Kindle Categories and Book Royalties

So Jehovah and Hades, released at the end of January, hasn't pulled in phenomenal numbers. That's alright since it was my first shot at fiction, it has two unsolicited 5 star reviews, and I had a good time writing it. A lot of fiction writers had huge backlogs of novels, shorts, and other works waiting on their computers when they decided to publish. I didn't. What I had was history articles that I wrote while getting my history degree. I usually posted them here and they got a decent number of reads on my blog. I decided to take three of my history articles, Constantine: The Emperor of Tolerance, Prayer: Archangels and Intercessory Beings, and Luther Standing Bear: Assimilation, and put them on the Kindle for $0.99 each. The article on Constantine has been the best seller so far. Here's the stats on all three in case anyone is interested:



CONSTANTINE: THE EMPEROR OF TOLERANCE
Published: 4/17/12
Pages: 26
Total Free Downloads: 279
Total U.S. Sales: 10
Total U.K. Sales: 14
KDP Select Borrows: 1



PRAYER: ARCHANGELS AND INTERCESSORY BEINGS
Published: 5/3/12
Pages: 12
Total Free Downloads: 97
Total U.S. Sales: 0
Total U.K. Sales: 1
KDP Select Borrows: 0



LUTHER STANDING BEAR: ASSIMILATION
Published: 5/9/12
Pages: 10
Total Free Downloads: 77
Total U.S. Sales: 1
Total U.K. Sales: 0
KDP Select Borrows: 0


I started each article off with a two day free promo. Since reports, sales, and overall downloads were down in May, it seems that the articles on prayer and Luther Standing Bear got off to a slower start but they are also shorter articles and it's possible that people are just more interested in Constantine. I think the problem I ran into with Jehovah and Hades was that it's in two huge categories (action & adventure and short stories) and rarely cracked a top 100 list (in fact I think it only did once). Since the article on Constantine is in the smaller categories of Roman History and Christian History, it has cracked three top 100 lists on several occasions, in both the U.S. and the U.K., on both free and paid lists.

While I'm continuing to work on Jacob and Hyde (I'm about halfway done and I can see it probably doing a bit better than Jehovah and Hades has), it's nice to see some sales coming in. Until the beginning of May, my article on Constantine was selling 1-3 per day without fail. It seems May has kind of been a slump for everyone since the market is being flooded with free books and most people are probably outside enjoying the nice weather... not reading. I'm thinking of removing all three articles from KDP Select (which allows you to do free promos 5 days every 90 day period and Amazon pays you when a Prime customer borrows your book for a month) because of the need to be exclusive to Amazon. I think I'll try all three articles (and Jehovah and Hades) on the Nook and Smashwords. That being said, the payout for each borrow in April was $2.48 and since I make $0.35 for SELLING a copy, that one borrow I got in April was the equivalent of seven paid copies. Seeing that, the KDP Select program may actually be beneficial for $0.99 articles and short stories if they bring in a consistent amount of borrows. Most people on the Kindle Author forums report that Nook and Smashword sales are usually around 30% of their total, so I think that may be the better option for the time being.

I also got a new email address, randallmorrisauthor@gmail.com, if anyone wants to discuss anything related to my writing or has a comment/question on something I've written. Feel free to send me emails there if you feel so inclined.

Constantine: The Emperor of Tolerance

So I finished my last paper for my history degree. I also added some sections that weren't incredibly relevant (but they were interesting) and then I published my paper, Constantine: The Emperor of Tolerance, on Amazon. It's available now for the Kindle and I started things off with a free promo for 4/20-4/21. It's currently #1 in Free Books under History > Ancient > Rome and also under History > Ancient. It's #2 in Free under Christianity > Church History. It's only 25 pages so it's a quick read and I think everyone will learn something from it. Maybe not something relevant to their lives or some great truth... but hopefully something interesting.

I made the cover myself. Once it's off the free promo, it will only be $0.99 and I really like the cover I made. Here's what it looks like:





Feel free to grab a free copy here. It will cost $0.99 after Saturday. I'm still working on Jacob and Hyde but getting this ready for the Kindle was a fun process since this paper took a long time to research and write. I've already given away more free copies of this article on Constantine in one day than Jehovah and Hades gave away in three during its free promo. To be fair... I know what I'm doing and how to promote a lot better now. :-P

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An Update on my Writing

So some of you have been wondering when the prequel to Jehovah and Hades is going to be up on Amazon. Let me start off by saying that I want to complete that book and get it published as soon as I can. I've been distracted from it by work and writing a 25 page senior thesis to finish up my history degree. I just recently finished writing 25 pages on Constantine and the model he established for the Byzantine Empire by allowing for religious toleration (and the two notable emperors, Julian and Theodosius, who diverted from his model which led to war in both cases.) I might be publishing my paper on Constantine on the Kindle as well.

As far as The Journals of Jacob and Hyde goes, I recently got some time to sit down and work on it a little bit. I currently have the introduction complete and the first two and a half chapters. It's just over 6,000 words so far. I still have a ways to go but I think this will be a better story than Jehovah and Hades. I've handed out the intro with the first chapter to a few authors I know and the feedback has been unanimous that it's a great start. I have the introduction posted here. Give it a quick read. I hope to have the book complete some time in May. I also plan on posting another "Evolution of the Cover" right before I release it. One cool thing about this cover is that my cover artist actually used my eyes from one of my photos that I sent her as the eyes for Jacob on the cover (but she turned them red). For now, I'll post the photo of me and you can compare it to the cover photo when I post the "Evolution of the Cover."

So that's how Jacob's eyes appear... only mine are brown/green and his will be red on the cover. Thanks everyone who has purchased Jehovah and Hades for the Kindle or in paperback. I really appreciate the support.