Does Print on Demand Cost a Lot of Money?

I had an email last week from a talented writer, named Beatrice Hale.

Beatrice attended a session a friend and I ran on self-publishing, and since then has published her first fiction novel, a real boy's own adventure, about flying and airships. It's based on a real-life story. Her illustrator is Kura Carpenter, the very talented artist I've used before.

Ice Escape from Amazon.com

Beatrice has uploaded her first e-book online, very exciting, and was asking 'What about Print on Demand. Do I have to pay for the kindle formatting services?'

Because this is a fairly common question, I have posted my answer to her here. 

"Hi Beatrice

Congratulations on your book! Kura is great, isn't she? 

CreateSpace will produce an excellent product. Regarding paying for CS formatting and uploading services, you don't need to use their paid services unless you want to. You can upload a pre-formatted document to CreateSpace at no charge. I did use their formatting services for Inner Fire, partly to see what they were like and partly because it was all new, but at $249.00 US I thought it was a bit pricey. But the end result was very good. However, since doing Inner Fire I've produced two more books and I've just used my own self-generated template, and uploaded my own document to CS with no difficulty. 

CS can work with both doc or pdf templates now, which is quite good. But if you don't feel comfortable with word or pdf then you can pay a professional to format into a create-space ready format for you, or you can purchase a template from something like the Book Designer. These templates aren't that expensive, although they're in US dollars, so the prices do vary a little depending on the exchange rate.

I've got here an article on my blog which may be helpful: http://rlstedman.blogspot.co.nz/2015/04/formatting-woes.html  and also I have some handy links on my pinterest board:https://www.pinterest.com/soulnecklace/the-business-of-writing/ to various companies who can assist you.

My suggestion would be if you are planning on doing several more novels use the CS services (bite the bullet, recognise you won't get your money back) just so you figure out what to do for next time. However, if you're short of cash or don't plan on doing any more books, you might be better just to use ebooklaunch or the BookDesigner to format for you. There's another company I've heard of to, called Author's HQ , which is also supposed to be very good and that might be a solution for you too.

CS are very very helpful. If you have any questions at all you can email and they respond usually overnight. They are always polite (excessively so, sometimes!) and usually they answer your question comprehensively. If you get stuck you can phone too, but of course charges apply. If you do use their paid services for formatting and so on, then they offer quite good phone support and I found this helpful. The good thing about CS is the cost of their books, even by the time you pay for the shipping, is generally quite cost-competitive - cheaper than you can print in NZ, unless you're doing a larger run - and also you can ship internationally via the CS system which is a lot, lot cheaper than international shipping rates from NZ. The downside of CS is the delay on shipping. And they don't pay you until you make $100 USD. 

I use CS mainly for promotional books to avoid the cost of shipping, and also to offer purchasers an alternative, as some people like to read print. 

Two things to be aware of if you use the CS formatting service: Their formats are double-sided (i.e. two pages to one sheet) and their formatting is copyrighted to CS. This means you can't take the proof to a NZ printer and get it made up here for local sales. And secondly, any changes made after the proof completed cost you money. This means if you find an error you have to pay to get it changed. If, like me, you can't resist tweaking a novel, this can be extremely pricey. (this is the main reason I do it myself!!)

Oh yes, one other thing about CS is look at the distribution options quite carefully. What I do is to use a NZ ISBN for CS distribution only at a lower price point (around 9.99), and a CS ISBN for extended distribution (around $15.99). This is so I can reach both extended and web market places. I don't know if its really worth doing this, but I figured it can't hurt and there's no charge to produce two books with different ISBNs and the same cover and title. A lot of self-pub people recommend this because they say it increases the traction into the extended marketplace.

Anyway, good luck. Sorry this email is so long and best of luck for your first print book! "

Little by Little

My mother died when I was sixteen. She was thirty-seven. Far too young to die, most people said, which seemed odd to me at the time, because it's not like there's an age restriction on death.

One of the many effects on my life of Mum's death was, weirdly enough, on financial planning.

When I graduated and got my first 'proper' job - not the house-cleaning, baby-sitting jobs I'd been doing up until then - the salary came with optional pension contributions. I turned it down. Why would I need a pension? I was unlikely to live past forty. I mean, look at Mum. Better to have the money in my hand, and spend it while I could.

Mum's type of cancer wasn't genetic. I still have no idea how she got it; she never smoked, never drank, had five healthy kids, breast-fed all of them. Her food was from our massive vegetable garden - no pesticides or herbicides, because Dad couldn't be bothered with that, if the plants didn't grow that was their fault. There was no reason, really, for her early death. And there was no reason that I would die in my thirties too. But that's how people think when a parent has died young. There's an implicit (sometimes explicit) thought: "I'll die at the same age as my parent."

From Indulgy.com

Upshot of this was, that by the time I reached thirty I had no retirement savings. Not that that's a big problem, plenty of time to save and all that. But the pension contribution options had long since disappeared from government salaries. I would have to fully fund my own retirement. Gulp. That's a heck of a lot of money to save when you have little children and you only work part-time.

So I started small. A couple of hundred dollars in a unit trust fund. Added to it every week, or month, or when I could. 9-11 happened, and the world's share markets dived. I bought. The market recovered, and my units were worth more. I kept saving. Little by little.

We sold our house, put some of the proceeds aside. I did a business degree, found out about the sharemarket.  Kiwi-Saver began, and I entered that scheme. I kept saving. Eventually we had around $20K built up. I approached three share broking firms to see what they could do with this. Two weren't really interested, and said to make it worth their while I'd need to have considerably more! One, Craigs, was really helpful. I had an interview with a share-broker and we talked for a couple of hours about different options for us and our kids, and the best use of our money.

Fast-forward seven or eight years. We've been buying shares slowly and steadily while the market rose and fell and rose again. We only buy on the recommendation of our share-broker. He emails us or calls us if there's a good deal coming up. Perhaps once a year, there's a good deal. Little by little, says our broker. That's the best way of making and saving money. And thanks to compounding interest, money breeds money

From Mr Money Moustache

Anyway, long story short, I'm now ten years older than my mother was when she passed away. I've been saving for the last seventeen years and I have more money saved now than I had ever dreamed I could manage. I don't have a highly paid job, I don't have a great deal of non-cash assets but I don't have any worries about retirement (still many years away). And, best of all, I can afford to work part-time and write.

The point of this long post? (this is a blog about writing, after all) is to remind me and to remind you, dear reader, that nothing worth doing happens quickly. Writing is a very slow process. One word after another after another, until you have a book.

Making money from writing is very much like that too. Large book advances and Harry-Potter profits are the exception, not the rule.

But get the basics right - write a good book, have a good cover, make it discoverable. Gain more readers. Write another word, another book. Another reader finds you, and another. These are little by little things that gradually add up.

From Will Write for Chocolate

At least, I hope they do. That's what I'm banking on, anyway. It's challenging to look at the sales data and realise it's a good day if I sell one book. It's very difficult when a publisher closes, or says I can no longer sell your books, do you want them back or shall I just pulp them. But I used to have those moments when I started saving, seventeen years ago. Those why do I even bother. This is So Hard moments. I'll never make it.

The thing with writing, and with anything else that's hard and takes time, is to while you may have a goal, sometimes it's a big stretch goal. Sometimes there's little moments that you need to celebrate. For me it was having the first $1000, then the first $10,000. And with writing, its the 4 star review, the comment 'I can't wait for the next one!', and the 2000 people entering a Goodreads giveaway. That's what I'm trying to focus on at the moment anyway.

If I'm still writing this blog in seventeen years, I'll let you know if this approach was right.

The Importance of Proofing

Last post I talked a lot about formatting. Formatting is laying out your work on the page so it is easily readable on an e-reader and looks attractive to the eye. Formatting is about font choices and margins and layout.

This week I'm talking about proofing. Proofing is, basically, about typographical correctness.

The reason I'm talking about it (again) is because I absolutely suck at it. Every time I think I've done an okay job, the next time I look - oops! there's another mistake. Mistakes are BAD. They turn readers off the book and they make your work look amateurish.

I find proofing really really hard. It's incredibly difficult to check for errors in a script that you I've read hundreds of times and that, to be honest, I'm well and truly over.

Tips to Prevent Proofing Errors

1.  Relax. A manuscript can be easily changed - it's not as though manuscripts are physically laid out with little metal letters any more.

2.  No-one's perfect. Most books contain at least one error. It's unrealistic to expect a 100,000 word manuscript to be without fault. Some errors have made their printers famous (or infamous). Take the Wicked Bible. It contained a typographical error advising readers to commit adultery. Copies of the Wicked Bible are now extremely rare; the authorities, perhaps concerned about the popularity of this edition, ordered it burned.

The Wicked Bible. Image from Wikimedia

3. Decide on US or UK spelling. New Zealand uses UK conventions but most of my sales are in the US. So I've decided on US spelling. I find this quite tricky as some these aren't immediately evident. Everyone knows about colour/color but skilful/skillful was a new one.

4. Do a final spellcheck. Sounds obvious, but I've had a real problem with spellcheck on a Mac, particularly because I have a character named Will. The spellcheck kept telling me I was using a verb incorrectly, so in the end I turned it off, and missed a whole lot of duplicate words.

5. Read in hard copy. Proofing a manuscript on a screen is quite difficult. I print out the final pdf and read it with a pen in hand. Sometimes I run a ruler under the lines as I read, to make me slow down. I also order a paper proof from Createspace. This has been invaluable, as reading as a book format changed my attention and for some reason it's a lot easier to concentrate.  It's a little expensive, but it's definitely been worth it.

6. Some writers use the text-to-speech function on a computer (this is particularly good if you write using a voice-activation software). Hearing the words read aloud makes it easier to spot things like word duplicates. I haven't tried this myself but it seems a good idea.

7. Use a professional eye. I engaged a copy-editor for Inner Fire. This was relatively expensive, although very useful. I haven't used Jean for Necklace, as it had been through a thorough edit by harperCollins. After getting the proof from CreateSpace I wished I had, as there were a lot of spacing errors.

8. Use a second, or third, pair of eyes. I often ask my husband to do a final proof. He edits a scientific journal and is a very slow reader, so he picks up spelling errors. I also request advance readers - that's those readers who have kindly offered to read an early copy in exchange for a review - to let me know if they find any mistakes.

9. Do your own formatting. If you know how to construct a good epub and mobi file, you'll be able to make the changes to ensure mistakes are removed.

10. Use print-on-demand. If, like me, you are prone to proofing errors, print on demand seems a lot more sensible than paying for large print runs!

And finally - See Point One. Remember, even if one or two or three errors have crept through, at least you haven't altered the Word of God.

Formatting Woes

This last month I've taken a break from creative writing, and oh, how I miss it! But it's time for a massive pre-publishing work up and so I've been doing the proofing/editing/more proofing/formatting cycle that every writer needs to do before their book is ready.

Here, dear reader is a very brief summary of this painful process...

Proofing and Editing

Proofing and editing is one of those dreary-but-important tasks that every writer has to do. In brief, it involves going over and over and over your manuscript, refining the words. Making them tighter, more effective. Saying more with less. I lose between twenty and thirty percent of my word count in the edit phase.

If you have decided to self-publish your work, after the editing phase comes the formatting phase. Formatting is involves the final design, the layout of your manuscript and a final check for errors. It's a crucial step.

Formatting

If you have a traditional publisher, they will take care of all formatting, although they might send you a final proof for you to do a quick check on before it hits the printers. Tip One: SAVE A COPY of that a word version of that proof.  Because one day your rights might be returned, and then you will be pleased you have an easy-to-format version.

I hate formatting. I am not very good at it, and it takes me ages. But just in case you're struggling too, here's what I do to make the process bearable. (This process only works if you write adult fiction without footnotes and very few illustrations. Formatting is quite different if you write picture books, graphic novels or illustrated non-fiction.)

First, I put a good music track onto iTunes. Then, following the Smashwords Style Guide I do the following:

1. copy and paste the entire manuscript from word into TextEdit (or the PC equivalent). This strips all the formatting out of the document. 
2. Then I reinsert the formatting. 

Yep! first I take it out, then I put it back in. Insane or what?

No , the reason is that Word is really buggy. It gets little glitches in it and then it doesn't seem to convert to other file formats very easily. So doing this properly at the beginning actually saves me time later on.  (I've tried doing it the other way, too. Like, not cleaning it up first. Big mistake.)

Formatting includes:

1. double check for errors
2. first paragraph no indents
3. section breaks at the end of each chapter
4. chapter headings
5. re-insert all italics
6. insert any images 
7. write the back matter (that's the 'About this book' section that you might want to include at the end of the book)
8. write the front matter (dedication, map etc)
9. insert hyperlinks in the back matter 
10. check all spelling is US
11. insert table of contents (if required)
12. check spacing around any poems is correct and that all lines of poetry have no indent
13. check the spacing around the dinkus (asterix breaks) is correct
14. remove all page numbers

This is my Master File

If I'm doing a print version of my book, I also: 

1. insert page headers (I follow the templates on Amazon, but I've customised them a little, so they look a little smarter)
2. insert page numbers
3. remove the table of contents

I save this as my Print File.

From Will Write For Chocolate 

This takes Ages!

I've covered this really really quickly. This whole process takes me at least a week, sometimes longer.  You can find details on how to do all this in the Style Guide (but be warned, the Style Guide is set out for PC. Plus, it's very colloquial. I prefer a recipe book-type instruction with screen shots, but No. The SG is all friendly and tells you about chickens and stuff. Plus, if, like me, you work on a mac, you'll find it a bit more complicated).

I do all the above in word, and then convert the files to a pdf for print on demand or to epub/mobi for e books. 

File Conversion:

Conversion to epub or mobi can be tricky. I've tried two ways of doing this, but I know of three.  These ways are:

1. Pay someone to do it. I've used Ebook Launch and they're really good, very professional, very fast. The downside is, you can't insert the hyperlinks or make changes easily to the final file. So if you suddenly spot a typo, you need to pay to get it changed. 
2. Use a conversion software, like Jutoh or write in inDesign and export as an ePub or mobi. Downside with this is you have to buy the conversion software, and you have to learn how to use it. Personally, my life is too short to use inDesign, although if you know the software, I would definitely give it a go, as people who do use it rave about it.
3. Run it through an online conversion tool. I use the one on Draft 2 Digital. Then I have a mobi and ePub file generated relatively easily (although not always, the last one I did was really buggy and I'm still sorting it out) and once I'm ready, it's very easy to upload it through to the various vendors.

Tip Two: Do not believe any website that tells you formatting is easy. "in three easy steps upload your book now!" It is not.  Unless, I guess, you're a programmer or something.

From Dilbert

So there you have the summary of an awful lot of learning. It's not immediately obvious when you read this blog post, probably, but an enormous amount of heart-wrenching time and effort went into the knowledge set out here. 

I am now a lot better at managing a large document. I can clean out most errors from a word file. But still, I struggle. So just be warned, if you do go down the self-publishing route, you will spend a lot of time in front of a computer screen.

And Remember:

Tip Three: make sure you back up everything. 

And Tip Four: get the best and largest computer screen you can afford!

And finally: 

The difference between success and failure as a self-published author is your proofing, your editing and your formatting.

 Because no-one will read your work if it is full of errors.

Why Pinterest is Useful for Writers

Apologies for such a prolonged absence from the blogosphere; I've gained two colds, courtesy of my kids, and a new job, courtesy of a previous boss. All this has massively crunched my writing time, meaning this blog has just had to sit on the sidelines.

Anyway, today I got a query from the amazing Rachael Craw (check out her book, Spark, here). "What is this Pinterest thingy?"

I've talked about social media before and Rachael is an expert at the use of twitter and Facebook, but it just goes to show not even us Rach's know everything. So, a quick summary of Pinterest in this post, just for you, Rach :)

What is Pinterest?

Pinterest is a social media platform that acts as a virtual pinboard. Say you're building a house. Instead of collecting pictures from a magazine and pasting them in a scrapbook, with only a click of the mouse you can pin them to your board. All on-line content containing video or image files can be pinned. (You can't pin just text. And it doesn't seem to like Facebook too much, either.)

Pinterest is a bit more than just a pinboard, though. It's social. You can create group boards which other people can pin to.You can comment on other people's images and/or pin images they've collected to your board. You can make secret boards that are private, or you can make your boards public and able to be shared. (Pinterest has a lot more features but these are the ones I use the most).

Why is this Useful for Writers?

I use pinterest in my writing in four ways. Here's the link to my boards.

• Creating value-add.

I pin links to research used in the creation of a book. I make a note of this board in the links at the back of the book (the back matter). Librarians, teachers and readers can gain a greater insight into the world building and the characters. This has been really useful, particularly when I was shortlisted for the NZ Post Award last year. Literacy Aotearoa did a spread on my book and linked my pinterest board into that spread.

Here's the board for my upcoming novel, A Skilful Warrior

Pinterest Board for A Skilful Warrior

• Informing Media

I pin links to interviews, reviews and other material on a pinterest board. This makes it easy for anyone doing an article on me to quickly access this material.

• Collaboration

My cover artists and I - Kura Carpenter and Christa Holland - are both on pinterest. Check out Christa's boards here, and Kura's here. Kura in particular has amazing boards, as in addition to her cover art she's a steampunk fanatic and a period costume designer.

When I've been in the throes of cover design with either of them I've started a group secret board to pin ideas to - covers I like, covers I don't like, font design and so on.

• Plot Bunnies

I love collecting images that might lead to future stories. There's one board I have, called The Book of the Castaway which is a total story in development. I'm using the images in the board to cue the various narrative elements. It's quite a different plotting process to the linear way I normally work and I'm kind of enjoying the way the story is building.

Pinterest Board for Inner Fire

Other Uses for Pinterest

1. Make a board for each character: their music, their clothes, where they live, their hobbies. Recipes they use, cars they drive and so on.
2. You can list books you like, books you're reading (I started doing that, but now I just use goodreads), books you want to read or books that are similar to yours.
3. Social context. Some people use this extensively, especially historical writers. House decor, fashions, current events, music, videos of a period can all be pinned to a board.
4. Place. I had a whole board on castles, just so I could get the feeling of a castle, all that damp stone and narrow passageways
5. Cultural vibe. Pinterest is a good way to quickly see which images are trending: which TV shows are popular, which books are doing well, which fashions are coming. (Spark, with its beautiful cover is really popular). Pinterest is quite an interesting marker of a culture. And it's changing quite rapidly, as the platform is becoming more international.
6. Promotion. Through clever use of images you can (in theory) drive traffic to your books, or to your website. Personally, I'm a bit slack at that, but a good friend of mine, Roomie, uses it really cleverly to link to her blog and her design business.

Couple of things to be aware of:

• Copyright. Where possible, I have attributed images in A Necklace of Souls and Inner Fire (my novels) boards. I have also add a line to the board requesting the owner of the image to contact me if they wish to have an image removed or re-credited. Never use an image for your own commercial use without purchasing a license.
• Comments. Like all social media, keep comments positive.
• Content. Don't rely on the pinner's commentary to be accurate (this is really important if you're looking for historical material). Always check the original source.
• Image counts. The better the image, the more attention it will get. 

You can find out more information about Pinterest here Just beware - Pinterest is addictive!

So, Rachael, hope this is helpful! And enjoy!

Finding Your Market

In my last post I wrote about customer's needs and wants, and how this relates to writing. In that post I listed three key elements to a successful business. To recap:

1. Identifying customer needs 
2. Creating a product/service that meets these needs
3. Delivering this product to your customer

(this is really, really simple. There are other requirements, such as management of cashflow. But as a start-up, these are things you must have.)

Lots of people write books. A few write great books. But all the great words in the world won't matter a dime if readers can't get their hands on your writing! So this post offers ideas on how to deliver your book to your customer. This post discusses distribution options.

Distribution Channels? What are they?

Basically, distribution is getting a product to the customer.  It's getting your book out to the market.

These days, writers are spoilt for choice.  You can sell your book online, through a store, or direct. A publisher may do it for you; you can do it for yourself. You can hire a third party. And your book can be available in a number of formats: digital, print, audio.

Okay, then, you say - I'll do everything! I'll sell everywhere, using every available format. Um. No. I wouldn't.

Be Strategic - Know Your Market

Distribution costs. Formatting for multiple platforms costs, print is expensive and the time spent navigating software is time you're not writing. In business-speak, unless you've got a massive team behind you and a known customer base, adopting a mass-distribution strategy is unlikely to offer an effective return on investment.

Rather than rushing out and putting your book on every available platform, it's more efficient to be strategic. And the key to being strategic is really, really basic. It's called KNOWING YOUR MARKET.

From Marketoonist

Identifying Your Market

You might already know your market. You've got a couple of books written. You've got a Facebook following, people email you begging for your next book. Readers ask for your newsletter. You will know the approximate age, sex, location and interests of your readers.

But what if this is your first book? How do you find your audience then?

Most writers of fiction write for one person - themselves. So, if you're trying to discover who on earth could possibly interested in reading what you've written, consider what other, recently published, books are similar in style and content to yours.

Think about your interests, age, sex, education. Where is your book set? Is the location likely to be appealing to a particular audience. Does the genre you're writing in have a broad appeal or are there a few niche groups that will be interested? Which groups do you belong to?

Philip Temple, a retired mountaineer, writes fiction and non-fiction about the New Zealand wilderness. He is passionate about the environment and deeply worried about climate change. His books appeal to mountaineers, environmentalists, travel readers. He reported that people have approached him from the UK, asking to put his recent book on a climate change blog.

Audience Characteristics

• Look on Goodreads, see who's been reading this genre. What books do they recommend? Are the readers of these books male/female? What age? What do they say in their reviews? Do these readers prefer reading in e or in p? (usually, there are long threads on this very subject!). Do they say how they found this book?
• Social media is a great way of finding potential readers. I've followed a few book instagrammers. (Booklovers on instagram are great, because they always post a picture of the book cover, which makes the book much more memorable than just the title. I've found heaps of new, amazing books through instagram.)
• Often the discussion threads on social media sites are a good way of finding out about your potential readers. 
• Quick Note on social media etiquette: If you really liked the book under discussion, join in; be social. Don't be a closet stalker, don't do the hard-sell. Just be friendly and interesting. Readers love to talk about books.
• Follow the writers of similar books on twitter. Often, they'll post links to reviews mentioning their book. 
• If you don't like social media, read print reviews of these similar books. Often these reviewers say who they'd recommend this book to. These people are your audience.
• Think laterally. If you write books involving cupcakes and murders, your audience might include not only readers of detective fiction; it might also include people who enjoy baking.

The Importance of Influencers

Most of the time, there's only two ways I discover a new writer.

• random selection - at the library or on the sales shelf
• recommendation through a trusted third party (a reviewer, a librarian, a friend, a media article)

When considering your market, consider who their influencers are.

This is really, really important if you're writing for children. Children don't always select their own books; adults do it for them. If you write for children, you MUST consider their parents, and the school librarian. Basically, if you win over a good librarian (Hi there, Bridget!), they'll act as an advocate for you.

The Importance of Word of Mouth

Related to this last point - books are sold through recommendation. Your book must be as good as possible. I can't stress this enough. There's no point in ensuring your book is in all the right places if its no good. Therefore, before embarking on the final steps of getting your book to market (including how you will do that), pause for a moment.

Is your book good enough? Because, in the end, that's really what your audience needs - a good book, written well.

Needs and Wants

What do Customers Need?

Most businesses rely on three key factors:

1. Customer needs
2. Product creation
3. Distribution

So today I'm going to look the needs of a reader. And over the next few weeks/months, I'll review these other points. So stay tuned!

Why do people read fiction? 

Here's a few reasons - you may be able to think of others. 

• Escapism
• Entertainment
• Relaxation
• Learn new things
• To become someone else
• To indulge a hobby
• To satisfy a teacher

You can see from this list that reading isn't about words on a page at all - words are just tools to satisfy a deeper requirement. 

Needs vs Wants

This highlights the difference between Needs and Wants. A customer's need is the fundamental reason they purchase a product, or use a service. The want is often the way this need is expressed. The classic example of this is the iPod, a device for data storage. Steve Jobs realised actually what people needed was portability. If he could offer a device (and a store) that satisfied this deeper need, he would have an instant customer base.

This means that even if a reader says they want entertainment, they may in fact not. Why? Because there are such easily available substitutes for entertainment. This is why kids tend to gravitate away from books and towards their screens - reading is different to playing a computer game; it's more demanding. It's also much more immersive. And reading doesn't require hand-eye co-ordination, internet connection or (often) a battery operated device.

From InkyGirl

Some needs can only be met through fiction. Novels are, I think, the only way one can truly see the world through another person's point of view. Novels offer intellectual stimulation at the same time as providing entertainment. A good novel, written well, stimulates thought and discussion. A novel may change society. And of course, fiction uses the most durable of technologies; words on paper. 

Through this combination of low-cost technology and limited substitutes, fiction becomes an incredibly powerful long-term business proposition. The ultimate test of good fiction is time.

This means (and I'm writing to myself here), I should not look at the sales over the first month as an indication of success or failure. Probably not even in the first year. 

What do customers of fiction need? 

I think the list above can be simplified much, much further. 

• Innovation
• Entertainment
• Stimulation

So 

If you don't want your books to be easily replaced by gadgets, write your stories well. If you write kids books, make them more fun than an iPad.
Have an interesting story-line, something that's different, that stands out.
And - I think this is the differentiator that leads to long term writing success - your books should make people think.

Calvin and Hobbs, downloaded from the Image Kid