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My 7 Year Journey as a Self-Published Author

Get Your Zombie Turkeys Laughter
Sixth-Year Anniversary
My Seventh-Year Anniversary
My 7 Year Journey
Zombie Turkeys front cover. Click to get a copy! Sam Melvin, an underachieving e-reporter from a small town, changes forever when he meets turkeys that won’t stay dead. You can shoot ’em, chop ’em, burn ’em—they come back stronger. The undead plague of poultry spreads uncontrollably, rocking the whole country. . .

My 7 Year Journey as a Self-Published Author–What did I learn? What were my mistakes? What worked for me? I’ll tell you all about my last seven years and how I sold 3,500+ books.

If you missed the first blog post in this anniversary series, here it is: My Seventh-Year Anniversary as a Self-Published Author

First, grab a copy of my book for .99. In 2018 I put Zombie Turkeys at permanently .99. free. Click here now!

I published My Undead Mother-in-law in August 2017 and Paranormal Privateers in May 2018,

My hopes and dreams were that everyone who bought Zombie Turkeys would buy my other books.

How’d that work out? About 43% of those who bought Zombie Turkeys bought the other books. Not bad, but not great.

But later on, the .99 lead in helped me. I’ll tell you how below.

I was pumping them using Amazon ads and in person sales and my newsletter. But I wasn’t getting rich. Nor was I breaking even. But I was having loads of fun.

My Undead Mother-in-law

My Undead Mother-in-law back cover
My 7 Year Journey
My Undead Mother-in-law back cover

Blurb:

My mother-in-law’s a zombie. And she has anger-management issues. What ticks her off is when people don’t treat her like a normal human being—with glowing red eyes and super strength and speed. 

Get your audiobook for free by clicking here.

Get your autographed copy by clicking here.

Paranormal Privateers

My 7 Year Journey

Zombies charge first, ask questions later. Middle-aged, overweight, and undead, Diane Newby leads the paranormal privateers against criminals and corruption. Sailing to trouble spots too sensitive for the US government, with zombie strength and regeneration they beat bullies into submission. Aided by zombie turkeys, corgis, and bulls, vicious criminal geniuses fall before them

Get your audiobook for free by clicking here.

Get your autographed copy by clicking here.

My 7 Year Journey – My Second Series Secret Supers

Not everyone like zombies, not even funny ones. But everyone likes superheroes. One of my author friends specializes in middle-grade books, Paul Maitland. He said there was a dearth of books for that age group. So I made my four main characters are in 7th grade.

My daughter is disabled and drives an electric wheelchair. She asked me to write a book with a flying wheelchair. So I did, Secret Supers.

My main character is Jeremy Gentle, in an electric wheelchair with cerebral palsy, just like my daughter. But he gets telekinesis and can make his wheelchair fly. And his super-powered friends.

Get your Secret Supers audiobook for free by clicking here.

Get your autographed copy of Secret Supers by clicking here.

Villain's Vacation cover What is it like?
Villain’s Vacation cover

After completing 7th grade and cleaning up crime in their town, the four friends go to a coaster park for summer vacation. Too bad their worst enemy is also there and out for revenge. Find out more in Villain’s Vacation.

Get your Villain’s Vacation audiobook for free by clicking here.

Get your autographed copy of Villain’s Vacation. by clicking here.

Produce Your Audiobook Secret Supers in Space
Secret Supers in Space audiobook cover. Click to listen.

But that’s not the end of their summer vacation. They become bored and their parents send them to Space Camp. They get more adventure than they expect.

Get your Secret Supers in Space audiobook for free by clicking here.

Get your autographed copy of Secret Supers in Space by clicking here.

My 7 Year Journey – What Happened Next?

So I have two series. Both start with .99 books. Why?

During the COVID-19 pandemic, I had my best year for sales. I couldn’t sell as much in person, but there were tremendous sales online. I think the .99 price invited a lot of people to try my books.

Zombie Detective cover
My 7 Year Journey
Zombie Detective cover

But these six books aren’t all I’ve done. I inserted Zombie Detective in between Zombie Turkeys and My Undead Mother-in-law. Then I wrote Oops! Tales of the Zombie Turkey Apocalypse, my short story collection. I put all the wacky ideas in it I couldn’t use in my other books.

Oops! My SciFi latest science news What's New Science
Oops cover final medium

My 7 Year Journey – My Non-Fiction Book

Finally, I wrote a book in another genre which I’d never done before: Bible helps. The Gospel Medley. Here’s what the book is about:

Gospel Medley Writer's Block: My Experience
The Gospel Medley cover. Click to get

Are you curious about Jesus Christ? Do you struggle to understand the Bible? The Gospel Medley includes the four Gospels in a single narrative, faithfully pulling the text from the World English Bible. You are now able to read all the gospel as a single, easy-to-read story.

Each Gospel describes Jesus’s life from a different point of view with different details and insights. The Gospel Medley combines every word into a single perspective with all details and events arranged chronologically.

Unlike other harmonies, The Gospel Medley doesn’t put the four gospels in columns or rows. Instead, the text is integrated word by word into a smoothly flowing narrative. Further, each paragraph references the four gospels so you can read the original citations. You also get footnotes of all the quotes from the Old Testament, giving you the context of Jesus’s words.

For a unique perspective of the four gospels, read ‘The Gospel Medley’ today.

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My Seventh-Year Anniversary as a Self-Published Author

Get Your Zombie Turkeys Laughter
Sixth-Year Anniversary
My Seventh-Year Anniversary
Zombie Turkeys front cover. Click to get a copy!

My Seventh-Year Anniversary as a Self-Published Author–how did I do it? How is it going so far? Hold onto your socks, because I’ll tell you all about it.

But before anything, grab a copy of my book for free. It’s free for 3 days, October 1-3 to celebrate my anniversary! Click here now!

On October 31st, 2016, I published this book:

Sam Melvin, an underachieving e-reporter from a small town, changes forever when he meets turkeys that won’t stay dead. You can shoot ’em, chop ’em, burn ’em—they come back stronger. The undead plague of poultry spreads uncontrollably, rocking the whole country. . .

From Zombie Turkeys’ Blurb

So, what happened next? What happened before the publication?

In the beginning . . .

Only Three Days Left: Get Your Free Book
My Sixth-Year Anniversary
My Seventh-Year Anniversary
A turkey who missed the free book offer. Click to get your free book.

Caterpillar forcibly retired me in October 2015. I didn’t want to rust on the pile of retirement, so I decided I would start writing a book. But I needed a topic. I wanted something light and funny.

We got a new turkey fryer and I tested it out. I brought in the fried turkey on a platter and said, “Imagine if this turkey came back to life!” Then someone said, “It’d be a zombie turkey.”

“Eureka! That’s it! That’s my book! Zombie turkeys! A whole apocalypse of them. It’ll be a parody of all zombie books ever written.”

My Seventh-Year Anniversary – What Happened Next?

I wrote about 48,000 words in November in the book for NaNoWriMo. Then I finished it in December. Then I edited it: six times over until March. I decided I needed an editor–and got her, Dori Harrell.

Then I decided to learn about publishing. I read about six books. I also took a writing course at my alma mater, Bradley university. Who knew point-of-view was so important?

I created a project plan for self-publishing. Then I decided to publish through Amazon, since it was easier and cheaper.

I went back and forth with my editor about six times. The novel was ready to publish, with 54,000 words.

Oops! I forgot to get a cover illustration! I needed one done and it was July 2016.

The Making of the Zombie Turkeys Cover

My Sixth-Year Anniversary
My Seventh-Year Anniversary
A cover draft. Click to see more.

Fortunately, I already wrote a blog post about this process. Click the title or here to read it.

Oh, I forgot. I also worked with my illustrator Sean “Fuzzy” Flanagan on my chapter icons. Read about it here: How we Made Zombie Turkeys Chapter Icons.

My Seventh-Year Anniversary – Format Editing

Text formatting–so simple–NOT! Readers expect books to be formatted a certain way. If you break the rules–like not starting your book on the right-hand page–you look like a rank amateur.

Which I was. But I didn’t want to look that way. I only got one chance to make a first impression. So I hired Rik Hall. He’s fast. He’s experienced. And he made my book in both paperback and ebook formats.

Finally I was ready. I uploaded my file to Amazon and ordered my proof copy. My launch date was set for October 31st, 2016 and ordered fifty paper copies from Amazon.

I was ready to launch. What happened next? Read my next blog to find out!

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Explosive Book Sales during 2020 COVID – How?

Andy Zach gets Explosive Book Sales

Explosive Book Sales during 2020 – How? In this blog post, I show you the actions I took in 2020 and how they led to more than doubling my sales.

Here’s the fourth video I made from my Youtube channel. Subscribe if you dare!

Explosive Book Sales During Year 2020

In case you forgot or didn’t read my last post, After My First Book, I Got Exponential Growth – How? let’s review my 2019 sales growth, over 100%.

Explosive Book Sales

I won’t leave you in suspense: here are the 2020 results.

Explosive Book Sales for 2020

During 2020 I went from 359 to 859 books sold! What in the world happened in 2020? Let’s review the year:

During January – New Audiobook and Explosive Growth

I published the audiobook version of my disabled 7th-grade superhero book:

Best Science Stories or Science Fiction More Good Things Best Book Reviews
Explosive Book Sales
Click to listen to free sample of Secret Supers.

The audiobook proved to be so popular, I gave away over 100 review copies and used up my free audiobook codes. Don’t worry; you can still get it for free by joining Audible here.

I also began pushing all my other audiobooks. That led to many sales through the review codes I get from Audible. I get the codes for free and then Audible pays me when someone redeems them for free.

I still have a lot of audiobook codes. Get yours here.

Explosive Book Sales during March

Take a look at what happened in March.

Month Book Sales

Explosive Book Sales

The green color means the monthly sales are above average for my six years of book sales.

What’s going on? Take a look at my audiobook sales:

Explosive Book Sales

That’s 337 more audiobooks sold than in 2019! That’s half of the 139% growth. Where did the rest come from? Let’s look at ebooks.

There are another 148 ebook sales, mostly from Zombie Turkeys. Also, the rest of the Life After Life Chronicles all increased from the previous year. Then there are the sales from my two new books.

My Zombie Turkey ebook was priced at .99 and the price reduction led to new sales during 2020. Also, I changed my Amazon ad campaigns to focus on categories, not keywords. That led to me online sales than ever before.

Explosive Book Sales – Two New Books Released during 2020

latest science news What's New Science
Explosive Book Sales
Oops! Tales of the Zombie Turkey Apocalypse
Villain's Vacation cover
Explosive Book Sales
Villain’s Vacation

During 2020 I released Oops! Tales of the Zombie Turkey Apocalypse on January 2, 2020 and Villain’s Vacation on August 27, 2020.

I now had a short story collection. I gave away free short stories to promote it. The book also promoted the rest of my series.

Also, I now had two books in my Secret Supers series. The sales of one book led to the sales of the other.

Two books, each in two formats, plus the new audiobook, gave me five new items to sell.

My fifth video:

Book Conventions

I had the following conventions in 2020:

ConventionDate Books Sold
Washington HS1/9/20203
PeoriaCon3/7/202017
QuadCon8/29/20209
Total29

That didn’t seem to be the source of new sales! How about print sales during 2020?

I only sold 15 more print books than 2019, probably since I only had three book conventions, compared with seven the year before

During 2021 Book Sales were up and down

I went back to book conventions. I ended up selling fewer books (731) but making more profit. I sold more of the profitable print books, but not as many ebooks.

I attribute this to the end of the lockdowns during 2021 and being able to attend more conventions. I also introduced my Square Site where I sell my autographed books, just like I do at conventions. Click here to get your autographed book now.

Get Your Free Book With Your prediction for 2022 Total Sales

How many books do you think I’ll sell during 2022? I’m at 561 so far, but I have four book events coming up. Tell me by clicking here and the closest person will get their choice of books from me in January 2023. Or you can email me at [email protected].

Get all my posts through my newsletter. Also, get free books by clicking here.

Here are the previous posts in this series:

My Sixth-Year Anniversary as a Self-Published Author

What Happened After My First Book Was Published?

Let’s close with my sixth video: