I just finished posting the first two chapters of Beginning of a Hero on Wattpad. If my research is correct, two things should happen:
- Nobody can post my book up there because it’s already on there.
- This should work as a sample to get people to buy the book on Amazon.
I did less that the 10% allowed by KDP Select, so the exclusivity is not at risk. Here’s hoping this works for sales and not just getting me a high rank on Wattpad. It is mostly a teenage audience, so it’s predominantly vampire, romance, and vampire romance. Still, I pulled off a miracle with Amazon when it came to my sales, so who knows what happens here.
Go to Beginning of a Hero to check it out and spread the word.
Legends of Windemere 
I meant to reply to your KDP/Wattpad post and say thanks for doing that research…the 10% rule makes a lot of sense. I’m debating the method of release for my next book, and may start with KDP (maybe I can make it work for me next time).
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Just remember that KDP and KDP Select are two different things. You can put your book on Amazon and have it everywhere else as long as it’s basic and not Select. Once you go Select, you’re exclusive. I’m starting to wonder if KDP Select is better to join after the first month or first week because if you can get on the genre lists without it then you can save it for a marketing move down the road when sales start to dwindle.
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Right, sorry I meant KDP select (mine is on KDP now). And I agree, I am thinking that it may be better to start of on Select and then switch to the expanded options later once its established.
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Maybe. I can’t really toss an opinion on that one because I did pretty good without KDP Select. I used several advertising sites and only jumped on recently when my sales dipped. I was doing really good. I still am, but I’m not on the genre list, which appears to play a major role in the fantasy genre.
You know, it probably would boost you to the Hot New Release if you started on KDP Select. You could use the ‘Just Released’ Novelspot advertising (it’s free) as well because you can’t use when you’re not a new release. The other sites can be used whenever you need a boost. Like the multiple stages of a space rocket. I should point out that I’m talking about a plan that I’m making up as I go along. I think this is for both our benefits right now.
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I will be the first person to admit that I did NOT use all (or really any) of the tools to my advantage when I launched the first book. I did everything backwards…I should have become involved in the blogosphere, and networking, etc and then published because I’ve learned a lot just from hearing about other writers’ experiences.
So I’m going to be checking out the list of promotion sites you used this time around, and I’m going to try to get myself up in the lists early. I would say my genre is probably Southern Fiction (which is not a huge genre compared to others) but unfortunately Amazon doesn’t have a category for it. And most of the categories they have that would work are already saturated. But I do want to be more strategic about that as well.
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Honestly, I stumbled along. Everything you’ve seen me do has been started with the phrase ‘what if I try this?’ I hopped on WordPress not knowing what the blogosphere was like. I got my first blogging award and ran with it. Then, I bounced around sites, commented like crazy, and wandered around like a kid in a candy store. I really didn’t do anything in terms of blogging with a definite plan in mind.
I expected to fail too, which is probably why I tried everything. I was told by everyone that an author’s first book ‘failed’ and wouldn’t explode until the sequel comes out. So, I have no real plan. I’m tossing things out to help others and hope someone can make sense of it all. 😀
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Well, your advice has been among the most helpful I’ve found 🙂 I love that you basically ignored everyone’s skepticism and forged forth regardless.
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Thanks. I’m definitely proud of making it this far by sticking to my guns. Always happy to help. Just don’t knock me too far down the Kindle lists. 😉
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Thanks Charles for keeping us posted. I think Wattpad is great exposure and hopefully it leads to more sales. Initially I thought about posting some of my WIP for initial feedback but the more I researched I felt it was too risky to post while in progress. When my project is published I’ll market a few sample chapters on Wattpad. Good luck!
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In progress does sound like it would be dangerous. Smart move.
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Reblogged this on readful things blog and commented:
He’s awesome! Plus he’s got a free sample of his book out for everyone:)
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Thanks for the re-blog. 🙂
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I owe you just a few 🙂 how’s mamas day going?
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Little guy is going down for bed. Had dinner with my grandmother, but we’re not sure she recognized all of us.
How is yours going?
Also, I came up with two possible guest post questions/ideas, but they might seem a little odd. I’m appealing to your razor wit and sense of humor here:
1. Since you use a lot of humor in your stories and you write in two genres, I was wondering if you could give your opinion on humor in literature that isn’t a full comedy. Also, does humor differ from genre to genre?
2. A comical ‘Do & Don’t’ list for aspiring authors that wish to self-publish.
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2. I love it. When would you like it by?
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I have the next 3 Thursdays set, so you have more than enough time. I’m making sure I get people as soon as I think of asking them. Got a pretty little desktop folder for all of them too.
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Cool! This should be fun!
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Sounds like it’s worth doing just to make sure you’re the only one posting your work there, but I do hope it also results in sales for you. Thanks for experimenting and keeping us updated!
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And my comment just got eaten in mid-word. Strange.
So far I haven’t seen much, but it’s been less than 24 hours. Wattpad is predominantly teenagers, so it could work to my favor. They seem to handle present tense writing better and are more likely to jump on a .99 cent eBook. At least I think so from my days as a teenager. I was also a non-standard model, so it could be a disaster.
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Hey Charles- I’m glad to see you’re trying Wattpad. I’ll be curious to see if you get backlash from the wattpad readers because they have to , gasp, PAY to read the rest of the book!
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That thought crossed my mind, but I saw a lot of novel excerpts on there. My book is only .99 cents, so I don’t believe I’ll have immense backlash. It certainly will be interesting to see.
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Hey Charles, any results yet from Wattpad? I see you’ve had 55 reads. I don’t know if you’ve thought of this, but it might be useful to break your sample down into a few parts, as many as 7 or 8. That way, you’ll be able to track if people are clicking through to the last page.
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Nothing yet. My sample is only 15 pages, so I didn’t think chopping it down would make sense. I have to be careful too because I’m under an exclusivity contract with Amazon. I can only put out 10% of the manuscript in digital form and separating it can confuse them on the amount I’m sharing.
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Oh, I know what you mean about 10% because of Amazon. But what I meant was, it doesn’t seem like there’s a set rule about how long each chapter on Wattpad has to be. From what I’ve seen, you could probably break the content you currently have on Wattpad into 4 or 5 parts for sure, if you wanted to.
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Interesting. Never saw anything about a set rule on there. What would I do about cover art?
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You mean like for the extra chapters? I think you only post one cover and it applies to all sections of the book.
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I’ll have to look more into that. I saw some that had a pull down menu to go to other sections, but it still came up as one file. So, the read count was for all of them.
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I checked a few more wattpad stories. Definitely only seeing one piece of cover art. Also, I do see the number of reads being unique for the different chapters. As always, the number of reads for the final chapter is substantially lower than for the Table of Contents.
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So I just need to figure out how to set that up.
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