I am an Author :-)

[Gridian]

Hi fellow Aurora pilots!

I am writing a series of short e-books, in a universe that combines magic with science fiction. Yes, space battles with magical ships! Well, not at first of course - the young officer Xandrian Stone will first need to go through basic training...

This is my location on amazon.com (but all e-books are available worldwide exclusively on amazon, just use the amazon homepage that is most convenient to you):
https://www.amazon.com/Christian-Alex-Breitenstein/e/B014QPGTAY/ref=dp_byline_cont_ebooks_1

So far, the first 4 parts are released and I am writing part 5.

I would be very happy if you could come by (and ... ahem ... buy the books *grin*). I already ate the cake, so that's taken care of.

Uh, a crumb! *munch*

 

[Floating Cloud]

Hi Grid,

I will take a peek, cheers for the link.

Float

 

[Gridian]

Hi Grid,

I will take a peek, cheers for the link.

Float

Cheers! :-)

 

[Han Burgundy]

How has publishing with Amazon been? I, too, am writing a book and I'm getting relatively close to that point. I've heard there's way fewer hoops to jump through to get out on the market than going through a classic publisher. Does amazon provide you any ways to market your book or improve it's showing on search results?

Thanks

 

[Gearen]

Hi Author

 

[Han Burgundy]

Hi Author

I found the dad.

 

[Bishop]

Welcome.
+
Oh man, I got a question or tow.
How do you do it in regards to proove reading ?
Am trying to get my first novel out but ... I dont know... how to get past the final cut.
Story is done though ...

Is it worth it to give it to a professional prove reader ?
If you do, how much do you pay per word ?

 

[CosmicTrader]

Well done. Congratulations.

 

[Varku]

I like, that you have put some thoughts into this snnr stuff (btw even in the short sample text i already lost track of all your accronyms), but the part, where you try to explain it, read like a science book.
Thats's not a good thing in my opinion. Don't get me wrong, i often like to know some details about the world.
But at this point you're stroy hasnt even started, the reader has no charakters to love or to hate.
What i'm trying to say it's to early to give your reader a headache with this stuff.
And maybe fill the explanation with some live.

The rest of the sample was okay to read. Keep on writing and i hope someone can enjoy your books.

PS: The Cake is a lie!

 

[Gridian]

How has publishing with Amazon been? I, too, am writing a book and I'm getting relatively close to that point. I've heard there's way fewer hoops to jump through to get out on the market than going through a classic publisher. Does amazon provide you any ways to market your book or improve it's showing on search results?

Thanks

Hi Han,

It's been hoop-free, really. On Amazon, you can do everything yourself.
You start with a book (duh). Once you have that, you can make a free amazon-account, no payments needed at any time, or use yours if you want to publish under the name you already use.
They have a free cover-cretor-tool, which I use to make my covers. No money needed there either (with a professional artist it's about $500, give or take).

As for marketing, you can offer your book free for up to a week per quarter, or you can offer countdown-deals (the price starts low and goes up over the course of a day or two). Also, if your book gets good reviews, Amazon will use it in their own marketing campaigns (the e-mails you get every now and then from them). That's the main reason I publish on Amazon: They make money with your book as well and are interested in selling it themselves.

Now some numbers stuff:

You make, if your book costs less than $2.99 per copy, about 25 to 30% of the sale price. If you sell your book for $2.99 or more, you make about 50 to 55% of the sale price. The exact percentage depends a bit on where the book gets bought.
So, I make about a dollar for every three books that are sold.

But that's only part of your income. If you publish exclusively on amazon you can enter your book into their Kindle Unlimited programme, which will make you about half a cent for every page that is read. In my case, my books are rather short, I make more for every book that's read in this KU programme than for a book that's bought.

I hope this was halfway helpful! Now always remember: Don't drive while not reading! :-)

Yours, Gridian

 

[Gridian]

Welcome.
+
Oh man, I got a question or tow.
How do you do it in regards to proove reading ?
Am trying to get my first novel out but ... I dont know... how to get past the final cut.
Story is done though ...

Is it worth it to give it to a professional prove reader ?
If you do, how much do you pay per word ?

Hi Bishop,

Honestly, I don't have anyone to proof-read my material. I do that myself, and those nifty red curvy lines help a lot as well. My cost for making a book is pretty much zip, if you disregard the time it takes to write a book.
At the end of the day, what it important to me is only one thing: If I like reading it, it's good. Otherwise, it's not. Grammar issues are inevitable, if you read the books you read with an eye on that you'll see that every book has grammar issues. Some so blatant that I wonder how they were not seen, honestly. So, don't be shy! :-)
The largest advantage of an e-book is that you can correct its worst grammar issues (all, even the most minute ones, will inevitably be pointed out to you), or leave them - after all, nobody is perfect and if you allow yourself to be herded from minute correction to minute correction you'll never get your second book done. What counts is your average amount of stars. Anything above 3 for your first book is, in my own humble opinion, sufficient.

Yours,

Gridian

 

[Gridian]

I like, that you have put some thoughts into this snnr stuff (btw even in the short sample text i already lost track of all your accronyms), but the part, where you try to explain it, read like a science book.
Thats's not a good thing in my opinion. Don't get me wrong, i often like to know some details about the world.
But at this point you're stroy hasnt even started, the reader has no charakters to love or to hate.
What i'm trying to say it's to early to give your reader a headache with this stuff.
And maybe fill the explanation with some live.

The rest of the sample was okay to read. Keep on writing and i hope someone can enjoy your books.

PS: The Cake is a lie!

Hi Varku,

Thank you for taking a look! :-)

True, it's a bit technical in the beginning, and the start of the story is not perfect - but then, starting a book has proven to be the most difficult part of writing. Once the story flows, it gets a lot better. It is my very first book, and I am happy that it turned out the way it did honestly - almost 4 of 5 stars is actually 1 star higher than I was daring to hope for. :-)

I am in the fortunate position that I know that people are enjoying my books - the text reviews are a godsend that way. Especially one of book 4... I read that while eating breakfast and had to laugh so hard I almost spit my mouthful of cereals all over the monitor.

Yours,

Gridian

 

[Han Burgundy]

Hi Han,

It's been hoop-free, really. On Amazon, you can do everything yourself.
You start with a book (duh). Once you have that, you can make a free amazon-account, no payments needed at any time, or use yours if you want to publish under the name you already use.
They have a free cover-cretor-tool, which I use to make my covers. No money needed there either (with a professional artist it's about $500, give or take).

As for marketing, you can offer your book free for up to a week per quarter, or you can offer countdown-deals (the price starts low and goes up over the course of a day or two). Also, if your book gets good reviews, Amazon will use it in their own marketing campaigns (the e-mails you get every now and then from them). That's the main reason I publish on Amazon: They make money with your book as well and are interested in selling it themselves.

Now some numbers stuff:

You make, if your book costs less than $2.99 per copy, about 25 to 30% of the sale price. If you sell your book for $2.99 or more, you make about 50 to 55% of the sale price. The exact percentage depends a bit on where the book gets bought.
So, I make about a dollar for every three books that are sold.

But that's only part of your income. If you publish exclusively on amazon you can enter your book into their Kindle Unlimited programme, which will make you about half a cent for every page that is read. In my case, my books are rather short, I make more for every book that's read in this KU programme than for a book that's bought.

I hope this was halfway helpful! Now always remember: Don't drive while not reading! :)

Yours, Gridian

Hey thanks for demystifying that for me! I really like the idea of that unlimited program. 106,000 words and counting means that my book could be rather profitable under that model! Now, to make each page drive the reader forward onto the next page, that's the real trick.

Cheers!

 

[Gridian]

Hey thanks for demystifying that for me! I really like the idea of that unlimited program. 106,000 words and counting means that my book could be rather profitable under that model! Now, to make each page drive the reader forward onto the next page, that's the real trick.

Cheers!

Aye, that it is. With lots of happiness I can report that the numbers indicate strongly that my unlilmited-readers do go from beginning to end, and that's a good sign that my quality is good.

Little anouncement:
I decided to use one of Amazon's marketing tools and over the next extended week-end book 1 of Xandrian Stone is free. If you are undecided, wait until then and you can get it for free and see if you like it! :-)

Gridian

 

[Floating Cloud]

Book 1 (58 pages) is available for free on UK Amazon. I assume that's global, and per Grid's comments above it will be a short term thing. It's next in my queue (currently listening to an audiobook version of Battlemage book 1 by Stephen Arya. Both the book and the narration being excellent incidentally).

 

[Murderer]

Congrats and thanks for all the information!

 

[Gridian]

Book 1 (58 pages) is available for free on UK Amazon. I assume that's global, and per Grid's comments above it will be a short term thing. It's next in my queue (currently listening to an audiobook version of Battlemage book 1 by Stephen Arya. Both the book and the narration being excellent incidentally).

Yup, it's global. The duration (5 days) is the maximum Amazon allows per quarter - and also, I'd like to restart selling that book again. You know, Porsches to buy and Villas to build... *hrhr*

No, I am not rich. This is not Harry Potter! xD