sales

Turn Music (and Books) Into Money

I just came across this intriguing article in The Atlantic via the singer John Owen-Jones’s Twitter feed (how’s that for a tenuous connection?):  How You Turn Music Into Money in 2012 (Spoiler: Mostly iTunes).

As fellow creative types, it behooves writers to pay attention to how artists and musicians are monetizing their careers online. Although the industries and distributions are different, take a gander at how avant garde musician Zoe Keating sees her six-month income rolling in.

My takeaways: distribution diversity is good, assumptions are dangerous, and the digital landscape if far from being predictable or settled. None of that is a surprise, but it’s good to see concrete numbers to back up some of my thinking.

What did you get out of the article?

Tip Tuesday: Three Groovy Tips

Friends –

Pardon the light post today. I’m in a race to finish my third Marty Singer mystery, Signs, before next week when one of my redoubtable beta-readers has asked for it. But I’ve recently stumbled across three interesting links and services that deserve a gander.

[Read more…]

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Hi Friends –

Just wanted to throw out a quick note about A Reason to Live. Thanks in large part to your support, I’ve been on a great sales run this week, averaging about 2-3 per hour on Amazon. Those kinds of numbers have resulted in some great results:

#2,674 Paid in Kindle Store (as high as the #1,700’s)
#15 in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Mystery > Hard-Boiled (as high as #6)
#20 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Fiction > Genre Fiction > Mystery & Thrillers > Mystery > Hard-Boiled (as high as #12)

I’m looking into various strategies to try and keep the energy going, including some ad space on Goodreads. I’ll try to do a post-mortem for everyone once the dust settles (assuming it does!).

I hope to have Part II of my book cover primer out tomorrow. This time I’ll talk about cover images . Keep an eye out!

Three Shorts is free!

Hi folks –

My first crime fiction collection, Three Shorts, is free for a limited time on all the major eBook channels and readers (Kindle, Nook, iTunes, Kobo, Sony). Please take advantage and grab your copy today; I’d love to know what you think about it, so feel free to comment here or on the collection’s page.

This is my first foray into a free promotion and I’m excited to see where it takes me. On the first day it went free (last Friday), it jumped from #377,721 (or so…) to #1,844 on Amazon. Still far from Top 100 material, but exciting nevertheless. Sales of other titles have remained level, but I’m after exposure and reach at this point. We’ll talk money later 🙂