Self-Publishing Success Stories: Laurin Wittig

Useful tidbit for new writers (excerpt from Savvy Author's Let's Get Emotional by Laurin Wittig)

Writing emotion is hard. How do you capture something that is so fleeting and without substance? How do you paint a word picture of a feeling?

Shh. I've got a secret. Are you listening? Describing emotion is all about describing the physical manifestation of those emotions. Yep, the easiest way to show emotion is to describe what they make your character feel in her five physical senses, and what they make her do. That's physical description.
You can do that, right?
Think about it.   

If you see [ . . . . ]

 Click to read the rest of this helpful advice.  http://www.savvyauthors.com/vb/content.php?899-Let-s-Get-Emotional-by-Laurin-Wittig



As for her success, she recently shared with this blog that she has sold over 75,000 copies of her indie books since Sept 2010.  Congratulations and thanks for sharing this with everyone.  Many writers will appreciate this transparency.  I know I am.


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Self-Publishing Success Stories: Beth Orsoff

Excerpt from the Writer's Guide to E-Publishing's My Journey from Failed Mid-Lister to Successful Author, by Beth Orsoff

Thanksgiving weekend I uploaded all three books to B&N via their PubIt program.  I sold 9 books at B&N in November.  In December I sold 500 books at B&N.  In January 2011 I sold almost 7000 books at B&N.  Between Amazon and B&N, I sold over 13,000 books in January.  Will I continue to sell books at that rate?  I don’t know.  But I’ve already had much more success as a self-published author than I ever did as a traditionally published author, plus I get to write the books I want to write, choose my own covers, and publish on my schedule, not someone else’s.

Is self-publishing for everyone?  No.  Is my success typical?  Probably not.  But if you’ve followed the rules of publishing i.e., learned your craft, written good books, perhaps even landed an agent, and you still can’t get a traditional publisher to take a chance on you, why not self-publish?  What have you got to lose?

Read the whole guess post by Beth Orsoff here:
http://thewritersguidetoepublishing.com/my-journey-from-failed-mid-lister-to-successful-author-by-beth-orsoff


She also wrote this very helpful article for writers.  Lot of good and useful advice.
http://bethorsoff.com/for-writers/


She recently shared her sales number (over 75,000) with this blog.  Thanks Beth and congratulations on your success.


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Self-Publishing Success Stories: Tori Scott

Useful advice for new writers (excerpt from Theresa Ragan's interview Meet Tori Scott!)

Any advice for new writers just getting started? 

Yes. Read. Read everything you can get your hands on, and not just in the genre you write. You absorb form and structure as you read. Read once for content, then read it again to analyze it. What worked in the book? What didn't? What would you have written differently? If you don't read, your chances of success as a writer are greatly diminished.

 I'd like to see my Satisfaction books back at the top of the lists. I was selling 15,000 a month of those in Dec and January, but they've dropped off to around 3000 a month.

The author generously shared her sales number with other writers on Kindleboard Writers' Cafe.

I had to go back and add up my monthly sales since I started last summer. I hit 84,772 as of midnight 3/15/2012

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Self-Publishing Success Stories: Andy Straka

Excerpt from Straight From Hel Blog (June 4, 2011)

I decided three and a half weeks ago to try lowering the price of my five ebook titles to .99 each, just to see what happened as I begin some promotion work this summer. In looking at the numbers, I figured I had to increase my sales to 120 copies per month to match the small income I was receiving from the same books at $2.99.

The experiment has been a success. I've sold over 400 copies in the last three weeks, and if current trends continue will easily eclipse 500 copies for the month. A number of these titles sold in excess of 10,000 copies when they were first released years ago, but to have them find new life as ebooks is especially gratifying. I can't wait to see how things develop as my new books are released over the course of the next few months.

Fast forward to March 2012, the author shared with other writers on the Kindleboards Writers' Cafe that he has sold "over 50,000 in past ten months."  Congratulations on your success.


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Self-Publishing Success Stories: Penelope Fletcher

Excerpt from her blog post Bye 2011 *waves* Hello 2012!

2011 Snapshot
2011 was a good year for me financially and emotionally. What more can a girl ask for?

1) 12 months to sell over over 46,000 eBooks across all distribution channels (48,000 if you include my pen name)

The author crossed the 50,000 mark in January 2012.  Congratulations!



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Self-Publishing Success Stories: Susan Denning

This author achieves success from her novel "Far Away Home."  According to No Limit Press, Far Away Home

is a bestselling ebook on Amazon Kindle and ranked #1 in western romance, #2 in ebook historicals and  #3 in historicals for 6 weeks. The ebook was an Indiereader Self-Published Bestseller for 8 weeks and a "Staff Pick" on Ebookfriendly. 

The benefit of high ranking on the Kindle Store is that it sold pretty well (~60,000 copies).  The author generously shared her sales number with other writers on the Kindleboards Writers' Cafe.

I peddled my paperback for two years and sold 400 copies. In June 2011, I thought I'd give ebooks a try. To date, I've sold over almost 60,000 Kindle copies. It's been an amazing experience. I am so inspired to see Barbara Freethy, Darci Chan and Catherine Bybee on the NY Times Best Seller list, that I am writing a sequel. 

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Self-Publishing Success Stories: Ruth Cardello

Her first blog post about her Ebook Experiment (April 29, 2011)
excerpt from Week One of e publishing

I'd just about given up on getting my Maid for the Billionaire published this year. The Presents editor said she liked my story, but it wasn't a fit. I've sent it around since, and it was a no go. Same response repeatedly....."Good writing, just not what we're looking for right now. Do you have anything else?"

New job. New baby. Maid for the Billionaire sat on my desktop for six months.

Then, about a week ago, my brother came over and told me that the RIRW meeting I'd missed had been all about epublishing your own book.

And I thought -- why not? 

[ . . . . ]

Fast forward 10 months later (Feb 15, 2012)
Excerpt from I'm doing it! I'm quitting my day job!

My combined earnings from my book sales on Amazon, Barnes and Noble and iTunes have now exceeded $80,000 (in about 6 months).  That kind of income makes it possible for me to ask for an unpaid leave of absence from my day job for a year and write, write, write.

It's scary and exciting and...did I mention scary?  I've got kids and a mortgage.  What if this doesn't work? 

[. . . . .]

Follow her self-publishing journey from the beginning here (first blog post):
 http://ruth-ebookexperiment.blogspot.com/2011/04/week-one-of-e-publishing.html


What amazing is that she is achieving all this with her second book.  She gave her first book of the series away for free.  The strategy has worked out very well for her:

My first book, Maid for the Billionaire, is FREE. My sales were from my second book, For Love or Legacy, which was put up at the end of August (2011) and broke the 50,000 in sales by the end of February 2012.

What an inspirational list to be on. Self-publishing is such an area of opportunity at this time...and I'm so grateful to be a part of it.

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Self-Publishing Success Stories: Elena Greene

Excerpt from the Writers Unboxed's "Making a Comeback in the Digital Age"

It’s the kind of writing success story that I love. I knew you would too, so I asked Elena to guest post with us on how she was able to revive her career by capitalizing on the new digital paradigm, and sell more books than she did when she was traditionally published. Happily for us, she obliged. Enjoy!

Elena Greene:  [. . . . .]  I have now earned more on Lady Dearing’s Masquerade than I did the first time around. I expect my other and more recent reissues to do well too. Without this income, I’d be seeking a part-time job at this point. Instead, I’ve been able to get back to my interrupted work-in-progress and I’m very happy about that!

Another author who found success self-publishing her backlist.


She generously shared private sales figures with iReaderReview for the month of March 2012 (for more accurate placement on the list).

22. Blake Crouch (20,102)
23. Elena Greene
24. Suzan Tisdale (Estimated 17,360)

Looking at the current Kindle Ranking, it's easy to see why she sold between 17,360 - 20,120 books for the month of March 2012.

The Wedding Wager: #443 Paid in Kindle Store
Saving Lord Verwood #508 Paid in Kindle Store
The Incorrigible Lady Catherine #778 Paid in Kindle Store
The Redwyck Charm #936 Paid in Kindle Store



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