Ten Ways to Get the Most Out of Writing on Wattpad

I've had a few requests from other authors about how to get the most out of writing on Wattpad. I promised them a blog about it, so here it is!

First of all, here's a bit of background on my own Wattpad story. I started up an account over on Wattpad in August 2010. Now, I know that makes me sound like I've been really active over there for years now, but that isn't the truth. Back in 2010, I did what many people do. I hopped over there, started my account, posted a couple of chapters of a story, and then essentially forgot about it.

Things most likely would have stayed that way if it wasn't for a non-author friend of mine contacting me about an article she'd read about a writer getting snapped up on Wattpad and getting paid a crazy amount of money for her story. At the time, I was considering writing a story that was a bit different for me - a contemporary romantic suspense. So far in my career, I'd only published full length paranormal books, and I wondered if I would be able to pull off a full length contemporary novel.  I figured why not publish it, chapter by chapter, to Wattpad as I wrote it and literally get feedback from readers as the book was being written.

So that's what I did.

This was back at the start of 2015, and I wrote and published 'Cut Too Deep', chapter by chapter, to Wattpad. When I started, I only had a handful of followers. It took a few chapters before things started getting rolling, and I was bringing in more readers. At the end of every chapter, I tweeted and facebooked, etc, to let all my regular readers know they could read a brand new book over there as well.

I really enjoyed the process and loved reading everyone's comments as I went along. I even made serious editorial changes to the book due to certain observations the readers had made. It was like having several hundred beta readers in one spot, and you know what, most of them were really encouraging.

That was almost two years ago now, and to date Cut Too Deep has had over 700,000 reads on Wattpad. It's also published as an ebook, paperback, and audio, and is one of my best ever sellers.

But you guys are here for tips on how to make Wattpad work for you, so I'll shut up and write some down.


1.) Enjoy it! This is going to seem a bit obvious perhaps, but Wattpad is just like any other social media. You have to get involved. Comment on other people's works, add them to your library. If someone leaves you a comment or a message, reply to it. Wattpad is social media for readers and writers. If you don't put yourself into it, you won't get anything out.

 2.) Post a new chapter every couple of days. This will keep your readers interested and excited about your story, and won't give then the chance to forget you.

3.) Tweet/facebook/pin your new chapter. As soon as you hit publish, Wattpad brings up all the little icons that allow you to do this just by the click of a button. You want people to know about your story, so use the tools they give you.

4.) At the bottom of your chapter, ask people to vote for your story or leave you a comment. Sometimes people just forget to do so, and there's no harm in asking.

5.) If you're posting an already published book, make sure you link to it on Amazon. You can do this by clicking on the three dots on the right hand upper corner of the chapter you are editing, under 'external link'. You can also add in images of your characters, or dedicate your book to another Wattpad user.

6.) If your book has sexual content, you can mark it as 'Mature' to stop younger people accessing it. If you don't mark it as mature, but then a Wattpad reader notices you have adult content in your book, they will mark it as mature for you, and you can't change this. It's easier to do it yourself. Most of my books have adult content, but not straight erotica. Wattpad doesn't like erotica.

7.) Once you have a completed story, apply for a feature. You have to commit to leave your book on Wattpad for six months, but it's definitely worth it. Cut Too Deep was featured, and this is what's built the vast majority of my followers.

8.) How to decide what to post? I tend to post my first in series books, in the hope that people will go on to buy the next books in the series (I've been contacted by Wattpad users to say this is what they've done, so it does work, though you'll also have people complaining that they want to read it all on Wattpad for free!). I also post the first few chapters of new books, and then link them to amazon, together with teasers, to get people interested. More recently, I've been posting my newer, full length, standalone books because I've wanted to position myself ready for the Wattpad Futures program (where writers will be paid in return for ads being shown in their stories).

9.) Use your profile! Make sure you have a good bio, and link to all the places readers can find you!

10.) The 'conversations' tab is like your very own mailing list to your Wattpad readers. You can post info about new releases, or any other news here, and if you click 'notify my followers' that message will end up the email inbox of all your followers, as well as on Wattpad!


Okay, I think that's it, though I'm sure I've missed something vitally important out! If  you've got any other questions, just ask away in the comments. Also, come and check me out on Wattpad. https://www.wattpad.com/user/Marissafarrar If you shoot me a message, and ask me to follow you back (mention you've come from my blog), then I will do!

Thanks for reading!

Low Priced Indie Books... Did they Ruin Things for the Rest of Us?

The other night, I managed to get into a debate over the same thing twice - the price of ebooks!

In the early indie days, the $0.99 price tag was a jumping point for several now indie publishing rock stars, most of which have now signed up with one of the New York big boy publishing houses. But while they've all jumped off the indie bandwagon, they've left the rest of us floundering around in a market place saturated with low price (and often low quality) indie books. That in itself is fine - everyone has an equal right to publish in this day and age - but the affect it has had on the readers is more important. Readers now expect to pay no more than a couple of dollars for an indie novel, yet will happily compare that indie novel to one of the New York published novels which would set them back $10 and more!

I read a post on Amanda Hocking's blog that one of the reasons she took a big publishing contract was because she knew, however hard she worked, the editing would never be good enough unless she had someone who was at the top of their game working on her books. I can understand this thinking, especially when readers pick up an indie book and read it expecting the same sort of editing that the book would have received if published by a big house.

I am a big believer (now) that a book shouldn't be published unless it's been edited professionally. An author should try to save every penny to pay for the editing. However, I didn't always have this opinion. When I first got on the indie train I thought just having another author edit my work would be perfectly fine. It wasn't.

So what is the right price to charge for an ebook? Let's look at the costs. (The following are an approximation and obviously do vary!)

Editing - $300 - $500
Proofreading $75- $150
Cover design $120
Isbns $30 (for two - one for ebook, another for paperback)
Paperback upload (Lightning Source) - $60
Advertising/email subs/website/hootsuite etc. (optional, but neccessary!) $100 per month approx.

Before the book is even published an author is looking at an outlay of up to $760, and then another $100 a month going forward. If an author prices their book at $0.99, they would need to sell well over 2000 copies just to break even. In the indie world, with so much competition, most indie authors don't even earn $500 a month!

So what is the right price for an indie novel and did those early pricing strategies set the rest of us up for failure?

Yes, and no. Unfortunately pricing is still the biggest tool indies have against the mighty power of the big six. I price my novels at $4.99, but I don't think I would put them much higher, even though traditionally published indie books charge more. Is this because I think my books are worth less? In a word, yes, I do. I'm not saying that my story or writing is worth less, but I'm not dividing my profit between a number of people. Once my costs have been paid off, the profit goes in my pocket, unlike a traditional publisher who have on-going costs including paying staff and royalties to the author.

So do I think $0.99 is too low a price for a novel? Yes, definitely. $0.99 should be a price reserved for short stories. I even think $2.99 is too little, but I can understand authors using that pricing in the hope people might try out the novel of an author they've never heard of.

Pricing will continue to be an issue, with some readers steering clear of low priced ebooks because they automatically think the books will be poor quality, and some readers even refusing to pay for an ebook because there are so many free ones out there. (This actually happened to me - someone read one of my books, loved it, and then actually laughed at the idea of paying for another one... like authors don't deserve to be paid for their work, unlike any other industry out there!).

What do you think is a reasonable price for an ebook? If you're a reader, do you tend to try out the cheaper books, or try to steer clear?

My experience with Kobo Writing Life so far...

A few days ago, I wrote about how Kobo had launched its first e-book publishing platform - Writing Life -one that may eventually come to rival Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing. I was excited and eager to get my books up on the site as I love to see my books sales in 'real' time and not have to wait until Smashwords decides to report them.

So, how have I been getting on?

The answer to this would be 'slowly.' It turns out my tried and trusted formatting for Smashwords doesn't work so well for the epub conversion on Kobo. Or at least it does... for some books... not so much for others. And considering all the books have been formatted in exactly the same way, I've no idea why this is! So, I've been playing around with different formatting, using 'Heading 1' to create an automatic TOC, but again, in some books this is working fine, in others it isn't! I'm sure the formatting experts around won't be struggling with this at all, but I'm finding it a bit of a head-ache.

Secondly, I'm finding the actual publishing process (that is, the time I've hit the publish button to when it actually appears on the site) to be very slow. Two of the books I already had published on Kobo (the Serenity series) and had removed by Smashwords, went up quickly, but a new book, which I published on Thursday, is still not showing on the site.

One final negative, before I start on the good stuff, is the lack of categories Kobo has available to choose from. For romance - which is the biggest genre out there - they only have four categories, and one of those isn't paranormal romance! Considering this is the second category in which I would normally place my vampire series (after Contemporary Fantasy) this leaves me in a bit of a quandary.

However, on a positive note, apart from the conversion issues (which are more due to my lack of knowledge than any fault of Kobo's) the upload process is pretty simple. And - the best part! - you are able to download the epub file to use as you wish, which is fantastic. I also like the ability to over-ride the automatic conversion price to either round up or round down in Hong Kong, and Australian, and New Zealand Dollars, among other currencies.

But here is the big thing, so far, sales have been (drum roll please) a big fat Zero! Now I admit I've only got a couple of books up so it isn't really a fair comparison, but considering my sales on Amazon, B&N, and Apple are easily enough for me to support my family on, not having sold anything yet is a little disappointing.

However, I'm planning on looking at this long term. Kobo are only just starting to build their own sales platform. If they're going to be the next big thing in self-publishing, I plan to be right there beside them!

Kobo's new 'Writing Life' Platform is Open for Business!

Just now I received the email to alert me, along with numerous other indie authors and publishers, that the new 'Writing Life' platform  from Kobo is open for business! This platform has been heralded as the next big competitor to Kindle Direct Publishing (Amazon) so I was keen to jump on board.

The first thing I did was register (a quick process) and then I went and removed all my books from the Kobo Smashwords channel. I've seen a few sales come through this channel, but Smashwords are so slow with upload and sales reporting, I'd much rather see the sales come in real time directly via Kobo.

Kobo are paying 70% royalties on higher priced books, so are a good competitor as far as comparing them to the other big publishers (Amazon pays 70%, but Barnes & Noble Pubit, only 60%). I believe they're also saying (and please correct me if I'm wrong) that they're happy for you to take their ePub conversions for you to sell and use as you wish. For me this is a big draw. I struggle with getting ePub files properly converted, and Smashwords doesn't allow you to use their conversions anywhere else.

Well it's ten-thirty at night here in the UK, so I don't intend on starting any uploads tonight. However, tomorrow I'm going to be getting right on it. I'll be sure to report back if their upload and conversion processes are as easy as I've heard from the hype!

Five tips to sell more eBooks!

2011 was a huge year for the indie author, and 2012 is so far looking strong as well. Unfortunately, ‘indie’ still has a bad name, with people who are just hoping to earn a quick buck or two hopping on the bandwagon. So in this new publishing world, free of gate keepers and quality control, how can we make our eBooks stand out in the ever-growing crowd?

1. The Cover.

Anyone in the publishing industry (and readers alike) know the old adage ‘you can’t judge a book by its cover’ is rubbish. A cover is the very first thing your book will be judged on. If your cover isn’t eye-catching—particularly as a thumbnail—then the reader will by-pass it without a second glance. You can buy a decent eBook cover for as little as $40. if your eBook isn't selling, why not try a new cover? Money well spent!

                           

    2.  The Price.

      

      This has always been a controversial topic. Many indie authors have seen success because we’ve been able to undercut the big boys. The $0.99 price tag has been losing some of its allure as readers are lining cheap up with rubbish. However, the $0.99 price tag does have its place, as does the ‘free’ price tag. I’ve had great results offering both the first book in my series as $0.99 and now as free. Short stories involving the characters from your novel can also be offered for $0.99 and free in order to drum up interest in your novels. However, don’t under price your work. I now offer all of my novels for $3.99, my novellas and short story collections for $2.99 and short stories for $0.99.

         3.  The Blurb.

      

       So your cover has enticed the reader in and the price tag has them thinking they might just take a chance on an unknown author. Now they’ll move on to check out the book itself. The first thing they’re going to read is the pitch. You want to sell your book to that reader. Make it concise and exciting. I read too many blurbs that start with ‘this is a story about...blah blah blah’. Seriously? Read some of the blurbs of best-selling novels in your genre and copy their style!

     4. Formatting.

       Most likely the next thing a reader will do is check out the ‘look inside this book’ option Amazon offers. Make sure your book looks like it’s been put together by a professional. Include a proper title page. Check your formatting hasn’t gone screwy during the conversion process, leaving gaps and different font sizes where they shouldn’t be. Smashwords has a good guide on formatting which is free to download.

         5. Write Another Book.

     One of the great things about the eBook market is that readers can get a quick and immediate fix and when they’ve read something of yours they've enjoyed, they can easily buy something else at just the click of a button.  A collection of short stories at a low price is a great way to introduce readers to your style. Not only that, it doesn’t cost a fortune to have a short collection edited and doesn’t take the best part of a year to write. Short stories will increase your virtual shelf-space and make you more noticeable to the reader.

I hope these five tips have helped if you’re thinking of getting into the eBook market or if you’ve got a book which hasn’t made many sales! Happy writing everyone!

The Arrival of KDP Select: What Does it Mean for Authors?

I woke up this morning to do my usual routine of sales checking, but when I logged onto Amazon KDP (the digital publishing platform that allows authors to publish eBooks direct to Amazon) I found a big sign with gold letters announcing '$500,000 available for December' staring back at me.

My first thought was that I'd won some kind of Amazon lottery (honestly, that's what the sign looks like - and I suspect that is not accidental!) but then realized that probably wasn't the case, so I looked into things further.

Basically, Amazon Select is a lending library set up through Amazon. To enrol books, the titles must be exclusive to Amazon for at least 90 days. They're allowed to be published in paperback and sold elsewhere, but not in digital format. The publisher of this book will then receive a percentage of the amount of money in the pot (for December it's $500,000, but next year they say it will be $6 million) according to the number of times a customer has borrowed the book.

So, the good points:

• Hopefully more money. It's another avenue in which to make royalties. Here is how Amazon explains it (though I think they've aimed high). 

For example, if the monthly fund amount is $500,000 and the total qualified borrows of all participating KDP titles is 100,000 in December and if your book was borrowed 1,500 times, you will earn 1.5% (1,500/100,000 = 1.5%), or $7,500 in December.

•  You'll also be allowed to make your book free for 5 days, so introducing your work to a whole heap of new readers (that is, if you don't already have free books on Amazon). 
• The exclusivity is only for 90 days, after which time your book will be able to be sold on other site.

And here are the bad bits.

• First of all, there's the exclusivity thing. I've often worried about the amount of control Amazon already has on an author's income. As it gets bigger and bigger, Amazon is effectively becoming a super-publisher, just without the quality control of acquisitions or editors. If something happened to Amazon (or it suddenly decided to pull all of my titles) I'll have lost about 75% of my income. Creating exclusivity only gives Amazon even more power. 
• A member of Kindle Owners Lenders Library will only be able to check out ONE book a month. This tells me the customer is going to be pretty picky about which title they choose. Are they really likely to chance that one title on a newbie, indie author? 
• Will it affect sales in the regular kindle store? If people can borrow the book for free, are they less likely to fork out the money to buy it?
• Once you sign up, you've got 3 days to change your mind, but then you're tied in for 90 days. Amazon then automatically re-signs you up for another 90 days once the first period has finish, UNLESS you go in a check a box on your bookshelf to say you don't want this to happen. Amazon does say they will send you an email 15 days before renewal, but we all know how easy it is to miss these things.

So what have I decided to do? Well, I'm in the lucky position of having numerous titles, two of which are new this month and as of yet (other than Amazon) are only available to buy on Smashwords. So this morning I've unpublished them from Smashwords and enrolled them in Amazon Select. This isn't too big a deal for me because sales on Smashwords are always small. The titles I've enrolled are two short story collections--one in my Marissa Farrar name, and one in M.K. Elliott. Choosing short story books could work against me. People are probably less likely to borrow the short story titles than if I'd enrolled my novels, but I didn't want to take that kind of risk just yet.

For now it's just a case of 'wait and see'. To be honest, I'll be surprised if I get many people borrowing my books at all, but I guess it depends on what my competition is. Either way, I'll be sure to report back and let you all know how it's going and whether it's worth enrolling in KDP Select.

~*~

Marissa Farrar's dark vampire 'Serenity' series, is available to buy from Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Just click on the links to purchase the first in the series, 'Alone', for only $0.99.