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How to Format Your eBook and Print Book – without losing your mind…

June 26, 2020 by kirstenoliphant@gmail.com 2 Comments

Formatting your book — sounds boring, right? Turns out there are a lot of things to know when it comes to formatting your ebook and print book. This post will break down what you need to know!

Formatting doesn’t have to be scary, complicated, or expensive! So, let’s find out what you need to know.

LISTEN TO EPISODE 186- HOW TO FORMAT YOUR BOOKS

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or your favorite podcast app!


Formatting might sound boring. But it’s super important and can be very simple. Let’s dive into the whys and hows.

First of all, formatting is usually the last thing you’re doing, after your book has been edited or proofread. If you’re sending ARC copies to a team of reviewers, you might need to format before this stage in order to send to them in a format they can read on an ereader. (Read more on beta and ARC readers.)

Formatting stresses us out, but it doesn’t have to. So… what really matters? Ultimately, reader experience is king. Your main goal with formatting is to keep your readers centered in the story. The end. Readers want simple. Not distracting. Not fancy.

Don’t think it has to be more than simple. Our goal should be to keep our readers in the story. Weird formatting or mistakes can pull the readers out and distract them from being lost in the fictional dream. Or, in the case of nonfiction, it might pull them out and undermine your authority.

Wherever you write your book (Word, Scrivener, Google Docs), you need to be able to export it into a mobi file for amazon and an epub file for the other retailers. There are lots of ways to get a finished product.

  • If you WANT to get fancy (for some genres, like epic fantasy, this might be more fitting), I’d recommend Bookly Style for custom images for chapter headings and more.

How to Format Books without Losing Your Mind


WHERE TO FORMAT EBOOKS AND BOOKS

Formatting can be as simple as using Word, or as complicated as adding different images for each chapter. There are a lot of options, and they don’t all have to expensive. Whatever works best for you and comes up with a clean and simple format readers can read–that’s what you should use!

It does NOT have to be expensive. It does NOT have to be complicated. Sometimes–dare I say often–simple is best.

Formatting your ebook with Word

Word is simple. It can be used to write and format simply (with chapter heads, spacing, etc) before using another program to put it into a mobi, epub, or PDF. You should make each chapter a Heading 1, while the rest of the document is Normal. Simple. Easy. And you can go straight from Word to your final document, or go from Word to one of the programs we get into next.

  • Check out this simple Word formatting tutorial

Formatting your ebook with Kindle Create

I haven’t used Kindle Create, but this is a great program. It ONLY works to format for Amazon, but can be great for their platform. It’s also a good way to finish out your formatting in Word to get things like the Table of Contents (which is tricky).

  • How to format your ebook and book with Kindle Create

Formatting your ebook with Draft2Digital

Draft2Digital allows you to format even if you don’t distribute with them, which means a free tool. When you upload a book with D2D, you can set up the formatting on the third stage. Basically, their tool allows you plug in a Word doc and spit out a finished mobi or epub. You can’t make changes within their porgram, so everything has to be done in the Word doc before you get there.

Formatting your ebook with Vellum

Once I made $300 a month, I made it my reward to purchase Vellum. For $250, you can get the format for ebook and print. Vellum works on mac, or you can use Mac in the cloud on PC. It makes every part of formatting incredibly easy. I would NEVER go back.

Here’s a video I created on some of the differences between Vellum and Draft2Digital:

  • Check out this book on formatting with Vellum

Formatting your book with a third party

You can always hire the formatting out. If you are talking about a simple text book, this should NOT be expensive. Because, remember? Formatting is about user experience and whatever will not distract the reader and pull them out of the story.

If we’re talking cookbooks or books with tons of images, it’s a totally different animal. Poetry books, again–different.

If you hire out formatting, make sure you’re not spending hundreds for simple text formatting you could do with Word. Formatting of a simple book or ebook that is all text should NOT cost a lot of money.

HELPFUL LINKS

  • KDP formatting guidelines
  • KDP ebook manuscript formatting guide

WHAT YOU NEED TO CONSIDER WHEN FORMATTING YOUR BOOK

Here are some things to think about when it comes to some basic–and some odd–formatting things you might run into.

Text messages, emails, or social media

Increasingly, we need to consider modern forms of communication in contemporary books. There are many options for these. But I have a few questions you need to answer as you’re making your choice:

  • How will it look in various formats and devices?
  • Will it distract the reader?
  • How will it translate to audio?

I’ve seen some very distracting options for texts and social media. Using too much italics and bold fonts are distracting and hard to read. No one wants to read a lot of communication in bold or italics, and if there is no name attached to the text, it can be confusing who is talking. Small caps or trying to use other fonts can be annoying and are best avoided, though I’ve seen that as well.

Personally? I would make the case for the name (in bold or not) with a colon and then the text. That makes it clear who is speaking (for audio), looks good across devices, and isn’t distracting to readers. Don’t make it artistic. Make it clear and readable.

This works best (IMHO) for a text conversation or longer texts. Every so often, sharing a single text might work best without the break. In something like the following example, I would set it up like dialogue, but use italics rather than quotes. I would not suggest this for longer communications.

EX: Jake pulled out his phone to see a single text from Shelby, which said, I’m waiting out front.

One setting you might have to adjust if possible (in Vellum, it is) is how the text after a little break like this looks. In the above image, the text acts like a scene break, which you probably don’t want, in order to avoid the way “Jake didn’t want to respond” looks.

In other programs you might not have the option, but in Vellum, you can make the text an alignment block and delete the extra space after that would cause this, or change the settings about how the text starts after a break.

Images in books

If you’re planning to format and upload your books for Amazon and other retailers, images aren’t always the best idea. They can cost more in deliverability, and also don’t look the same across devices. Unless you HAVE to have them, images may not serve your book well.

If your book is image heavy, you should consider delivering via PDF on your own website or utilizing a platform like Lulu, which might have more print options than Amazon print.

Justifying text

When you format, you can choose whether to justify the right side. If you choose to justify, that means that the right side will be even along the edge. A lot of traditional publishers use this and it’s definitely the choice for print books.

In ebooks, however, choosing to justify can create readability problems. E-readers allow for the reader to choose the size of the text. This can create issues as the reader struggles for justify the text and make it even, resulting in weird spacing. Just this week I had a reader email me about issues in my book, which were really spacing issues because I’d accidentally chosen the justify option. (Usually I don’t.)

Here’s one that I accidentally justified. An ARC reader sent me the image, thinking it was a mistake.

 

This one isn’t even a horrible example, but you can see the extra spaces in the first few lines. It’s also showing you how using drop caps to start new chapters (even a smaller drop caps) can affect reading. In this case, it’s quite distracting.

While many authors want to do what traditional publishers do, I’d prefer to stick to the reader’s ease of reading. Some may prefer justified, but when it comes to odd spacing, I would rather stick to non-justified. Totally up to you, but consider how it will look at various sizes and on different devices.

Paragraphs and indentation

For fiction books, paragraphs should have an indentation, with no white space between the paragraphs. Leaving extra spaces is a trick used by page stuffers, who aim to make books longer to get more page reads out of Kindle Unlimited.

Even if that’s not your goal, if you’re adding extra spaces in your book, that might distract readers and get you flagged from Amazon.

Nonfiction books can either format with the indents and no spaces, or have no indentation and a space between the paragraphs, like this blog post. Your choice.

You can also choose to start a chapter with drops caps or not in a lot of the programs. There are also other options like small caps or no indent for the first line of a chapter, or after a break. I do like something different at the beginning of a chapter, but in that last example, every so often, that kind of formatting creates weird results.

 

For any of these considerations, if you’re choosing a traditional publisher, you should see what their house style is and what they prefer. You might end up creating a sort of house style of your own where you know how YOU like your formatting to be.

QUESTIONS TO ASK WHEN FORMATTING

I’ll leave you with some questions to ask yourself when it comes to formatting. These might help you make different kinds of decisions that you have to make.

  • Does it serve the reader?
  • Is it distracting in the text?
  • How much does it cost?
  • What are the guidelines for the publisher you’re using?
  • What is the industry standard, or the typical usage within your genre?
  • Will it translate for audio when you go down that path?

and, last but most important:

  • WHERE COULD I BETTER SPEND MY TIME AND MONEY? 

Formatting matters. But mostly in the sense that it shouldn’t distract and pull readers out of the story. It shouldn’t take you tons of time or cost a lot of money. It should be basic. Basic and readable is better than fancy and distracting. Your formatting should serve the reader’s experience in the story, not be clever or fancy for the sake of being clever and fancy.

 

 

 

Filed Under: Platform

The Difference Between Amazon Ads and Facebook Ads

June 12, 2020 by kirstenoliphant@gmail.com 1 Comment

I wanted to do a quick post talking about the two big ads platforms most authors use: Facebook and Amazon ads. There are some major differences between them, and it takes some work to figure them out. This is by no means a big overview, but a few key differences as well as some things they have in common.

A lot of people will debate the merits between one and the other. Usually people don’t champion both, but find one that works for them and then use that. For me, that’s mostly Facebook ads, though I’m starting to see some traction with both.

This post contains affiliate links!


LISTEN TO EPISODE 185- KEY DIFFERENCES BETWEEN FACEBOOK & AMAZON ADS

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or your favorite podcast app!


Key Differences Between Facebook Ads and Amazon Ads

Facebook will spend your money. Amazon MIGHT.

If you give Facebook a budget of $100 a day, Facebook will spend that. If you give Amazon a budget of $100 a day, your ad may or may not get served at all.

On Facebook, when you say you want them to spend an amount per day, they believe you. Amazon ads are really different in how they’re set up and what that budget means. If you’re setting a higher cost per click on Amazon ads, you might spend that. I know people who set up ads and accidentally put a decimal in the wrong place, spending a LOT of money very quickly.

Be really careful when you’re setting up BOTH kinds of ads, knowing that you could be really losing a lot of money if you’re treating those daily budgets the same on both platforms.

You can’t target all the authors and books you want to on Facebook. You can on Amazon. 

Facebook doesn’t have the massive list of available targets that Amazon does. Amazon is a bookseller. You’re able to list the ASIN numbers of specific books and target them, which means you can really nail down a super specific audience to a particular book, author, or series.

Facebook only allows targeting people who like certain pages or interests, and this usually doesn’t include indie authors. There are very few indies that you can actually target, so that might make things harder. It means you might target someone like Nicholas Sparks (along with everyone else targeting him) rather than that indie author friend of yours who sells lots of books but may not be well-known.

Of course, on Facebook, you can target for things like behavior, and obviously, target people NOT reading on the Amazon platform, so there are more criteria you can target for, but creating an audience might be a little different since many of the books you want to target may not be an option.

You’ll need to focus on images and ad copy WAY more on Facebook.

The Amazon ads platform uses book covers for your ads, so you don’t need to worry about images. On Facebook, the image is arguably the MOST important part of the ads, and book covers don’t always convert. This means that you’ve got to do a bit more prep work in setting up your ads by finding the right image.

The ad copy is also a bigger deal. You can run ads on Amazon with no ad copy whatsoever. On Facebook, you not only need some text, but a headline. So, you’re going to need more skills here. You CAN work on your ad copy and test it on Amazon, but you could get started right now on Amazon ads without having to seek out images or write copy.

 

BIG SIMILARITIES BETWEEN THE AD PLATFORMS

They can BOTH sell books for you.

When you figure out how they both work (just in general) and then test what works for YOU, both ad platforms can be fantastic. I know people making great money with Amazon ads. I’ve made money with Facebook ads. (And I’m getting there with Facebook ads too.)

Don’t listen to someone who says only one works for them. That’s true for THEM. And maybe you’ll settle on one that works best for YOU, but don’t think that one is better. They aren’t the same … other than the fact that they can both sell books for you.

They’re both ridiculously hard to gauge results.

The hard part of using the ads is tracking what is actually working. Why is this an issue?

On Amazon, their reporting dashboard is notoriously wonky. So a lot of people don’t even use that dashboard and look instead at their KDP dashboard and sales reports, or look at whatever they’re using for tracking sales, like Book Report.

On Facebook, it’s hard to know because you can SEE the cost per click and lots of data, but you may not be able to tell what sold on Amazon. Some ads people will tell you to use Amazon affiliate links to see what sells, and while that CAN work, it violates terms of service in a few ways. Some people use readerlinks or Books2Read (Draft2Digital’s universal link option) or landing pages or other things, but sometimes FB ads get finicky and they don’t like the links to other places and won’t approve or will shut down the ads. Some people use them just fine.

I always name my campaigns with the ranking on them, because that at least allows you to see how a book is ranked at the start of a campaign and then as they work, but there are sometimes other factors. Like random organic sales, newsletter swaps, readthrough as people read your other books. So many factors.

Neither platform will sell your book if your cover, blurb, and book aren’t solid. 

This is just the basics of EVERYTHING. If you don’t have a professional looking cover that’s genre-appropriate, a blurb that hooks readers, and a solid book, you’re going to struggle to sell books. These are things you need to make sure you’re getting RIGHT before you delve into ads. Period.

It can be really hard to tell sometimes. We are biased about our own books. We don’t always see the market correctly or understand the nuances of these sales. If you need help here, check out some of these resources:

  • How to Increase Your Sales Rank on Amazon
  • Niche It Down a Notch
  • Writing to Market

SO, WHICH ADS SHOULD YOU USE?

If you’re just starting out, neither. Not yet. I highly recommend starting out with the paid email promo sites like EReader News Today, Robin Reads, and the like. Typically, you’ll have to discount your book for a set period (1-2 days) and can schedule your sales around that. Or keep your book at a lower price for a longer time and stagger those promotions. These sites are more reliable because they have built up massive email lists of people who want books. You don’t have to gauge them the same way and they’re less of a risk.

  • The Best Promo Sites from Kindlepreneur

But, you should be learning Facebook ads and also Amazon ads, testing as you learn and then figuring out what works best for you. Learn as you go, then keep investing more and more into your ads as you find what works.

  • Kindlepreneur’s free Amazon Ads course
  • Help! My Facebook Ads Suck!

You can also check out my workshop on Facebook ads that will help you set up low-cost Facebook ads on a budget and learn to gauge your results. I’ve taken a number of Facebook ads courses and workshops, tested a LOT, and tried these methods with several books and genres. It’s the best FB ads resource you’ll get for this price. Trust me on that.

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE FACEBOOK ADS WORKSHOP! 

You can join me live on June 16th, or purchase the replay + bonus resources afterward.

Filed Under: Platform

How to Avoid Bad Author Collaborations

May 23, 2020 by kirstenoliphant@gmail.com 1 Comment

Author collaborations can be fantastic … except when they aren’t. In this post, we’ll look at how to avoid bad author collaborations and the questions you should answer before you dive in!

It’s no secret that I’m into collaborations. I wrote a whole book on working with others called Creative Collaborations.

And yet … I’ve had some bad ones.

I still recommend working with others, but I’ve learned a lot and am way better at choosing good projects and good partners. I hope this helps you avoid those bad author collaborations!


LISTEN TO EPISODE 183 – HOW TO AVOID BAD AUTHOR COLLABORATIONS

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or your favorite podcast app!


KINDS OF COLLABORATIONS

First of all, if you haven’t worked with other authors, you might be wondering about the kinds of collaborations you can have.

Really, the sky is the limit as far as ways you could partner up and support other authors or work together. But here are some of the common ways authors work together all the time.

  • newsletter swaps (sharing other authors’ books in exchange for sharing yours)
  • joint author box sets or anthologies
  • series or shared, connected worlds
  • co-writing a book
  • group promotions through Bookfunnel, Story Origin, etc
  • running a giveaway together
  • joint Facebook groups
  • co-hosting a podcast
  • interviews (on blogs, Youtube, etc)
  • and so many more!

Authors work together in all kinds of ways and it can really benefit everyone involved to work together and expand reach or share readers.

But … you can also end up getting burned. You might lose time, money, or relationships. Or, you might just derail your forward trajectory and momentum when you make a group project your focus.

author-collaborations

WHAT DO YOU NEED TO CONSIDER BEFORE HOPPING INTO AN AUTHOR COLLABORATION?

So, someone posts in a Facebook group about a box set. Or an author friend emails you about co-writing a series. Or doing a group giveaway. How do you decide if you should go for it? Here are things you need to consider.

LEVEL OF COMMITMENT SHOULD EQUAL YOUR LEVEL OF TRUST

The kinds of collaborations I listed above have varying degrees of commitment. With a joint promo on Story Origin, you might run everything through the app and never “meet” the other authors. With a co-writing project, you’ll be communicating a LOT throughout the process.

The level of commitment a collab requires should equal the level of trust you have in the person or persons. 

I don’t need a ton of trust in the people in a join promo. (Though even then, you might want to know that the content in the books they’re sharing is solid.) You need an enormous amount of trust in a co-author. You’ll be sharing words and also somehow splitting up the income. You’re creating digital real-estate for YEARS to come.

On the flip side, if you sign on for a large project with a friend that you trust, can you stay friends if things go south or you come to a disagreement?

It’s not just about how they are to work with, but their reputation. Because collaborating with other authors can mean that their reputation impacts YOUR reputation.

I signed on to a joint project and a few people signed on after me that are not people I would have worked with. If you’ve been around, you know that I am always talking about avoiding smarmy behavior. Well, some of the people on the project were smarmy. And my name got dragged around (to some degree) with theirs.

Make sure you know who is signing on to the projects. I wouldn’t give a final answer if you don’t know. Especially in the nonfiction world, where your authority, expertise, and reputation are the currency. Being tied to someone who does shady things makes you look bad.

So… how do you go about finding out if some random author on the internet is trustworthy?

The more I hang out in author groups, the more I see authors and how they behave. That behavior is a good start. But when it comes to signing on with a bigger project, I might ask around if I can see who was in another project with them.

I don’t want to promote gossip and backstabbing, but you could ask something like this: I know you worked with Awesome Author in the past on This Great Project. I’ve been asked to do This Other Great Project. Would you recommend it? 

Do what homework  you can on the other authors you’ll be partnering with.

BE SURE OF THE GOALS

Before you hop into a project, know its goals. And not just the goals for that project, but how those goals align with YOUR goals.

Often, multi-author projects can help newer authors get exposure and be seen. Especially if you’re working with authors who have been around longer. But sometimes, taking your focus off your OWN goals and your OWN brand to do these can actually slow your momentum.

I was on a steady income increase with mostly organic reach. (As in, no or low ads.) Then I did two multi-author projects I had planned months before I knew how things would go. It TOTALLY derailed my progress and, to be honest, my income never hit that track again but stayed lower.

Maybe that would have happened anyway (just with changes in the market I’ve noticed), but I can’t help but wonder if I’d stayed narrowly focused on JUST my own series that was doing well, if maybe things would have continued on that upward swing.

Be sure whatever the group goals are, they will fit with your personal goals and really help you reach them.

Now, let’s talk about different goals why it’s important to know them, using box sets as an example. A multi-author box set or anthology could have the goal of making sales, gaining exposure for authors, or hitting a bestseller list. Each of those goals is going to have different actions needed to get there.

In one group anthology I’m in, some authors weren’t clear on the goals. A few thought it was for getting our names out there to a new audience and leading them into our new series. Others thought we would make a profit. (FYI- Just realize that with a group anthology or box set, it’s much harder to make money because you’re splitting it…) The differences in opinions led to a challenge when it came to how to price the book and whether or not to run certain kinds of promotions.

Even with the same goals, you might have different actions. I’ve been in two groups with the goal of hitting the bestseller lists (USA TODAY, Wall Street Journal). The first group worked one way (and yep, we hit the list) and the second one is totally different in terms of how we’re going about it and the time required.

Which leads me to the next big thing…

HAVE SOLID COMMUNICATION AND REALISTIC EXPECTATIONS

It’s important to make sure that there is good, clear, consistent communication for the project. You should also know HOW you’ll communicate. I’ve signed on to several projects that I didn’t realize would use a new form of communication that I don’t like or didn’t want to use.

Will the group talk via email? Phone? Voxer? Trello? Facebook group or messenger? Make sure you ask!

Before you sign on, make sure you also understand what you’ll be doing. How much time is involved? How much money? What kinds of activities?

As I mentioned with the two box sets aiming toward hitting a list, things have been totally different. Not good or bad, just different. Would I have signed on to both, knowing the different things I’d need to do? Probably. But I wish I’d known beforehand and didn’t ask all the questions I should have. My expectations were way off!

You should also know who is making the final decisions. Is one person in charge? Do you all get a vote? If there is one person running the show, you need to have maximum trust. I’ve heard stories of authors paying to buy into a group project and then the person organizing ghosts. Or… doesn’t give a clear accounting of money.

If there’s money involved, you need to have a really detailed (or pretty detailed) accounting. How will profits be split? Who covers which costs? Who decides on how much money you’re investing in covers vs ads or editing and other costs?

Often, I’ll hear general things like: the money goes towards ads and expenses.

Okay. But… how much? What expenses? Is the organizer getting paid for time? How are they tracking that time? How much is going into ads? Does the person running ads know HOW to run them? If you are putting money IN, you need to know where it’s going, how it’s being spent, who makes those decisions, and how you’ll get it back.

With that in mind, here are some final warnings of what to watch out for…

FINAL TIPS FOR AVOIDING BAD AUTHOR COLLABORATIONS

Don’t get scammed. Scammers exist. Often you can identify them, but not always, especially if you’re newer. Ask around in trusted author groups. (Are you in the Create If Writing group? Definitely a trustworthy place.)

Ask for an accounting when money is involved. Make sure you know how much money goes in, what it’s going toward EXACTLY, how they share the accounting (screenshots or are they just telling you how much was made/spent?), and if you can outside audit if needed. Some projects are super low to no buy-in. But those that involve money, ASK. oh, and…

Have a contract. And ask a lawyer to look at it. This may sound extreme. I don’t do this on all projects. Ones that involve a lot of time, money, or rights, YES. And I learned the hard way that I don’t know what to look for in contracts. I signed on once that looked reasonable to ME, until I had a problem and then realized some of the things baked into the contract that were not good. OH, and what I was told over email was not what was in the contract. Legally, they were held to the contract. Trying to fight for the promises made in the email when I’d signed something different in the binding contract wasn’t worth my time or money fighting it, as I likely would have lost.

  • NEED SOMEONE TO LOOK AT A CONTRACT? For my legal stuff, I like to use Danielle Liss. She’s fabulous and even has some templates and contracts you can purchase for common things. Find her at Liss Legal. or check out Businessese.

Be super wary about your rights. Does the project give up your rights to the book and content? In what way? For how long? When do you get them back? Do you get them back FULLY? Make sure you know all those answers. (Which, again, might mean looking at the legal stuff.)

Know your OWN weaknesses. I can be a TERRIBLE person to work with. I tend to take charge. I have opinions and knowledge. If I don’t feel like the person in charge is doing their job or making smart decisions, I lose it. I know this about myself. So, when I’m signing on to a project, I have to have a talk with myself about it. Do I REALLY trust the organizer to make decisions even if I don’t like them? Can I express my opinions without being a jerkface? You should really take ownership for how you might negatively impact the collab.

WHAT TO DO IF AN AUTHOR COLLABORATION GOES BAD

Before you sign on, try to have an exit strategy. Look to see if there’s one in the contract. If something gets weird, can you get out? What will you lose if you do?

Sometimes there’s no loss. Other times you’ll lose money or a percentage. But a BIG thing you might lose is the relationship. I’ve stayed in something that felt like a sinking ship to save relationships, because those were more valuable than what I was losing staying in.

Other times, I trusted and knew the authors well enough to ask to be set free. I was able to do so without hurting the project or their feelings, and all is well. But this was a multi author series that didn’t involve money or much time, so it was easier to get out of.

The more things (time, money) invested in a project, the harder it may be to get out.  

 

OVERALL, ARE THEY WORTH IT?

Yes. I still firmly believe in author collaborations, even though I’ve had some pretty rough experiences. I can look back and say that if I’d had this post, I either wouldn’t have signed on, or would have been more cautious. I hope that it helps you with the decisions!

Working together can help you build your career, find new readers, and gain expertise, authority, and even money. Just make sure you’re saying YES to the right things.

Links mentioned in the podcast:

Stay Home Story Summit

FB ads workshop 

Filed Under: Platform

183 – Starting Out with Audiobooks: An Indie Author Guide

May 8, 2020 by kirstenoliphant@gmail.com 2 Comments

Everyone’s saying go audio: should you? The buzz is all about audiobooks. The audio boom. Audio is the future. But are audiobooks for everyone? Let’s find out by diving deep into the reality of audiobooks in 2020.

LISTEN TO EPISODE 183 – STARTING OUT WITH AUDIOBOOKS

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or your favorite podcast app!


SHOULD YOU AUDIO? THE SKINNY ON AUDIOBOOKS IN 2020.

Why is everyone talking about audiobooks? Simple. Audio is growing. People are consuming more things by audio, from podcasts to audiobooks.

Even if YOU DON’T, other people ARE.

I’m going to link to more articles with data, but suffice to say that the US market alone has been increasing in audiobook consumption 25% per year, with a 40% increase in 2018. It’s alive, and it’s growing. (Those numbers come from the first link below.) 

  • Data on podcast and audiobook consumption.
  • Check out this report on audio from all of 2019, collected by Findaway Voices.

It seems like a no-brainer answer to say that YES, you should be putting your books into audio form.

Not so fast. Let’s look at the current landscape and some of the struggles for indie authors wanting to get their books into audio.

Audiobooks: should you or shouldn't you invest as an indie author?

EBOOK VS AUDIOBOOK : THE DIFFERENCES IN COST

For an indie author to produce an ebook, you essentially need a file formatted (cost: free to several hundred if you’re getting super fancy and adding custom graphics), a cover (cost: $50-thousands), editing (cost: a few hundred and up) and …uh…. that’s it.

(That’s production, not marketing, btw.)

So, if you’re bootstrapping and go low low low, you could put out a book for maybe a few hundred dollars. My first book had a $20 cover (that was great and to-market), $200 editing, and free formatting. So, $220.

For an indie author to produce an audiobook, you’ll need a narrator (typically $100/per finished hour and up), an audio editor (which may or may not be included with the narrator), and audio cover art (may be included with your cover, but usually $25-50 and up as an add-on).

I just had my first fiction book put into audio, and the cost was over $1300 out of pocket up front. GULP. My narrator was $150/per finished hour, including editing. I hired someone to listen while reading the book to make sure the narration matched ($100), and then I paid for cover art ($25). That total is $1375.

Other factors at play…

With an ebook on Amazon, YOU set the price. You can set that price between $2.99-9.99 and get a 70% royalty. Or, above/below that for a 30% royalty.

With an audiobook, you DO NOT set the price. If you choose to be exclusive with ACX (aka: Audible), you’ll get 40%. If you are NOT exclusive with them, you’ll get 25% of that price they set. (More on exclusivity in a moment.)

Are you seeing the writing on the wall? 

I’ll make this a little more clear. For my ebook, Managing the Rock Star, when I released it, it took about ten days to break even and cover my costs. By the second month, I’d made (gross) about $2k. Knowing my ad spend back then, that was likely a $1400-1500 net profit.

Managing the Rock Star as an audiobook has sold eight copies in its first week. I’m not exclusive, so at a $13.96 price point, that’s about $3.50 time eight copies. So, just under $30.

Assuming I sell eight copies per week, it will take me one year to break even with the audiobook. And it’s a BIG assumption that I’ll sell eight copies a week.

I’m not sure what to expect, but this was my launch week, so that might be high. I’m also learning audiobook marketing, so it’s hard to say.

costs of audiobook production vs ebook production

EBOOK VS AUDIOBOOK : THE DIFFERENCES IN PRODUCTION

We’ve looked at price, but how about production?

If I REALLY wanted to completely DIY my ebook, I could self-edit and design my own cover. Or, at the VERY least, format for free just using word or Draft2Digital’s free formatting tools.

I really would NOT recommend DIY-ing an audiobook. I see some authors doing this, but let me give you my reasons why you might want to think twice.

ACX (the main, but not only, distribution platform) has quality controls. You need to have your audio files up to their very specific standards. And that’s AFTER you already need to know how to edit audio in general.

Oh, AND audiobooks are not just books someone reads out loud. They are narrated. Fiction, especially, is done by voice actors, who really know how to do a bit of a shift with voices for characters and how to read really well for dramatic effect.

In short: audiobook production by the average author will have a HUGE learning curve and may not end up with a product that stands up alongside professionally produced audiobooks narrated by voice actors. (I will say that for nonfiction, self-narration is much more of an option!)

When you take both cost and production into account, ebooks allow indie authors much more control and will have a much quicker return on investment. Audiobooks will cost more to produce and are more of a long game in terms of breaking even more making money. 

Audiobooks may be worth the investment in the long run. But for the indie author on a budget just starting out, this might be out of reach. Or something to work toward.

Realize that audiobooks are a LONG GAME, not a QUICK WIN.


AUDIOBOOK DISTRIBUTION : THE ACX EFFECT

Okay, but hang on! I’ve heard authors talking about how they’ve made money quickly with audiobooks and promo codes. What about royalty share with a narrator as a way to lower the cost?

Great questions. Let’s talk about ACX, promo codes, exclusivity, and production per finished hour vs royalty share.

ACX is the audiobook company for Audible, owned by Amazon. Right now, they are the big dog, and Audible is the most well-known audiobook app.

EXCLUSIVE VS NON-EXCLUSIVE WITH ACX

If you distribute EXCLUSIVELY with ACX to Audible, you are locked into a SEVEN YEAR contract and will receive 40% of your royalties per title sold. (If you would like to come out of exclusivity after one year, the word is that you can ask to be released. As of right now, that works. I can’t speak for tomorrow.)

If you want to distribute WIDE, including Audible but also any of the other platforms, you can upload directly to those platforms or use something like Findaway Voices through Draft2Digital to distribute to those places (you’ll lose a cut of your royalties on those other platforms if you do not directly distribute the audiobooks yourself). This will mean you get only 25% of your royalties from Audible, the big dog.

When you produce your audiobook, you can either hire a narrator and pay them directly per finished audio hour, or you can do a royalty share with a narrator. A royalty share means that you and the narrator split the 40% royalty. It also means you HAVE to be exclusive with ACX. It also keeps you from having up front costs.

But… recent changes might make royalty share a harder option.

Before now, if you were exclusive with ACX, you would be able to get 100 free codes to provide listeners. They would redeem the code, get to listen (and hopefully review) for FREE, but you also GOT PAID AS THOUGH A PURCHASE HAD BEEN MADE.

Does this sound too good to be true? It was.

Audible benefitted from this, because it got and kept listeners on their platform. It also enticed authors to list their books exclusively. In April, with zero warning, ACX announced that it would no longer provide payment for codes AND the number of free codes for review would now be limited to twenty-five, with the ability to unlock twenty-five more free codes after you made one hundred sales and at least ten of the original twenty-five codes have been redeemed.

What does this mean?

It means that authors who were using the promo codes to offset costs can no longer do so. It also means that narrators (who also received codes) no longer have this option to help them earn royalties and offset the cost of their time to produce a royalty-share audiobook. Narrators may be way less likely to want to do royalty-share now.

Why did this happen?

In short, ACX blames scammers. I won’t name names, as honestly, I didn’t dig, but apparently, some shady people were doing shady things like creating terrible audiobooks just for codes and then having those codes redeemed in shady ways to get the money for the free codes. Oh, and then they taught other authors to do the same.

For me, these codes were the whole reason I planned to go exclusive. I hoped to use the codes to help garner reviews on my audiobook and offset the big up-front cost I paid. This change happened while my book was in production, so I changed my audiobook to be non-exclusive and I plan to distribute as well through Findaway Voices.

As we know with Amazon– they give, and they take away. It’s totally their right to take away a too-good-to-be-true free code promotion thing. It stinks that they did it so suddenly, rather than letting authors know ahead of time. Honestly, I wouldn’t have invested $1375 up front if I knew this would happen. That was a massive part of my plan for ROI.

But really, I never wanted to be exclusive with ACX. I hate the seven-year contract. So much can happen in seven years in terms of tech and audio advancement, not to mention other apps or another company making big headway in audiobooks.

I believe that after this change, more authors than ever will choose to be wide.

CONCLUSION ON WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT AUDIOBOOKS IN 2020

If I sound like I’m trying to dissuade you from doing audio, I’m not. The stats don’t lie. Audiobooks are booming. They are growing and continuing to do so.

On the flip side, they are much more costly to produce and much less likely to earn your money back in a timely way. And with the recent ACX changes, it might be even harder to earn back your investment or to offset costs with royalty-share.

Audiobooks are a long game strategy. Not a quick win.

Should you invest? If you have the money to invest and the ability to be patient AND to invest time in marketing strategies for audiobooks, then YES. Yes, you should.

If you are just starting out and aren’t making a lot of money or seeing a lot of sales with your books, you might not want to put your eggs in the audio basket just yet. You may need to work on building up your audience first, honing your craft to write addictive books, or save up.

DEFINITELY do not invest if you are having trouble marketing your ebook. If your ebook isn’t selling, you need to stop first and examine why rather than investing more money.

I hope that this honest look isn’t discouraging, but rather informs your decision on whether or not you should invest in audiobooks, and what you need when you’re ready to get started.


Below are a few more links on audiobooks, but you can also hear directly from narrator and author Lorana Hoopes if you sign up for the FREE Stay Home Story Summit happening this May.

Find out more about the free Summit HERE.

 

LINKS ON AUDIOBOOKS

  • Narrator and author Lorana Hoopes talks about ACX vs FINDAWAY
  • Chris Fox on how to sell audiobooks in 2020
  • Joanna Penn on reading your own audiobook and selling direct

Filed Under: Platform

How to Foster Community in FB Groups

April 23, 2020 by kirstenoliphant@gmail.com 1 Comment

I’ve covered Facebook groups before to the point that I wasn’t sure what else there was to say. But, right now, many of us are turning to the internet and online communities, so learning to foster that is more important than EVER.

The thing is? Fostering community can be HARD. It’s tricky. And sometimes we miss the line we need to walk.

LISTEN TO EPISODE 182- HOW TO FOSTER COMMUNITY IN FACEBOOK GROUPS

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or your favorite podcast app!

 


I’ve covered much about Facebook groups before. If you haven’t checked out these posts first, you might want to. Or, circle back after you finish this one.

  • How to Create a Facebook Group
  • How to Not Be Smarmy in a Facebook Group

Building a solid Facebook group depends on how well you foster community. Learn how.


HOW TO FOSTER COMMUNITY IN FACEBOOK GROUPS

SET THE TONE

First, you have to realize that YOU set the tone. And you definitely WANT to set a tone. Your group shouldn’t be for everyone. If you’re doing this right, some people might join and then want to leave.

SHOW UP

When you first start a group, it will feel like talking to yourself. It’s hard, sometimes embarrassing work. Because you post and … crickets. But that’s when you NEED to press in and keep showing up. Don’t give up when no one talks. Just keep posting. Post what, you might ask? Great question.

POST ENGAGING CONTENT

Start easy. Post content that is easily engaged with. Viral memes related to your topic? Yes. Gifs? Yes. Questions that may not relate but will spark discussion? Yes. Especially when you start a group, you have to make things low-risk. People are more likely to answer “what show are you bingeing?” than a more serious question. Even better, give them a graphic like this one I made in canva.

Easy. Once people start talking, the algorithm shows your group more in their feed. And it trains them to talk. They’re more likely to start talking on ALL things, not just the easy, low-risk ones.

SET EXPECTATIONS

Use the option in the settings to create questions. Maybe give people a heads-up about your group vibe. I also let people add their email address and tell them they CAN opt into my list, but don’t have to. I have a short, one-email welcome email that they get when I manually add them. But this place is a great way to weed out people who change their mind about joining, or to make sure they see the expectations before they jump in.

CREATE BOUNDARIES

Though my kids wouldn’t say they like the rules in our house, they NEED them. Kids need healthy boundaries. So do your FB group members. State them in the rules section in the settings of FB. Pin them as an announcement. Put them in the header image. People will still break the rules. But set the guidelines and stick to them.

BUT DON’T CREATE SO MANY THAT IT’S STIFLING

Some larger groups have to go WAYYYY overboard with the rules. I’ve found that the bigger my group gets, I still don’t really have tons of icky spam or bad behavior. I think that’s because the group overall has a sense of community and identity. When someone steps over, people report it. But if your rules make it so that no one can post EVER, it’s hard.

Ex: only questions on one day of the week

Ex: no links of any kind – so much easier in a reader group to have links

REMEMBER THAT YOU SET THE TONE

If you don’t set one, the members will. Consider how you want the group to function, then you keep showing up with content, questions, and comments that stay in that lane. Don’t worry too much about growth. If you’re super small, you can ask members to invite friends if they love it. I ask every week in my email for people to join, even though many are already there. Show up. Be clear. Have a voice, like a writing voice. You’ll draw your ideal reader, and it’s okay to send people away.

Filed Under: Platform

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Hey, I'm Kirsten!

(Rhymes with BEER-sten.) I am the author of Email Lists Made Easy for Writers and Bloggers and the host of the Create If Writing podcast. My goal is to help writers, bloggers, and creatives like YOU turn readers into raving fans and learn to make a living doing what you love...without being smarmy. Questions? kirsten at kirstenoliphant.com

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