I have a dilemma and was hoping to get some opinions to help me make a decision. I have some material, which I published on blogs and which gained a huge following at the time. I took those writings as a practice run, shut the blogs down and started working on other projects (several years ago). However, I keep receiving emails from readers asking me if I'll ever publish it again, that they want to read it. I never charged for any of my writing yet. I intend to with my future stuff though. Anyway, I was in the process of making it into an e-book and pdf and then thought to make it available for download. But should I charge for it? I feel that I should because it's obviously something people want to read hence it has inherent saleability, but then, I think how many people won't read it just because it costs money. Not that anyone is reading it now that it's not available, but yeah, I'm torn. What would you do in this situation?
Hi Jezzabel, I would definitely put your work on Kindle, maybe Smashwords too, and others. If you set the amount to a low price, say 99c (it's got nothing to do with the value of your work), you will attract many more sales, as someone looking would take a chance for 99c, rather than 3.99c. Amazon has a huge customer base, and I am sure you would reach many more readers than by adding a pdf file to your website, even if it is immensely search engine friendly. Although by all means publish your book by pdf on your own website for your contacts. It is your book to advertise, sell, however you want. You can publish under a pen name, keeping your normal non de plume / name separate. Navigate to Amazon.co.uk (or .com), search in the Kindle store for "self-publishing", then click the drop down menu "low to high price", and a list of books being offered for free will appear offering advice. It costs nothing to download these books, in fact I think Kindle Publishing offers their official 'DIY to publishing' book freely. It costs nothing except your time of course.
I think you can start with charging for it. If it don't sell at all then you can always "change your mind" and give it away for free and hope you get more readers (as long as you don't have signed some sort of legal paper/agreement forbidding that ofc).
Hi Jenny, thank you for that I was considering Amazon Kindle, but I wasn't sure if it will accept my work because it is not in any of the major languages listed on their site. Can it be in any language? I had plans to translate it to English so I can do something with it here where I live, but I never got around to doing it. The nickname is completely different (actually two different ones, lol), so that's not a problem.
Thank you slamdunk, that's a good suggestion, I will do that. No contract, I didn't accept the publishing deal for it because it would be published in countries I live nowhere near to, it was just very impractical and probably would bring very little profit (weak currency, small market etc). At the time I thought if they liked it, I just need to translate and polish it and try to publish here, but I never got round to it, so it's just gathering dust now.
In what language are the books written? Amazon have websites for Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, United Kingdom - there are links in their webpage footer. Try searching in your language, eg. polish -english -spanish - german would bring up Polish books, yet ignoring the English, Spanish German books. I've never published to Kindle, although I have deeply researched it, perhaps when you set the criteria for you book during the 'adding a book' stage, you could add specific 'search words'. Amazon will continue to grow, and I've no doubts they are looking to expand to all countries of the world - why they would want a different website in different countries is vague to me, perhaps it has something to do with tax.
I did that and when I search in UK Amazon store (I live in the UK), there are quite a few Kindle books in Croatian (the language the text was written in). I don't know whether they were self published (doubt it) but yeah, I think I might just submit it when it's done and if they reject it, I guess I'll know
Technically, I'm retired. But like of lot of 'boomers my age, I work part-time. And the service I provide I once did as a hobby. Many of my peers do the same thing. There is always a transition when "you hang your shingle." Like any pursuit, you should expect to be paid. The idea of charging a modest fee at first is a good one. You'll develop a following. It does sound like you're already on your way. If you're still getting requests, you already have a base. Good luck!
jazz... you can tell if they're self-published by just looking at the 'product details' info and checking the publisher names...
@Tourist: Thank you for the advice and encouragement, I really appreciate it @Maia: Thanks! I'll check them out ps. I think I found one that looks self-published. Hurrah!
