Have you heard of the Amazon All-star bonuses for indie authors?

Welcome to the smuttier side of romance, , with alien peens and the readers who love them!

Have you ever heard of the Amazon's All-star bonuses?

These are bonus chunks of money that are given to selected authors/accounts as a bonus for having more pages read, instead of using the all-star money as part of the pool of money that gets calculated and distributed as extra money per page read, it gets given selectively to accounts that are getting more pages read in Kindle Unlimited.

How I feel about this? Mixed, I think the bonus money should just be lumped into the pile and distributed as the KU pages read terms are discussed, but at the same time there is something fun about finally accomplishing a "bonus" for doing well as an author.

I have not received an all-star bonus before, but if I use other author's transparency numbers as reference, it would probably take me around 406 people reading through on ONE single title in a month to qualify for a bonus. Bonuses are not across the whole platform/whole catalog of books.

That would mean as an indie author I would have to have one single title, let's say my largest read book in KU is currently Her Alien Savior, which has since its release in August 2023 had around 140,000 pages read (That's over 1 year of pages read.)

Or my second most read book in KU is Her Alien Prince that has been out longer than Her Alien Savior and has 107,000 pages read.

Jewel of the Alien Bandit has 85,000 pages, Her Alien Warrior has had 72,000 pages read, and Her Alien Insurgent my most recent release has had 16,000 pages read and has been out since May 2024.

At an average of 300 pages a book X 406 readers for one book, that would mean as an indie author, I would need to have 122,000 pages read in one month, on one single title to qualify for a bonus. That means, for what my best read book has made in a year, has to be done in one month to potentially qualify for an all-star bonus.

Hell, I'd be happy with making what I made in 1 year in 1 single month, even without a bonus, but that aside.

A majority of pages read for any book are in the first month of release.

Her Alien Savior had 35,000 pages of its total pages read in its first month of release. And Her Alien Prince has 36,000 pages read in its first month of release.

So, really, I only need to increase my first month pages read, and increase my readership by 3.5 times. I'm 30% of the way towards that All-Star Goal if I look at it that way.

I'm ever the optimist that I'm 30% of the way towards reaching an All-Star Bonus during a NEW release launch month. And if that were to actually happen? Then that would mean that I would have finally reached one of my author milestones and had a book pay for its own launch cost in its first month of release!

That is a huge accomplishment that would mean that I'll actually pay myself for my time and be a legit paid author in the months that follow a release month.

So, yes, I may not be an All-Star Bonus Indie Author YET, but just thinking about it, I now know I'm 30% of the way up the mountain towards that goal! That's more than I was a year ago!

With your support, I'm climbing that author mountain and building my tribe, one book at a time!

My first book Jewel of the Alien Bandit had 12k pages read in the first month.

My second book Her Alien Prince had 36k pages read in the first month. (That's 24k more than the last book in the series! 300% increase!)

My third book Her Alien Savior had 22k pages read in the first month. (This was a new series start, so it's expected that it has less than a previous release)

My fourth book Her Alien Warrior had 35k pages read in the first month (That's 13k pages more than the last book in the series, 159% increase)

My fifth book Her Alien Insurgent had 9k pages read in the first month.

My most recent book is a 75% decrease from Her Alien Prince (which was the book before it in the series) There are many factors that contribute to this, including rushing the release, having less than a month to launch with ARC readers, readers knowing that the book is more enjoyable if you FIRST read Her Alien Prince, a marketing miss on my part to not fully explain that it is still a standalone book that can be enjoyed without having read any other book? Perhaps not leaning into the fancy peen molding to fit his mate? Not adding that the FMC is a POC who is a badass and saves the day with the help of her team? I'm unsure, but it has a 4.8 star rating on Amazon, and is still stuck at 34 reviews, and still has a 4.8 star on Goodreads with 65 ratings. 88% of readers rate it a 5-star, making it my Highest Rated, and most enjoyed book, but it's my lowest performing book. Averaging around 10 to 20$ in a month after its release.

If you have read Her Alien Prince, please do check out Her Alien Insurgent! I know you'll love it!

If you haven't read either, obviously, I recommend reading Her Alien Prince first, but you don't have to. You can still enjoy Her Alien Insurgent by itself.

Mood Board for Her Alien Insurgent: (Yes, I think Alicia Keys is the perfect model for Ashley our FMC. Look at that fabulous hair!)

Read Her Alien Insurgent in KU!

My sixth book will be Her Alien Starbreaker (from the Beyond Earth Anthology, but since lots of readers will be grabbing the book in the anthology for only 99 pennies, I'm unsure what it's official launch by itself will do in terms of KU pages read.)

My seventh book will be Her Alien Captor... We'll see how much I've grown my readership by then! Stay tuned!

xoxo

Sky

Grab Grumpy Billionaire Alien Freesies

Standalone plot with spice adventures of fated mates, space vampires, knotting, and bonds that will last beyond the stars! All available in Kindle Unlimited!

https://books.steviemarie.com/jotab

https://books.steviemarie.com/heralienprince

https://books.steviemarie.com/heralieninsurgent

https://books.steviemarie.com/heralienexchange (Freesies with this newsletter, dig it out of your e-reader!)

https://books.steviemarie.com/heraliensavior

https://books.steviemarie.com/heralienwarrior

(Next book Her Alien Captor I want to work on this Fall! -- I did intend this to be a NaNoWriMo book writing excursion... but I'm very disappointed in how they are handling the A.I. thing right now. So, I might just consider it FaWriCha Fall Writing Challenge)

https://books.steviemarie.com/takingmedusa

https://books.steviemarie.com/breakingfate

Happy Reading and thank you for being part of my author journey!

~Sky

monster september book fair

Paranormal Women's BookFair

Sci-fi Book Fair

Check out Alien Unlimited September

This is the place in my newsletter where you can check up on my word count/progress on any given project. So, if you're excited about something and where I'm at with it, or what's next on the writing agenda, this is the place to check. I don't post this anywhere else but on my newsletter. Not even my website has a progress update zone.

Breaking Fate: off to ARC READERS!!! Breaking Fate (currently available for Pre-order) Launches October 2nd 2024

Read Taking Medusa on Kindle Unlimited to get caught up!

TKManAteHer is on Amazon and Audible! A short erotic sentient robot romance, to be enjoyed in around an hour. Perfect for a quick escape that won't interrupt your beauty sleep if you start at bedtime!

It is a complete story, no cliffhangers, 2.5 spicy scenes, and a romance that defies time itself.

It's available for 99 pennies on Amazon, or from my author store:

Amazon: https://books.steviemarie.com/tk

Author Store: https://payhip.com/b/XgOuk

Also available on Audible! https://www.audible.com/ac/TKManAteHer-Audiobook/B0D5GC1ZDK

When you grab the book direct, more pennies are kept with the author. For every 99 penny book, an indie makes around 35 cents from Amazon.

Direct, I get around 50 cents depending on if you use Stripe or Paypal as your payment method through my author store. That's 40% more pennies in the author's pocket by grabbing direct!

Her Alien Starbreaker My goal is to have this completed before end of September 2024 for an anthology. Best of all, the personal cover for the book is commissioned by Deborah Garcia! So, this is the first cover I have made from commissioned artwork instead of cover designers! (Note: I make sure all my covers are done by designers that do NOT support A.I., No A.I. is used for my covers, nor my writing. I R hooman.)

Word Count: 27k/50K goal

This book will be included in the upcoming anthology Beyond Earth available for pre-order for only 99 pennies and you also get 7 other complete sci-fi romances from awesome indie authors!