. So the best path into libraries is a review in their professional journals. I understand why your publisher is reticent. You have to send out dozens of copies of the book to review journals, and you may get exactly zero reviews. I got one, but it was a big one. The others just ignored me. ALA Booklist actually sold my review copies at an antique shop!
And yes, I also schmoozed area libraries. I’m a recovering librarian myself, so I had contacts around the state. And they did buy copies. But my advice is to send out those dozens of copies. If you get a review, you get sales all over the country and each copy lands in the hands of multiple readers. I forget where I picked up the advice, but, when I decided to publish my own book, I remember being told loudly, “You can NEVER give away too many free copies!”
[...] Mathew Wayne Selznick, the author of Brave Men Run, has been tracking Podiobook.com authors for the last couple of months. If you would like to read his blog post check his site at http://www.mattselznick.com/blog/scribtotum/2009/02/17/the-top-podiobooks-at-amazoncom/ I enjoy Mathew’s perspective on social networking and dig that he is so inventive, not only as a writer but as a podcaster, musician and DIY media guru. I actually attended a house concert he held on http://www.ustream.tv a short few weeks ago! It was so much fun. [...]
[...] Wayne Selznick, author of Brave Men Run, compiled an excellent article about The Top Twenty Podiobooks at Amazon.com. It does a great job of summarizing the state of things today and discusses methods being used to [...]
[...] The Top Podiobooks At Amazon.com (mattselznick.com) [...]