By Courtney Milan, @courtneymilan Part of the Indie Author Series
JH: Jana Oliver is taking a break this month, so let's dip into the archives for a very important aspect of self publishing many authors overlook. Their novel's backmatter.
When I first decided to start self-publishing, I thought the major sticking points for returning to a contract were royalty rates and the price points for digital books. That was pure naivety—I didn’t realize that I was doing something wrong, something fundamental, and that once I fixed it, it would change how I think of digital sales.
Before I start telling you about backmatter, I have to tell you how I think about digital sales. In the world of print, much depends on your shelving. If you’re at the front of the store, you’re going to sell more copies than if you’re stuffed on the back of the shelves. Stores decide what books to put at the front on the basis of a handful of factors: what the publisher’s willing to pay for the experience, how titles from that author have sold in the past, and other factors. In general, though, the performance of prior books by an author determines the initial placement of the next book.
