Not a Gold Rush - The Taleist Self-Publishing Survey [Kindle Edition]

Dave Cornford (Author), Steven Lewis (Author)

Book Description

Why ask one author's advice about selling books when you could ask 1,000?



Guides about how to sell more books for the Kindle or elsewhere on Amazon are usually one author's opinion based on his own book sales. Sometimes he might have a little more experience to draw on because he's helped friends or clients selling their writing.



These insights can be valuable but you can't know if what lifts the sales of one book will increase your own sales.



Get book selling advice from over 1,000 authors

Not a Gold Rush is the result of asking 1,007 self-publishing authors around the world about their book sales, and exactly what they did to get as far as they have. This groundbreaking insight has been reported in the New Yorker, The Guardian, Forbes, and Fortune.



"Anyone with an interest in self-publishing (and a book to sell) will find a bonanza of insight and information in this report along with a lot of surprises, all presented in an easy to digest style with graphics and lots of explanation so you know exactly what the numbers mean. It's really good." -- Joel Friedlander, The Book Designer



Find out the surprising things that make a huge difference to book sales



The things that Not a Gold Rush found out about how to sell more books will apply to you because they've worked for hundreds of authors, not just one. Some of the findings will surprise you but they're all things you could start doing straightaway



"Valuable information... well worth getting hold of if you're self-publishing... a valuable insight into what's going on right now, and what works or doesn't when it comes to creating a sustainable career as a writer." -- Forbes



Your questions answered by 1,007 authors based on actual experience

• What production assistance (like editing or cover design) really makes the most difference to sales? And what assistance isn't worth the money?


• What is the average income from selling self-published writing? And who is making the most?


• What are successful authors doing to increase their sales?




• Are authors experimenting with prices?


• How important are social media like blogs, Twitter, and Facebook in selling books?


• What is the single thing that makes more difference to book sales than anything else?


• What do the best selling authors, the ones who could live off their royalties, doing differently from everyone else? And what don't they do?


• How do some authors get some many more reviews than others?And how much do reviews affect sales?

Editorial Reviews

Review

"One of the most comprehensive insights into the growing market to date." -- The Guardian

 

"Valuable information... well worth getting hold of if you're self-publishing... a valuable insight into what's going on right now, and what works or doesn't when it comes to creating a sustainable career as a writer." -- Forbes

 

"A valuable counter to the hype that surrounds self-publishing, and hopefully gives authors who are considering this alternative more tools with which to realistically evaluate their goals." -- Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America

The report has also been referenced in the New Yorker and Fortune, among others.

About the Author

Dave Cornford

Dave Cornford has long balanced a career in financial services with creative pursuits in writing, stage directing, videography and gastronomy. He has over 15 years' experience in consumer marketing and research.

He has self-published five books of short stories and humour, including:

• Cracks in the Ceiling, a varied collection of short stories about the lives of ordinary people coping with the Global Recession.
• Nanna's Travel Tips, a fun little book of homespun and unreliable travel advice.
• Spillage, the first in a series of novelettes set in a smash repair business that knows too much.
• 15 Civic Square, the first in a series set in a fictitious and rather poorly behaved Bank.

His first novel will be published in September.

Dave lives in Sydney with his wife and three children.
 
Steven Lewis

A journalist and writer for nearly 20 years, Steven Lewis has written for the Financial Times, Esquire, GQ, the International Herald Tribune, and other publications around the world. A long-time resident of Hong Kong, he had popular television and consumer technology columns in the South China Morning Post. He was also the technology editor of Asian Business. His audio programs are part of the inflight entertainment on several airlines.

He first published online in 1994 and today his titles are in print, electronic and audio versions from Amazon, Apple and Audible, among others. They include:

• How to Format Perfect Kindle Books, a complete guide to turning a manuscript into a Kindle ebook.
• In-Book Promotion: Using the Kindle's Built-In Features to Increase Sales
• Hot Silver - Riding the Indian Pacific, a humorous travelogue about crossing Australia on the famous train.
• How to Write Perfect Press Releases, which was recently selected as a textbook by the University of Sydney for its post-graduate course in strategic public relations.

Steven helps other writers publish their ebooks through his Taleist blog.

He lives in Sydney with his wife, and his son, Jack.

Product Details

• File Size: 595 KB
• Print Length: 59 pages
• Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
• Publisher: Taleist (May 22, 2012)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B0085M7KIU
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Not Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #251,639 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Concise, brilliant information for all in the publishing industry. May 24, 2012

By A. Delahoy

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

Wow.

I am soon to publish my first novel and have been following this survey since I first heard about it.

The original survey, which an author friend informed me was quite extensive, has been whittled down and broken up into an informative report that is easy to follow and informative. Each segment of the questionnaire is explained, the reasons for wording questions in certain ways, what the results said and what it could indicate within the self publishing community.

What earned the fifth star was the fact the authors identified the faults in the survey, and explained where they could have changed things or asked more. I feel that this was vital, it didn't try to stand up as the best, most comprehensive survey and report ever conducted, it is offering a peak into the 1007 s/p authors who responded.

It is pulled together, very well formatted, and is written in an engaging way. No, "they said this, then said that," nor are there hundreds of graphs for you to try and deduce their meaning for yourself. They are used sparingly, and to its strength.

I enjoyed reading this, and walked away with a greater sense of what is happening and how it is happening, what is working and not with self publishers.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Short Yet Full Of Great Information June 15, 2012

By Rocky Sunico

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

Given my own interests in getting myself published, this report was an amazing resource for someone starting in the self-publishing arena. This field still isn't largely explored and for a group to finally present some solid data, even with a seemingly small sample size, is a tremendous step forward.

And that's what this report really is - a logical discussion of some pretty solid data gathered by a wide mix of self-publishers active in the community. It's a rare glimpse into how things are working out and a good starting point in terms of evaluating what habits, systems and techniques may be working better than others.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting read and great resource May 29, 2012

By Rachel A. Aaron

Format:Kindle Edition

If you care about publishing numbers at all, independent or otherwise, The Taleist Survey is well worth your $5 (or you can check it out for free if you're an Amazon Prime member). I'm not an independently published author (I actually write The Legend of Eli Monpress books for Orbit), but I still learned a lot, and I'm actually changing several of my marketing strategies right now because I read this. If nothing else, the survey is a fascinating look at how the wild west of ebook independent publishing is shaking out so far, and since this stuff is a big part of publishing's future, staying up to date is a smart career decision for anyone who wants to make or keep making a living off their words.

My only complaint is that they didn't share their raw data from the survey results, just their findings. I want numbers! *twitchy fingers* If you sell a spreadsheet supplemental, Taleist, I would totally buy that.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Information at a Good Time May 26, 2012

By C. Sheehan

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

I'm very satisfied with this survey. Its inner workings have already been discussed by other reviewers, so I'm not going to go on about that except to say that I found the information within relevant, informative, and useful. I would like to suggest, however, a few questions that I'd like to see answered in future surveys.

First, to the Top Earners: Do you write stand alones, serials, or both? Do you feel serials help sell more books?

Second, also for Top Earners (though this may be reasonably deduced through questions already asked): Do you write fiction and non-fiction? If you write both, which was more lucrative?

Thank you for collecting this data! I'm glad I looked the details over myself.

8 of 11 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Not that great, but better than the alternatives May 25, 2012

By Joe Vasicek

Format:Kindle Edition

This report presents an interesting, if not strictly representative, picture of self-publishing as it was at the end of 2011. The survey isn't perfect, but the data gathered from it is worth looking at if you're a self-publisher, or considering going into self-publishing.

My biggest criticism has to do with the analysis. The authors of the report seem to make a number of unspoken assumptions about the art and craft of writing, which colors many of their conclusions. This would not be bad in and of itself, except that they fail to acknowledge their own biases, which makes it difficult to tell whether they are genuinely probing the data, or content to find confirmation of their own beliefs.

For example, one of the author's underlying assumptions is that the main determining factor in whether a book is picked up for traditional publication is literary quality. Whether or not this is true, they seem content to point to the correlation between previously trad published authors and self-publishing income as evidence of the fact--lightly glossing over the audience that many of these authors managed to bring with them when they decided to self publish.

As another example, the authors spend an entire chapter arguing that increased reviews lead to increased sales. After pointing out how both reviews and sales increase when self-publishers give away free review copies and submit to book bloggers, the authors conclude that the correlation shows causation--completely missing the more obvious conclusion that the best way to get more reviews is to sell more books!

Completely missing is a discussion of price points and whether pricing at $.99, $2.99, $4.99, or higher made a significant difference. This was surprising to me.... However, the section on the highest earners was quite interesting, and probably the best part of the report. If you want to make a living as a writer, it's worth reading just for that.

In terms of absolute usefulness, this report is not all that great. However, because of the dearth of reliable data on electronic and self-publishing, this is probably better than most of the stuff out there. If I were still a TA and one of my poli sci students handed this in as their term paper, I would probably give it a B/B-. Read more ›