This is the first in a regular-ish series giving you an insight into my life as an indie writer and publisher. I’ll show you what I’m working on, and how I’m progressing (or not).
Unstable Orbits
Now on Kindle Unlimited
Since the release of Unstable Orbits — across Amazon, Apple Books, Kobo and Google Play — almost all sales have been on Amazon. A paid Kobo Plus promotion for Unstable Orbits resulted in zero reads.
I’m not seeing any benefit from “going wide” as it’s called, so I’ve withdrawn all my ebooks from all distributors except Amazon. This has allowed me to make them available on Kindle Unlimited. I’m committed to this for 90 days, after which I can decide to go wide again if I want.
Audiobook half way, again
A few weeks ago, I reached the end of part 1 in my audiobook recording for Unstable Orbits. I knew there were a few scenes I wanted to re-record for various reasons, and, well, uh, that turned into every scene because I’m a perfectionist. I’m nearly at the end of part 1 again. I’m happy with the performance and the energy.
I’m not completely happy with a couple of voices and I might re-record these later. But I’ll push on to part 2.
The search for reviews
The consensus is that books need “about 100” reviews on Amazon to break through. At time of writing, Unstable Orbits has 3 reviews on Amazon UK.
I’ve contacted several websites that review queer books. No replies. (It’s possible to throw money at some of them in exchange for reviews, but I’m not going to do that.)
I’ve started looking into services such as pubby that offer a way for authors to obtain more reviews without incurring the wrath of Amazon (which has many rules about paid reviews and review swapping).
It’s fair to say I’m not keen on these offerings so far.
- To receive reviews, I must review other books. There’s apparently no way to see which other books are on the site before I sign up (I could do a free trial I guess).
- For some sites it’s not clear whether I can get reviews on amazon.co.uk specifically (my biggest market).
- Amazon could at any moment declare services like these to break its rules about review-swapping, which might lead to posted reviews being deleted or — worst-case scenario — my books being removed from sale.
- These are paid subscription services, of course.
Sigh. I’m going to look at Facebook groups next, and try to find more websites that might help.
Paperback distribution
At the moment, Amazon is the only place to buy paperbacks for any of my books. I’m going to look into using other services to enable a wider distribution.
I’ve emailed several queer bookshops in the UK, plus the two large Cambridge bookshops, offering stock on standard terms. Nobody has replied.
It would be nice to sell paperbacks directly on my author website.
New book (codename “AXIS”)
After a long hibernation while I was working on Unstable Orbits, I’m now back to working on the next book, “AXIS” (codename — real name to be announced).
There’s a lot to do — larger changes (at the “developmental edit” level) and smaller ones (at the “copy/line edit” level). The opening chapters are changing substantially.
Current status: I’ve reached the end of chapter 5.
I’ll write a separate post soon with some more information about this book.
Anthony Camber 