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Post by BorumaPublishing on Feb 17, 2018 14:05:57 GMT
Here's something else to consider:
Reader X is a fan of Author Y, and sees a new Bad Girls anthology out that includes a book by Author Y.
"Oooooh," says Reader X, "let's see what my favorite author just published." And finds, to his/her disappointment, that it's a book Author Y already published before. "Those other stories do look kind of interesting," says Reader X, "but I don't know those other authors...and since I already have Author Y's story on my e-reader, I'm not going to spend the money for this anthology."
Nearly all the stories you've included in these anthologies were previously released, and I think that may be another thing hurting you. People who already have that book in their collection aren't likely to spend money to buy it again, even if there are other stories included...especially when they're stories by authors they don't know and don't want to gamble their Saturday night beer money on.
I agree that the milf anthology has sold the best. If you plan to release one anthology every four to six weeks (I wouldn't stretch it out longer than that), now's the time to start putting together the next one.
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Post by veronicasloan on Feb 18, 2018 7:35:19 GMT
I agree that putting out a collection of new stories, as opposed to bundling older ones, is a smarter strategy. The drawback, of course, is that it takes a bigger commitment of time and resources. I'm up for a MILF 2 collection, though I'm a bit tied up at the moment writing-wise.
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Post by lauralovecraft on Feb 18, 2018 11:39:32 GMT
I agree its a good point about the new stories. The issue is however, we all have full time jobs and writing time is limited so at least for me if I spend the time writing a new story I want to release it and get the sales that I know I'll get from my fan base, rather than bury it an anthology that may get meh sales even with new stories.
Of course we can always put the new story out later, but at whatever point we put it out people will buy it from us then if they eventually see the anthology back to square one. Plus in all honesty almost every anthology I see is previously released stories with the thinking okay these stories had their day in the sun, aren't moving much at the moment so lets throw a few together and everything is gravy.
The only anthologies I see that are new material are from the authors who consider a story 2500 words and they stick ten of them in a book because they don't feel right selling them as full priced books.
Anyway, I can only speak for myself and I'm not going to waste a new release in an anthology. If that's the direction others eventually want to go, I'll sit it out.
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Post by lauralovecraft on Feb 18, 2018 11:40:26 GMT
I agree that putting out a collection of new stories, as opposed to bundling older ones, is a smarter strategy. The drawback, of course, is that it takes a bigger commitment of time and resources. I'm up for a MILF 2 collection, though I'm a bit tied up at the moment writing-wise. I know Jo mentioned trying to get them out in a certain time frame, but personally I'm willing to wait for whenever people are ready.
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Post by alana on Feb 18, 2018 13:55:13 GMT
I think that's a great suggestion. Maybe this time we should all come up with brand new stories? And hold off on individual publication until AFTER tha anthology is published?
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Post by alana on Feb 18, 2018 13:59:22 GMT
I agree its a good point about the new stories. The issue is however, we all have full time jobs and writing time is limited so at least for me if I spend the time writing a new story I want to release it and get the sales that I know I'll get from my fan base, rather than bury it an anthology that may get meh sales even with new stories. Of course we can always put the new story out later, but at whatever point we put it out people will buy it from us then if they eventually see the anthology back to square one. Plus in all honesty almost every anthology I see is previously released stories with the thinking okay these stories had their day in the sun, aren't moving much at the moment so lets throw a few together and everything is gravy. The only anthologies I see that are new material are from the authors who consider a story 2500 words and they stick ten of them in a book because they don't feel right selling them as full priced books. Anyway, I can only speak for myself and I'm not going to waste a new release in an anthology. If that's the direction others eventually want to go, I'll sit it out. Laura, just read your comment. I agree it's hard sticking weeks of effort into an anthology that doesn't have the built-up fan-base you have spent years accumulating. Maybe you can do a dual release. One in the anthology, and one for yourself. That way YOUR fans (and you) get the benefits of the stand-alone book, while we can truthfully market the anthology as being full of never-before-published material.
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Post by BorumaPublishing on Feb 18, 2018 14:00:39 GMT
The reason for the timeframe is, if you don't get a new erotica story out at least every six weeks, if not sooner, your fan base dries up and so do your sales. Authors who can put out books every couple of weeks get much better sales. That's why the 2500 word "stories" are so popular with some authors. It's no problem to write one a week, or even more, and keep their name up in the New Releases section where they're more likely to get sales.
Our best-selling authors are the ones who can release a new book every 1-2 weeks. We don't allow anything less than 4,500 words, and their stories are typically in the 6-8k range. Being able to release new stories regularly and in that timeframe keeps their names fresh in their readers' minds, and they know to keep an eye out because a new story will be coming out soon.
If it's possible to get a new book out every six weeks, that will help with name recognition and hopefully sales. That's all I was suggesting.
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Post by BorumaPublishing on Feb 18, 2018 14:08:44 GMT
Alana, that won't work because your fans will naturally gravitate toward the cheaper standalone book, and once again ignore the anthology. The only way to make it work is to delay releasing the standalone book for a month or six weeks, to give the anthology time to sell. I completely understand everyone's reluctance to do that, and I'm not saying you have to. I was just pointing out that bundling books your fans already have read is probably one of the main reasons the anthologies aren't selling. I'm a die-hard J.D. Robb fan and I'll buy EVERYTHING she's written. But even I won't buy a book she's already released if she puts it in a multi-author anthology...because I don't have much interest in the other authors (I know, shame on me) and I already have her book in my library, so it's a waste of money. People who enjoy your stories but aren't rabid "gotta collect 'em ALL" fans will be even less likely to open their wallets for a retread.
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Post by alana on Feb 18, 2018 14:18:23 GMT
Curse you! Curse you and your 'logic,' Jo!
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Post by BorumaPublishing on Feb 18, 2018 14:27:53 GMT
LOLOL!!!
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Post by lauralovecraft on Feb 18, 2018 15:35:59 GMT
The reason for the timeframe is, if you don't get a new erotica story out at least every six weeks, if not sooner, your fan base dries up and so do your sales. Authors who can put out books every couple of weeks get much better sales. That's why the 2500 word "stories" are so popular with some authors. It's no problem to write one a week, or even more, and keep their name up in the New Releases section where they're more likely to get sales. Our best-selling authors are the ones who can release a new book every 1-2 weeks. We don't allow anything less than 4,500 words, and their stories are typically in the 6-8k range. Being able to release new stories regularly and in that timeframe keeps their names fresh in their readers' minds, and they know to keep an eye out because a new story will be coming out soon. If it's possible to get a new book out every six weeks, that will help with name recognition and hopefully sales. That's all I was suggesting. Its a what have you done for me lately. Not even just for books, but if you happen to be known for a specific niche. This month has been slow for me even though my last release was the last week of Jan. But it was a brother/sister story and it seems most of my sales come from mom/son. hence working on one now to get things to pick back up again.
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Post by alana on Feb 18, 2018 17:48:17 GMT
I've got a MILF idea I've been keeping on the back burner because it didn't really jump out at me. But I am sure I could knock out 10K words on it for the anthology if everyone else agreed. We could publish sometime around the end of March. That gives us over a month.
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Post by Alexa Nichols on Feb 19, 2018 12:04:55 GMT
This is what I get for not checking the forum during the weekend - I miss out on a really interesting conversation! I'm only one spoke in the wheel, so whatever the majority decides they want to release I'm on board with. In the case of MILF stories, I don't have any, so I would likely sit that one out. Which would be cool.
As far as future anthologies go, I completely understand the rationale for not wanting to buy previously released books and am entirely willing to submit unpublished stories; I can do this because I basically have all my books for the year written already (I only release one a month, so it isn't that hard) but they are in particular genres. Mainly taboo.
As far as the website goes, again, good points. Maybe this will be something we can look into in the future. I just wanted to see what everyone thought. 😊
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Post by lauralovecraft on Mar 3, 2018 1:39:30 GMT
The read an e-book sale on SW is starting Sunday. Do we want to have Jo set the bad Girls books to 25% off?
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Post by alana on Mar 3, 2018 15:05:54 GMT
I'm good with that, Laura.
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