Second Broke Single Mom Travel book done...Bam!

Finally done, yayyyy! Whoo Hoo!

 I finally finished and uploaded my Traveltini on New York to both Kindle and Nook. It's live on Kindle already, has been for hours, but not on Nook, go figure. I went with the top cover here, the one with the NYC skyline which I do like, however I personally favor the sense of fun and whimsy of the second cover.

 I made my decision based on two things, the fact that my sales were (still are actually even though I changed it) sluggish on my first eBook with a similar cartoon "fun" cover and also because when you scan the list of best selling eBooks in travel barely any have vector or cartoon covers. I'd love to know which cover you guys prefer? Email me at BrokeSingleMomBooks (at) Yahoo.com or leave it in the comment sections. Thanks:)

E-book Authors Selling Big Numbers on Kindle

When  I log on and see that I've only made another 2 sales in the past few days I get discouraged. No, I don't want to stop trying, but I am human and so it's daunting at times. Then I read about an e-book author list naming names and counting numbers.

So if you, like me, are looking for a little encouragement that it can be done, here is a list of e-book authors that have sold 50,000+ books as of March 2012.

The list was alphabetized on the Kindle Forum by Zelah Meyer . I'm here and Zelah is in England, thinking, thinking, got it...we should trade places ala Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet in The Holiday :) Let me know Zelah, anytime!

Susan Alison http://montyandrosie.blogspot.com/

Melody Anne 150,000

Dani Amore

Bella Andre
http://books.usatoday.com/happyeverafter/post/2011-11-02/interview-bella-andre-e-book-phenom-and-author-of-from-this-moment-on/560623/1

Jake Barton

Robert Bidinotto

J Carson Black
http://donnanewton.wordpress.com/2011/11/30/30-second-interview-with-j-carson-black/

Cheryl Bolen 145,000

Kathleen Brooks

Catherine Bybee

Sarra Cannon 62,400

Karen Cantwell 86,000

Ruth Cardello

Darcie Chan
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/how-i-became-a-best-selling-author-.html

Mel Comley

Shelly Crane

Martin Crosbie 66,700

Blake Crouch

Chris Culver

David Dalglish - around 175,000
http://greghamerton.com/2011/11/indie-fantasy-authors-to-watch-david-dalglish/

Susan Denning 60,000

Saffina Desforges
http://saffinadesforgesblog.com/2011/12/21/official-annoucement-publishing-deal-for-sugar-spice-by-saffina-desforges/

Mainak Dhar - almost 100,000

Mark Edwards & Louis Voss

Sandra Edwards 90,000

Ellen Fisher - over 100,000

Penelope Fletcher - over 50,000 (? how much over?)

Tina Folsom
http://books.usatoday.com/happyeverafter/post/2011-11-04/interview-e-book-rock-star-tina-folsom-author-of-zanes-redemption/561641/1

Marie Force - 200,000 in the last year

Barbara Freethy
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/author-barbara-freethy-sells-over-one-million-self-published-e-books-in-2011-132522313.html

Jenny Gardiner

Eliza Gayle 65,000

Debora Geary

Lee Goldberg

Allan Guthrie 63,000

Gemma Halliday

Liliana Hart 100,000

Michael Hicks approaching 100,000

Amanda Hocking
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jan/12/amanda-hocking-self-publishing

Sheila Horgan - over 80,000

Hugh Howey - over 100,000

Nancy C. Johnson

Ty Johnston - over 60,000

Selena Kitt

J.A. Konrath
http://www.jakonrath.com/bio.htm

Eve Langlais - over 56,000

Stephen Leather
http://publishingebooks.blogspot.com/

Jason Letts / foreverjuly - almost 50,000

Victorine Lieske
http://www.ckvolnek.com/4/post/2011/8/meet-best-selling-author-victorine-lieske.html

John Locke

Terri Giuliano Long
http://www.novelpublicity.com/2012/01/thanks-to-you-how-book-bloggers-sparked-the-indie-publishing-revolution/

Carole Davis Luce - 100,000

CJ Lyons
http://romanceuniversity.org/2011/12/19/indie-pubbing-and-the-nyt-list-with-cj-lyons/

H.P. Mallory
www.smashwords.com/profile/view/hpmallory

KC May

Bob Mayer
http://www.bobmayer.org/

David McAfee


Stephanie McAfee
http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/new-in-paperback-stephanie-mcafees-diary-of-a-mad-fat-girl/2012/01/30/gIQA7sDLxQ_story.html

Courtney Milan

Rick Murcer
http://blog.writingspirit.com/top-10-ebook-articles/

Scott Nicholson

Anne Marie Novark - Over 75,000

Shayne Parkinson - over 50,000 (? how much over?)

Michael Prescott - 995,000!

Rose Pressey

T.R. Ragan 239,592

Terri Reid
http://jimthewriterb.wordpress.com/2011/08/22/terri-reid-sells-60000-ebooks-in-her-first-year/

Adam Rendon
http://www.therip.com/features/2011/09/08/local-author-sells-over-100000-copies-of-self-published-novel/

Lexi Revellian

Shadonna Richards

Imogen Rose

Nick Russell over 100,000

L.J. Sellers

Michele Scott - 100,000

Tori Scott 84,000

Christopher Smith 700,000

Andy Straka

Michael J Sullivan
http://www.ridanpublishing.com/michaelsullivan.html

Denise Grover Swank 60,000

Vicki Tyley 100,000

Heather Killough-Walden

Michael Wallace - over 80,000

Kerry Wilkinson
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/feb/08/self-published-author-amazon-ebook

Nicole Williams

Rachel Yu - over 60,000

I wonder how many sales they are making over on Barnes and Noble.

There is hope, happy writing.

Spreading the word aka Marketing my e-book

Why oh why is it so hard to market? For me at least. It has gotten to a point where I find myself zoning out at my desk or Starbucks and even while driving. Just trying to figure out ways to get my book in front of the people who can benefit from it, other single mothers who live on a tight budget but love to travel. Some might say that the easiest thing to do is to visit blogs that have single mothers as their target market as well. But how?

Not only is my target a very niche market but I prefer not to randomly visit blogs as a one off just to leave a comment with my blog or book as my signature. Yet I don't have time to visit the thousands of blogs that might be beneficial in getting my book into my target markets hands. I did email about a dozen site and blog owners a few months ago asking if any of them would be interested in a free copy of my book. Sadly, no responses. I mean WTF!:)

As I mentioned before I have to choose one form of marketing and dedicate time to it. Because seriously there are so many opinions about what works best that it can drive a girl mad.

I decided on using Yahoo Answers for a while and answering questions thoughtfully and closing with a signature link to my blog. I have seen a slight uptick in visits though no sales from it yet. Though I will keep at it since I can easily answer 5 or more questions in 10-15 minutes.

And I know that I have to add to that, just not sure what to choose yet. Maybe you have some ideas for a sista cuz I need help. Check out this very partial list of e-book marketing ideas you get on the web:

Bookmarks (for an e-book? really?)
Create Hype (okay, um how?)
Contests (This I want to do, perhaps a giveaway though instead of a contest)
Word of Mouth (The mecca o'marketing in my humble opinion)
Create a website for each book (no can dosville baby doll - I can barely keep up with my blog peeps)
Create a book trailer (this sounds fun and I have seen some cool ones)
Sign up at affiliate sites (I don't know, seems sketchy to me, but maybe it's just the word "affiliate")
Be active on forums (read above)
Write guest posts (I'd love too, anyone? people?)
Use coupons (?)
Business cards (?)
Use Twitter (read below)
Use Facebook (read below)

And these are just some, it's intimidating. I am not a social network person though a fellow newbie BIWer suggested Goodreads to me, thanks Laura . It seems insincere and not all organic to only put up a FB page to promote my book, so what am I to do? Make a page anyway and force myself to check it and update it daily?

For now I will keep on writing and editing and posting on Yahoo Answers. I'll keep you posted on they next move in my massive publicity campaign. :)

Pen names for E-books

Obviously every writer's goal is to make money with their writing. And as I read articles, e-books and blogs it seems that getting more e-books out there is one of the key ways to gain exposure and make more sales which equals more money.

But what if you want to expand and write in different genres and categories?

There are some e-book authors doing quite well while crossing genres and using different pen names. I think I may do the same.

I do love writing non fiction budget travel books, but I have other things I long to work on. The biggest is to start and actually complete a contemporary romance novel. I say complete because over the years I have started and abandoned a few novels. Gotta work on that follow through :)

I think I am going to go with pen names for my next few projects. One is that I have been told that ethnic sounding names, like mine, do not sell as well. People assume they will not relate to your work. I pray that after I get a few reviews that I can overcome that with my books. No matter my name I am a single mom and I write for other single moms, it's as simple as that.

I do have other Traveltini's for my Broke Single Mom series that I want to put out in the next couple of months. I also have a couple of short stories I want to get started on, the issue is timing and organization.

With my Traveltini books its about research and compilation while my short stories should be pretty easy to get down on paper as they are both fictionalized versions of my dating life.

For now I will keep my very ethnic sounding last name on my non fiction titles and I will be brain storming pen names for my shorts.

And if when I finish my novel I will decide if I use one of the names I am already using or if a new pen name is in order. :)

Sales Numbers for my first non fiction ebook

So, it has been a few weeks since I put up my first ebook for sale on Barnes and Noble and Amazon. According to the numbers on my sales reports I've only sold 3 total so far. Kinda sad, but I have hope. I've gotten really good feedback on the actual content of my book, so I am considering taking a leap (of faith and money) and redoing the cover. Since it is the first thing people will see I am thinking that a more colorful and fun cover might help me with sales. I'll be working on that this week. Here's to hoping that it works, or I'll never get out of my 8-5. whaaaaaaa!

So, anyone else out there in Cyber Land trying their hand at selling their non fiction books as ebooks? I'd love to hear from you :)

Until next time.