Matt Harry liked the forum thread, How I reached 750 in 7 weeks - my advice

Dear all,

It has been a very interesting 7 weeks journey that took me from 0 orders to 750. I have learned a lot and here are my honest suggestions to people, who try to make it on Inkshares.

Inkshares community has been very helpful and supportive and I wanted to share a small piece of learning and advice.

Preparation stage:

· Though Inkshares allows you to write and post bits and pieces of your book as you write it, I would not recommend doing it. Inkshares is a platform to get published. Full stop. Your trial and error on the platform will just bring fatigue and lack of momentum and low expectation of success. Do not drag. Instead - shoot.

· Write 100% of the book to the level that you are totally happy with. Show it to people whom you trust, collect feedback and make changes. I highly recommend that you hire an editor, who could help you to make your book slick.

· Design an attractive cover. If you can spend some money, hire professional cover designer. (My cover was self-made and horribly boring. I should have hired a professional. But now it is too late :-( )

· Write a short and attractive synopsis. Make sure it is perfect. This is the most important piece of writing you need.

· Have your real picture posted in which you are really likeable. People like to support nice-looking people.

· Make a relevant book video. There are so many off-putting videos on Inkshares. People do watch them (I had over 1300 views). I used iMovies to make it, it is very simple.

· Only after all of this is done, go onto Inkshares platform with a bang.

Getting orders in:

· Build the marketing of your book on people, whom know you personally. If you are a lonely individual with no friends and no Facebook, I don’t think you should try to get published on Inkshares. Your pre-existing network is an absolute must. (I have 650 Facebook friends/followers, 850 LinkedIn connections and 870 Twitter followers. It was just about enough to get to where I wanted to get.)

· Realize that getting people to support you is called marketing. Treat the journey as a marketing project split into a number of marketing campaigns. (i.e. Campaign 1 – my Facebook friends; Campaign 2 – my wife’s work colleagues; Campaign 3 – my bookclub members, Campaign 4 – "Those who can order 10 books" etc)

· Develop Marketing plan: what campaigns starts when and in which order

· Mass emails to all contacts in your contact list or posts to all Facebook friends DO NOT WORK. (Well, they work, but very poorly.) Conversion rate is 4-7%. In other words, if you send an email with BCC to 100 people, you will get 4-7 of them support you.

· I do not suggest to post any messages "to all" at all. Instead, send people personalized messages. Not just changing the name after "Dear XXX", but really personalized ones. Yes, it takes time, but conversion rates are much higher – 20-25%. (I was spending 3-5 hours per day on it during the most active periods of my campaign)

· Make a list and work on a 1-2-1 basis with people who can order 10 books – those are usually your relatives or close wealthy friends. These champions will drive your momentum.

· Do not be shy to ask for help.

· Be prepared that many people whom you expect to help you will not help you at all. It is emotionally challenging. Ignore it.

· Be prepared that some random and unexpected people will become champions of your project and will help you and will make referrals.

· Do not be surprised that many people will tell you that they will place orders and then they will not. Some people will lie that they have already placed the order when actually they haven’t done so. Try to accept that people are different. For some it is embarrassing to admit that USD 20 or 10 is a lot or money.

· Ask people for suggestions how to increase your audience. Many people are happy to share with their friends. Again, sharing on Facebook or Twitter does not generate results, but personal 1-2-1 suggestion works well. So just sharing a post is useless (unless you can ask Beyoncé or Paris Hilton do it for you). Campions of your project need to write personal messages to their friends.

· I’ve written a few articles about the topic of the book and got them published in proper digital magazines. It brought some orders, but very few. The return on the effort was small.

· Book reviewers is another promotional avenue. Get a list of freelance reviewers, who can review your book and recommend it to their audience if they like it. I got 5 bloggers review the book. That brought a few (not many) orders. (Particularly, one reviewer in India, who liked the book and promoted it got some of his followers ordering it.)

· Facebook advertising worked a bit, but not too well. I spent about USD 160 on targeted Facebook advertising. It gave me 6 - 8 orders. Not a great conversion.

So be prepared to work hard for 2-3 months. I think, 4 hours per day is minimum.

Very good luck on your journey !!

Regards

Sergey

like · liked by Irina and 21 others

Matt Harry liked an update for Devil’s Call

Hello friends,

I apologize for the radio silence, but I’m back now with exciting news!

Despite the fact that I fell off the radar for a few weeks due to an unplanned hospitalization, the bus is pretty much driving itself at this point: Devil’s Call has gone off to the typesetter and has a lovely cover from the amazing David Drummond that includes several positive blurbs. Jerry Smith from Fangoria, James Demonaco (creator of The Purge series), and J-F. DuBeau (author of A God in the Shed) contributed lovely words about the novel. ARCs have gone out, and reviews are starting to trickle in on Goodreads.

Check out this cover!

One of the immediate impediments to my online presence is the lack of Internet at the transitional housing where I’m staying while I wait to hear back about a more permanent supportive apartment. (At risk of getting all TMI over everybody, part of the reason I was hospitalized had to do with a nosedive of a depressive episode that involved a relapse after 10 months of sobriety, so here we are.) While I am able and intend to go online using WiFi hot spots, the majority of my time is now devoted to recovery.

But! Devil’s Call still has a publication date of July 17, and I am very stoked to see where my little novel goes this summer. Will make more of an effort to keep y’all up to date from now on.

xoxo,
J.

like · liked by S.T. and 20 others

Matt Harry liked an update for Tantalus Depths

No particular news for Tantalus Depths itself right now. I’ve not heard anything from Inkshares about the next step in the production process, but it’s still early and I hadn’t expected to yet.
I am currently working on the promised prologue chapter, but I’m toying with the idea of making two smaller ones instead of one larger one, as I have two interesting ideas that can’t be easily combined. We’ll see how that goes.
My main purpose for this update is not for me, or even for Tantalus Depths. I wanted to take an opportunity to show my heartfelt appreciation for a good friend.
I met Tahani Nelson through Inkshares during our mutual pre-order campaigning period. Her book, The Last Faoii, caught my attention quickly. Kaiya, her resolute protagonist, has a knack for overcoming impossible hardships without giving up even in the bleakest of circumstances, and is exactly the sort of character I strove to depict with Mary Ketch. I kind of see the two characters as cross-genre sisters.
As I’ve gotten to know Tahani better as a person, I’ve learned the true extent that the character imitates the author. She’s overcome no small number of impossible obstacles, and though they continue coming her way, she resolutely pushes through them without giving an inch of ground. She’s a real-life Kaiya, and so, in many ways, a real life Mary.
I felt a person like Tahani deserves to be immortalized in writing. The universe of Tantalus Depths is an unforgiving, dark place. Human civilization is a constantly imperiled thing; a child swimming obliviously among sharks. Yet, one of the core tenants of Tantalus Depths and any associated stories, is the notion that, in spite of these dangers, humanity endures. We may always be at the brink of destruction, but through determination and sheer force of will, we survive against the odds.
Tahani represents this to me, in life. To properly show what that means to me, I’ve named a planet for her, which I will include some capacity into the Tantalus Depths universe. If I can sneak it into Tantalus Depths somewhere during the revision phases to come, I will. If I can’t find anywhere to slip it in where it feels natural, it will be referenced at some point in the upcoming sequel. Either way, the presence of this planet in the Colonial Hegemony is now and forever canon.
Shields up, Faoii.

like · liked by Dom and 13 others

Matt Harry liked an update for Sunshine is Forever

Hey Campers!

My good friend Lew Temple blurbed Sunshine is Forever. Check it out! Your copy arrives August 29, 2017!

Thanks for the support!

Kyle T. Cowan

like · liked by Carol and 16 others

Matt Harry liked an update for Deus Hex Machina

Greetings hexers,

I have a secret that I’ve wanted to share with you, but I haven’t figured out the right way to do it, so I sort of sat on it for a while. Now though, I think it’s time to let you know that Deus Hex Machina is heading into production. Just typing those words gives me a mixture of panic attack and rush of extasy.

A couple of weeks ago I received an email from Inkshares letting me know that DHM, which had been submitted as a final manuscript in December, was going to be part of a new type of production schedule they were beginning this year. It groups authors into teams called cohorts, and sends them through the production process together as a sort of support system. I, along with several other authors, have been placed in Cohort 1. It’s all kinds of amazing.

As much as I want to blab every single detail about what is going on, I’m not sure how much I’m supposed to say about this process, so I’m going to be a bit coy. Do know that things are happening, great things, and all of them will lead to a better book and a better writer behind it.

So when will you get your books, lovely backers? According to Inkshares a Quill book (the base publishing level that DHM is filed under) has a production length of nine months. I haven’t actually received a timeline yet, so I don’t have a publication date for you. I can however surmise based on that general info that DHM should be out sometime early 2018. If I were a betting Mandie, I would say somewhere around late Winter.

I’m not sure how to end this little announcement. I guess I’ll just say thank you so much for believing in me and my little book, and that you will have your book soon, dear friends.

like · liked by S.T. and 19 others

Matt Harry liked an update for The Walls are Closing In

The finish line is in sight! As of right now, The Walls are Closing In has received 619 PREORDERS, leaving 131 TO GO!

I want to take a breath to express the appreciation that I am feeling for all of you, for rallying behind me and this book. Some of you are family members and close friends who sprang in without hesitation when I asked. Some of you are friends from my past with whom I had lost touch, but you still supported me when I reached out or when you happened to see the book circulating on social media. And, most of you, were complete strangers before this campaign began, but who nevertheless clicked the preorder button to support an unknown author.

I started writing this story over a year ago when our current political reality didn’t yet seem probable. The idea for The Walls are Closing In came to me during the primary election campaign. It began as a short story, and it snowballed from there. The first draft was complete by mid-summer 2016. At the time, I sincerely thought that the story would forever reside in the ‘alternative future’ category, but as events unfolded, the story evolved.

The themes explored in The Walls are Closing In cut a bit deeper with each passing day. In fact, I am currently making notes to rewrite certain backstory sections because, well, they have more or less happened over recent weeks and months.

Though it does walk the line between fact and fiction, more than anything The Walls are Closing In, like other fictional stories, is about the characters. There is a splash of romance and a healthy dose of perseverance as the main characters explore what makes life worth living by rooting out the joy in unlikely places. It is about digging deep, figuring out how to tap your own truth, regardless of what society throws at you.

On an unrelated-to-storyline note, I have noticed that as the campaign approaches the end, several people have gone back and placed additional orders. Thank you! Also, I received confirmation from Inkshares that if multiple e-books are purchased, that you will have the ability to share the additional files with friends and family. Each person can order a maximum of 10 total books (ebooks or paperback).

This is also the last chance to receive your name in the back of the book by ordering a ’super reader’ package of 3 paperbacks. Once 750 order mark is passed, the window will close on this opportunity. Again, for those just joining, this is that would look like (from another Inkshares book).