April: The Month of the Backlog

A long while back, I recall reading a post on Medium from an aspiring author who faced a dilemma:

Every author’s success relies heavily on having a healthy backlog.

However:

I cannot put out my first book because I have no backlog. Being my first book and all.

Now, before you think too hard on that, this is not a “chicken or the egg” paradox. You can’t have a backlog if you never publish.

Let me assure you, I did not let the lack of a backlog stop me from publishing A Bloody Business. But it does illustrate the reverence with which we authors treat “the backlog.”

What is the backlog?

It is a simple concept:

I liked Book A from this author. Does the author have another book like this? Oh, wow, Book B looks perfect. Let me grab a copy.

It makes sense. They’ve already experienced your style, seen the level of quality you deliver, and no longer have to worry about wasting their time/money as much as they might with an unknown author. Obviously, there are no guarantees (plot is one major element that will never be the exact same), but it’s how many readers source their books.

I’ve read entire series on this premise. Or even multiple standalones by the same author (e.g. the classic Harlan Coben: that person whose death in the protagonist’s past deeply affected them isn’t really dead and you’re silly for thinking so).

Conversely, I’ve read books that I’ve absolutely loved only to be devastated to find the author has written nothing else—or nothing that matches the genre of this one (looking at you, Brute Force).

It’s an easy way to sell additional books without costing you additional advertising dollars/effort.

Indeed, what is a series but the backlog concept taken to higher level: not only can you count on the same author, but now the same characters and a shared plotline across the books.

And let me tell you, with three books to my name, it is comforting to see the idea playing out.

The Backlog of Stephen A. Roddewig

And while I’m certainly not claiming to have unlocked untold riches (spoiler: you get to see a royalty statement with unredacted figures 😲), the genre synergy between the three books on offer appears to be working to my advantage: irreverent, witty protagonist keeps readers laughing even as he leaves a trail of bodies in his wake.

Hell, I even make fun of the idea that Martin Williams and Dick Winchester are cut from the same cloth:

Stick around for the bonus chapter where I introduce Dick Winchester, a man of action who lives by his own rules, drinks to excess, and never strays far from his gun.

Again, completely different character.

Okay, let’s talk numbers.

At first, I debated redacting the numbers, so as to not invite character judgments around how much I was making off a book sale (or how much I wasn’t making overall).

But screw that. If the Vocal Big Leaguers want to scoff at me for making less than they made with two 1st Place spots on the Leaderboard, let them.

So, in the world of independent publishing, these are healthy numbers outside of a release month where you can count on a groundswell of sales. Especially pleasing is the record-breaking number of Kindle Unlimited page reads, which appears to be one individual reading each of my three books in their entirety:

I say “appears to be one individual” because there’s no way to know this wasn’t multiple readers. Either way, ground-breaking month.

Also, with the release of The Counterattack: Dick Winchester Book 2 in March, it’s great to both see some continued momentum with that particular book and see Book 1 reaping additional sales as, assuming once more, readers saw Book 2 release and decided to start at the beginning for the full experience.

And even A Bloody Business, now in the world for 14 months, still gets some attention as part of the Kindle Unlimited surge.

Supporting my “one reader, three books” hypothesis, we can see for most of April a gradual, realistic pace for one person reading three books across the month. Except for the 16th when this person must have taken the day off from work to speed read. Guess my writing is just that good 😎

Bonus: even now in May we’re still seeing Kindle Unlimited reads for Dick Winchester Book 1 and Book 2.

Double bonus: I didn’t pay a dime in advertising to achieve this momentum. All organic, baby.

So there you are. A real-life example of the backlog in action.

Another April Victory: Reviews

A harbinger of all this goodness to come, the start of the month brought a new review on Goodreads.

And while that alone is reason to celebrate (yes, we are that desp— eager for reviews), this person took the extraordinary step of then leaving that review on Audible and Amazon.

Making this independent author’s heart glow as I ask (some might say beg) people to do this at the end of each book. After all, if you’ve already gone above and beyond to leave a review, why not take the extra minute to copy/paste that review onto the other two critical platforms where new readers frequent? Take that one review and triple the impact!

Another April Victory: Referral Bonuses

Audible offers a referral bonus for each new listener that signs up using an author’s referral link.

At first, I dismissed the idea. “Who doesn’t have Audible?”

Turns out, lots of people. For while I may be an audiobook fiend, lots of the general population does not like audiobooks and/or doesn’t want to pay for them.

All fair points, which left me a massive opening among my circles.

Still, the market may have been there, but the typical offer for a first-time listener was “a free 30 days.” Reasonable, even standard to the Amazon portfolio, yet not quite feasible for me to ask folks to then stay subscribed paying full price an additional two months…

…because the person needed to be an Audible member for 61 days before the referral bonus would be paid out.

Until, that was, a new offer appeared on the signup page: $0.99 a month for three months.

$3 total to help me and my narrator Jonathan Kilgore earn $75 split between us.

Naturally, I pounced.

So it was that friends, family, fellow authors, and anyone else I thought remotely gave a damn about me/Jon started receiving texts, DMs, and emails. All explaining this complicated scheme, offering to pay the $3 up front, and encouraging each recipient to set a reminder to cancel on Day 70 well before they had to pay full price for the fourth month.

And all of this perfectly above board.

And then, silence. For months after the referral bonuses should have been paid out, nothing. Not that I thought every single person would actually qualify, but surely at least one had. It reached the point that I assumed I had missed some fine print and given up on the program.

Until a couple weeks ago when I found a new number in the sales dashboard:

As you might imagine, author and narrator were both quite pleased.

And a special thank you to Paul Stewart, Donna Fox, and Mackenzie Davis of Vocal fame who each participated here.

And should you be new to Audible and wish to help me and my narrator earn the most we ever will off a single book sale, let me know in the comments.