Alright, after watching the market and giving it some considerable thought, I’ve decided to venture into indie publishing, if only to test the waters. I’ll release a couple of short stories first, mostly to learn how to format and release an ebook, and from there I’ll move on to other work.
I spent this afternoon drafting a business plan for the venture, using the resources available at the SBA website (thanks, Jerle). Here’s what I have thus far:
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Mission Statement: To tell cool stories and have fun doing it
Projected Start Date: 31 March 2011
Founder and sole owner: Joseph M. Vasicek
Employees: 1 (services to be contracted on a freelance basis)
Location: Provo, UT (subject to change)
Product: Short stories, novels, and novellas1) Summary of Growth
As the business has not yet been launched, there is no growth to report.
2) Future Plans
Stage One: Initial Release
In this stage, I will prepare and release two short stories, “Decision LZ1527” (previously published in issue 58 of The Leading Edge) and “Memoirs of a Snowflake” (previously unpublished) as ebooks on Kindle, Nook, and Smashwords.
The goals for this initial venture are to:
1) learn how to properly format and release an ebook,
2) gain familiarity with the ebook publishing system, and
3) gauge a general estimate of ebook costs and profits.Stage Two: Initial Novel/Novella Release
At least 3 months after releasing “Decision LZ1527” and “Memoirs of a Snowflake,” I plan on releasing Sholpan, a novella based on the novel Bringing Stella Home. By doing so, I hope to:
1) learn how to properly outsource editing and cover art,
2) gauge the earnings potential for my novels, and
3) generate an audience for other books in the Gaia Nova series.After releasing Sholpan, I will most likely wait for a few months to see what happens, submitting my other novels to traditional publishers in the meanwhile. If sales of my ebooks exceed expectations, I will consider moving to the next stage and fully implementing this business plan.
Stage Three: Full Ebook Release
If success in the previous stages justifies it, I will release my completed novels as ebooks, starting either sometime in July/August 2011 or after September 2012 (depending on how well my other works do, according to a metric which has yet to be determined). Currently, these consist of Genesis Earth and Bringing Stella Home, though Worlds Away from Home should be nearing the final phases of revision.
My business goals from here out are the following:
1) produce and release two novels each year (minimum of one),
2) consistently expand my audience through social networking,
3) obtain an agent to handle foreign/subsidiary rights,
4) obtain a print deal in order to build career prestige, and
5) earn enough to support myself entirely off of my writing.If the works released in stage two do not sell well enough to justify moving on to stage three, I will continue to make them available as ebooks but will postpone releasing my novels until either my other works begin to sell well, or independent publishing becomes the generally accepted path for new writers.
Mainly, I just want to experiment with ebooks and figure out how they work. Since the initial costs are so low, my initial goal is not to make a lot of money, but to learn how to format and release an ebook. I was a little uneasy doing that with my novels, but I figure it wouldn’t hurt to practice on my short stories (all two of them).
So yeah, that’s the date: March 31st, 2011. I’ll release “Decision LZ1527” for $.99, and “Memoirs of a Snowflake” for $.50 or so (since it’s flash fiction). I’m not sure how well it will sell, but I hope that all of you reading this right now go and buy it!!!1!! (that includes you, Mom) Hehe, just kidding. ;P
But seriously, I’ll keep you guys updated closely on how the venture goes. A lot of ebook authors are very transparent with their numbers, and I plan to be no different. And if you have any feedback on the business plan, please let me know. I’m kind of new to this sort of thing, and while it’s surprisingly fun, I’m sure I’ll make a TON of mistakes. Your help would be appreciated!
You’re looking to outsource your editing? Coincidentally, I’m looking to convince some people to outsource their editing to me. You should consider it. 😉
Maybe I missed it in the post, but which ebook “publisher” are you going with, or are you going with multiple ones?
If you put it out on Amazon/Kindle, I’ll nab a copy or two.
@Kristy–for the short stuff, I can probably self edit, but when I start getting the longer stuff ready, I’ll keep you in mind.
@Nathan–I’m not quite sure; still need to do some research on that. I’ll probably start with the Kindle, then move on to Smashwords, Createspace, and the other major venues. Whatever I do, I want to get my stuff up on as many platforms as I can.
Realize that formatting for Smashwords is in no way correct formatting for ebooks, just correct for using their “meatgrinder” conversion software. (BTW, fiction is a good fit for Smashwords since they can’t deal with complex formatting or graphics.)
You can’t price books lower than $.99 on Kindle, but you can go as low as free through Smashwords.
Remember that writing is the easy part; marketing is the hard part. 🙂
Good luck.
@Marny–thanks. Yeah, I’m going to have to revisit pricing quite a bit, though it doesn’t seem right to go much higher than $.99 for a short story. But then again, I need to check the economics of that.
As for marketing, I’m a fan of the philosophy that the best way to sell your books is to be constantly producing new ones. I’ll definitely look into the budding venues for ebook short stories, though, and see what I can do. That’s certainly part of the learning curve.
ha ha! I was thinking of doing this myself just yesterday. Mostly to figure out how the heck how to format an e-book!
Though, I am planning to do the entire process myself. That’s the challenge, doing it completely free. Muahahah! But I won’t tackle any novels anytime soon, but probably a short story or two. I think it would be necessary to hire people to edit a novel.
Tis currently an experiment rather than a long-term business plan that I expect to make tons of money from. Plus, I kind of want a basic skill set if perchance traditional publishing does not work out for Kindal.
As far as checking the economics of pricing for short stories goes: you’ll probably want to charge more than $0.99 for your short stories.
I’ve done a lot of reading on forums and other sites about publishing ebooks. I was specifically trying to find out how much people can make selling ebooks as a hobby. What I found instead was how much people generally charge for their books (including short stories).
Pricing turns out to be a little bit tricky as the price of the book itself lends to the marketing of it. Some authors have found that they’ve sold more copies by charging a higher price than they sell when they charge $0.99 for a short story.
The general consensus is that a story that only costs $0.99 will probably not have enough entertainment value to be worth even that much. But if the author is charging something like $2.99 for their short story then you can expect the content of it to be worth the price. The funny thing is both stories are exactly the same, it just changes the consumer’s perspective when they are making their buying decision.
If I were to sell a short story as an ebook, I would not sell it for less than $2.99.
Longer books have a sweet-spot for selling in the range of $3.59 to $5.99. I’ve bought enough ebooks on my Kindle to agree that if I’m spending more than $2.00 on an ebook, I don’t really pay much attention to the price up until it hits $5.00.
(And for the curious: as far as how much money people are making selling ebooks as a hobby: I talked to one guy on the forums who has published over 100 short stories and makes several hundred dollars per month on those sales. He mentioned another author however who writes ebooks as a profession and makes well enough to live comfortably.)
Joseph, I am very interested to see how this works for you! I’ve got plans to do an e-book of a short story once it comes back from the “last” place I’m sending it to, and for similar reasons: I want to learn. In the long run, I think it makes sense to do e-books; I think the market share will only increase.
Also, @Bryan: I’m dying to see these forums about e-book pricing. EVERYTHING I’ve read says $0.99 for short stories, period.
The only forums I have read have been on the Amazon Kindle site. That’s because I was reading about ebook publishing after I learned that there is a little bit of html programming involved in designing good looking ebooks.
With the Amazon Kindle there is a pricing plan where the author receives 70% of the money from sales, but the book must be priced $2.99 or higher. With even a penny less than that, the author will only receive 35% of the money from sales. So the difference between a $0.99 and a $2.99 book on the Kindle is actually choosing to receive either $0.34 per book sold, or receiving $2.09 per book sold. Taken only from what people are saying on the Kindle Publishing Forums, many authors are choosing to price their short stories for at least $2.99 to get the 70% pricing plan, and they have found that their sales are not hurt by it.
That being said I did a Google search (rather than just looking at the Kindle Forums) and found plenty of places that suggest $0.99 is the best price for short stories. All of the sources (both the Kindle Forums and the results from the Google search) were purely anecdotal from each author saying what they’ve found to be effective. Without real statistics of price per book compared to copies sold I cannot make a real statement either way. I’d say each author should experiment and decide what’s right for their pricing.
http://forums.kindledirectpublishing.com/kdpforums/index.jspa