The Smart Author’s Way to Be Found on The Web

Is there a smart author’s way to being found on the web?

The Wall Street Journal ran a long article about best selling “digital” author, Darcie Chan. Chan, an attorney wrote, “The Mill River Recluse.”

After completing her novel Chan was turned down by 100 literary agents before she found one willing to take her on. Being a new writer, Chan’s agent met with no success trying to market her book.

Fast forward five years later when Chan decided to try again on her own. This time she decided she would be her own publisher and release the book digitally. She’s now a best selling author having sold around 400 thousand copies.

How did this smart author get found on the web?

Chan bought some ads on Web sites targeting e-book readers, paid for a review from Kirkus Reviews, and strategically priced her book at 99 cents to encourage readers to try it. She’s now attracting bids from foreign imprints, movie studios and audio-book publishers, without selling a single copy in print.

She fashioned a cover image out of a photograph her sister took of a mansion in Paoli, and she and her husband used Photoshop to add some gloomy ambience. Then she nervously uploaded her manuscript to Amazon’s Kindle self-publishing program. She sold a trickle of copies. A few weeks later, she started selling it on Barnes & Noble’s Nook and through SmashWords, a self-publishing program that distributes to major e-book retailers including Apple’s iBookstore, Sony and Kobo. Her first royalty check from Amazon was for $39.

Chan noticed that a lot of popular e-books were priced at 99 cents, and immediately dropped her price from $2.99 to 99 cents. The cut would slash potential royalties—Amazon pays 35% royalties for books that cost less than $2.99, compared with 70% for books that cost $2.99 to $9.99. But sales picked up immediately. “I did that to encourage people to give it a chance,” she says. “I saw it as an investment in my future as a writer.” The strategy worked. Several reviewers on Amazon said they bought the book because it was 99 cents, then ended up liking it.

Then, at the end of June, “The Mill River Recluse” got a mention on a site called Ereader News Today, which posts tips for Kindle readers. Over the next two days, it sold another 600 copies. Ms. Chan realized she might be able to drive sales herself. She spent about $1,000 on marketing, buying banner ads on websites and blogs devoted to Kindle readers and a promotional spot on goodreads.com, a book-recommendation site with more than six million members.

After learning that self-published authors can pay to have their books reviewed by some sites, she paid $35 for a review from IndieReader.com (IndieReader no longer offers paid reviews). She paid $575 for an expedited review from Kirkus Reviews, a respected book-review journal and website. The review service, which Kirkus launched in 2005, gives self-published authors the option to keep the review private if it’s negative. Ms. Chan decided to have hers posted on their website. Kirkus called the novel “a comforting book about the random acts of kindness that hold communities together.” She used blurbs from the reviews on her Amazon and Barnes & Noble pages. “I hoped it would lend some credibility,” she says. “Most other reviewers won’t touch it.”

Ms. Liss [Chan's agent] says that the offers from U.S. publishers so far don’t improve much on what Ms. Chan is making on her own. She’s made around $130,000 before taxes—substantially more than a standard advance for the average debut novelist—and she’s getting a steady stream of royalties every month. “I told Darcie, at this point you’re printing money. They’re not. Go with God, we’ll sell the second book,” Ms. Liss says.

What’s the take away for smart authors who want to be found on the web?

1. Authors can make their books visible to buyers without an author website and blog.

2. Buying banner ads and promotional spots in the right places can pay off.

3. Paying to have the book reviewed can garner big dividends.

4. Lowering your price can attract more readers willing to take a chance on an unknown author.

5. When life doesn’t meet your expectations – change! Chan didn’t give up when every publisher turned down her book. Although she still wants to be published traditionally she was willing to try digital self-publishing and it has paid off for her to the tune of about $130 thousand dollars.

If you’re an author this article should show you that you can do it too. It’s not out of the realm of possibility.

You too can be a smart author and be found on the web!

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To read the WSJ article in it’s entirety click here.

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