Friday 31 January 2014

The Secrets Of My Success

Now that I can officially call myself a published author, my life has been irrevocably altered in a variety of different ways. On a daily basis I am assaulted by the general populace, mainly people from various houses of worship, who condemn me to a life of eternal damnation.  They tried to organise a book burning, but, not fully understanding how eBooks and the Internet work, they ended up starting fires in the Amazon rainforest. So you’ll be pleased to hear that while a vast swathe of Latin America is engulfed in flame, the Muppets For Justice eBook remains intact and available:

Click here to purchase - UK Version

Click here to purchase - US Version



Anyway, enough with the narcissism.  With the heat finally dying down, I thought it would be a good time to reflect candidly on the recent Blog Tour that I have recently embarked upon.  The tour has finally come to a close, and all in all, I’d say it’s been a fun experience that is definitely worth the effort, should anyone be thinking of trying it for themselves.

A few people asked me to give a rundown of the process of getting your book published.  The procedure is remarkably easy.  Amazon’s self-publishing service is called Kindle Direct Publishing (or KDP).  You simply upload your completed book to their service, either as a PDF, or you can use their in-built formatting system.  I would recommend copying your work into Amazon’s formatting system.  I didn’t do this and instead submitted it as a PDF, which meant that, as part of Amazon’s checking process, they went through and removed all the formatting I had put in place.  All my page breaks were condensed down, meaning that some of the articles seem to run into each other a little.  I’m sure people can tell when a new article has begun (the bold, underlined titles give it away).  So be sure to use their formatting system.

This also brings me onto another point; the review process is worth considering before you launch your book.  Basically, Amazon need to review your book before publishing it to make sure that you own the copyrights and that you aren’t slagging off their ruthless omnipotence.  This means that you should consider uploading you book for review at least 2 days before your intended launch date.

Pricing is also something important to consider.  I wanted the book to be as cheap as possible since some of the content is already available in the public domain.  However, if your book is too cheap, Amazon will take the lion’s share of the royalties.  If your book is less than $3, Amazon will only give you 35% royalties, whereas if it costs $3 or more you get 70%.  I figured that my sales figures wouldn’t fetch much of a return at 35%, so I made it as cheap as I could to obtain 70%.  In Britain, the book is a fairly respectable £1.86 which doesn’t sound so bad to me.  I only hope that $3 seems like a good deal to Americans.

So, what about the Blog tour itself?  Well, I’ve sold a few books and I believe that the Blog tour was instrumental in driving those early sales.  I certainly haven’t earned enough through royalties to retire, but I haven’t been underwhelmed either.  I only really expected to sell around 10-15 copies based on counting the number of people who said they would buy it, so considering that I’ve managed to pass that number by some margin, I’m very pleased.

I’ve enjoyed working with the writers of some of my favourite Blogs, and the general support from this corner of cyberspace has been tremendous.  I’d like to thank everyone who has hosted me on their Blog, everyone who has shared it on various social networks, and those who have left reviews.  I would especially like to thank those went out and bought it, and I hope that you’ve enjoyed what you’ve read. 

I would also encourage you to try it for yourselves.  While my writing can often seem brash, I am actually a very shy person.  I don’t like to put too much of myself into my writing, and even publishing non-serious comedy articles on this very Blog can sometimes be a terrifying experience.  I am very self-conscious about my writing, as I’m sure just about everyone is, so you’d think that releasing a book would be the scarier than watching Mickey Rourke fart out a ghost.  However, it’s something I’ve always wanted to do and people have been very kind to me, so thank you. 

Normal funnies shall resume next week.  Until then, you can check out the whole Blog tour below:

Rob Z Tobor - Interview

Bumferry Hogart - Video Interview

The Suddenly Kate Show - Interview

The Rambling Person - Guest Post

Chiz Chat - Interview

Pickleope - Perceptions Of Britain

Point Counter-Point Point Point - Interview



17 comments:

  1. We're talking crag-faced present-day Mickey Rourke, right? Because if it's young, 80's or even early 90's Mickey Rourke, I'd watch that version crap out a ghost (I say "crap" rather than "fart" because there would definitely be some ectoplasm involved).
    That's awesome that you exceeded your expectations. I'm glad I could contribute in some way. Now if you'll excuse me, it's time for the ritual sacrifice to your alter as our deity demands.

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    1. Yes, we're talking Rocky-Dennis-With-Waterwings-For-Lips Mickey Rourke. I understand that Mr Rourke was quite the hearthrob in his youth. A decline that has only been bested by Michael Jackson.

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  2. Well done Mr Addman I hope your book sales go from strength to strength, maybe I will have a little go at it myself at some point. I produced my own album many years ago, although I do now have this huge pile of CD's which I have to move about every now and again. An eBook might involve less storage and less production costs.

    I am happy to do a follow up interview maybe towards the end of Feb (assuming I remember, the brain is well knackered these days) to sort of keep the momentum going. You say you are a very shy person, well this might explain why folk throw coconuts at you . . . . . .HAH AH HAH AH HA HAH ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.

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    1. How much are you selling your CDs for? I would be interested in listening to the fruits of a mind such as yours.

      I'd like to do a follow up interview at some point. I'm sure I'll badger you in the near future about it, as I have many ravenous mustelids. And people throw coconuts at me because I am an anti-Bounty advocate.

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    2. CDs are Free to members of the RATs.

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  3. I'd say you certainly did a better job of this than me. The blog tour you went on was remarkable and covered a lot of ground, and you just did more. I didn't even notice that you could just copy and paste into their formatter (or, knowing me, didn't want to reformat everything again) but I don't think I had any problems as far as the formatting went. One of the reasons I've not seen much money is because I kept it at 99 cents, which means I only get 30% (or whatever it is) like you said. I planned to price Immortal Space higher than that when the time came. Now it's going to be published properly I have no idea what the price will be.

    Good luck with it all Addman. You've put in so much work you can be proud no matter what.

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    1. Thanks man. It's strange that we've had different experiences regards formatting. I think their auto-formatter is a new thing, and the only reason I didn't use it was because I'd already formatted it how I wanted it. I do intend to spend a day going back through it with the auto-formatter, but not sure how that will go.

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  4. Congratulations on the launch of your book. I wish you much success with it.

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  5. Exceeding expectations? Bloody show off!!! hahaha.

    Seriously though, well done on embarking on this project. I'm sure sales will continue and soon enough you will asked to go on THIS MORNING with Phil and the lovely lovely Holly Willblyboobs. Good work and keep it up.

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    1. In the early days of this Blog I used to talk about the silver-haired demon that is Schofield AKA Scofe The Defiler. I do know if I dare sit across from him and make idle chit chat, even with the comfort of Holly's calming bosom.

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  6. Do published authors have some sort of honorific abbreviation before their names like doctors and professors? Does "Congratulations, Publithor. Addman!" sound like an endearing statement?

    Anyway, I hope I can lend another hand toward more future endeavors.

    Also, I left an Amazon (US) review, if you haven't had a chance to see it yet.

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    1. I have seen it, thank you very much. With yourself, Bryan and Mr Bumferry leaving outstanding reviews, how can people avoid this book?

      No one has given me an official title yet, but I will keep my neck out in case someone wants to knight me while I'm walking down the street or something.

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  7. Glad to hear the book is doing well! And thanks for talking a bit about the process and what not. I have always been very curious about it.

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    1. Thanks, and I'm happy to shed a bit of light on the process. It all seemed a bit of a mystery to me when I first tried to put it all together. Are you considering publishing something?

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  8. So glad to hear the book is doing well, I thoroughly enjoyed it myself! xxx

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    1. Not as glad as I am to hear that you enjoyed it. Feel free to leave a review on Amazon if you liked it. I understand that positive reviews are key to further sales.

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