Author: Ladylit Publishing

Apart from publishing (e)books, LadyLit also offers related services to authors aspiring to self-publish (such as book formatting and web design). On this blog we’d like to share some of our own experiences in the exciting new world of indie publishing and provide some helpful tips along the way.

Today is the unofficial release date of Harper Bliss‘ free short story Wetter. Unofficial because, despite it already being available on Smashwords and Amazon, for now, it’s only free on Smashwords. From experience (with Dirty Pleasure by Lee Harlem Robinson), we know it can take up to two months before Amazon matches the price. But, in our opinion, the wait is definitely worth it.

‘Free’ works, which is why the Amazon KDP Select programme is so popular. Some authors, however, don’t want to give Amazon the exclusive right to sell their e-book. This doesn’t mean they can’t choose to give away free e-books on Amazon. Here’s how you do it.

Amazon automatically price-matches the e-books it sells to other retailers’ prices. Basically, all you’ve got to do is make sure your book is available for free at e.g. Barnes & Noble and you’re good to go. It sounds simple enough, but in reality, it’s more of a waiting game. Here are the steps you need to take.

1. Upload your e-book to Smashwords and make sure it has no auto-vetter errors (if you need help with this bit, check out our e-book formatting service).
2. Upload your e-book to Amazon and price it at $0.99, the lowest price possible.
3. This is where the waiting begins. Amazon doesn’t price-match with Smashwords so you have to wait until your book has made it into Smashwords’ premium catalogue and is distributed to B&N, Kobo, Diesel, Apple and Sony. Getting into the premium catalog takes 2 to 3 weeks and distribution to all channels will require at least one more week of waiting (with Diesel usually being the fastest).
4. Once you find your book for sale on one of the retailers’ website, alert Amazon. On your Amazon product page (right under the Amazon Best Sellers Rank), click the link ‘tell us about a lower price’ and copy/paste the direct link to the product page on e.g. Diesel or Barnes & Noble. It also helps if you enlist a few friends with Amazon accounts to do the same.
5. Wait some more and check your Amazon product page regularly, until one magical day, your e-book will be available for free.

This process can take more than a month and requires patience. It’s not a short-term marketing tool the way KDP Select can be, but in the long run, once your book is free, can generate extra sales for other books on your backlist (especially if you write a series and make the first book free). Free is, after all, the new black. Speaking of which, get your free copy of Wetter at Smashwords now (all formats are available). Enjoy!

Harper Bliss is a busy girl. LadyLit will release two new sizzling titles in the coming weeks, of which one will be completely free.

1. Wetter
A FREE (and sweaty) short story about Rachel, who’s had a crush on her spin instructor Toni for months. One late night visit to the locker room steam cabin transforms her fantasies into hot, steaming reality.

Wetter will be available on Monday 25 June.

 

 

 

 

 

2. The Honeymoon
A sizzling novelette featuring a couple of newlyweds honeymooning in Phuket. When they encounter a mysterious Asian woman in their beach side resort, they decide to give each other a very special wedding gift.

The Honeymoon will be available the first week of July.

…more specifically, LadyLit books. In our first blog post, we already talked about Harper Bliss (who has her own blog with juicy bits of news all over it) and her first LadyLit release Hired Help. Today we’re focusing on the other member of the LadyLit family: Lee Harlem Robinson.

Lee currently has two available publications, the full-length novel Come and Go and the free prequel short story Dirty Pleasure, which has been residing steadily in the Kindle Free Short Story chart since its price dropped to zero.

Lee’s story is a bit of an unusual one since, well, she’s not a real person. Lee Harlem Robinson is a fictional character created for a blog. To preserve the direct writing style of the blog, Lee’s creator thought it better to establish Lee Harlem Robinson as the author of her own story. After almost 300 blog posts it would have been strange to suddenly stick a different name on the narration of Lee’s adventures, especially since they’ve always been written from the first person perspective. And, we might as well admit it, Lee Harlem Robinson is just one hell of a name.

Lee’s first novel Come and Go deals with her dramatic adventures in romance once she sets foot on Hong Kong soil. It has been described by Amazon reviewers as ‘an entertaining and engrossing read, which lets the reader ponder whether the traditional sense of relationship of monogamy and plain vanilla sex works for everyone’ and ‘the Hong Kong L Word or an Asian expat version of Lip Service’. All the places in the book are real, so if you live in Hong Kong (or have visited) you get some extra value added to your reading experience. It’s available as both an e-book and in paperback and our next step is to get it in some brick-and-mortar bookshops.

Dirty Pleasure is a short story with the same characters and settings as Come and Go and time-wise it is set before Come and Go starts. It describes the crazy weekend in Hong Kong when Lee meets her ‘lesbros’ and it is completely free. You can get it either from Amazon (Kindle), iTunes (iPad) or download it via our website.

A sequel novella to Come and Go is planned for late 2012.

There’s no better day to kick off the LadyLit blog than on the day the first Harper Bliss ebook is let loose on the world. Harper is LadyLit’s resident erotica writer and her stories come with a serious disclaimer, caution: hot!

Hired Help* is the first in a series of lesbian erotic stories set in the most tantalising places in the world. The next instalment will be released in early July (increasing the already unbearable Hong Kong summer heat substantially).

LadyLit also published ‘Come and Go’ and ‘Dirty Pleasure’, both by Lee Harlem Robinson. Of course, Lee’s dramatic adventures in Hong Kong need a sequel and we hope to bring you just that near the end of 2012.

Meanwhile, we’ll be blogging on these pages regularly about digital publishing in Hong Kong. Please like LadyLit on Facebook or follow us on Twitter if you want to follow our journey. We also have a newsletter you can subscribe to if you prefer your news neatly delivered to your mail box.

* Hired Help contains graphic language and f/f sex and should not be read by people under the age of 18