Jeff Haws

Independent author

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Cover Reveal and Other Updates

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reveal-pic

Welcome to the new jeffhaws.com! Hope you’re liking what you see so far. It’s a pretty big change from the old site, for those of you who enjoyed wandering around there. This layout should give you a much better visual experience than the previous one, and this site should also be more secure. Gone is the “Just Write Somehow” header (which I thought was more to the point when I was working toward getting a book out than it is now that I have one … and will soon have another), and the focus is more on my published work. [Read more…] about Cover Reveal and Other Updates

New Books By Nobodies Don’t Sell Jack

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Sell

In the week since “Killing the Immortals” was released, I’ve been asked dozens of times by numerous people, “So, how are sales going?” These people generally mean well and are just trying to engage with me on the subject of the book, but the answer for pretty much all brand-new authors who have no real platform to sell from and are completely unknown outside a fairly small set of friends, family and acquaintances: “Predictably slowly.” I tend to tell people they’re “trickling in.” That’s pretty much right. It’s also pretty much exactly what I anticipated. There’s a reason new indie authors don’t just quit their day jobs once their book is out. Like any other small business, it takes a long time (and a good bit of luck) to build a following and a foundation for success. I’m a long way from that.

I don’t mind when people ask that. I’ve yet to punch anyone who did so, in fact. I make no promises, but it’s likely I won’t. But, in the interest of addressing the question, I thought I’d take a look at that in this post. Full disclosure and all. One of the things I never could find as I researched the business of publishing was an idea of reasonable expectations. This won’t solve that completely, but maybe it will help a bit. It’s a sample size of one, though, so bring your grain of salt with you. Here we go … [Read more…] about New Books By Nobodies Don’t Sell Jack

Release Date for “Killing the Immortals”

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Celebrate

It’s been a long road to here, but the end is within sight. I can announce today that the Release Date for “Killing the Immortals” will be July 31. That’s when you’ll see it on Amazon for the first time, and can purchase it for yourself, and buy it as a gift for everyone you know, along with lots of people you don’t know. I mean, who doesn’t want a book they’ve never heard of by some random guy they don’t know? You’re sold, aren’t you? Yeah, that’s what I thought. [Read more…] about Release Date for “Killing the Immortals”

How Much Should a Novel Cost?

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wallet-669458_1280

It’s a tough question, and it’s one that shouldn’t be answered with a shrug and a blindfolded dart toss: How much should a novel cost? More specifically when it comes to me (and, maybe, you), how much should my novel cost? There are plenty of factors that go into figuring that out. [Read more…] about How Much Should a Novel Cost?

Three Most Important Factors for Selling Books

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Selling

As I get closer to the editing phase of my story and this whole book thing becomes more real, I’m starting to think about some of the stuff beyond writing that goes along with putting a book into the market that will hopefully maybe possibly start selling a few copies … beyond the 50 or so my mom will buy just out of sheer excitement.

Of course, the writing matters. The story matters. But I’m not sure it matters as much as many think. I doubt you’ll hear this a lot on writing blogs, but the quality of your story isn’t going to be that big of a factor when it comes to selling books. That’s partially because “quality of your story” is really objective; what I think is a great story, you might think is trite and boring. For example, my fiancee thinks “Pulp Fiction” is boring and “The Big Lebowski” is stupid. Let’s just say we don’t see quite eye to eye on those two. Are those “quality stories”? I think most people would say they very much are, but not to her. What does that mean? Not much, other than it’s all subjective.

It’s mostly, though, because, as long as there’s some redeeming quality in your work, there’s probably a potential market out there for it. Thousands of romance and cozy-mystery stories I’d find to be laughably bad sell massive numbers of books every week. There are millions of readers out there; not everybody wants to read Cormac McCarthy or Jonathan Franzen. Not everybody wants you to challenge them. Some just want a 125-page quick read they can knock out at the beach, or before bed.

So, if not quality writing, what are the three most important factors that will go into selling your book? [Read more…] about Three Most Important Factors for Selling Books