Makan² Night

akmal: Hello MASA. i'm a new student from Malaysia. I want to ask, do MASA participate in NCG ?

shbefto: VillWm crcuncaxifag

gnhakd: PRcTav ytifearveqrk

Svayam: With regards to maeiktrng, I'm starting to listen more and more to what old pros who are getting their backlist up are telling me:The best maeiktrng you can do is to write the next book. In my case, this ain't difficult I've already got the next ten books scheduled on my calendar, as well as the next several audiobooks, some of which will feed my ongoing fiction podcasts. Good books make people talk about them, and they have a way of getting around, though it can take a couple years.I'm also having an interesting time watching the sampling effect kick in. When readers hear of a book, they often download a sample and put it in their reading queue. When they get to it, if they want to keep reading, they buy. My mysteries and shorts (I've only got a few up at the moment) have only been up for three months, and I'm starting to see some of those samples kick over into sales. A trickle now, but I suspect that I'll see the effect multiply as the months go on, as have so many other writers in this brave new world.-Dan Sawyerauthor of The Antithesis Progression,Down From Ten,and The Clarke Lantham Mysteries

Hcc: I think the current tlehnocogy really permits niche building and self- and indie-pubs are the best positioned to take advantage. With an eye on the break even point and even a small following (hello, Social Media), I think a writer can develop a worthwhile niche market that the big guns can't even think about because of their overhead rates.Keeping a business perspective is key. Knowing how many sales it takes to break even and keeping that number within reason particularly for the first few titles is key. I see a lot of "If you don't rent an editor, you're making a mistake" arguments, but from a business perspective, amortizing the cost of a $2000 editor (or even a $200) editor across an initial self-pub offering may mean your cover price is unattractive. The other thing to remember is that social media favors a back list. You need to HAVE a back list so putting out a book to prime the pump is important. Sure it needs to be "decent" but it doesn't need to be Dos Passos or Steinbeck if you can develop an audience. From an author perspective, I've found people are much more forgiving of a great story than they are of great writing. My own niche has grown from zero in 2007 to over 15,000 today. I spent three years building platform and signed with an indie last January. This January, I'm making more in book sales than I did from DayJob. Only two of my eight are in print, and the third is due in April. It *does* work, but it's not easy. And yeah. I'm on Konrath's list.