Thanks for this! Super helpful and interesting. I've just launched my first novel and I'm looking for advice on promotional strategies, etc. I'm currently working on the audiobook version. Curious to know, did you seek out reviews for the audiobooks before publishing? If so, was it integral to the early success? Also, congrats on the huge accomplishment! Amazing work.
I didn't really do much to promote the audiobook, I just did a few videos on TikTok and FB but no advertising and no reviews. If you have the book out and you advertise to that it will definitely help with sales of the audiobooks.
This is so informational and inspirational. I'm a former speech-language pathologist hoping to make a living writing. I will be following your journey!
You are welcome, Steven. We certainly are. I’m actually thinking of making a return to TH-cam, to give people an insight into what we’ve been up to, and why people shouldn’t discount property, despite the current environment.
Good to hear @@JoshHarrison-FoundedProperty. I'm still doing it too but only have 2 higher end BTLs and hoping to add another next year. It will be interesting to see what you and Rebecca have been up to.
Really interesting, thanks! A few questions... - How much did the audiobook narration cost? - Seems like the first Witches book came out in April 2022, then May, then June, then nothing until May 2023. Is that right? Did that huge gap cause sales issues? - How much of the sales success is attributed to simply the volume of books (i.e. repeat buyers as opposed to new buyers) - Did you ever try Amazon ads? Any success there? - How much time do you think you actually spent writing these books? Thanks!
To answer your questions Audiobook narration cost me $500 upfront on a 'Royalty Share Plus' deal, and thereafter the narrator got 20% of the sales and I got 20% and ACX gets 60% Book 2 I learned about narration and voice acting and did the narration myself so I get 40% of sales. Yes, I wrote the first 3 in the series and then left it for a bit as i was winding down other businesses, so I wasn't 100% committed. But I was still writing away. I committed fully in 2023. I think having a series is brilliant for authors and I would never write a standalone book. You could do standalone, technically, and still have a series like a detective series with different cases for each book. They work extremely well. So yeah, having a series helps bring in the sales if it's well written, or even mediocre. I tried Amazon ads, and it didn't work out well for me, but I will master Facebook ads more and then move onto Mastering Amazon ads. I write 1 book in a month, edit it in a few weeks and then will focus on marketing for a month and then record another audiobook for 1 month. Hope that helps.
Extraordinary video, thank you so much for sharing. Question! Do you think your model would be scalable to other languages, as well? I am a self-published author like yourself, but I speak four languages. I have been translating my own small novel into another language on my free time. I wonder if the model you lay out here could be directly reproduced but on a different language entirely, which is to say: one book, one audiobook - translate into another language, publish that book and do an audiobook of that version, as well. Would this not work in effectively multiplying the products you create? So, for the pain of writing a single book, you double that by translating it into another language. It's an entirely different market, but it should work. Any thoughts? Thanks in advance.
This is great and something a lot of authors should know. I always say that your book is an asset, but if you write one book you can turn that into 4 assets: Ebook, paperback, hardback and audiobook. Just like you say if you translate that into 4 other languages that 1 asset becomes 16 assets. Now, imagine you write a trilogy. That trilogy becomes, initially, 16 assets: 3 ebooks, paperbacks, hardbacks and audiobooks 1 boxset ebook, paperback, hardback and audiobook Those 16 assets become 64 assets when you translate them into 4 languages. So, theoretically speaking if your books are well written, professionally edited, and have great cover designs then you could literally make a living with just 3 books a la Patrick Rothfuss. So to answer your question 😀, Yes I think the model would be scalable in other languages.
@@StevenAitchisonCYT Thank you so much for your reply! That's how I see it as well, it's quite something! I'll give it a go and see how it ends up. Thank you!
No, that's the last thing you want to do as that will confuse the Amazon algorithm. I just advised people my book was out and let Amazon find it and I advertised it by boosting posts on Facebook. Once you build up social proof i.e. more reviews then you can put more into the marketing of it. You can also market the book before it's finished and ask for beta readers to review it. I think i did this with the first iteration of book 1.
Hey my fellow Scot!! Subscribed! My first novel is going to be based in Scotland ❤
Interesting info. thanks for sharing!
My pleasure Tony
That is A LOT of print sales, impressive.
I did push the advertising to this initially and tried to get the pricing right to balance profit and value for the customer.
Thanks for this! Super helpful and interesting. I've just launched my first novel and I'm looking for advice on promotional strategies, etc. I'm currently working on the audiobook version. Curious to know, did you seek out reviews for the audiobooks before publishing? If so, was it integral to the early success?
Also, congrats on the huge accomplishment! Amazing work.
I didn't really do much to promote the audiobook, I just did a few videos on TikTok and FB but no advertising and no reviews.
If you have the book out and you advertise to that it will definitely help with sales of the audiobooks.
This is so informational and inspirational. I'm a former speech-language pathologist hoping to make a living writing. I will be following your journey!
Thank you Eric. I wish you well in your writing.
Good to hear of your success, @Steven Aitchison - all the best going forwards!
Thanks Josh. I haven't seen your videos pop up in a while. Are you still doing the property?
You are welcome, Steven. We certainly are. I’m actually thinking of making a return to TH-cam, to give people an insight into what we’ve been up to, and why people shouldn’t discount property, despite the current environment.
Good to hear @@JoshHarrison-FoundedProperty. I'm still doing it too but only have 2 higher end BTLs and hoping to add another next year. It will be interesting to see what you and Rebecca have been up to.
Really interesting, thanks! A few questions...
- How much did the audiobook narration cost?
- Seems like the first Witches book came out in April 2022, then May, then June, then nothing until May 2023. Is that right? Did that huge gap cause sales issues?
- How much of the sales success is attributed to simply the volume of books (i.e. repeat buyers as opposed to new buyers)
- Did you ever try Amazon ads? Any success there?
- How much time do you think you actually spent writing these books?
Thanks!
To answer your questions
Audiobook narration cost me $500 upfront on a 'Royalty Share Plus' deal, and thereafter the narrator got 20% of the sales and I got 20% and ACX gets 60%
Book 2 I learned about narration and voice acting and did the narration myself so I get 40% of sales.
Yes, I wrote the first 3 in the series and then left it for a bit as i was winding down other businesses, so I wasn't 100% committed. But I was still writing away. I committed fully in 2023.
I think having a series is brilliant for authors and I would never write a standalone book. You could do standalone, technically, and still have a series like a detective series with different cases for each book. They work extremely well. So yeah, having a series helps bring in the sales if it's well written, or even mediocre.
I tried Amazon ads, and it didn't work out well for me, but I will master Facebook ads more and then move onto Mastering Amazon ads.
I write 1 book in a month, edit it in a few weeks and then will focus on marketing for a month and then record another audiobook for 1 month.
Hope that helps.
Extraordinary video, thank you so much for sharing. Question!
Do you think your model would be scalable to other languages, as well? I am a self-published author like yourself, but I speak four languages. I have been translating my own small novel into another language on my free time. I wonder if the model you lay out here could be directly reproduced but on a different language entirely, which is to say: one book, one audiobook - translate into another language, publish that book and do an audiobook of that version, as well. Would this not work in effectively multiplying the products you create?
So, for the pain of writing a single book, you double that by translating it into another language. It's an entirely different market, but it should work. Any thoughts? Thanks in advance.
This is great and something a lot of authors should know.
I always say that your book is an asset, but if you write one book you can turn that into 4 assets: Ebook, paperback, hardback and audiobook. Just like you say if you translate that into 4 other languages that 1 asset becomes 16 assets.
Now, imagine you write a trilogy.
That trilogy becomes, initially, 16 assets:
3 ebooks, paperbacks, hardbacks and audiobooks
1 boxset ebook, paperback, hardback and audiobook
Those 16 assets become 64 assets when you translate them into 4 languages.
So, theoretically speaking if your books are well written, professionally edited, and have great cover designs then you could literally make a living with just 3 books a la Patrick Rothfuss.
So to answer your question 😀, Yes I think the model would be scalable in other languages.
@@StevenAitchisonCYT Thank you so much for your reply! That's how I see it as well, it's quite something! I'll give it a go and see how it ends up. Thank you!
wow. really interesting.
Congratulations! Where are people from who purchase your book? Is it primarily people from within the UK?
Thank you.
The breakdown of my audience is:
USA - 66%
UK - 23%
Canada - 10%
Australia - 0.9%
ROW - 0.1%
When you were finished your first book, how did you get people to review it before self publishing? Did you give it to friends or family?
No, that's the last thing you want to do as that will confuse the Amazon algorithm. I just advised people my book was out and let Amazon find it and I advertised it by boosting posts on Facebook. Once you build up social proof i.e. more reviews then you can put more into the marketing of it. You can also market the book before it's finished and ask for beta readers to review it. I think i did this with the first iteration of book 1.
Thanks for the advice@@StevenAitchisonCYT How did you get your first 10, 50 or 100 book sales?
A mixture of social media, and email