#DFRAT Guest Author (+ a Giveaway): Hope Tarr

Posted June 22, 2012 by Holly in Features, Promotions | 16 Comments


Please join us in welcoming Hope Tarr to Book Binge. She’s here to discuss the brave, new digital book world.

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Hail Brave New Digital Book World
By Hope Tarr

When my Victorian-set romance, Tempting, first released as a mass market single title with a major New York publisher, I thought my publishing career was made. But despite receiving stellar reviews, including a RT BOOK Reviewers’ Choice nomination for Best Innovative Historical Romance, the book’s sales failed to meet publisher expectations. Ultimately I received a letter informing me that Tempting was being taken out of print and any remaining stock would be destroyed. With the publisher’s reversion of rights letter in hand, Tempting was once more mine to do with what I would. Standing in my home office, I slipped the letter into a folder in my file cabinet and asked myself, “Now what?”

Flash forward a decade. I re-released Tempting as an e-book in February 2012 in time for Valentine’s Day. The turnaround process took me slightly under two months. Although the book had been professionally edited for its original print release in the early 2000’s, publishers then didn’t provide authors with electronic versions of the typeset manuscript or even the galleys. Working from the print edition, my most recent Word document files, and a decade of experience as a published author, I gently rewrote the book, shaving off 5,000 words.

Once I’d massaged the manuscript into its best possible shape, I hired a graphic designer to do a beautiful new cover as well as to format the manuscript for digital release across platforms. Setting up my publisher accounts for Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) Program, Barnes & Noble’s PubIt!, Smashwords, ARe etc. and then uploading the content (book file, reviews, links etc.) to each site was time-consuming but not especially difficult.

Once the book went live, I began a mini blog tour, sent the book file to reviewers who were amenable and made the usual social networking shout outs. What I didn’t do was run a single paid advertisement, nor did I bother with bookmarks, postcards, or other promotional items. I’d done all those things before and they hadn’t helped. This time, I vowed, it was Tempting’s turn to make me money.

The first month’s sales were tepid, and I began to think my experiment with self-publishing might remain just that. I got busy with other projects, so busy I scarcely remembered to check my sales on my various publisher accounts. And then my sales ranking on Kindle shot up—and up. Before I knew it, Tempting had landed solidly on the Kindle Top 100. It was also performing well in the Amazon Store’s Historical Romance section—print, digital and audio formats combined.

As I write this post, Tempting has remained on the Kindle Top 100 for eight consecutive weeks and continues to rank in the top one-thousand for Historical Romances overall.

That’s not just my good news. It’s our good news because Tempting isn’t an isolated Happily Ever After self-publishing story. My book is just one chapter in a much bigger story: a paradigm shift in publishing.

In the old print model, the first month of sale was absolutely critical. “Velocity of sales” was the big buzz word, the rule-of-thumb being that sales’ performance in the first month of launch, which reflected shipments but not yet returns by the big box chain retailers, represented a book’s peak. That peak or lack thereof predicted the relative robustness of subsequent months’ sales. If your book didn’t strike strong straight out of the gate, the overwhelming odds were that it wasn’t going to. Based on that first month, you were deemed either a winner or a loser—and you could expect those sales numbers to follow you into your foreseeable publishing future.
But in the current digital-first model, time can be an author’s friend. It is our friend. The longer an e-book is out on offer, the more time it has to find its audience and gain traction—and the better its chances for success over time.

As always, there are caveats to consider. The book has to be good—and really good would be better. Price point also counts. Cheap is in and nearly everyone is looking for value. Initially I chafed at issuing Tempting—a single-title previously published by one of the Big Six—for a piddling 99 cents but, putting pride aside, not even I can argue with the bottom line. It’s working. Selling thousands of units at 99 cents earns me more than selling hundreds at $2.99 or higher.

But I would be irresponsible if I ended without addressing the proverbial elephant in the room. The majority of those seeing substantial self-publishing success are established authors. Established authors have a readership, a following, a track record. In a market flooded with product, the consumer will almost always reach for the brand. That isn’t to say that you may not be the next Amanda Hocking—you may well be—but even Hocking put in the sweat equity to first build her fan base.

But sweating to make each and every book our personal best comes naturally to working writers. Between bleeding our hearts onto the (no longer necessarily printed) page, it’s what we do. Because whether our books release in print or digital or both, as self-published or published with an indie publisher or a member of New York’s Big Six, as overnight successes or long-term labors of love, we know something that non-authors don’t.

Even on a bad day, being a published author and sharing your stories with others, the World, is the toughest job you’ll ever 100 percent love.


Hope Tarr is the award-winning author of fifteen historical and contemporary romances including Tempting. Hope is also a co-founder and current principal of Lady Jane’s Salon™, New York City’s first and only monthly romance reading series, now in its fourth year with four satellites nationwide. Visit Hope online at www.HopeTarr.com as well as on Facebook and Twitter.

Many thanks to Hope Tarr for stopping by today to share her e-publishing story with us. If you haven’t read any of her books, you should stop by her website and check out her backlist. It’s a pretty impressive backlist.

Hope is giving away a book from her backlist. Comment for a chance to win.


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16 responses to “#DFRAT Guest Author (+ a Giveaway): Hope Tarr

  1. Thanks for sharing your experiences with us. I have Tempting on my wishlist. It sounds fantastic.

    e.balinski(at)att(dot)net

  2. I read and reviewed one of Hope’s books a while ago and I LOVED it and felt privileged to have given that task. I was delighted to see the article she wrote and shared, and am excited about the new book. How did we ever get along without ebooks? Well, I know I had to take an extra suitcase alone with me whenever I went somewhere, and even with all the ARC’s I have laying around now, I still have over 900 books on my Kindle, not to mention about 60 on my Kobo (which hubby bought me before I got the Kindle last year) and an older eBookwise reader that still has pdf versions of some books on it. It’s an entire library that would have taken up an entire room in my house before ebooks. Thanks for your comments. I think epublishing have given lots of authors greater access to the publishing world and to those of us who don’t actually read–we devour books.

  3. Hope – I picked up Tempting back in April and even though I have a towering TBR pile, I read it right away. I really enjoyed it. I love reading digitally and I’m so happy that it is giving authors like yourself a chance to bring your books back out into the light and make some real money off them.
    jen(at)delux(dot)com

  4. Anonymous

    Thanks for an enjoyable post and giveaway! I just got Tempting and I’m so excited to start 🙂

    Congrats on the newest release!

    efender1(at)gmail(dot)com

  5. Thanks for a great post and giveaway! I’m very excited as I just purchased Tempting and I can’t wait to read it!

    Congrats on the newest release!

    efender1(at)gmail(d0t)com

  6. Thanks for all the kind and lovely comments. While ebooks have been out for some time, it’s taken the technology for e-readers a bit to catch up. Now with universal formats like EPUB, we’re finally there and I agree–digital books are a good thing for writers and readers alike.

    I would definitely consider self-publishing again. That said, I am also VERY excited to have a new contemporary romance series coming out with Entangled Publishing. The Suddenly Cinderella Series will start with OPERATION CINDERELLA coming in October ’12 followed by a holiday in-series novella in November ’12 and then the remaining full-length books out in winter and summer 2013.

    And of course, all the books will release as digital-first editions!

  7. StacieD

    I think it is great that your book found a second life. I love when authors re-release their earlier stories that have either been out of print or needed reworking.

    geishasmom73 AT yahoo DOT com

  8. Hope,
    Thank you for the interesting post and insight on e-publishing today. There are so many options, and so much to learn. It’s truly an exploding market. Wishing you continued success.

  9. Anonymous

    Thanks for sharing your publishing journey. I actually have a print copy of Tempting that I picked up a couple of years ago at a USB in my TBR stack, and now the digital copy! Best of luck with your ventures. KC

  10. Thanks for all the kind words of support–and hiya Diana Cosby! ((Hope, waving wildly)).

    Folks, Diana is an upcoming guest at m/our Lady Jane’s Salon — http://www.LadyJaneSalonNYC.com.

    Lastly, I should probably mention for those of you living in driving cultures, that TEMPTING is also newly released as an audio book by Dark Desires Audio. You can get in on Amazon for under $15 and if you sign up for a free 30 day trial membership with Audible, you can get it for FREE. Free works, right?

    http://www.amazon.com/Tempting/dp/B007TXWXE2/ref=tmm_aud_title_0

  11. I rarely buy a book when it first comes out. I am always behind on my reading so I usually don’t buy books until they have been out for some weeks. I think it’s great that with ebooks authors aren’t penalized when fans like myself take their time to buy a book.
    mce1011 AT aol DOT com

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