Urgency--I need it. That's why when I started writing I set a goal of writing and self-publishing a book every nine months. I've succeeded: I've published eight books in six years and my ninth should be out this year.
But I think I could do more. How about If I try to write two books per year? Why not?
I love the thought process and I feel many could benefit from it. And I also love how your question spotlights the reality that urgency always produces a "why not" attitude but not always the same why not.
For me, I would be pleased at a pace of about a book every nine or ten months on average but my urgency would be to find new ways to get more readers engaged with my backlist and buying my forthcoming works.
Do you find that you have a decent retention of readership from one book to the next, Andy?
Interesting question! I have tracked my sell through for six years:
Total Sales Raw Sell Through Months of sales Adjusted Sell through for months
of sales
MUM total 38.52% 61.66 44.77%
PP total 24.55% 53.66 32.79%
Oops total 24.55% 34.66 50.77%
The real issue is what is 'decent retention'? I look at my retention and activity of my newsletter list. If that is high, I'm happy, because these are people that like my books.
My back list continues to sell six years later. What more could I want?
That's amazing to have tracked. I know that I'm always happy with anything higher than 10% on clickthrough rate where emails go. I wonder how that translates to book sales. If one quarter of the 1/10th make a buying decision, is that effective? I buy all of Stephen King. Eventually I buy all of Haruki Murakami. I buy Robert Loefellum when I see one, but don't make a point of it...and on down, if that makes sense.
I'm a stats nerd. I was a 6 Sigma Blackbelt before I became an author. You must measure what you want to improve.
My newsletter open rate averages about 25%. My click rate is about 4.5%. I usually get a spike in sales for each newsletter (1-10 sales is a spike for me). I have about 1900 subscribers, about half of which are active.
My dream is to at least have half my readership buy all my books (9). That alone would triple my lifetime sales.
Sorry for the slow response. I didn't notice your response until this morning.
Building a list is as hard as getting a list to perform. I'm rooting for you, and always open to tips. Have you ever heard of AMMO Foundations by Steve Pieper?
Urgency--I need it. That's why when I started writing I set a goal of writing and self-publishing a book every nine months. I've succeeded: I've published eight books in six years and my ninth should be out this year.
But I think I could do more. How about If I try to write two books per year? Why not?
I love the thought process and I feel many could benefit from it. And I also love how your question spotlights the reality that urgency always produces a "why not" attitude but not always the same why not.
For me, I would be pleased at a pace of about a book every nine or ten months on average but my urgency would be to find new ways to get more readers engaged with my backlist and buying my forthcoming works.
Do you find that you have a decent retention of readership from one book to the next, Andy?
Interesting question! I have tracked my sell through for six years:
Total Sales Raw Sell Through Months of sales Adjusted Sell through for months
of sales
MUM total 38.52% 61.66 44.77%
PP total 24.55% 53.66 32.79%
Oops total 24.55% 34.66 50.77%
The real issue is what is 'decent retention'? I look at my retention and activity of my newsletter list. If that is high, I'm happy, because these are people that like my books.
My back list continues to sell six years later. What more could I want?
That's amazing to have tracked. I know that I'm always happy with anything higher than 10% on clickthrough rate where emails go. I wonder how that translates to book sales. If one quarter of the 1/10th make a buying decision, is that effective? I buy all of Stephen King. Eventually I buy all of Haruki Murakami. I buy Robert Loefellum when I see one, but don't make a point of it...and on down, if that makes sense.
I'm a stats nerd. I was a 6 Sigma Blackbelt before I became an author. You must measure what you want to improve.
My newsletter open rate averages about 25%. My click rate is about 4.5%. I usually get a spike in sales for each newsletter (1-10 sales is a spike for me). I have about 1900 subscribers, about half of which are active.
My dream is to at least have half my readership buy all my books (9). That alone would triple my lifetime sales.
Sorry for the slow response. I didn't notice your response until this morning.
Building a list is as hard as getting a list to perform. I'm rooting for you, and always open to tips. Have you ever heard of AMMO Foundations by Steve Pieper?
Nope. Who are they?
I didn't have much trouble building the list. I used Book Sweeps, my sign-in page from MailChimp, and StoryOrigins.
At one time I deleted 1,000 non-responsive subscribers (no opens or clicks in 2 years) and it has slowly grown back.