December 14, 2017

How I made a big mistake with book prices...

When I meet people, and they buy my books in person, I charge them the price that’s on my site, which is $22-25 for novels (that includes the higher-quality printed book plus the kiss and the time to kiss, and the personalized message).

Recently a few lovely ladies whom I sold the books discovered that on Amazon my books are within the $7-9 range and got very upset with me. Hell, I'd be upset too. How could they know I print my paperbacks for a little more money so they look prettier? How would they know I spend the time on kissing them and writing a custom message? And wrapping them in beautiful paper? And adding bookmarks inside which also have to be printed? It isn't clearly spelled out anywhere.

November 10, 2017

My consulting rates! Yes, you can afford to use my brain...

by Ksenia Anske

...and no, you don't need to part with those gold bricks you stashed under your bed. You don't even need to break your piggy bank. All you need to do is decide which one of your organs you can let me harvest, your liver or your kidney...I'M KIDDING!

You don't need to do even that. I swear.

Here is how this works.

Thanks to a question from one of you beloved hamsters who watched my very first Facebook LIVE VIDEO on how I got from making $3.40 per hour to $300 per hour in 10 months as a full-time writer, I finally got motivated to write out the rates for my marketing/selling/brain-transplanting sessions on how to sell your art/books/mismatched socks and to make money (later I'll put these up here on my site, finally, together with your testimonials and pictures of you being quartered then skinned and boiled in a ginormous pot of borscht and...FOOLED YA!).

November 21, 2015

Make your books discoverable

by Ksenia Anske

On the never-ending search for books that are indie and good I have stumbled on many authors whose writing I liked and WHOSE BOOKS I COULDN'T GET MY HANDS ON.

Reasons?

1. There are no books. There are some scattered short stories here and there, or some poems, or some snippets of flash fiction, but not an actual book that I can immerse myself in. I don't care if it's a book of poems or short stories. Bundle them up! I want to read it, and if I like it, I will talk about it and review it. Without a book for me to read and to boast about you're losing an opportunity to engage me. That's sad titties. For you, not for me.

July 8, 2015

Write for yourself: you're the only audience you need

by Ksenia Anske

"I love reading your tweets and blog posts, they aid my indie publishing journey! I want to write a compelling, hip sci-fi thriller in a futuristic European Union, which I know very well (I'm from Germany), but I don't know if Americans, my main target audience, would even read about that 'exotic' place, since most English works play in the US. Old gossip says Americans generally don't read about stories in other places than their home. I'm curious, since you're originally from Russia. Do you place the majority of your books in the US now, or do you still have stories told in Russia, and if yes, do you think it deters readers?"

Thank you, Mars Dorian. I'm so happy my rantings are helping you, and I'm honored that you would ask me these questions as though I know the answers. I don't. I have feelings about these things, but I've only been self-publishing for 3 years, and there is much for me to learn. However, guided by what I feel and believe in, let me dispel your convictions one by one and show you that you don't need to worry about anything of the above because 1) the only audience you need is you, and 2) gossip and preconceptions don't mean shit.

Let's start in order of your questions.

June 30, 2015

Market your book your own way

by Ksenia Anske

This will be ridiculously funny (I'll be mostly making fun of myself) and only moderately useful (more of a moral tale of what not to do). As you have seen, my second little book of tweets arrived, and I have screamed about it everywhere. Which was a good thing because it prepared me for marketing The Badlings, which should be ready this week or the coming week, and about which of course I will also scream everywhere, albeit louder. (Screaming equals marketing, by the way. Coupled with free hugs.)

As you have also seen, there are a ton of tips and tricks floating around in the self-publishing universe that you can employ and that can make you dizzy (they make me dizzy, that's why I don't read them). At first I was trying all those tips and tricks, and I have just fallen into the trap of trying them again and have decided to write this cautionary tale for myself lest I forget it when birthing my next book (and I do, I tend to forget, which sucks).