In today’s Journal
* Quote of the Day
* Reminder
* Confirmed: Payhip Is Hyper-Easy
* About the Promo Doc
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Quote of the Day
“Write hard and clear about what hurts.” Ernest Hemingway (This bears repeating.)
Reminder
Remember I’ll go Live from the Hovel this afternoon at 1 p.m. Arizona time. Drop by if you can.
Not sure yet what I’ll talk about, but I imagine I’ll get around to Payhip for at least part of the time.
Confirmed: Payhip Is Hyper-Easy
Okay, here you go. Probably everything you need to know about Payhip. This will be excruciatingly detailed, so bear with me.
It took me about 10 minutes (maybe less) to set up the account, create my Payhip website page, custom branded with StoneThread Publishing, and connect my account to PayPal (how readers will pay for my books). They also offer Stripe and other payment gateways if you prefer those. You can connect to more than one.
Once all of that was done, I started adding my books.
Oh, also, I decided NOT to investigate BookFunnel and that other one I mentioned yesterday. No need. Also, after reading features, etc. on both of those sites for a few minutes my head was swimming and I was overwhelmed . And neither of them do anything for me that Payhip doesn’t do.
To set the tone for this post, if you can afford a webmaster or engage a friend or family member, good for you. I’m glad.
But I am my own webmaster. I literally do everything in my business from writing the books to all the website stuff to publishing, marketing, and all that entails. So the fewer moving parts and the less I have to remember, the better.
Unlike you, I had to learn everything I know about building websites, engaging with various platforms, etc. myself. Fortunately for you, I’m willing to share. (grin)
The Process at Payhip
For each ebook, I added to my Payhip site, I
- clicked Digital Product (you can also upload a course, a membership, a physical product, a coaching service, or a bundle. I haven’t explored any of those yet.)
- uploaded the product files (I uploaded an epub, mobi, and pdf file for each book)
- added the title (from my promo doc) and price
- uploaded the cover
- added the description (from my promo doc)
- marked the product Visible (That’s the default. The others are “invisible” and “unlisted,” I suppose in case you aren’t yet ready to pull the trigger on the listing.)
- clicked Advanced Options, then clicked “Product is an ebook” (saves on European VAT in some cases) and “Generate unique license key for each sale.” There are other advanced options available. Then I
- clicked Add Product.
That’s it.
Payhip immediately provided the URL for the specific book page. (I copy/pasted that to a list for future use.) That URL is what I’ll insert on the book page at StoneThread Publishing. Or I might link the cover on the genre book page directly to the URL at Payhip.
Look like a lot, right? But the process of adding a book took no more than 2 – 3 minutes. And that included a half-minute or so (sometimes) for me to create a pdf document if I didn’t already have one or if it had an older cover on it or whatever.
I wasn’t watching the clock from the beginning, but I uploaded everything for BO-1 through BO-17 in about an hour. Then I stopped for a little while to come over here and write this.
So that’s 17 books uploaded in about 60 minutes. And I did a few other things during that time too. But even if I hadn’t, an average of 3.5 minutes per book isn’t bad either.
To repeat a point I made in an earlier post, if you only have a few books, I recommend you do all of this NOW.
If you only have a few books, you can set up a free Payhip account, set up your Payhip site, connect to your payment source, and upload all of your files in an hour or less. So where’s the downside?
There isn’t one that I can see.
I have to admit, I’m not wild about days like this when I have to go head-down and rear pointing heavenward and plow through doing business stuff. I’d really rather just write fiction.
But this is a one-time investment in the future for me and for my children and grandchildren (yes, and great-grandchildren, I already have a smattering of those too) so it’s worthwhile.
Once this initial time-investment is finished, adding new books will take maybe 5 minutes, tops. I can live with that. And with any luck, I’ll be finished with all this stuff by close of business tomorrow and I can start the next novel on the first day of next month.
UPDATE: Yesterday, from around 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m I was able to upload 71 of my novels. So I uploaded 213 files. (grin) I’ll finish today with the remaining novels and short story collections. Then I get to write again! 🙂
I was just thinking, if I upload the individual short stories (later, not today) I’ll definitely link them directly. Or maybe I’ll even group (not collect) them in Grab Bag 1, Grab Bag 2 (or maybe something more descriptive of genre), etc. and link those directly. Hmm. Weeshull see.
About the Promo Doc
For years, I’ve recommend creating a promo doc for every book. I recommend it even more strongly now. Spending 5 or 10 minutes creating a promo doc will save you hours down the road.
I mentioned above that I copied and pasted the title and description for each book from the promo doc for that book. That’s one reason this process went so quickly and smoothly for me.
The promo doc is only a text file that I create for each book as I finish it. I use Windows, so I create the promo doc on Notepad (I’m sure Mac products have a similar .txt program), and I save it in the individual folder for the book.
Creating a promo doc takes about five minutes, if that long, and it literally contains everything I need to upload my book anywhere:
- the title of the book
- my author name
- my publisher site title (StoneThread Publishing)
- the description (sales copy)
The promo doc is invaluable. It keeps me from having to type-in the same information over and over again. I am averse to repeating work unnecessarily. I use the promo doc to
- create a new book page on StoneThread Publishing
- fill-in the required fields at Draft2Digital
- fill-in the required fields at Amazon
- fill-in the required fields at Payhip
At the bottom of the promo doc, I also keep track of the book page URL at Amazon and Books2Read (D2D) as well as what “path” I have to follow at D2D and Amazon to navigate the categories for each site, especially that jumbled mess at Amazon. (If ever anything had the clear earmarks of a newly minted MBA trying to prove his worth, it’s that jumbled mess.)
Okay, that’s it for today.
If you found this information helpful, consider dropping a tip into the jar on your way out if you are able. (grin) Please use the Donate Here button at the end of the post.
If you can’t leave a tip, please at least share this post with some other writer who sorely needs it, and-or leave a comment to let me know it helped or ask questions. I always reply to comments that need a reply.
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I’ll talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
Payhip In case you want to open your own free Payhip account.
OpenAI unveils technology that recreates human voices As one friend wrote, “Even more stories abound. Can you imagine how you can frame people with this technology?” (Thanks, Scott)
Dr. Mardy’s Quotes of the Week (on Sarcasm) GREAT post on sarcasm and its uses. And Mardy briliantly closes the post with a light and deftly delivered sarcastic statement on sarscasm.
The Numbers
The Journal……………………………… 1360
Writing of (sigh)
Day 1…… XXXX words. To date…… XXXXX
Fiction for March…………………….…. 61200
Fiction for 2024…………………………. 225792
Fiction since October 1………………… 528848
Nonfiction for March…………………… 29530
Nonfiction for 2024……………………… 128720
2024 consumable words……………… 354512
2024 Novels to Date……………………… 6
2024 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2024 Short Stories to Date……………… 1
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………… 88
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 9
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)…… 239
Short story collections………………… 31
Disclaimer: I am a prolific professional fiction writer. On this blog I teach Writing Into the Dark and adherence to Heinlein’s Rules. Unreasoning fear and the myths of writing will slow your progress as a writer or stop you cold. I will never teach the myths on this blog.
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