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Hello from Denver - self publishing success

ChickenHawk

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  • I assume you pay taxes, how do you do this (i.e have you registered a company that you publish all your books through?)
  • Do you need different pen names for different genres and if yes; do you market each of that pen name individually or do you add all your readers to the same mailing list?
  • You said that you have experienced readers who bought your whole collection of books, does this mean that all your books are under the same authors page but with different pen names?
Hi! Since Held for Ransom hasn't been on this thread in a while, and you ask some good questions, maybe I can answer some of these instead.
  • Taxes: I don't know how HFR does it, but I pay taxes as a self-employed individual, not a corporation. Aside from the regular April tax filing thing, I pay estimated taxes quarterly. I'm no tax expert, but I'm guessing that the quarterly payments wouldn't be necessary if you made, for example, a few hundred dollars. But once you find yourself making a regular income from self-pubbing, I believe you'd be penalized if you didn't make estimated quarterly payments. (Obviously, I'm no tax expert, so don't take this as professional advice.)
  • Genres & Pen Names: Most writers recommend keeping your genres and pen names separate, unless your audiences might cross over. For example, if you write mysteries and suspense, you might share readers under a single pen name. If, however, you write erotica and kids books, you'd definitely need two pen names. There are, however, authors who disagree that you need different pen names for different genres. For example, the guys who produce "The Self-Publishing Podcast" (a great resource available on ITunes, btw) write in several genres under the same pen names.
  • About HFR's Pen Name(s), I could be wrong, but I always had the impression he wrote under one single pen name. So probably, if someone bought his whole collection, they'd simply be buying every book written by that pen name.
Hope this helps!
 
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Polarbeans

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It took me 4 days but I FINALLY finished this thread! Amazing stuff!

I read MJs book almost a year ago and have been lurking here ever since. I became an INSIDERS earlier this year as well in an effort to take my Fastlane quest more seriously.

After procrastinating for so long I've decided to go the self-publishing route. I've always been a great writer so I know this plays to my strengths.

I notice HfR hasn't been around, but can anyone PM the infamous research tool? Thanks in advance!

I would love that too, thanks a million!
 

Polarbeans

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Hi! Since Held for Ransom hasn't been on this thread in a while, and you ask some good questions, maybe I can answer some of these instead.
  • Taxes: I don't know how HFR does it, but I pay taxes as a self-employed individual, not a corporation. Aside from the regular April tax filing thing, I pay estimated taxes quarterly. I'm no tax expert, but I'm guessing that the quarterly payments wouldn't be necessary if you made, for example, a few hundred dollars. But once you find yourself making a regular income from self-pubbing, I believe you'd be penalized if you didn't make estimated quarterly payments. (Obviously, I'm no tax expert, so don't take this as professional advice.)
  • Genres & Pen Names: Most writers recommend keeping your genres and pen names separate, unless your audiences might cross over. For example, if you write mysteries and suspense, you might share readers under a single pen name. If, however, you write erotica and kids books, you'd definitely need two pen names. There are, however, authors who disagree that you need different pen names for different genres. For example, the guys who produce "The Self-Publishing Podcast" (a great resource available on ITunes, btw) write in several genres under the same pen names.
  • About HFR's Pen Name(s), I could be wrong, but I always had the impression he wrote under one single pen name. So probably, if someone bought his whole collection, they'd simply be buying every book written by that pen name.
Hope this helps!


Thanks for you quick reply!

Ok so:
  • Taxes paid as usual, check!
  • New pen names in case you cross genre borders (like erotica and kids books..NONO)
 

Draven Grey

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Thanks for you quick reply!

Ok so:
  • Taxes paid as usual, check!
  • New pen names in case you cross genre borders (like erotica and kids books..NONO)
I pay taxes similarly. I've self-published quite a bit of non-fiction about the Music Business, but mostly with co-authors. I set up an LLC for extra legal protection and making tracking expenses and deductibles a bit more easily. It's a pass-through entity, so I still end up paying the end taxes as self-employed. Then we set it up so that one person takes lead, while the other invoices them for payment. Our accountant seems to like our setup. As for pen name, I just went with my name for both fiction and non-fiction. I figured that the subject matter is easy enough to distinguish. Although, I didn't publish on Amazon yet. That's going to change with future fiction work. Not sure about non-fiction yet since most of the published work is either free or $60+.
 
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ChickenHawk

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Regarding HFR's research tool, it's apparently no longer available.

Over the past few months, several people have expressed an interest in HFR's research tool. Since he provided it to individuals one-on-one, I never felt comfortable sharing it without his permission. What I did do tonight, however, was dig out the link and hit the tool again to see if it still existed. The data is no longer there, which means that the tool no longer exists, at least not on the link HFR originally provided. I only mention this to save new self-pubbers the frustration of requesting something that doesn't exist.

I don't know how long the data has been missing, because it's probably been a year since I last hit the link. Regardless, don't despair! I found the tool really interesting, but ultimately didn't use it to pick my genre. You can do this without the tool or the data. Simply find a hot genre that speaks to you, and take it from there.

Although the tool is no longer available, I think we can all agree that HFR continues to provide a wealth of value, if only by the data he so generously shared here in this thread.

Good luck!
 
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Rawr

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I found the tool really interesting, but ultimately didn't use it to pick my genre. You can do this without the tool or the data. Simply find a hot genre that speaks to you, and take it from there.

Good luck!

Glad I wasn't the only one who thought that. The tool was neat, but I was more about copying the best and putting out stuff similar to theirs.
 

AllenCrawley

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@Held for Ransom I was going thru my list today of people I follow and notice you are still visiting the forum. I'd be really interested in reading an update from you! This is one of my fav threads.
 

Rawr

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OK, who here is still in self publishing? Show yourselves, as going through the thread there were dozens interested.

The game has changed with KU2.0, what are you currently up to?
 
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Held for Ransom

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OK, who here is still in self publishing? Show yourselves, as going through the thread there were dozens interested.?

Yep, right here. Three year anniversary coming up. Thanks @MJ DeMarco. You changed my life, man.

I am forever grateful.
The game has changed with KU2.0, what are you currently up to?

My best month ever in August (only took me 35 months to get there) but well within the range I discussed at the beginning of this thread many moons ago. It's taken a lot of work and it's never been easy but I'm hoping to break the upper limit of that range in two to three more years if all goes well.

FWIW, I'm 100% KU 2.0.

Exciting times... :cigar:
 

MTF

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OK, who here is still in self publishing? Show yourselves, as going through the thread there were dozens interested.

The game has changed with KU2.0, what are you currently up to?

Still going strong after a year. This thread was one of my inspirations to enter this industry. I couldn't be more grateful to @Held for Ransom for sharing his incredible experience. You're one of the several people from this forum who have tremendously changed my life.

August was also by far my best month ever, but I don't have any titles enrolled in KDP Select (most of my sales come from non-fiction, and new KDP Select is not great for non-fiction). I'm still debating whether to use it for my incoming fiction book. All I know is that while I don't really enjoy KDP Select in general, I'm kind of happy they changed it because the gold rush era of self-publishing is now probably nearing its end.
 
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Rawr

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Earlier this year I hired a few ghost writers to make money on KU1, but with KU2 I've understood the game is quality not quantity and had to adjust a few things. (I hired 4 ghost writers in KU1 and only 1 managed to finish before KU2. Instead of hoping to make bank I hope to make my money back) I thought of going wide but after looking at my readers I saw that they borrow twice as many books as they buy, so I stayed in. Doing ok, would be doing a lot better if I focused on writing my own books and not waste my time with the ghost writer stuff, I have a 2 year anniversary coming up in Oct and focusing on releasing my 6th book before then.
 

Boyd

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I'm not officially in the game, but I'm getting close. I guess you could call this my preseason. I'm 6,300 words into a book and hope to have it ready for publication soon.

I spent a LOT of time in "training camp" studying the craft of writing and reading books in my genre. Hopefully it will only be a matter of time (and effort) before I start playing in the same league as @Held for Ransom and @ChickenHawk. :)
 

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OK, who here is still in self publishing? Show yourselves, as going through the thread there were dozens interested.
As you know, @Rawr, I'm still here. Also experienced my best month in August, to the tune of more than eight times my previous best-month earnings from my own titles. Still receiving royalties from previous pen names and partnerships, but completely stoked that I broke out on my own and am now making a livable income from my writing. With current trend, looking to double last month's gross as well. I'm nowhere near HfR's level yet, but chasing. :)
 
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Rake

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Just a quick note to say, as a 100% newbie to this forum, I've spent the last few hours reading through this thread from the very first link, and following some of the rabbit holes, and am amazed and thankful for all the real-world, practical information here. I've been looking to develop some kind of opportunity for some time, but as potentially lucrative as some of the other things may be they just didn't seem to fit. This is something I definitely think I can do.

I'm really just learning at this point but I'll try to add a little value to the post: Almost every successful author I'm aware of (I'm an old English major and novel-reader) were relentless about writing all the time, when they were in their heyday--I mean the big guys like Hemingway, Tom Wolfe in our time, etc. I earned my coin as a journalist for many years and it was the same thing--you want to improve your writing, then write, constantly.

Anyway, thanks.
 

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Well I decided to join the forum just from reading this magnificent thread. Thank you so much HFR for the inspiration and the time you put writing about your experience!

Personally I finished my first short story and I am waiting from a lady in Fiverr to finish the cover. I feel really overwhelmed at first, not having done anything like it, so I decided that for the first book I will focus on :
1) Good story.
2) Good cover. That's kinda hard, since the New and Popular doesn't work anymore and I have to manually find the top sellers in my genre. Also although the lady had made some great covers, I am not sure how it's going to come out. She asked me for covers I liked so that she could get a feel for what I like, but she didn't actually ask me exactly what I wanted. Worst case scenario, it's going to take some extra time for the cover to get ready.
3) A title and description that makes the reader understand that it's a short story and what is it about.
4) Not screw up with Kindle settings.
5) Put a subscription form at the end, although I couldn't find any tutorial on the net about this.

I am writing the second short story now, a sequel to the first and I am using 750words (even though I intend to write more words per day)and ProWritingAid for my tools. I also intend to start my progress thread when I have 3-5 short stories published, since I do not want to clutter the forums in the case it doesn't work out for some reason.

Finally, with self publishing I would like to support for my family and pets while achieving my own definition of freedom and give up my current profession. I have found out that 2000 dollars per month will achieve that and also give me some "luxuries" so as Chickenhawk would say "Gotta.Write.Faster" :hurray:

Thanks again everyone that has contributed in this legendary thread!
 

Chazmania

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OK, who here is still in self publishing? Show yourselves, as going through the thread there were dozens interested.


Honestly I haven't published yet but I have 2 books in the works, even though HFR's thread was one of the first I read when I joined the forum.

Unfortunately, the whole self-pubbing thing seemed like it was an 'unknown' and possibly not a sustainable business because of the lack of control, so I always had some doubts. Plus I can't write for shit so it's grueling lol. I was always back and forth on the idea, but I decided to use my energy/resources on a business that I was already comfortable with. Man it seems I chose wrong!

Over the past few years I've purchased more real estate and spent all my time renovating and finding tenants, and that's going well and throwing off profit. HOWEVER - looking back now, and thinking about all the money/time/energy spent, I honestly wish I just locked myself in my office and learned to write good fiction and non-fiction! I'd likely be making multiples of the cash-flow I have coming in now!

That's exacly what I'm doing now in my spare time though - learning the actual craft of writing. It's not as easy as it looks that's for sure, at least not for me.

*Point of this post* Add real value and money should follow. I think originally I was unconsciously thinking about just money chasing with pubbing and that caused my own doubts. But, If I had just committed and focused on learning the craft, creating really great stories with excellent covers, titles, blurbs, keywords, etc, I wouldn't have to worry about Amazon's mood swings and changes to KU, and therefore removing the doubts about success.

Yep, right here. Three year anniversary coming up. Thanks @MJ DeMarco. You changed my life, man.

I am forever grateful.

@Held for Ransom - Glad to see you're still alive and well!
 
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Mattie

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Reading this helped tremendously when I was starting. It is even more important after now 1.5 years in the game.

http://www.deanwesleysmith.com/killing-the-top-ten-sacred-cows-of-publishing-9-writing-is-hard/
I agree none of it is hard. I'm a prolific writer and make things up all the time. I think the difference between me an other writers, I don't hang out with other writers. If you hang out with other writers you pick up their bad habits. I guess I agree with the writing instructor that told me ignore the stuff going on in writing forums, and keep doing it on my own. He went through tons of workshops and writing programs. So, that tells me, it doesn't matter if you get in the programs etc. I believe you have to have passion and drive for writing in the first place. And if you hate writing, it's not going to work. I go for the information needed, apply it, I don't get lost in the writing forums and their feed back. I throw it out there, and reviews usually give me the feedback I need. Self-publishing gives you that opportunity with many pen names. And traditional publishing is another avenue. You can't fix it or improve it once you give it to them.

And what am I doing now, expanding that knowledge and honing the skill by learning screen writing and fiction novel writing, and the business of both. Switching my main focus off of non-fiction and on to fiction. And concentrating more on the Novella's and Novels. If I'm going to put my time and energy into it, I might as well write books which add more value than just a few pages.
 

Boozoon

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Can I ask a question for whoever is self publishing? I published my first story today (woohoo!) but even though I put the price at 0.99, Amazon displays 1.22 to the book page, since they want to include VAT in the price.

Does anyone know the exact amount we can use so that the price displayed is 0.99? Or is there perhaps an option not to include VAT in the price? Thanks a lot in advance!
 

MTF

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You can't set your price lower than $0.99. It displays at $0.99 in the US/Canada/other non-EU countries and 1.22 (or other price, depending on the VAT rate) in Europe.
 
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Mattie

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How many pages is your book and .99 cents is not going to make you much money. I think they know it's .99 cents minus the Vat. Depending on many pages you have, you can sell it for 1.99 to 2.99 and they will still buy it. I have a few at .99 from experimenting. I sell more priced at 2.99 but that's usually a ten chapter short story, versus a few pages. The Vat like they said about is always there.
 

COSenior

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Can I ask a question for whoever is self publishing? I published my first story today (woohoo!) but even though I put the price at 0.99, Amazon displays 1.22 to the book page, since they want to include VAT in the price.

Does anyone know the exact amount we can use so that the price displayed is 0.99? Or is there perhaps an option not to include VAT in the price? Thanks a lot in advance!
On which Amazon marketplace is it showing this price? The VAT is included in the list price you set, Amazon doesn't add it. If you set the price at .99 in USD and are looking at the Canadian Amazon market, however, the price reflects the exchange rate. The .99 book of mine that I checked shows $1.23 in CAD and $1.30 for AUD.
 

Boozoon

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On which Amazon marketplace is it showing this price? The VAT is included in the list price you set, Amazon doesn't add it. If you set the price at .99 in USD and are looking at the Canadian Amazon market, however, the price reflects the exchange rate. The .99 book of mine that I checked shows $1.23 in CAD and $1.30 for AUD.
Thanks for the reply COSenior! As TMF said, the price displays at 0.99 in US and 1.22 in Europe. I am living in Europe so I guess it's normal to display at 1.22 :p
 
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OK, who here is still in self publishing? Show yourselves, as going through the thread there were dozens interested.

The game has changed with KU2.0, what are you currently up to?

The game has certainly changed with KU 1.0 and KU 2.0. My earnings were doing well and I was excited to be making a full time living writing just before KU launched. After KU 1.0 my earnings dropped significantly like many others, and I scrambled for some strategies. Most of the fiction sales are still way down whether the books are enrolled in KU or not. Fiction was paying the bills and now the nonfiction book has outsold them 20:1 and is completely unaffected by KU. So I am realizing that I was fortunate to be able to pay the bills with writing for awhile. It seems there is some downward pressure on author earnings, and it does concern me.

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/apr/20/earnings-authors-below-minimum-wage

"It's remarkable to me that the expectation is now that you should earn a decent amount of money from writing. The odds are extremely long. Extremely. Better than they were as trad pub, but still very, very slim." Russell Blake

He goes on to mention that it must be combined with the skills of publishing, and it has a better shot but it is still extremely difficult.

So know that going in. I love the opportunity to write, but I am trying to figure out the best strategies moving forward.
 

Chazmania

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So I am realizing that I was fortunate to be able to pay the bills with writing for awhile. It seems there is some downward pressure on author earnings, and it does concern me.

I find it pretty amazing how polarized the self pubbing experience is.

I was just reading about a woman that only has out 2 series of 3 books each and she's making $6000 per month and traveling around the world on a modest budget, but making her living by writing only. I know that that income from a small amount of books is rare, at least I think it is, but it makes me wonder: what the hell is the common denominator here?

My own thought is pure quality across the board and quantity of books must be the key to success, but I'm only guessing since I have yet to release anything myself. I'm placing my bet that well written + great cover + strategic keywords + good blurb + many titles per pen name must yield some decent success. That's what I'm hoping anyway.

But if you find non fiction is paying 20/1, then why not load up your catalog that way?
 

MTF

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what the hell is the common denominator here?

Some people just understand the Fastlane principles, and some (most authors) don't. The ones who complain are usually the ones writing books nobody wants to read. The ones killing it have an incredible work ethic and write to fulfill the needs of their readers.
 
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Also there is a difference between writing for you and writing for a market. If you have a romance author complaining and then see the covers of his books being landmarks, he just had it coming for him.

I think also that the best advice is still "write more books". I have many handicaps (not a writers background, English not being my first language, using stock photos for a genre that does not help it) but I just keep writing, intending to create momentum, not pay the bills with my first try.

P.S. Sold first copy of first book :rockon:
 

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