The Short Story Romance Handbook Read online

  PA and Reviews – On Facebook, I asked the question, “Anyone want to help a new author out? I am doing good in sales, but can't get a review to save my life. : ) People I chat with say you need a list, or arc readers, etc. I'm a newbie. Any advice?” I had a Personal Assistant comment and I told her that I wanted help building my list for reviews. She charged me $30. She did share my posts on Facebook and promoted me on Goodreads. However, I have no idea if any of my reviews have come from this PA. You will find when you look at my books, I do not have a lot of reviews. The most I have for any book is twelve. Which is not a lot. People will tell you that you have to have a lot of reviews to be a bestseller or have sales. This is not true. Of course, it helps, and I do want more reviews. But I don’t feel you have to pay a lot of money to get reviews. I am working on building my list and hope to get more reviews this way.

  Author Central - I highly recommend you create your Author Central profile and keep it updated every time you publish a new book. Go to this link to create your profile: http://authorcentral.amazon.com

  Sign in with your username and password for Amazon. Upload and image for your profile picture. Write an ‘about me’ blurb and start adding your books to your profile. It is amazing to me the number of authors I have seen that does not use this free marketing tool. This is great if people click on your Author Name, they will be taken to your Author Central Profile page and all your books are listed. Great for when people want to read multiple books written by you.

  #1 Helpful Tool to be an Amazon Author Success

  The thing I did that has been the most helpful to me is purchasing the KDP Rocket. It is $97 for the software and is well worth the price. This self-publishing software has been a great help to me for many reasons.

  Keywords – This software tells you what buyers type into Amazon when searching for a book, it tells you how often they search by the keyword, it tells you how much money is made off the keyword and it tells you how competitive the keyword is. Keywords are so important for your book. There is a manual way to get this information, but KDP Rocket has made it so easy. Well worth the money!

  Categories – The software also tells you what categories to put your book in. It tells you which category to go in to sell more books. It also tells you how many books you would have to sell to get your book to #1.

  Other Authors – This software also allows you to search other authors. It will tell you their information, reviews, their earnings, and see their book covers. This is great when researching book covers, titles, subtitles and descriptions.

  AMS – These are ads on Amazon. This software helps you find keywords when doing an ad on Amazon. I have not used it for this service.

  ORDER KDP ROCKET HERE!

  Publishing Timeline – Boost your sales

  The #2 thing I did that helped me to boost sales and zap the Amazon algorithm was my publishing timeline. I committed to publishing twelve books in the first twelve weeks of the year. Here are the dates I published my books.

  1st – 1/19/18

  2nd – 1/20/18

  3rd – 1/23/18

  4th – 1/23/18 (Bundle)

  5th – 2/1/18

  6th – 2/11/18

  7th – 2/20/18

  8th – 3/4/18

  9th – 3/4/18 (Bundle)

  10th – 3/12/18

  11th – 3/19/18

  12th – 3/26/18 (Bundle)

  13th – 3/29/18

  14th – 4/15/18

  15th – 5/7/18

  16th – 5/21/18

  By publishing more frequently, I increased my chances of being seen and stayed up in the new release charts. I recommend that you try to publish, if not weekly, then biweekly. As you can see above, some weeks I took three of my books and combined them into a bundle. This is a great way to boost income.

  Bundling

  I highly recommend bundling books. This is a great way to increase your income and also to stay on your publishing timeline. I have created two different types of bundles.

  Series Bundle – I created a series bundle from three books. I had written three books in the Get Inked Bad Boys Romance set. I then bundled these three books into one bundle.

  Single Author Bundle on One Topic – I created a bundle of three books that were about alpha older men and younger BBW.

  When writing, I do recommend you think ahead of bundle possibilities with your books.

  Kindle Unlimited

  Kindle Unlimited is a subscription service from Amazon that gives you access to books, magazines, movies and audiobooks.

  I have all my books available through Kindle Unlimited. If someone purchases your book at $0.99 then you earn a 35% royalty. If someone “borrows” your book through Kindle Unlimited, then you earn money from number of pages read. There is not a set rate for this. At the end of the month, Amazon calculates the Global Fund and it is divided among authors for number of pages read. You can read more about earnings through Kindle Unlimited here.

  Pricing

  In my research, I have read multiple books that you can sell your books, even short books, for $2.99 each. I sell my single books for $0.99 each and my bundles for $2.99 each.

  Why do I do this? Personally, I feel that I would make more sales with a less expensive book. Is this the right way to look at it? Maybe not. I have seen multiple short story authors sell their books for $2.99 or more. This is completely up to you.

  However, the $0.99 price has worked well for me.

  But What Do I Really Have To Do?

  I have listed above everything that I have done to become a bestselling author and make over $1,000 a month. Is there one thing that you definitely have to do to become a success? Yes, there is. You have to put the work in and write the books. I encourage you to carry a voice recorder or notebook with you everywhere you go. You will not sell books if you don’t get them published. So, the absolute first step for you to do is write. Take the time and write your books. I promise it will be worth it.

  Thank you for reading this book. I hope you have learned a few things from this book. If you have success from the strategies in this book, please email me and let me know. This is my first “how to” book, if you have questions for me, please email me .

  Afterword

  Thank you for taking the time to read my story. If you enjoyed it, I’d like to ask you to please leave a review. (It’s hard for new authors to get seen without reviews.) If you would like to know when I have new releases, promotions, etc., please sign up for my newsletter by clicking below.

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  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  #1 bestselling short romance author Hope Ford writes short, steamy, sweet romances. There is always an alpha male (because who doesn’t love an alpha male) and a woman he makes his queen. Sit back, grab a glass of wine, and get lost in this happily ever after story – that’s also a little naughty.

  Find Hope Ford at:

  www.facebook.com/authorhopeford

  AuthorHopeFord.com

  Books by Hope Ford

  Back To Me: An Alpha Man, Younger BBW Steamy Sweet Romance

  Bricklayer: An Older Man, Younger BBW Steamy Sweet Romance

  Claimed: An Older Man, Younger BBW Steamy Sweet Romance

  Come Back For Me: An Older Man, Younger Woman Steamy Sweet Romance

  Don’t Hide From Me: Alpha Male, Virgin Female Steamy Sweet Romance

  For the First Time: Alpha Male, Virgin Female Steamy Sweet Romance Bundle

  Forever: An Older Man, Younger BBW, Steamy Sweet Romance

  Mine: Alpha Male, Virgin Female Steamy Sweet Romance

  She’s Mine: An Older Man, Younger BBW, Steamy Sweet Romance

  The Billionaire Biker’s Virgin: Alpha Male, Virgin Female Steamy Sweet Romance

  Get Inked Bad Boys Romance Series:

  Made For Me: An Older Man, Younger BBW Steamy Sweet Romance

  Eyes on Me: An Older Man, Younger BBW Steamy Sweet Romance

  All of Me: An Ol
der Man, Younger BBW Steam Sweet Romance

  Get Inked Bad Boys Bundle