Twenty-Five

Fairy Tale Fun Blog Hop

| rachelhamm

SpritesArtwork

It’s February, which means Valentines Day is almost here, which means romance is being shoved down your throat wherever you go, which inevitably means a Disney Princess movie marathon, right?  Oh, that’s just me? Well, luckily, my fellow chick lit authors think like me and have organized this snazzy Fairy Tale Fun blog hop!  The authors participating (i.e. super cool awesome women just like me!) have been asked to compare their heroines to princesses, and since I love a good princess (see my post on the Defense of Disney Princesses for proof) I jumped at the chance to participate.

Deciding which Princess to compare my heroines to was more difficult, though.  I love both of my female main characters (Abigail from Twenty-Five and Honor from Honor’s Lark), but neither of them scream “Princess!” to me.  Abigail is meek at times, unsure of her worth, and full of big dreams that she needs a push to accomplish.  Honor is (to quote her boss), “prickly”.  She’s also selfish and has a weird relationship with the truth.  I racked my brain for weeks trying to figure out which princesses my characters would relate to, and even now, I’m not sure how accurate my choice is!1052889_10100455146559846_619394793_o

Honor is going to have to stand on her own.  She wouldn’t WANT to be a princess and I’m pretty sure she wouldn’t appreciate being compared with one, either. (Good for you, Honor!)  Abigail, on the other hand… She would totally cuddle with me on the couch and sing “I See The Light” at the top of her lungs while watching Tangled.  Not that I’m comparing her to Rapunzel, but I’ve got to keep you on your toes!  So, which princess is it going to be?  My first thought was Belle, who is famous amongst her counterparts for being a lover of books and a dreamer of adventure.  Abigail is often described as being a prolific reader and I’m sure Belle would approve of her bucket list, which includes such adventures as riding a motorcycle, climbing a mountain, and going scuba diving.  But something didn’t feel right to me about the Belle/Abigail comparison.  I love Belle, she’s probably my favorite Disney Princess, but I don’t know that I approve of her choice in men.  Sure, the Beast’s heart grows three sizes once he falls for her, but the whole hate turning to love thing is just kinda “meh” for me.  I think Belle would agree that being an outsider is no excuse for being an aggressive kidnapper.  Besides, Abby’s one true love is the boy-next-door type.

INTO THE WOODSSo, moving on. My next thought was Cinderella, because Abigail did have that unfortunate quality of waiting til a man came around to change her situation.  But! She’s more badass than Cinderella because once she realizes that’s what she’s done, she leaves!  She makes the decision to head off on her own and try and build the life she wanted without help from a man (or anyone else).  She seized her independence. And that act made me think of the Cinderella of Into the Woods (you can see my review of the movie here).  She thought everything would be better when she married the Prince, and in some ways she was right.  She moved to the palace and had servants and clothes and food and everything else she could want, but it didn’t make her happy.  She realized she needed more than the dream of perfection and she told him so.  She struck out on her own.  I loved that about the movie.  Because fairy tales always end with happily ever after, but life isn’t quite that easy.

In the end, Abigail’s prince (i.e. boyfriend) does come back to her, but they both admit they made mistakes and they both know that she had to leave in order to be happy.  To clinch the deal – I “cast” Anna Kendrick as my dream Abigail!

Abigail is Into the Woods Cinderella, but with an infinitely better Prince.

 

Sprite 24Don’t run off, yet!  There’s more!

There’s a fabulous prize available to all who hop with us today.  The Grand Prize is the Sprite 24 Gift Box from Fairytale Brownies, which includes a snack-size assortment (Caramel, Chocolate Chip, Mint Chocolate, Original, Peanut Butter, Pecan, Raspberry Swirl, Toffee Crunch, Walnut, White Chocolate, Espresso Nib, Cream Cheese) of 12 delicious gourmet brownies.  The Giveaway is open to US residents only (sorry my international lovelies) and there are a bunch of opportunities to win!  Just head to each stop on the hop and leave a comment answering their question attached to the giveaway.  Entries MUST include valid email address in order to win.  My question for you – on a rainy day, what’s your favorite romantic movie to get all cozy with?

 

Now, what are you waiting for – go check out the other hoppers and see which Princesses they paired their heroines with!

April Aasheim

Sheryl Babin

Kathryn Biel

Brea Brown

Geralyn Corcillo

Patricia Eddy

Erin Emerson

Jamie Farrell

Hilary Grossman

Gina Henning

Celia Kennedy

Tracy Krimmer

Becky Monson

Theresa Munroe

Diane Rinella

S.K. Wills

On the Shelf

| rachelhamm

A couple of years ago, I wrote a post about my goal of seeing my own book on the shelf of a bookstore one day.  Well, today, I got really close.

When I self-published Twenty-Five in July of last year, I thought that maybe a few years (or a decade) down the road, I’d have developed a large backlist and possibly draw the attention of an agent or a big publisher.  That would lead to my dream of seeing my work on a bookshelf in a store.

Well, turns out, getting my book on the shelf of a library feels pretty damn good, too, and it only took eight months!

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I’m a member of a writer’s critique group that meets at Durham’s South Regional Library.  The leader of the group is one of the librarians, and when I published the book, he put in a request with the library to order a copy.  It took some time for the request to be approved, but he played up the local author angle and my good reviews on Amazon helped to gain the final approval needed and they purchased 2 copies!

After our group was over tonight, the librarian checked the catalog to see if the request had been completed and sure enough!!!  Going to find the actual copy on the shelf was exhilarating.  I couldn’t stop smiling.  The excitement of finding it, pointing to my name on a book sitting on the shelf of the library was probably one of the happiest moments of my life.

Next goal: Actual bookstore.

Write What You Know

| rachelhamm

One of my co-workers said to me today that it was hard separating me from Abby in Twenty-Five.  She said reading the book was like reading my journal.  And she’s exactly right.  It took a long time for me to allow anyone I knew in real life to read the book because she hit the nail on the head – I poured my emotions into Abby’s story.  Her feelings are my feelings.  The things that happen to her haven’t happened to me, but the way she feels about them is.

You have probably heard the old caveat, “Write what you know.”  That’s what I did with Twenty-Five.  I wrote about the person I knew best in the world – myself.  It’s embarrassing and liberating at the same time.  The book was written five years ago and I’ve changed even more than Abby does in the course of the story, but it doesn’t change the fact that at one point in my life I was feeling very vulnerable, frightened that I would never amount to anything, a hundred percent sure no one would ever love me.  I’ve moved past some of those things, and some of them I’m still working on; knowing that I’ve exposed myself to the world, though, is freeing.  I don’t have to hide my fears.  I don’t have to hide my morals.  They are who I am.  And that’s what I wrote.

First Month Stats

| rachelhamm

internet-statistics_1July is over.  My first month of self-publishing is over.  I’m hoping that sharing my findings will help those out there considering self-publishing.

I enrolled in KDP Select for the e-book.  I choose the 70% royalty option and priced the e-book at $2.99 US, with comparable prices for other markets (UK, France, Germany, Canada, etc).  My royalty for the e-book is approximately $2.03.  I used 2 of my five free days early in the month, on July 3rd and July 6th.  My thought process for the free days being that people would be on (or about to be going on) vacation, likely a beach vacation, and would be looking for something easy to read.

For the paperback, I went with the publish-on-demand (POD) service CreateSpace.  I priced the book at $10.99 US, again with comparable prices for other markets.  My royalty for the paperback when ordered through Amazon is $1.90 (no one has ordered it through CreateSpace, so I won’t worry about their royalty).

Now the good stuff – the stats.  Here are all the details from the first month:

Money Spent

ISBN for the paperback – $10.00

Proof copy of the paperback – $8.28

Business Cards (with Title of Book, link to Amazon’s page where people can buy the book, and all of my Social Media contact info) – $49.52, purchased through Staples online print center (500 cards)

Copies of the paperback for Gifts, Giveaways, and In-person sales – $187.65 (35 copies)

Shipping of a paperback copy to a Book Reviewer – $2.75

Total Costs: $258.20

E-books Sold

USA – 64 copies

UK – 267 copies (that’s right, they like me in the UK)

Canada – 4 copies

Total Sales: 335

Royalty Total: approximately $680.05 (this is calculating $2.03 royalty for each copy, though the exchange rates may cause some differences.  I’ll know a firmer total when I receive the report on the 15th)

E-books Borrowed

USA – 3 copies

UK – 5 copies

Total Borrows: 8

Royalty Total: Not sure what the payout will be for borrows yet, I’ll find out in my monthly report around the 15th, I believe.  The average for the past couple of months (according to KDP community message boards) is approximately $2.00 per borrow, so $16.00

Free Downloads over 2 days

USA – 487

UK – 152

Canada – 4

France – 10

Germany – 14

India – 3

Total Downloads: 670

Royalty Total: $0.00, duh 🙂

Paperbacks Sold

Through CreateSpace – 18

Royalty Total: $34.20

In-person by me – 12 + 2 copies that were given with a promise of payment later (I know where they live!)

Royalty Total: (I spent $5.34 on each copy and charged $10.00 when selling them) $55.92

Total Sales: 30

Paperbacks Given Away

3, though I have plans to give a few more away

Royalty Total: $0.00 again

Profits

Approximately $527.97.  For someone who never expected anyone to even read my book, let alone pay for it, I am REALLY happy with that number.  Even though I won’t actually see the money for a couple of months (Amazon doesn’t pay out until 60 days after the end of the month in which the royalties are made and CreateSpace is 30 days after the end of the month in which the royalties are made).

Marketing

I did very little marketing.  I posted the link to the book on my personal facebook page and several friends and family members shared it.  I then created a Facebook Author fan page, a Twitter account, and a Goodreads author page.  I asked on my facebook pages for friends to leave reviews on Amazon and Goodreads IF they read and enjoyed the book.

11 reviews have been posted on Amazon, all 5-star, 10 by people I know.  The one person who I didn’t know, heard of the book through a friend of a friend.

14 ratings have been posted on Goodreads, with 5 actual reviews.  (10) 5-star, (1) 4-star, (1) 3-star, and (2) 1-star.  (5) of the 5-star ratings are from people I know, the rest are from strangers.

I’ve listed 2 giveaways on Goodreads.  The first giveaway is for the US and Canada, for 5 copies.  I started it on July 8th and it will end on August 8th.  So far, there are 758 entries.  The second giveaway is for the UK, for 1 copy.  It started on July 15th and will end on August 15th.  So far, there are 98 entries.

483 people have added Twenty-Five to their bookshelves on Goodreads.

I have two book bloggers doing reviews, but those will not appear until next week at the earliest.  From what they’ve said in our email exchanges, it sounds like the reviews will be positive, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed there.  But, even bad publicity is good publicity, right?  I’m raising the prices on both the e-book and paperback tomorrow, and doing 3 more free days on Amazon the last weekend of August.  I’m going to reach out to sites that promote free e-books before the second free promotion, which I did not do with the first 2-day promotion.

I did not tinker with the book’s description, cover, or tags in the first month, though I may once the higher price kicks in if I see that sales have dropped.

So, that’s it.  My first month of self-publishing all laid out.  I said in my last post I was happy I’d done it and I’m even happier today.  I am so proud of myself and my book for taking a chance and taking the leap.  These numbers are modest, I know, but they are mine.  And they are more than I expected, especially the e-book sales in the UK.  I can’t wait to see what the next month brings.

I’m Glad I Did It

| rachelhamm

It’s been three weeks since I self-published Twenty-Five, and I have to say, I am so happy I did it.  Before taking this leap, I really wasn’t sure about self-publishing.  I’d read articles saying that the stigma had been lifted and more books were being published by the individual authors than by publishing houses now, but it was still a big risk for me.  What if I pressed the “upload” button and then never sold a single copy?  What if I did sell copies, but then got bad reviews?  I struggle with rejection issues, so this was one of my biggest fears.  I didn’t want to fail at this, at writing.

My book is my proudest accomplishment.  But, it still is strange for me when people I know read it.  Again, that fear of rejection.  What if they don’t like it?  Will that somehow mean they don’t like me anymore?  It’s so silly to be so proud of something and hold it to your chest without giving anyone else the chance to see how awesome it is.

So, I did it.  I took the chance and I created the e-book and the paperback.  And you know what?  People like it.  I’ve actually sold copies!  Sure, a lot of the copies I sold were to family and friends, but then again, a lot weren’t.  It’s only been three weeks, and I haven’t had thousands of downloads, but my book is in the hands of hundreds of people.  Hundreds.  I don’t  know if I ever expected that.  I haven’t made much money because the majority of those hundred were free downloads, but money isn’t the point.  The point is, I wrote a book and now people can read it.

And I can’t even tell you how awesome that is.

I can tell you, though, that it really makes me want to get another book out there for them to read!  I’m working on that.

The Paperback is Available!!!

| rachelhamm

That’s right, you can now order the paperback version of Twenty-Five straight from CreateSpace by going here.

It is $10.99, plus shipping and handling.  In 5-7 business days it will be available on Amazon, and I’ll post again when it is!

Whew!  The past two weeks have been such a whirlwind watching the e-book gain sales and free downloads, starting the Twitter account, running the Goodreads Giveaway, and finally getting the paperback ready.  I feel like the best is yet to come, though.

Enter to Win a Free Copy of Twenty-Five

| rachelhamm

A couple of updates:

I’m now on Twitter and Facebook; Follow and Like me for current information on the progress of Twenty-Five and my works-in-progress:

@RLHammAuthor

facebook.com/RachelLHammAuthor

I received the proof copy of Twenty-Five two days ago and it looks great!

proof copy of 25

I’ve finished looking it over and have uploaded all of the changes to CreateSpace, I’m just waiting for them to approve to I can finalize sales of the Paperback.  I’ll post again when it is available for sale.

But the BIG news for today is that I’ve posted a Giveaway on Goodreads!  I’m giving away 5 copies of the paperback.  The promotion is running until August 8th, so if you are in the United States or Canada, head over to Goodreads and enter your name to win:

http://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/58312-twenty-five

A Giveaway for the United Kingdom is starting next Monday, July 15th and will run until August 15th.  One copy will be available.

Lastly, I have been receiving a lot of positive reviews on both Amazon and Goodreads.  I can’t thank everyone enough for their support.  I hope that new readers are attracted to the book due to your reviews!