Am I a fool?

E Books are the way for mid-list authors to become millionaires.  That's what I keep hearing. 

So what am I doing wrong?

Wednesday Lee Goldberg (who I have mega admiration for) said:  "any midlist author who signs another pissant three-book contract with a NY publisher (or any publisher) should check themselves into a mental institution right away."

Well, I just did sign such a contract--and for a nice chunk of change, too.  Not nearly as much as Barry Eisler just turned down.  (Did you hear, he turned down $500,000.  YES, all those zeroes are correct.)  The books I'm contracted for won't be available until 2013, 2014, and 2015.  By then maybe I will have looked like a fool for signing, but I don't think so.  Will the publishing world be drastically different in three years?  There's a good possibility it will.

Lee also said:  "It's actually possible for an author nobody heard of to become a millionaire within just a matter of months. I'm not exaggerating. Everyone talks about Amanda Hocking...but perhaps the most astonishing success story of all is John Locke. (*snip*) Locke earned $126,000 on 369,000 sales on Amazon in March alone. That's a huge uptick from the 75,000 he sold in January and the 1300 he sold in November.  John Locke went from selling 1300 books to 369,000 in four months. Holy.Shit."

(You can find the whole blog post here.)

Lee has done very well with Kindle.  He has a huge backlist and, despite a busy career as a TV and movie producer, he's also a prolific author.

Meanwhile, I have put up 7 short stories and 4 novels and I'm not seeing anything like the kinds of sales Lee is seeing.  : (

Despite great reviews, and a very small but enthusiastic audience, my Jeff Resnick books have not taken off.  Instead of hundreds of thousands of sales a month (per title) I'm not even seeing hundreds of sales per book.

Sour grapes?

Yes.  Not so much for me, but for my series.  If I hadn't believed in my characters, I wouldn't have written four books about them. 

I've received reviews from Library Journal and Booklist, and have rave reviews from readers on Amazon and Barnes&Noble.com.

I believed I could do better when it came to finding readers than my former (small) publisher, and so I followed in Lee's footprints and put them up on Kindle, Nook, and Smashwords (for distribution to other e sellers). So far, success has eluded those books.

(Man, those grapes are really SOUR!)

In the last few weeks I've:

• sent out over 2000 postcards to readers and librarians
• sent an e newsletter to over 4500 readers (although only 1675 opened it)
• offered the first book in the series for 99¢ in hopes that it would find new readers (so far it has, but not all that many), and encourage people to go looking for the other three books.

I'm at my wits end trying to figure out how this series can find a new audience.

Any ideas?

Comments

[Jill]

I have all of your Jeff Resnick books on my Kindle. Perhaps a Facebook campaign? I've seen authors have contests giving points for every Facebook post, Tweet, Etc. At the end of a given time period, the have given away a Kindle. Let us help you get the word out, but with busy lives, it would need to be easy. One click and it's a share on Facebook. One click and it's a Tweet. I'd sure do that. I love your books.

[Lorraine]

Believe me, Jill, I have been doing a Facebook campaign for the past 12 months and sales are still stagnant. I tweet regularly, but it seems most of my Twitter friends are other authors. It's difficult to actually find readers on Twitter.

If more of Lorna's readers knew that Lorraine and L.L. are out there, they would try the other books. But as long as my publisher decides not to let that happen . . .

I'm frustrated because Lorna's readers who do try the books seem to love them as much as the booktown series. But it's getting that word out that's difficult.

I estimate Lorna has 50-60,000 more readers than L.L. Bartlett does.

[Rebecca McLeod]

I have all your books, just finished your last two books and loved all of them. I found the first book on kindle and will continue to order as long as you write the series. Love love love Jeff Resnick series and look forward to more!!!

[Lorraine]

Thank you, Rebecca. They are the books of my heart and remain my favorites.

[Sue Ross]

I also have all Jeff's books on my kindle. I'd go out and buy the books of any of my favorite authors if they were to come to Cedar Rapids for autograph tours, but unfortunately they never do. It doesn't stop me from buying their books either for my kindle or the actual books. I like the ones that have recipes in them and make sure I have those in book form. Please don't give up You are much too good of a writer do be this down. I will continue to read all your books and I'm sure many others will to. The ones who don't, just don't know what they are missing. Believe me though, I am trying my best to let as many people as I can know what they are missing out on and will continue to do so