I just uploaded my first ebook, Dead Dwarves, Dirty Deeds, to Amazon. It should take 48 hours or less for it to show up for purchase ($0.99). I’ll post again as soon as it’s available.
The three short stories in the ebook are the same stories that you can get from the Free Stuff page of my website. But, if you want to support an aspiring writer, you might as well buy it on Amazon. It’s just a buck!
If you want to get a sneak preview of the full-length novel, Dead Dwarves Don’t Dance, you’ll have to buy the Amazon version of Dead Dwarves, Dirty Deeds.
I’m surprised at how easy it was to get an ebook published. It’s just a two page wizard to enter book information, cover, upload the manuscript and set pricing. Of course, you also have to create an account and provide payment information.
Formatting the text is also very easy. I think it took me less than an hour to get the HTML coding set up. I have lots of experience with HTML and so I did it myself, instead of using the Word HTML conversion or the Amazon converter. I like having complete control of how things look. If you’d like to try your hand at formatting your ebook yourself, I’d suggest buying the ebook Kindle Formatting The Complete Guide by Joshua Tallent. It has lots of helpful information in it.
The total monetary cost for Dead Dwarves, Dirty Deeds ended up at $612.50 ($500 for the cover art, $112.50 for editing). There’s also about $20 for website hosting and how-to books, but those are expenses that apply to all my ebooks.
I’m selling the Dead Dwarves, Don’t Dance ebook for $0.99 since it’s only three short stories. For each download, I get royalties of $0.35. So, I’ll need to sell 1750 copies of the ebook to break even on my expenses. Everything after that will contribute to my novelist salary. ;)
Since I’m a completely unknown author with no previous publishing experience and no marketing budget, I’m going to take a wild guess and say that it will take me close to a year to get 1750 sales. I’ll be posting my sales numbers as I get them, so keep checking back to see my progress.
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