LAUNCH DAY

[Malik]

So here's the deal: It's print-only. No ebooks. If the cost is prohibitive, tell your library to buy a copy. The ISBN is 978-0-9978875-9-4.

You can buy a copy here (cheapest way): https://shop.ingramspark.com/b/084

It's up on Amazon, but since I didn't do ebooks, they haven't yet linked it with my other titles. But you can order it here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0997887591

Also available at Barnes and Noble: BN No Results Page

Or at any local bookstore, just give them the ISBN and they'll have it for you in a couple of days.

 

[skip.knox]

Congrats! There actually is a local bookstore here in this small Idaho town. You'll just have to tell me how to resize the text. <smile>

 

[Mad Swede]

If I were you I'd get your wife to send a message (in Swedish) to SF Bokhandeln in Stockholm. They already have some of A. E. Lowan books on the shelves so you may well find they order some copies.

 

[Malik]

Holy crap. #34 in Military Fantasy New Releases and #21 in Norse & Viking Fantasy New Releases this morning.

In paperback.

At $24.99.

This might work.

 

[Malik]

Now at #28 and #17, respectively. Okay, then.

 

[A. E. Lowan]

If I were you I'd get your wife to send a message (in Swedish) to SF Bokhandeln in Stockholm. They already have some of A. E. Lowan books on the shelves so you may well find they order some copies.

Wow! What terrible fate did they intend for entire populations, using the Em-Dash and periods of Pay Attention to Me! Maybe all of these above?

 

[A. E. Lowan]

Now at #28 and #17, respectively. Okay, then.

Screenshot that stuff. And wow! You've got a lot of friends out there.

 

[Demesnedenoir]

Great to see! Damn, time flies! I haven't finished the book yet and barely realized it was August. Sheesh.

Between AI and pirating, I'm considering delaying the ebook release on the next several books, and then on the next big release that I blow up, trying out the print-only approach for the first 6 months or so. I'm going to revamp everything in marketing and sales as a couple little contracts end in 2026.

Amazon is getting to the point that I might pull ebooks and audiobooks from their sales, and sell signed print through my own TM'd Amazon store. But, we'll see how things are going

 

[pmmg]

Malik, you make us all proud. Keep up the good work.

 

[ThinkerX]

Great to see! Damn, time flies! I haven't finished the book yet and barely realized it was August. Sheesh.

Between AI and pirating, I'm considering delaying the ebook release on the next several books, and then on the next big release that I blow up, trying out the print-only approach for the first 6 months or so. I'm going to revamp everything in marketing and sales as a couple little contracts end in 2026.

Amazon is getting to the point that I might pull ebooks and audiobooks from their sales, and sell signed print through my own TM'd Amazon store. But, we'll see how things are going

Maybe D2D?

 

[Demesnedenoir]

Been there and done that. I've got books wide and Amazon exclusive (testing ad theories) and I'm going back to all wide as of September. I'll be opening an Amazon store plus I'm revamping my Direct to Consumer website, basically turning my main website into the sales room, while the Wiki handles all of the Maps, synopses, characters, and world info. T-shirt sales surprised me at my first Con and I learned some lessons. I've had decent direct sales in the past, but I can push that harder now, and by the time I launch The War of Seven Lives in a couple of years, I'll be able to blow up its promotion and hopefully have enough street cred to push direct sales to 25-35% of books moved.

All of that assumes AI hasn't terminated book sales by then, heh heh.

Maybe D2D?

 

[ThinkerX]

Been there and done that. I've got books wide and Amazon exclusive (testing ad theories), and I'm going back to all wide as of September. I'll be opening an Amazon store, plus I'm revamping my Direct to Consumer website, basically turning my main website into the sales room, while the Wiki handles all of the Maps, synopses, characters, and world info. T-shirt sales surprised me at my first Con, and I learned some lessons. I've had decent direct sales in the past, but I can push that harder now, and by the time I launch The War of Seven Lives in a couple of years, I'll be able to blow up its promotion and hopefully have enough street cred to push direct sales to 25-35% of books moved.

All of that assumes AI hasn't terminated book sales by then, heh heh.

My books are available on Amazon through D2D, but I seem to have missed out on most of the Amazon drama proper. Then again, I'm a minnow, maybe not worth bothering with.

I signed up for a slew of D2D partner promos with the likes of Kobo, Overdrive, and others, but the only success there was via Smashwords, and then mostly freebies. I attribute this to being a minnow amidst a slew of bigger fish. Maybe you have sufficient recognition to make those partnership promos work.

Facebook? All I see are scammers.

Anymore, I go with the 'cheap lunch' approach to promos. I take out 3-5 spots of $7-10 each (the cost of a cheap lunch) with 3 or 4 outfits that usually result in 5-15 sales each. If they bomb, then I'm out of a bit of pocket money. Sometimes, they'll take off and I'll get 20+ sales. Once every month or three, I drop $40-50 on a promo company, but they don't do much better than the cheap ones. I have noticed an increasing trickle of 'out-of-the-blue' sales, so maybe something is working.