Guest Post: How I Became a #Bestseller in horror on #Amazon India

When I published my debut book via Amazon, something incredible happened. Within a week of its release, it shot to the #1 slot of Amazon India’s New Horror Releases. When Rasana Atreya ma’am approached me to write about what I did to achieve such a stupendous feat, my first reaction was to say that I did nothing. But then I paused and thought about it. I figured I must have done something right because even today, it continues to show up within the top ten new releases of the list. And so I agreed.

And then I sat back and thought about it. What did I do? The simple one-word answer would be ‘marketing’. But that does not even begin to cover everything I did. It required hours upon hours of working on a plan and approaching people and shouting about my book from the rooftops- figuratively. The thing is, I am a very shy person, almost reclusive, so for me to step out of my comfort zone and sell my product was not easy. But I had to grit my teeth and do it.

One marketing gimmick that worked favorably for me was a series of posters that I designed for my important characters. While the book has an ensemble cast, I chose six of the most important characters and made individual posters, and gave a brief four-line blurb to each of them. These posters managed to garner quite a bit of curiosity.

Another important aspect that I worked hard on was the blurb of the book. I read somewhere that writing the blurb is tougher than writing the story itself and I could not agree more. A blurb is essentially a 100-150 word summary of your book that is not only interesting, but is also crisp and has to hook the audience. Simple enough right? I was about ready to tear my hair trying to get the perfect one, but trust me when I say this, it is worth all the effort and more.

The other thing that worked to my benefit was the cover. Although I provided the basic idea, I had the cover professionally designed. It did cost me quite a bit but it definitely managed to build the intrigue. But the most important thing to remember, is that the content is king. Marketing, blurb and cover may make the audience pick up the book but it is the content that will move them to write the review.

Finally, before closing, I’ll share one little secret, if you can guarantee the sale of a minimum of five books on the day of the release, it will give you a boost that you can then bank on to carry it forward. From there on, it requires steady and continuous effort to maintain our sales. As of now, I am approaching bloggers and trying to reach to a wider reader base through them.

So go on, choose your audience and pitch your book to the best of your ability and then, let the chips fall where they may.

Blurb

Liam’s life has become a waking nightmare. He’s plagued by constant headaches and is hounded by inexplicable events bordering on the insane. He is convinced that his vindictive ex, Lily, despite her vehement denials, is the one sending him disturbing packages. The only bright spot in a life gone berserk is Aliana, the woman Liam has loved ever since he saw her in a parking lot. But a shocking revelation about her leaves him questioning everything he knows.  As Liam plunges deeper into the twin abysses of unbridled love and unexplained insanity, he has to do all it takes to stop his life from spiraling out of control.

 

About The Author

Aindrila first penned a short story, of a princess defending a fortress, as an 11 year old. Glad that it was out of her system, she threw that piece of paper away.

 But over the years, her imagination kept tormenting her with story ideas, until she decided that it was time to finally let them out.

She now writes full time, mostly horror-fantasies, filled with complex and anguished souls, fighting monsters within and without.

She is fascinated by Indian and Greek mythology, animes, high fantasy novels, and paleontology, all of which have found their way into her stories as subtle tweaks to the backdrop. 

‘I See You’ is her first published story.

Links to Buy: Amazon.com / Amazon.in / Pothi.com 

 

 

Amazon and Tax Withholding For India

Since so many people ask me about this, I emailed an Amazon (India) official about it. Her response:

The U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) requires Amazon to collect 30% from royalty payments issued to non-U.S. entities. We automatically deduct the tax withholding from your royalty payments.

https://kdp.amazon.com/help?topicId=201274690

Essentially,  IN residents can claim a reduced withholding rate (15%) through India’s tax treaty with the US for sales on the marketplaces listed on that page (US, JP, CA, IN, MX, AU) if they file the W8-BEN with a US TIN on it. That is stated in the first section on that page.

Can Indie Authors Afford to Quit Their Day Jobs?

One of the questions I was asked in a recent interview –  Can a newbie writer hope to make decent money out of self-publishing?

I was startled to see this question because it seems very obvious to me (and to a lot of other Indies, I’m sure) that self-publishing is where the money is. Where else can you expect to get royalties of 65-70%?

In traditional publishing the superstars – the Stephen Kings and the Nora Roberts –  are the ones making serious money. Everyone else is obliged to hang on to their day jobs.

This is quite different from self-publishing where even mid-list authors – people you might never hear about – are quitting their day jobs because they are able to pay the bills. The reason you might never hear of them is that  they need to sell a mere 75 ebooks each day at $2.99 in order to make a living.  The amount people seem to agree is a  living wage? $50,000.

But I guess all of this may not be very obvious to a lot of people, so I thought I’d point you to a couple excellent blog posts. You can decide for yourself.

The Passive Guy: Indie Authors Are Quitting Their Day Jobs.

The second post is by the amazing Hugh Howey: Newbie Author Declines $120,000 3-book Deal

#self-publishing Advice on #ALLi #blog

I wrote a blog post on ‘Self-publishing In India’ for selfpublishingadvice.com (an ‘Alliance of Independent Authors’ blog). Click here for the link.

Monetizing Your Blog

Did you know you can monetize your blog on Amazon? Check out this post by Laurie Boris on Indies Unlimited.

#amazon beta-testing #ebook #cover Generator

If you’re planning to self-publish an ebook, and don’t have the skills, you’re in luck. Amazon’s experimenting with an automated ebook cover generator (on the lines of CreateSpace’s cover generator. And it’ll be free.) About time, I say.

The Digital Reader has more details on this.

Literary #agents Reinventing Themselves

With so many (inexpensive) options available to authors who are not traditionally published (and even those who are), literary agents are having to reinvent themselves. An interesting post from The Passive Voice.

Add #SendToKindle Button on Your Site

From MediaBistro:
Readers often encounter news articles, blog posts and other content on the web that they want to read but don’t have time to do so immediately. The Send to Kindle Button lets people easily send that content to their Kindle so they can it read later. Just send once and read everywhere on any Kindle device or free reading app. No more hunting around for that website or blog that caught your eye – just open your Kindle and all the content you sent is right there. The Send to Kindle Button is also great for readers who want to collect content from the web to use in work projects, school assignments, or hobbies.

Click here for the link to generate the button on Amazon.

Click here for the article in MediaBistro.

 

How To Sell Your Book on Amazon Canada

Apparently your book could be on Amazon, but not on their Canadian site. KW McCabe takes you through the steps. Click here for her tutorial.

KOBO Ups Royalties for The Self-Published

Kobo, the Japanese counterpart to Amazon, is running a limited time promotion. Between September 1 and November 30 all ebooks priced between $1.99 and $12.99 will earn their authors 80 percent royalty (vs. Amazon’s 70%).

If the book is priced outside of this range, the author will earn 45% royalties (vs. Amazon’s 35%).

Kobo, anyone? kobobooks.com/KoboWritingLife