Authors, Writers, Publishers, and Book Readers

Multiple Works in Progress

How many of you have multiple works in progress? Are they all the same genre? How do you divide your time between them?

Currently, I have 4 WIP's.... sounds like alot huh? Right now I am thinking that too! As my second book just went back to my publisher for the formatting (after 13 hours of editing, my eyes are still crossed) I find myself looking at all the projects I have in the works.

One project is about half way through - but I had come up with a snag in the plot and I got frustrated so I put it on the back burner. Recently, as I find myself mulling over the issue, I think I found the way to work through my snag... but.... There is a more recent project that I started that I was working hard on. As soon as I figured out how to work through the other issue, I lost my train of thought on the new one.

Then there is the other book that I am working on with another author. Now that one is a huge project that will be in the making for a long time, but we are throwing ideas back and forth and running plot ideas and twists back and forth.

Then there is book 3 of my series (the second book is about to be published). After reading book 2 - and coming back to those characters I find myself running that plot hard and heavy in my mind. Conversations and characters building....

I'm at a loss right now as to exactly what I should be working on. I think I have so many things in the works that I am befuddled as to which one to go to next.

Anyone else get themselves in this situations? How do you work through them?

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Amy Manemann on October 8, 2011 at 3:54am

Stacy Oh my gosh that's so hilarious!! Can he come here for a visit? lol I've reached the end of the book and all I can say is wow, I did not see that coming!! Will let you know when a review is posted ;0) I have no clue who the money goes to after the first initial 5 are sold, I suppose I'll cross that bridge when I come to it and have some cash on hand to make change if necessary. Actually now that I think more on it I believe the store manager mentioned something about the store reimbursing me for extra books sold so they'll probably just take it to the cashier for purchasing.

Steve I am planning on being my charming little ol' self at the signing, however did you know? And if that doesn't work I'll also have a BIG bowl of halloween candy available ;0)

Catherine I think that's more what I'm leaning towards. Thanks for the input everyone, you guys are great! *Hugs*

Permalink Reply by Borislava Borissova on October 10, 2011 at 6:08pm

Dear friends,

I would like to remind you about the Chat this Saturday, which I promoted last week. If you are registered, you can take an advatange to participate on 14 October at "The Open Mike, A Free Promo Opportunity for Authors all day" publishing blurbs or excerpts from your books.

On 15 October during our Chat /Catherine Green and me, you may discuss with us common themes /example "how to deal with rejection letters, how to say something new about love if everything is said by The Greats already etc./, put in your signature your amazon - links etc. with the purpose to be noticed by readers. You only cannot advertise or promote a competitor’s site (other review sites) there. Take advantage because even though all readers may not be responding there may be lurkers or people who will read it later and learn about the books we have written.
I hope we will be together :)))

Permalink Reply by Stacy Eaton on October 10, 2011 at 6:12pm

Thank you for the reminder Borislava!

Permalink Reply by Catherine Green on October 10, 2011 at 9:32pm

I'm looking forward to it, a new experience for me!

Permalink Reply by Borislava Borissova on October 12, 2011 at 2:20pm

Dear all,

Today I received an offer by e-publisher to issue my next book. I checked up its web-site and felt suprised by the prices of its Kindle books - 12; 13 $. In the same time books published through Amazon.com are 5; 6 $. Of course, I will not sign a contract up with this e-publisher but why they put such prices of their books? They make their authors unsalable and on the other side, they don't pay to a printing house for paper, for the work...

I cannot understand them.

What about the prices of your books?

Permalink Reply by Amy Manemann on October 12, 2011 at 8:50pm

Borislava, that definitely sounds strange, what was the name of the company? My ebooks are currently on sale for $.99 as I'm taking part of a launch party until November but the price will be going back up again after that (probably back to $2.99, still toying with pricing ideas) My paperbacks are currently at $10.80. Good for you for being leery of the company and doing some checking, never jump into any contracts before checking up on the company. Do your homework! XO

Borislava Borissova said:

Dear all,

Today I received an offer by e-publisher to issue my next book. I checked up its web-site and felt suprised by the prices of its Kindle books - 12; 13 $. In the same time books published through Amazon.com are 5; 6 $. Of course, I will not sign a contract up with this e-publisher but why they put such prices of their books? They make their authors unsalable and on the other side, they don't pay to a printing house for paper, for the work...

I cannot understand them.

What about the prices of your books?

Permalink Reply by Robert L. Allen on October 13, 2011 at 8:19am

Have you guys looked at book prices in the stores, they're 7.99-15.99. Borissova, I don't think 12-13 is that bad, is it??? However, I do not know what Kindle books sell for. To me .99 seems not worth it. Think of all the time you put into this, not just writing the book but promoting and selling it. If you sell a hundren copies at .99, you make less than $100.00. If you sell half that amount at, even $5.00, you will make $250.00. I have to think your time and effort is worth more...I could be wrong...And don't forget, 1/3 of all you gross will go to taxes...I have read that new writers, if they're lucky, will sell under 50,000 copies of their first book. But sometimes that is a high figure...I don't want to rain on your party, but I think you guys are worth more...

Borislava Borissova said:

Amy Manemann said:

Borislava, that definitely sounds strange, what was the name of the company? My ebooks are currently on sale for $.99 as I'm taking part of a launch party until November but the price will be going back up again after that (probably back to $2.99, still toying with pricing ideas) My paperbacks are currently at $10.80. Good for you for being leery of the company and doing some checking, never jump into any contracts before checking up on the company. Do your homework! XO

Borislava Borissova said:
Dear all,

Today I received an offer by e-publisher to issue my next book. I checked up its web-site and felt suprised by the prices of its Kindle books - 12; 13 $. In the same time books published through Amazon.com are 5; 6 $. Of course, I will not sign a contract up with this e-publisher but why they put such prices of their books? They make their authors unsalable and on the other side, they don't pay to a printing house for paper, for the work...

I cannot understand them.

What about the prices of your books?

Permalink Reply by Borislava Borissova on October 13, 2011 at 8:40am

Borislava Borissova said:

Hi Amy,

I consider to publish with Amazon my third book and I am interested in all information I can obtain about the whole process so thank you, for your cooment.

I also search for romantic, passionate pictures for my book's Trailer. I cannot complete it, yet :(((

Amy Manemann said:

Borislava, that definitely sounds strange, what was the name of the company? My ebooks are currently on sale for $.99 as I'm taking part of a launch party until November but the price will be going back up again after that (probably back to $2.99, still toying with pricing ideas) My paperbacks are currently at $10.80. Good for you for being leery of the company and doing some checking, never jump into any contracts before checking up on the company. Do your homework! XO

Borislava Borissova said:
Dear all,

Today I received an offer by e-publisher to issue my next book. I checked up its web-site and felt suprised by the prices of its Kindle books - 12; 13 $. In the same time books published through Amazon.com are 5; 6 $. Of course, I will not sign a contract up with this e-publisher but why they put such prices of their books? They make their authors unsalable and on the other side, they don't pay to a printing house for paper, for the work...

I cannot understand them.

What about the prices of your books?

Permalink Reply by Borislava Borissova on October 13, 2011 at 8:52am

Hi Robert,

I still can dream to sell 50,000 copies of my books. In my opinion 12-13 $ is bad for an unknown author's Kindle copy /not paperback or hardback/, because there is a huge pile of books under this price. How many books from the stores are sold for the last two years? Amazon published officially that e-books passed traditional paperback copies in 2010 and first half of 2011. So I think 4-5-6 $ is a reasonable price in modern times. Of course, my view point is changeable as everything in this business.

Robert L. Allen said:

Have you guys looked at book prices in the stores, they're 7.99-15.99. Borissova, I don't think is that bad, is it??? However, I do not know what Kindle books sell for. To me .99 seems not worth it. Think of all the time you put into this, not just writing the book but promoting and selling it. If you sell a hundren copies at .99, you make less than $100.00. If you sell half that amount at, even $5.00, you will make $250.00. I have to think your time and effort is worth more...I could be wrong...And don't forget, 1/3 of all you gross will go to taxes...I have read that new writers, if they're lucky, will sell under 50,000 copies of their first book. But sometimes that is a high figure...I don't want to rain on your party, but I think you guys are worth more...

Borislava Borissova said:

Amy Manemann said:

Borislava, that definitely sounds strange, what was the name of the company? My ebooks are currently on sale for $.99 as I'm taking part of a launch party until November but the price will be going back up again after that (probably back to $2.99, still toying with pricing ideas) My paperbacks are currently at $10.80. Good for you for being leery of the company and doing some checking, never jump into any contracts before checking up on the company. Do your homework! XO

Borislava Borissova said:
Dear all,

Today I received an offer by e-publisher to issue my next book. I checked up its web-site and felt suprised by the prices of its Kindle books - 12; 13 $. In the same time books published through Amazon.com are 5; 6 $. Of course, I will not sign a contract up with this e-publisher but why they put such prices of their books? They make their authors unsalable and on the other side, they don't pay to a printing house for paper, for the work...

I cannot understand them.

What about the prices of your books?

Permalink Reply by Steve Norris on October 13, 2011 at 4:39pm

The way it works in the modern market is that authors are running kindle books as a loss leader. So Stacy is selling hers cheap and so am I. This is purely to get presence in the market. The cost base is low so there is nothing to lose as such. The theory is that selling 10 kindles for £2/$3 is better than selling one for £10/$15, as you presence in the market increases.

Every marketing blog for books will tell you to smash the price of kindle/ebooks as to be honest they are more disposable and it gets you more of a market presence which in the end will translate to paper sales. Hence my proposal with Stacey to work together to inflate our chart position to get more market presence for minimal cost.

I had the same conversation with my publisher who was happy to reduce the price to raise sales as they also have no costs to recover on e-books. A new author selling e-books at a high price has minimal chance of sales I believe, but maybe this publisher/distributor knows something I don't.

To Robert's point about devaluing your work, well you can be proud, or you can sell books. There may be a hard choice to make. I would say where i have done specific targetted marketing on the kindle version it has done the job as people are simply more likely to take a punt on a cheap book

Hope this helps

Permalink Reply by Dennis P McGeehan on October 13, 2011 at 4:52pm

Short answer is Yes ! I'm recently retired so you would thimk I have lots of time to write. Well I have about 20 years worth of projects for our home to get to. Add being the father of 8 kids and time becomes precious. I have one novel I been working on for 5 years, a Spiritual Warfare plot, with about 30,000 words so far, another Paranormal novel that I had about 10,000 words in when I lost everything to a computer crash. A third book I am working on that is non-fiction that I hope to finish up in about 3 weeks, I need to get photos for it done, and a fourth that will be a long term project and at least a Trilogy when it is done. I also have just put up a blog page. I am a total novice as an author, trying to learn the ropes as best I can. I just came home from a writer's conference, it was great.

So yes, I can relate to drowning in different projects, but I think it is better to have to much to do than nothing to do.

Dennis

Permalink Reply by Borislava Borissova on October 13, 2011 at 8:23pm

Thank you very much, Steve! Now I am in the process of editing of my third book and I am sure I prefer to publish it using amazon opportunities.

I am interested in your words: "my proposal with Stacey to work together". It happens the same for Catherine Green and me. We will host a chat together this Saturday and I so hope some of authors hereq including you would come and join us. On 15th October from 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM EST on the Chatters E-loop I will be co-host of a live chat titled: Love and Other Dreams in Books on http://groups.yahoo.com/group/karenfindoutaboutnewbooks.

But I also consider other possibilities and my last idea is exchanged posts on our Facebook walls. Example if I publish your short message about your book on my FB wall it will reach more than 350 people in my chain. If you publish my short message about my book on your FB wall it will be noticed by the people in your chain that do not know me at all.

What do you think? What other authors here think about this channel to get new readers?

Steve Norris said:

The way it works in the modern market is that authors are running kindle books as a loss leader. So Stacy is selling hers cheap and so am I. This is purely to get presence in the market. The cost base is low so there is nothing to lose as such. The theory is that selling 10 kindles for £2/$3 is better than selling one for £10/$15, as you presence in the market increases.

Every marketing blog for books will tell you to smash the price of kindle/ebooks as to be honest they are more disposable and it gets you more of a market presence which in the end will translate to paper sales. Hence my proposal with Stacey to work together to inflate our chart position to get more market presence for minimal cost.

I had the same conversation with my publisher who was happy to reduce the price to raise sales as they also have no costs to recover on e-books. A new author selling e-books at a high price has minimal chance of sales I believe, but maybe this publisher/distributor knows something I don't.

To Robert's point about devaluing your work, well you can be proud, or you can sell books. There may be a hard choice to make. I would say where i have done specific targetted marketing on the kindle version it has done the job as people are simply more likely to take a punt on a cheap book

Hope this helps