Earlier this week I turned in my approved copy edits for A Beauty Queen’s Guide to Murder & Mayhem. I have two more rounds to approve–proofreading and formatting/final pages–and then I’m officially ‘pencils down’ with this book, which is good because the deadline of November 15 for the second book in the series is fast approaching.
I’ve written about 57K words of Book 2, and I’m hoping to get to 70-75k by the end of September. In October I’d like to self-edit and add content to get to around 80k. My biggest concern right now is whether my mystery is getting too convoluted with all of the side stories I like to explore. If I can bring all of the threads together by the end, I’ll be very happy, and if I can’t, I suppose I’ll be removing a thread and hoping the tapestry doesn’t entirely fall apart.
A couple of months ago, I reached out to MIRA, the publisher of my first three novels, and asked if they would consider putting one of my titles in Kindle Unlimited. My editor said that she would go back and talk to the team about which one they might submit for consideration because Amazon apparently doesn’t just allow publishers to drop a book into KU. I also found out that traditional publishers (at least, it seems, the Big 5) are treated differently by Amazon than their smaller publisher, or even indie author, counterparts. When smaller publishers or indie authors upload an ebook into KU, they cannot sell the ebook on any other platforms for at least 90 days (at which time they may remove the ebook from KU), but with large traditional publishers, this rule seems to float away.
I know that my request to be placed in KU might sound like a strange ask since according to the payout for ‘per page reads’, the publisher would only make somewhere around $1.50 from a person reading my entire book. This then means that I only earned about $0.38. As I’ve often said to readers, don’t feel bad getting any of my books from the library. You buying me a plain cup of coffee will benefit me more financially than you buying one of my books :). This will not be as true for my 2025 series because in lieu of an advance, my royalty rate with Storm is much higher.
Despite the lack of financial procurement, I thought that having one of my darker mystery novels in KU *might* be a good long-term strategy (see me throwing that spaghetti against the wall to see what sticks??). Here’s why: My deal with Storm publishing is for a three-part mystery series, coming out in February, June, and November of 2025. These books are lighter mysteries than my first three standalone novels, BUT they share the small town southern atmosphere, a sisterhood of strong women, and a heapful of revenge. In other words, the thrust of the novel is very much in line with my first three books.
I’m hoping my readers who enjoy the new lighter stories will decide to go and see what else might be available by Kristen Bird in Kindle Unlimited, and now, they’ll find my debut, The Night She Went Missing for their reading pleasure. (The publisher of my first three novels decided to submit my debut.) If they like my darker stuff, maybe they’ll try I Love It When You Lie or Watch It Burn.
The old adage for authors is that if you want to sell your last book, then publish your next book. By the end of next year, if the good Lord’s willing and the creek don’t rise, I should have a five-book backlist with my sixth book just released. I remember thinking in 2022 when TNSWM was published, I wish I had a backlist, so this feels like a big accomplishment for three years, and I think the only way I could’ve done this with my current life situation (family, teaching, sleeping), is by releasing fast with a publisher like Storm.
I am, however, concerned about one specific challenge (or, if you prefer, opportunity). The KU market and the bookstore market are viewed as two different entities, so it could be that I’m simply reaching one audience with my darker stories and one with my lighter series. I’d love to see an overlap here, but I’m not sure how realistic that will be to achieve. Either way, I can look at these publishing decisions as one of variable assets in which I’m trying multiple streams of income.
To finish today, I’d like to share a few sips of tea with you from the publishing world. My goal with this substack is to take the whispered things in publishing and make them known. Some of these points are just my own industry observations while others are things I’ve heard while chatting with folks in this space. These claims aren’t verified, and I won’t share my sources, but if you like a bit of unfounded industry insight, here we go:
Thrillers are no longer selling like hotcakes to editors these days. An editor at a Big 5 recently told me that if you can pitch your thriller in a way that lends to more flexibility with marketing, then do it.
Horror is still hot. I’m hearing about horror across indie and trad published community. If you can make the horror ‘something else’ too–funny, let’s say–then even better.
Women’s fiction + platform. Some women’s fiction editors now want a platform for the author before buying a book.
Romance (not romantasy) is cooling off. An industry professional is predicting that romance has plateaued and that sales will be declining. Another speculation from an author friend: perhaps this is in part due to BookTok beginning to cannibalize itself and implode? An agent friend recently heard that romcoms are specifically tough and editors are now looking for authors with platforms.
Buying Up Booktok. Many indie authors who’ve found success on their own or with hybrid publishers are now being scooped up by the Big 5, and marketing teams are specifically looking at books with an already established track record. An editor recently posed this question to me though: Will readers who’ve been buying these author’s books at $3.99 or reading on KU want to put out $14.99 for an ebook? Maybe, maybe not. Time will tell.
Special editions with sprayed edges and beautiful foiling are blowing up. This is pretty obvious since B&N has even begun carrying them. Indie authors looking to do their own print runs of these beautiful covers should listen to Joanna Penn’s podcast and check out BookVault, which now has a subsidiary in the U.S. as well as the original printing plant in the UK.
Audible isn’t everything. The audiobook market is more than Audible, as Brandon Sanderson has taught us by not publishing his audio books on the platform for some time. Hoopla is a library database of ebooks, films, and audiobooks that has eight million users, and Overdrive/Libby are also library databases that can increase an author’s revenue. A few other outlets for audio include Apple and Simply Audio, and as we all know, Spotify. Happily, instead of Spotify cannibalizing audio sales, it’s actually increasing the market with younger readers, so audio growth is expected to continue into next year.
Don’t quit your day job. An author-friend recently told me that she’s concerned for the authors she’s seeing posting about their six-figure deals and saying that they are now full-time authors. My author-friend texted me and said she wants to warn them not to set their hopes too high because the six-figure debut is *often* (maybe? probably?) going to be their book with the highest advance. It’s NOT rare for the publisher to come back and adjust the next advance offer because the first book ‘didn’t sell as well as expected.’ My author-friend has been there, done that, felt the heartache, and is now branching out into other work as she continues to write. She wants to encourage others to be cautious about making long-term decisions based on a book contract.
Thanks for reading. If you’re in KU, check out The Night She Went Missing, and if you have any morsels you want included in a future Industry Tea post, send them to me at kristenbirdwrites@gmail.com.
Happy writing–or not!
Kristen