Catching Up & Changing Routes

Yes! I’m happy to announce that I finished the rough draft of Scavenger, got it cleaned up and shipped off to my beta readers! 😀 I’d do a happy dance, but I woke up with a kink in my neck this morning. Ugh, hate those but I don’t exactly practice proper ergonomics, either – my bad.

I’m also happy to say that I got the final cover for Scavenger done. It’s so hard keeping it to myself, I can’t wait to share it with you! Since I made Collar Me Foxy’s cover, I just decided to stick with it for the rest of the series. The nice thing about Canva is that you can make a copy of your complete cover and that way the same color theme, fonts and everything are already in place, all you have to do is replace/adjust the photo and choose the proper filter setting (if you have any) and tweak it to your liking. No need to start from scratch – so, that’s just a little insight for those thinking about making their own covers. Of course, it’s more complicated if you’re using vignettes or multiples layers.

Another little insight I’d like to talk about with my fellow Indie’s is regarding publishing platforms. First I’ll start off by stating that everyone’s experience is different, so this is in no way a guideline on what you should do – I think we all should try everything for ourselves and come to our own conclusions on what works best for us. I’m going to be unpublishing my books from Smashwords and enrolling them into the KDP Select program at the end of this month (the end of Smashwords’s quarter).

I love everything about Smashwords, why it exists and everything it provides for Indie Authors – this is admittedly a business decision, not a personal one. Unfortunately, Smashwords’s Reporting & Payment policies are not competitive to Amazon’s. I’ll break it down for comparison:

Smaswords Reporting & Payment Policies:

• 3 months per quarter + 30-40 days for payment, so for the quarter of July/August/September an author gets paid around the end of October, beginning of November.
• A 30-60 day lag between end of quarter and when third party retailers send payments for sales (if any) to Smashwords. (according to their FAQ)
• Smashwords purchases reported right away.
• Third party retailer sales updated every 48 hours under Daily Sales.
• A $75 minimum for payment by check. A $10 minimum for payment by PayPal, no exceptions.

Amazon KDP’s Reporting & Payment Policies:

• 60 days after each month you make a sale, you get paid. (i.e. I got paid in August for June’s sales.)
• Your sales are updated 24 hours after they happen – worldwide.
• A $100 minimum for check or wire transfers. NO minimum for EFT payments (direct deposit) – whatever you make, you get.

So far, I’ve only sold 1 of each book available on Smashwords, a total of under $3.00. So not only am I unsure of how many books I may have sold at third party retailers, I don’t even know if I qualify to get paid at the end of October/beginning of November. Yet, my books have been selling fairly regularly on Amazon. So, for me, this is a smart business decision to take my books to where they’re selling. Also, since both of my books fall under the 35% royalty range, rather than the 70% royalty range, going Select could be more lucrative than staying normal KDP. Here’s why:

Amazon KDP Select Reporting & Payment Policies:

• Sales reported 24 hours after they happen – worldwide – for regular, non-KU/KOLL customers.
• Sales reports generated the 15th of every month for Kindle Unlimited & Kindle Owners Lender Library customers.
• KENP reports as it happens (number of pages read through Kindle Unlimited or the Kindle Owners Lending Library).
• You get paid your regular sales 60 days after the end of each calendar month for non-KU/KOLL purchases.
• You get paid from the KDP Select Global Fund for all books read through the Kindle Unlimited or Kindle Owner Lender Library programs – from my understanding, this is paid the same way KDP payments happen – 60 days after the end of each calendar month – if this is wrong, please let me know in the comments below!

Like I said, this is a choice I’m making for my own books, not something I’m recommending for yours, unless you want to. Another new experience I will happily share with you in a future post to let you know how it works out. In the meantime, I hope everyone is doing great and making progress on their own beloved projects and I have so many blogs and emails to catch up on, I better get back to it! 😀

♥ In Scavenger, Tessa faces a typical sub conundrum more than once. Which is: giving Master too much information, because you’re forbidden to tell lies.

“You don’t like yellow, pet?”

“I hate it, Master.”

“Good to know,” he smiled deviously.

Personally, I think Master Felix just likes having a full arsenal of future punishments at the ready. Which do you prefer in books: blatant attacks, subtle unravelings or a good mixture of both?

 

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