Out of a Funk - a Newbie's Journey In Self Publishing

[LisaK]

I am new to writing and publishing. It's not that I haven't EVER written but I never looked at it as an endeavor to make it into the Fastlane. I certainly had not considered writing fiction. The threads in the forum however, have given me new hope and a new avenue to pursue.

My family and friends have teased me through the years as I read voraciously but I read Self Improvement, Psychology, Spiritual and Business Books. “Don’t you ever just read for fun?” my peeps ask… I respond... “What’s not FUN about the coming collapse of our economic system? What’s not fun about finding out about Men who hate women and the women who love them? Tell me, what is NOT fun about picking through the recesses of your mind and attempting to discover the unconscious drives that motivate your every move toward success and failure?” I get a lot of eye rolling and shoulder shrugging. “We just thought you might want to lighten up a little.”

That’s not my style – However that said, I think I’m ready to turn over a new leaf. Self-examination can only go so far. The abundance of creativity that I had when I was younger has been squeezed into a corner. I think it is waiting to get out. I have brilliant moments of creative energy. I sometimes have even surprised myself. I’ll look back at an endeavor, an idea, a logo I created, a picture I drew and I’m like…who was that masked girl? It’s in here, somewhere.

I have been in a long standing funk. My husband and I bought a restaurant in October 2007. Meditate on that date and you can imagine that the rest of the story is probably not filled with rainbows and light..or money. We pretty much lost our life savings over a 5 year period. We’re not spring chickens but we’re not dead yet so…here I am picking myself up and learning how to get into that Fastlane. We sold it two years ago, July and we are still licking our wounds. I’m ready to be over the wallowing. Five years of intense stress followed by two years of being completely stunned and trying to remember what “having a life” means is an interesting cycle to live through. I will say this, we kept the thing going five years through the worst recession ever. I’m trying to find the silver lining. Regardless, a new day has dawned and the Fastlane helped light my fire again.

There are several threads in this Publishing Section that have inspired me to move forward. Quit just thinking about things and begin the process of doing the things. I have no idea if my book will sell. Even those who are becoming successful in the arena have had misses and some hits. Most have far more experience in writing fiction then I will probably ever even know. I feel I need to be prepared to feel accomplished just by following through and being willing to brave rejection. I’m not hiring ghost writers for this current project so I am sure I may feel a twinge of insecurity as I get ready to publish the first of what I hope to be a trilogy. I hope that with the support of the forum that I won’t bail at the first sign of rejection. I have come to see that most authors are publishing a lot of works and it appears that the more you write the better chances you have of creating success.

This will be my journey. I just finished writing my first 2500 words last night. It actually went pretty smoothly. How many words to go? I’m not sure. I have some challenges finding ways to tie my ideas together and possibly have a mixed Genre. It appears romance is the hot, hot thing but I don’t see this story segueing easily into that. I’m not saying there wouldn’t be a hint of it but that is not the story’s focus. I’ll just have to go with my gut. I’m going to get the thing done and edited and then we’ll see where I land. Right now, first things first; get the ideas down on paper. 2500 down…??? to go. Wish me luck. I hope over the next six months I will be one of the success stories on the forum. Then I can write a Self Improvement book! Ha ha ha!

 

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[Rainy_TX]

Hi LisaK and welcome to the forum!

 

[ChickenHawk]

I just finished writing my first 2500 words last night

Congrats!!! You're now officially way ahead of most people who only dream of actually sitting down to write something. Now you just need to keep adding those words, and viola, a magical book appears! All those life experiences, along with all those non-fiction books, should really help you craft some interesting stories. We're all rooting for you!

 

[yveskleinsky]

Lisa-- I read the same kind of books--and get the same type of response from most of my friends too! lol Glad to know I'm not the only one out there. Sounds like you are off to a great start on what could be not only an interesting story, but perhaps a much needed cathartic release.

 

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[LisaK]

I finished another 2500 words today - 5000 total. My best friend read my first couple of chapters and said it made her want to read more. Granted...she's my best friend but I asked her to be brutally honest. "it made me want to read more" was music to my ears though! I hope I am able to pull my ideas together into a cohesive plot. It's taken 5,000 words to scratch the surface. I've read books before where there were dry spots where I got a little bored. I'm worried that my idea has some complexities and I don't want there to be dry spots as I try to tie it all together. Has anyone else had this problem?

 

[Thriftypreneur]

I'm worried that my idea has some complexities and I don't want there to be dry spots as I try to tie it all together. Has anyone else had this problem?

Just keep writing and get it all down. If you get stuck on something, skip it and move ahead. You can always add/remove/change whatever you want in the editing phase. Getting the rough draft finished is the hardest part, imo.

 

[LisaK]

I had a meeting today for my research and realized part of what I wanted to incorporate is too complex. I do want to have a teaching element in my books, that exictes me. I was reading in "Writing Fiction for Dummies" that some authors try to tell everything...and basically, don't do that. The good news is through this conversation I found a still exciting piece to add to my book that is much more direct but still holds some fun mystery etc. So I feel like I had a new element that I will now add that should be some what educational for readers. For those who know nothing about the element it will be a kind of cool exposure I think. For those who are familiar with it, they may not have thought to use it in exactly the way my expert uses it and maybe will add a new element for them. I don't know. I just feel like I solved what potentially could have been a bit of a de-rail on some ideas. Also, I have another idea that is tied to the book. Even though it is Fiction, I am using many non-fictional elements and I'm thinking why not create a website that the person reading my books can go to for more information on the subject I'm writing about. And, what if I developed some kind of network or directory of real people...and maybe I could even charge for it. I'm not sure. Honestly, ideas roll in so fast for me sometimes (not all good, lots of clutter) that it's hard to stay focused. Luckily I'm kind of an abstract thinker who compartmentalizes things that I can go to later and access. Second idea on back burner. Main focus, finish the first book.

I wrote 500 words last night and got bored. I stopped because I figured if I'm boring myself there can't be any good coming out of that for a reader. I'll see what I can do tonight.

 

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[COSenior]

I've been a bit behind on keeping up with new threads here, so just found this one, Lisa. I've seen your posts here and there and am glad to see you've started your project and a progress thread. Great job!

Wanted to comment on two posts. Dry spots, has anyone had them? EVERYONE has had them. The trick is to get the information out in a way that isn't dry. Exposition is dry. Action and dialog aren't. Bring it in through those methods.

Also, your last about all the spin-off ideas. YES! Writing, even the type of writing most of us here aspire to, isn't fastlane. Any time you trade your own time for dollars, even if those dollars keep coming for years and years, you are limited by the number of hours you have to give to the project. The only way to make it fastlane is to add value such as you're brainstorming, or leverage other people's time and talent like the guys who are coming out as publishers rather than writers. I completely agree that you should get your first writing project done, just so you know you can do it. Then work on tying in some of those ideas...

 

[LisaK]

I've been a bit behind on keeping up with new threads here, so just found this one, Lisa. I've seen your posts here and there and am glad to see you've started your project and a progress thread. Great job!

Wanted to comment on two posts. Dry spots, has anyone had them? EVERYONE has had them. The trick is to get the information out in a way that isn't dry. Exposition is dry. Action and dialog aren't. Bring it in through those methods.

Also, your last about all the spin-off ideas. YES! Writing, even the type of writing most of us here aspire to, isn't fastlane. Any time you trade your own time for dollars, even if those dollars keep coming for years and years, you are limited by the number of hours you have to give to the project. The only way to make it fastlane is to add value such as you're brainstorming, or leverage other people's time and talent like the guys who are coming out as publishers rather than writers. I completely agree that you should get your first writing project done, just so you know you can do it. Then work on tying in some of those ideas...

I really appreciate your thoughts here as well as you taking your time to comment! Right now I'm afraid what I am writing is predictable. I don't know if its predictable to me because I know what is going to happen or if its just predictable. I will think further about my spin off ideas. If my book sucks it, the spin off idea won't be successful either as they are kind of tied to the book. I think I am 10,000 words into a predictable story. I'm going to press on but I'm feeling a little bummed.

When you talked about people leveraging their time and publishing were you referring to those who are getting ghost writers and just publishing a bulk of material? I'm thinking on that. I'm going to press on. I'm not sure where each idea or contact will take me but I'd like to believe that the Universe is guiding me to ...my Fastlane. My antennae is up, that's all I can really say at this point.

 

[LisaK]

11,680 total words done today. They may be 11,680 predictable words but they are my words dancing around my story. I never realized how long it took to write a basic plot idea...11,000 words to go through what I felt was a small part of the total story. I just hope it isn't 11,000 boring words. I'm going to finish out this part of my story and have a couple people read it to get some feed back before I go further. I don't want to be 30,000 words in and realize I've painted myself into a corner. I'll get this done and get someone to read and let you know what they think.

 

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[LisaK]

I have finished almost 13,000 words. The story is taking a little jaunt, what was originally going to be a small piece of the story is possibly turning into something a little more substantial. Since I plan on a trilogy (we'll see) I think this is fine. I am just realizing that to express my idea in words is taking a little longer than I thought.

Also, on a side note, I was reading a book sort of in my genre. It kind of had a slow start for me (it was a little fantasy drivin, not really my thing) but I did eventually get into the book. It had a romance edge to it that I ended up kind of liking after all. After finishing the book...I felt it had a little bit of a weird ending point for me but it did leave me wanting more. When I looked up the author (this book was marked 1 of a trilogy) I found there were no more books yet. So, I hope she finishes the trilogy because I am now interested in the rest of the story. That said, I knid of feel ...flat...now I have to wait apparently for her to finish the second book. I am thinking that I may want to finish the first two books in my Trilogy before publishing. I think I'd like to get the ones intersted in the rest...right away while they are hot on my story. Who knows how long it will be before book 2 comes out. What if it takes her a year? I could totally be over it. So, I' am wondering what other authors thing. I suppose it could blow up too, maybe the story falls flat and I've wasted time writing two books to find out people don't like it. None the less, I think what I am writing is ...nearly as good as what I just read, or can be and so I think I want to make sure my readers have some where to go with their excitement. I'm not sure. I probably need to post this in one of the other threads to see what everyone things. I think I will.

I'm getting ready to write some more today. I am not able to write daily. When I do write though I usally have quite a bit formulated so it flows pretty well. No writers block yet.

 

[COSenior]

When you talked about people leveraging their time and publishing were you referring to those who are getting ghost writers and just publishing a bulk of material?

Sorry I'm so late in answering this question...had to disappear from here for a while because of family stuff.

No, not specifically or not exclusively. I was referring more to your own ideas. I should clarify that I definitely think you should finish at least one book before you start any of that, unless you plan on using the tie-ins as the bulk of your earnings.

What I meant was that unless and until you can write longer or faster, what you can accomplish in your own time only writing is not going to return big bucks for a while. Almost no one has a breakout success with their first book, and even those who do often won't reveal that the hours they spent writing it weren't well-compensated for a long time. Ask @ChickenHawk how many hours went into books before the one that boosted her out of her full-time job. If you look at it in those terms, writing is perhaps more slowlane than going to a nine-to-five job.

However, there are several things that allow it to grow into a fastlane success. One is residual income. If you write something that sells even one or two books a month, over your lifetime it will add up to significant income for the time spent, and if you keep doing that, you eventually reach critical mass where each new release boosts your back catalog for a fairly stable monthly income. However, unless it becomes a classic that never falls in rank, you'll still have to keep writing to keep earning or it will fall off, probably much sooner than you'd hope.

The next is leveraging either the asset (for example, having a monetized website where your books drive traffic) or your time (i.e., setting yourself up to publish other people's work in one way or another). Finally, if your books are good enough and lend themselves to the big screen, that's a whole 'nother level of income. I'm sure you can think of more. Expanding a non-fiction book into a teaching or consulting business (with employees to do the time-consuming parts), for example. The list goes on and on.

I guess the point I'm trying to make is that if you read TMF and distill it into the simplest possible terms, you get that Fastlane means working hard to provide something that the buying public wants/needs in such a way that you don't have to work forever for it to keep paying you.

 

[LisaK]

Sorry I'm so late in answering this question...had to disappear from here for a while because of family stuff.

No, not specifically or not exclusively. I was referring more to your own ideas. I should clarify that I definitely think you should finish at least one book before you start any of that, unless you plan on using the tie-ins as the bulk of your earnings.

What I meant was that unless and until you can write longer or faster, what you can accomplish in your own time only writing is not going to return big bucks for a while. Almost no one has a breakout success with their first book, and even those who do often won't reveal that the hours they spent writing it weren't well-compensated for a long time. Ask @ChickenHawk how many hours went into books before the one that boosted her out of her full-time job. If you look at it in those terms, writing is perhaps more slowlane than going to a nine-to-five job.

However, there are several things that allow it to grow into a fastlane success. One is residual income. If you write something that sells even one or two books a month, over your lifetime it will add up to significant income for the time spent, and if you keep doing that, you eventually reach critical mass where each new release boosts your back catalog for a fairly stable monthly income. However, unless it becomes a classic that never falls in rank, you'll still have to keep writing to keep earning or it will fall off, probably much sooner than you'd hope.

The next is leveraging either the asset (for example, having a monetized website where your books drive traffic) or your time (i.e., setting yourself up to publish other people's work in one way or another). Finally, if your books are good enough and lend themselves to the big screen, that's a whole 'nother level of income. I'm sure you can think of more. Expanding a non-fiction book into a teaching or consulting business (with employees to do the time-consuming parts), for example. The list goes on and on.

I guess the point I'm trying to make is that if you read TMF and distill it into the simplest possible terms, you get that Fastlane means working hard to provide something that the buying public wants/needs in such a way that you don't have to work forever for it to keep paying you.

I've been giving all that a lot of thought and I do understand. I have had about 400 ideas come and go within days! I'm ridiculous sometimes! I do want the Fastlane. I think I can do this although I am not expecinting to do it overnight but wouldn't it be great if I did!! Right now I am attempting to stay focused on getting this first story done and edited. I am enjoying the process so far. That said, if I make $0 I will be disappointed. I know I have a lot to learn.

 

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[LisaK]

17,500 words done. I've named some Characters and given them last names at the beginning of the story. 17,000 words later...I forget what I named them!! I hope I catch all those when I edit. Still just getting this first draft done.

 

[COSenior]

17,000 words later...I forget what I named them!! I hope I catch all those when I edit. Still just getting this first draft done.

I thought I was the only one who did that! Are you using writing software, like Scrivener? If so, there are templates to help you sketch out your characters in each manuscript file, which is where I'm now keeping those names. I use just one sketch to keep all the minor characters' names and anything else important about them, but the main characters get the full treatment. You could do the same in any word processor, just keep them all in one file that's separate from your story.

 

[LisaK]

I thought I was the only one who did that! Are you using writing software, like Scrivener? If so, there are templates to help you sketch out your characters in each manuscript file, which is where I'm now keeping those names. I use just one sketch to keep all the minor characters' names and anything else important about them, but the main characters get the full treatment. You could do the same in any word processor, just keep them all in one file that's separate from your story.

I have the snowflake software. And yes, after that I started putting my characters in that.

 

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[LisaK]

I just reached 20,000 words...I'm probably 5000ish away from concluding this part of the story. Need to do a little more research and see if a Novella will work in my genre. I think it will but not totally sure how to research the issue.

 

[LisaK]

Still not done, just reached 30,000 words who knew I had it in me. I'm really trying to wrap it up but I need to add a couple more elements to set up my second book. I've set up for a book cover to be made with someone on Fiverr. I also have found a local editor. I will let you all know how that goes and if she is as great as I hear I'll pass her name along to all those who ask. I'm not sure what she is charging me yet because I just made short contact with her to confirm she'd do it and I was at 20,000 words, now at 30,000 I'm sure it will be more. I'll keep you appraised.

 

[LisaK]

I finished my first Novella last night. The first draft has been printed and dropped off to the editor. I am going to send it out to a few friends and get some feed back. I feel nervous ....I don't want to suck.

 

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[ChickenHawk]

I finished my first Novella last night. The first draft has been printed and dropped off to the editor. I am going to send it out to a few friends and get some feed back. I feel nervous ....I don't want to suck.

That's so exciting! Congrats! I know I keep saying this, but just by the sheer fact that you've finished a novella, you're already way ahead of most people. Way to go!

 

[LisaK]

That's so exciting! Congrats! I know I keep saying this, but just by the sheer fact that you've finished a novella, you're already way ahead of most people. Way to go!

Thanks that means a lot to me coming from you!

 

[LisaK]

OK. I have
1. Created a publishing company to publish my books and maybe others as I figure this out, the Kindle thing etc. (Could be a Fastlane thing...)
2. Registered my assumed business name with the State.
3. Gotten the URL for my Publishing company to start my Wordpress website that will hopefully get people to sign up on a mailing list that I will attach
4. Created a fb page for the publishing company and an Author page for my pen name
5. I have my book (Novella 35,000 words) at the editor
6. Have sent the first draft out to friends who will give me constructive criticism but since they are my friends they will be kind to me too and tell me they 7. think I'm cool for at least attempting this. That will take some of the sting off.
8. Sent a copy to my husband- and he will be the hardest critic so I told him if he had anything negative to say he might have to email me or make sure I'm in a mood to take it. (He said OK)
9. I figured out a subtitle for the book with some keywords but haven't settled on it yet
10. started the process of getting the book cover made. Waiting to hear back from the Artist.
11. Researched Key words in my Genre and think I found a couple gaps where I can do alright even if I'm not a block buster writer yet. (I'm feeling optimistic that I can be someday as long as I don't get my ego all twisted up and shit and quit. In other words I feel committed to not quitting.)
12. I am going to look at some affiliate sites that might work with my genre and book / and some other books that are Non-fiction that might be of interest to people who read my book and find a way to work that into the website for possible sales.
13. That's it, that's all I've done this week 10 of the items I did last night. I'm just say'n look at me go.

 

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[LisaK]

Waiting now.....Editor....Friends.....will work on websites while waiting.

 

[COSenior]

Start your next book. Always good to have one in the pipeline.

 

[ctcrompton]

I'm trying to get more involved on this forum. Hi @LisaK. Sounds like you're making awesome progress. Writing continuously is hard (for me). The fact that you've written 30,000 words for your first novella is inspiring and something remarkable! If you can keep that kind of output up, you'll be sure to nail down success, provided the stories are great.

 

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[LisaK]

I'm trying to get more involved on this forum. Hi @LisaK. Sounds like you're making awesome progress. Writing continuously is hard (for me). The fact that you've written 30,000 words for your first novella is inspiring and something remarkable! If you can keep that kind of output up, you'll be sure to nail down success, provided the stories are great.

Thank you. I've paused now to finish the editing and probably go back and do some more work on it. I am close to having my website done and the facebook page is done. I need to set up mail chimp or something but haven't decided which way to go...maybe aweber. Want to capitalize on any readership I get. crossing my fingers that I will get some good response once published. Still have to fix all mistakes in first draft then format for Kindle. Fumbling around with all that right now. Also, not finalized on my subtitle, the one I have might be stupid. Agh...plugging along. plugging along.

 

[ctcrompton]

I am close to having my website done and the facebook page is done.

An idea that I've been toying with is having a single page website that lists all my books similar to an e-commerce store. It would include a link to sign up for the email list too, and then instead of listing all my titles at the back of each book, I'd just link to that website.

Not sure if that's what I'll end up doing, but it seems like a simple solution that could engage new readers.

 

[Lex DeVille]

An idea that I've been toying with is having a single page website that lists all my books similar to an e-commerce store. It would include a link to sign up for the email list too, and then instead of listing all my titles at the back of each book, I'd just link to that website.

Not sure if that's what I'll end up doing, but it seems like a simple solution that could engage new readers.

I'm not writing novellas, but was thinking of doing something similar. I'll be offering a downloadable add-on which is accessed from my site. Hopefully I can set it up in such a way that once they download it they'll immediately click "Our Titles" or something similar which will take them to a listing of the other books. No idea if it will work, but it seems like it could, and would definitely leave a less cluttered page at the end of the original book.

 

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[ctcrompton]

I'm not writing novellas,

Do you write novels, non-fiction or short stories? Or something else altogether?

 

[Lex DeVille]

Don't wanna thread-jack. I haven't published anything yet. Started a progress thread here about two weeks ago. Definitely not as far along as LisaK.