Tag Archives: self-publishing

The Ultimate Guide to Choosing the Right Price for Your Book

The Ultimate Guide to Choosing the Right Price for Your Book

One of the biggest challenges we indie authors face is pretty much the entire process of setting a price for a book. I know plenty of authors, including myself, who have spent days or weeks agonizing over which price to choose. And then once the price has been set, these same authors still wonder if they made the right decision.

I believe that while choosing the right price is a difficult part of self-publishing, it’s not something you have to do blindly. And so in this mega-post, I’m going to explore a number of ways you can gather data to help you price your book without so much second-guessing. I’ll also show you how to do market research that will give you incredible amounts of insight into what price your market expects. Continue reading The Ultimate Guide to Choosing the Right Price for Your Book

Two Ideas for Authors on Facebook

Two Ideas for Facebook

For authors trying to use Facebook in their marketing efforts, it can seem overwhelming. That’s why I often advocate a step-by-step method: Learn just one Facebook “best practice” or attempt just one experiment at a time. With this approach, you’ll be able to master each technique and build your Facebook marketing prowess slowly over time, the same way you learned how to do almost anything. And so, for this article, I’m going to give you two ideas for using Facebook effectively as an author. One is just a theory for you to play with, while the other is a proven way to make your page more professional. Let’s jump right in. Continue reading Two Ideas for Authors on Facebook

How to Choose the Right Price for Your Book: Case Study

Choose the Right Price Case Study

A couple of weeks ago I finished up a series on choosing the right price for your book, looking at a number of different factors that you can use when setting your price. Today, I’d like to turn all of that theory into a more real-world example with a case study.

We’re going to be looking at a hypothetical science fiction novel. This novel can also be classified into the time travel sub-genre, and it’s about 350 pages long. We’ll also say that it’s been on Amazon for a little while now and has five reviews.

What I’m going to look at in this article is the techniques from the third part in the series on choosing your book’s price. Those are the process of gathering data about similar books and doing research on what is considered a fair price by your audience. Continue reading How to Choose the Right Price for Your Book: Case Study

How to Choose the Right Price for Your Book, Part 2

How to Choose the Right Price for Your Book, Part 2

Welcome to the second part in this series on choosing the right price for your book. This time, we’re going to look at the concept of markup, specifically when it comes to pricing a paperback and leaving room in your price for sales. But first, let’s take a quick look at the concept of “pretty” pricing.

“Pretty” Pricing

“Pretty” pricing is the idea that certain prices look better to customers than others. You can obviously choose any price you want, but research has indicated that ending a price in .95 or .99 may psychologically influence customers to feel like they are getting a better deal. For that reason I will be rounding all prices in this post to the nearest .95. (Why not .99? Well, because this is “pretty” pricing and I think .95 is prettier.)

And with that out of the way, let’s look at how to choose a price for a paperback.

Continue reading How to Choose the Right Price for Your Book, Part 2

How to Choose the Right Price for Your Book, Part 1

How to Choose the Right Price for Your Book part 1

Today I’m starting a new series on one of the biggest challenges we indie authors face. That challenge is pretty much the entire process of setting a price for a book. I know plenty of authors, including myself, who have spent days or weeks agonizing over which price to choose. And then once the price has been set, these same authors still wonder if they made the right decision.

Well, I believe that while choosing the right price is a difficult part of self-publishing, it’s not something we have to do blindly. And so over the course of the next several posts, I’m going to explore a number of strategies for pricing your book, plus I’ll give you some ideas that will help you choose a good price for your book without quite so much second-guessing.

Before we dive into all the nitty-gritty of pricing, I think I need to spend some time talking about typical author attitudes and self-worth.

The Two Typical Attitudes of Self-published Authors

When I talk to authors about their book’s pricing, I typically see a couple of attitudes. Let’s look at each one. Continue reading How to Choose the Right Price for Your Book, Part 1

Smaller Ponds: How to Use Categories to Sell More Books

Smaller Ponds

It’s a problem most of us face as indie authors: We feel like we ought to be selling more books, but we’re not sure how. When the KDP Select Free the Countdown deal days are up for your book, how do you continue to get exposure while you wait for more? Or, how do you maximize the effectiveness of the jump up Amazon’s charts that comes from your KDP promotion?

Perhaps the answer to both of these questions lies in your book’s categories. You probably remember when you first added your book to KDP and went through the process of deciding which categories were the best fit for your book. But did you think about the marketing benefits?

Yes, I said marketing benefits of your KDP categories. See, some categories contain more books than others, and that’s where the strategy comes in. Continue reading Smaller Ponds: How to Use Categories to Sell More Books

Eight Ways to Engage Your Current Audience

Engage Current Audience

It’s not uncommon to find authors talking about how they plan to reach new readers. However, the readers you already have are just as important, if not more so. Your fans have already enjoyed your book, and they are capable of spreading the news about it and your future titles far and wide if you give them a reason to be excited about it. And that can lead to new readers.

The problem is that you need to keep your current audience interested while you write that new book. People have short attention spans (squirrel!), so it’s important to remind your audience that you exist every now and then. How do you do that? Here are eight ways you can engage with your fans and keep their attention. Continue reading Eight Ways to Engage Your Current Audience

How Paying for a Big Promotion Made Me Act More Professional

This post is a little different from the usual fare here at Fix My Story. Today I’d like to share the story of how I restarted my blog—and how the reboot made me act like a professional.


The opportunity was just too good to pass up. It was expensive enough to hurt, but the potential payoff was enormous. Taking a deep breath, I sent the e-mail and launched myself into something much bigger than I thought it would be… Continue reading How Paying for a Big Promotion Made Me Act More Professional

How to Ask Bloggers to Review Your Book

Review my book?

Last time, I showed you how to find bloggers who want to review your book. However, most of those bloggers probably haven’t even heard of your book yet. You need to let them know what your book is about and that it’s available for review before you offer a free copy.

Today, I’ll walk you through creating an e-mail template that will help you contact reviewers in a professional, compelling manner. Those bloggers will be reviewing your book in no time! Continue reading How to Ask Bloggers to Review Your Book

How to Find Bloggers Who Want to Review Your Book

Magnifying GlassIf you’ve self-published a book, you’re familiar with the thirst for reviews. You eagerly watch that Amazon review count tick upward, drinking in every new review. You read and re-read your reviews, and you sometimes even share your favorite quotes from the best ones. And you feel more validated in your authorship as more reviews appear on your Amazon book page.

But you might be neglecting another great review resource if you’re focusing solely on the reviews showing up on Amazon. The world of bloggers is a powerful promotional tool worth exploring as well. Continue reading How to Find Bloggers Who Want to Review Your Book