Readers Want A “Fun, Fast Read”

E-reader owners share a common characteristic: as a group, they want a fun, fast read. Consequently, the length of the traditional novel is shrinking for e-books, from the print book standard of 80,000 to 120,000 words to the shorter e-book equivalent of 50,000 to 60,000.

E-reader owners often read on the fly–on the beach, on the plane, in the car, on the train, on vacation. These readers, as a group, prefer books that can be read quickly, in a day or two.

The new author who figures this out has a couple of advantages.

First, traditional print publishers are slow to offer titles in e-format. Print publishers dislike the e-publishing industry and resist aiding its development. Only best sellers in tree books get quickly converted to e-books. New authors who contract themselves to a traditional print publisher may never see their titles in e-format until their contract expires, reducing the writer’s exposure in the marketplace.

In negotiating terms with the traditional print publisher, new writers should retain e-book rights or require the return of the rights to the author if the print publisher doesn’t exercise the option to e-publish the book within a set time frame.

Second, an author can produce more material for sale in the e-book environment. In theory, a writer can produce two 50,000 word books in the same time it takes to create one 100,000 word manuscript. A smart writer will find a way to cut a longer manuscript into two connected stories, and have two stand alone books for sale simultaneously. Readers who like one book are going to buy the other.  It doubles the creator’s income.

Finally, readers who own electronic devices also buy short stories. A typical 7,000 word short story can be sold via e-booksellers like Amazon.com.

I hope you have found a few helpful strategies here for your own book business.

Sell Your Short Story–Boost Your Book Sales

Are you working on a novel? Is it taking forever to complete? Are you growing weary of working on it?

Take a break and write a short story with one or more of the same characters in your book. You may find it helpful in more ways than you think possible. First, it is a diversion from your novel, yet keeps the characters of the novel fresh in your mind. Second, sale of the short story assists the sales of your novel when you release it. Third, you can sell your short story for supplemental income.

West Virginia author Lauren Carr created a 7,000 word short story called “Lucky Dog.” The dog in the story, named Gnarly, is a regular character in her Mac Faraday mystery series. She intended to print the story as a promotional giveaway during book fairs.  A series of fortunate events led her to e-publish the story for $.99. Since then, her short story sales have pushed her novel sales up in multiples. (Visit her web page at http://mysterylady.net/Mac_Faraday_Books.html.)

The short story, sold at a low price point, gets your work into the hands of readers unfamiliar with you. If they like your story, they will look for more works written by you. In Carr’s experience, readers who liked Gnarly, the” Lucky Dog,” bought her mystery books that featured Gnarly. The sale of the short story ended up boosting the sales of her novels.

That’s called smart marketing!

THE DREADED QUERY LETTER

A special thanks to William Stadler for sharing his insights on what constitutes a good query letter.

THE DREADED QUERY.

Fifty Shades of Grey Started as an E-Book

CBS reported on their morning news program that Fifty Shades of Grey started out as an e-book. After e-publishing exposure, it was picked up by a traditional publisher. The rest, as they say, is history.

Barnes & Noble reports this year there has been an excellent line-up of hardback books, resulting in an uptick in book sales. Fifty Shades of Grey has been one of the stellar performers, flying off bookshelves.

In my opinion, e-publishing enables new authors to get exposure and build a following. Success in the e-market can lead to success in the traditional book market. It is an encouraging time for new writers. Afterall, Fifty Shades of Grey is the author’s first novel.

E-book Price Fixing Ends in Lawsuit

The State of West Virginia sued mainstream publishers over price-fixing in the e-book market. The link to the article is below. Hachette, HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster have agreed to pay a total of more than $69 million to consumers across the country to resolve antitrust claims of a conspiracy to fix the prices of electronic books (e-books). WV won the lawsuit.

McGraw secures $69 million over e-book price-fixing allegations – journal-news.net | News, sports, jobs, community information for Martinsburg – The Journal.

Using Video to Sell Your Stuff

Good pep talk from Drew Keller to help you use videography to its best advantage for selling your works via social media. If you are an Independent or Self-publisher, you need to watch this:

Calling all writers who do their own marketing, selling, etcetera. Watch this video.