Hello from Denver - self publishing success

[AubreyRose]

I've put two of my novellas through Createspace, and it cost me nothing but around 30 mins of my time, while giving the benefits of having a paperback you already mentioned (plus an easy extra income stream).
Why isn't it worth it outside of novels and collects? I'd argue it's pretty valuable, even for novellas.

Here's a good example:

I don't doubt HM Ward sells paper copies, but she's not exactly a normal example In my experience, I sell roughly 5,000 ebooks for every one paperback, which nets me nearly nothing since the royalties on paperbacks are shit.

Regardless, I don't want to format my stuff like crap for paperback readers. That means I put a lot of time into formatting the text, creating a COMPLETELY new cover which changes size every time for different templates, and generally doing things right. I'd say maybe 4 hours. And I have 75 shorts published under my last pen name. That's a lot of time that I honestly think would be better spent writing or doing other stuff. YMMV, of course, and if you don't mind doing it then more power to ya!

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[ChickenHawk]

I sell roughly 5,000 ebooks for every one paperback, which nets me nearly nothing since the royalties on paperbacks are shit.

I don't have nearly as much experience, but I'll second this ratio. Even so, I was glad to have the CreateSpace version for all the aforementioned reasons -- price anchoring, better page counts, a more professional look. I'm not sure I'd go through the trouble for a shorter work though. It took me FOREVER (sheesh, maybe a whole day) to figure it out the margins, cover, page breaks etc., and I'm still not confident in my abilities for the next go-around.

As a side benefit, it was so amazing to actually hold a copy of my own book in my hands. Like a kitten, only less furry.

I am having a terrible time with CreateSpace, books keep coming back with errors, and I couldn't find what margins I need in scrivener. Does anyone use a PC version and know how to align the book/cover?

When I did mine, I vaguely recall googling "CreateSpace template." And I think, if I'm recalling correctly, the template I found was actually on the CreateSpace site. It was a Word document where you could drop in the text of your novel. Still, it was a major pain. It wasn't like pasting in the whole novel. It had to be done chapter by chapter, and then I had to make sure each chapter started on an odd-numbered page. All in all, it was a major time-sink. I used Word, not Scrivener. I'm not sure if that made it easier or harder. And I even had a hard time with the cover. It seemed like it would be easier if you were using their cover creator, which I wasn't (because I had my own JPG). Anyway, all this to say, you might be able to find some Scrivener templates that would help, hopefully anyway!

 

[Rawr]

Jesus, I really do want a furryless kitty. I'll finish the next book then think about it, I agree it does look much better on amazon's page to have it.

 

[VeeGirl]

This thread is pure gold and I haven't even read half, currently on page 9. HFR you have really motivated me and I have been soaking up all the info in this thread. Can you please PM me your tool if it's still available? Thank you so much!

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[VeeGirl]

@Held for Ransom Still going through this thread page by page, and I had a few questions for you. You said that you never wanted to be a writer yet you have written so many books, how long did it take you to publish your first book? Did you do a lot of research prior to writing your first book? What advice would you give and something you wish you had known when first starting out? Thank you so much!

 

[lleone]

I've been posting on my progress thread and looking to upload a completed fiction book and a non-fiction until I came upon this. Hats off to @Held for Ransom on an amazing and inspirational thread. It took me quite a bit of time to read all 22 pages of posts, but it was worth it.

The bottom line for me is that it pays to listen to those who are succeeding. So many sources give you all this advice about what publishers want, how many words your book should have, writing what you like, etc... The bottom line is that if you're going to make this fast lane, you have to look at it like any business and focus on results and scaling. I have changed my view because of this post and will adjust.

HfR, just wondering if anything has changed since you first started this post. I know you really didn't use KDP Select for most of your titles, but I've heard from others that last quarter of 2013, it was not producing like it use to. Have you found a slow down or change in how Amazon is performing? Do you feel they are tinkering or does your advice still hold?

Also, would love a link to your search tool?

Thanks again for all the motivation.

 

[Held for Ransom]

So many sources give you all this advice about what publishers want, how many words your book should have, writing what you like, etc... The bottom line is that if you're going to make this fast lane, you have to look at it like any business and focus on results and scaling. I have changed my view because of this post and will adjust.

Hey there,

You know what though... I feel like you kind of have to do what is best for you. For some people, that could be the traditional route but that wasn't really an option for me. That's sort of a decision you have to make for yourself. You know?

TBH, I have to plead ignorance about what mainstream publishing wants because I never went that route. If it wasn't for Kindle, I wouldn't be doing this. It was that way almost a year ago when I joined here and it's still the same way now. That's just me though!

HfR, just wondering if anything has changed since you first started this post.

Yeah, I made a few changes but really they are all related to giving me the ability to produce more.

First of all, these days I pretty much know what my core group of readers buys so I don't spend as much time researching as I used to. I still pay attention to what sells in my niche but it's much more (now) about becoming more productive in terms of putting words on the page. Even so, if I was starting from scratch, I'd still research a new market in much the same way. Not much has changed for me in that regard.

The rest of this will be pretty boring but when I got to the end of 2013 and looked back, I had to be honest about where my weaknesses were/are. Unfortunately, there are so many! Haha.

But, the big ones were...

1. I take wayyyy too long to come up with storylines.

2. My experience in the craft of writing is still very new. I put in a few thousand hours last year but if you listen to folks like Malcolm Gladwell, it takes much more than that to near proficiency. So, I'm still on that path. I learn slower than most!

3. I am a very slow typist so I'm working diligently to get better.

Other than that, I still don't go out of my way to market anything I do other than the occasional e-mail with other authors in my genre who I am friendly with. My system is as simple as it was nine months or so when I joined.

I've gone through ups and downs in the meantime but I figure as long as I can keep writing, I'll reach my goals sooner or later. I've adjusted to all that stuff these days. Variance (good or bad) is inevitable but in the end this really is a numbers game so I figure I'll just sit here pounding keys and grinding it out until I get to where I want to be.

No matter what, this still beats working for anyone else in some Slowlane mindf*ck job!

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Erock87]

HfR,

Are your months still comfortably in 5 figures? I remember there was a time where you took a couple weeks off and still generated money, but I assume that if you don't continue to produce books sales gradually decline?

Do you have a goal for number of books published in 2014, and what your earnings for the month of December 2014 will be?

Do you think that books you sold early on still sell now, or do sales for a book taper off to irrelevant after a certain period of time?

Are you sticking to word counts of 8k - 20k words? When you write one now, I know you said you don't write with a word count in mind, but when you're finished...where does the count generally end up?

Thanks for the opportunity to pick your brain!

 

[RHL]

Yep.. no roommate/gf with a mac here.

You guys know there's probably a craigslisted macbook for $300 within 15 minutes of your house (Unless you live in Alaska or the Dakotas), right? As far as barriers to entry go, they don't get much lower than that.

 

[Gustave]

Dear Held for Ransom,

Thank you for your detailed posts. They are very inspiring and enlightening. Would it be possible to get a link to your Amazon tool?

All the best,

Gustave.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Held for Ransom]

Are your months still comfortably in 5 figures? I remember there was a time where you took a couple weeks off and still generated money, but I assume that if you don't continue to produce books sales gradually decline?

Varies. Some months way up, others down but on average, I can't complain at all especially considering where I started which was nowhere.

Yes, if you don't produce, sales decline.

But, if Coke didn't make more soda, their sales would also go down. If the NFL didn't have new seasons, ticket sales would dwindle.

I'm not trying to be flippant @Erock87, it's just amazing to me how many writers see this as a "one and done" deal and then wonder why they are broke when they have one novel up on Amazon.

*Always* have your next book, audiobook, paperback in the pipeline. Always. Fastlane 101.

Do you have a goal for number of books published in 2014, and what your earnings for the month of December 2014 will be?

Um, more like number of words for me. Earnings I can't control. For the purposes of my budgets, I always assume that my earnings from one month until the next will fall by 50% unless I publish. Does that happen? Not yet but I am prepared if for some reason I can't write for a while.

Do you think that books you sold early on still sell now, or do sales for a book taper off to irrelevant after a certain period of time?

My very first book still sells to this day. A ten hour investment in time that I made eighteen months ago which still pays me a variable annuity every month is never irrelevant. That's just the way I look at it.

Are you sticking to word counts of 8k - 20k words? When you write one now, I know you said you don't write with a word count in mind, but when you're finished...where does the count generally end up?

No, I write longer stuff these days. Typically, 40,000 words plus per book. Sort of irrelevant though. You need to look at your market and produce what's typical. Or at least, that's what I would do.

Thanks for the opportunity to pick your brain!

Slim pickins' but you are welcome! Hope it helps in a small way...

As far as barriers to entry go, they don't get much lower than that.

@ΕΝΔΕΚΑ Hah.

 

[AubreyRose]

You guys know there's probably a craigslisted macbook for $300 within 15 minutes of your house (Unless you live in Alaska or the Dakotas), right? As far as barriers to entry go, they don't get much lower than that.

Well, it's the time spent more than the money. But yes, you're right. Another thing to put on my list of a milllion things to get done...

 

[Rawr]

Aubrey...if you're going to get a mac for business purposes..don't get a $300 one

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[COSenior]

Smashwords will assign a free ISBN if you so choose. It's required for iTunes and some other distributors. I assume you can use the same number for Google Play. You can also purchase one, or a block of several to use for multiple titles. If Smashwords sells them, I'm sure others do, too. I think Smashwords charges $9.99 for one, but I have no idea why that would be better than letting them assign a free one.

This was bad advice if you're looking at it as a way to get an ISBN for titles you don't publish through SW. At the time I wrote it, I thought incorrectly that you could use the same ISBN to direct publish to B&N, for example, but that isn't correct. The ISBN that SW provides, if indeed it still does, belongs to SW. If you're pubbing direct to B&N, instead of letting SW do it, you shouldn't use the same ISBN, because it's a different edition. I'm posting this now because people keep liking the original post, and it's imprecise. The best thing to do if you have questions about ISBNs, is Google it for yourself.

 

[LisaK]

Attempting to begin to become an author



I can relate to that feeling, because it still creeps up on me sometimes. I've got three very short stories up on Kindle now, and they aren't going to make me thousands or even hundreds any time soon. But while I read books about crafting stories, how to write naughty stories (my genre) and edited like crazy, I took HFRs (or was it the how to write naughty stories guy?) advice. Perfection isn't required. The guts to put something out there and see if someone likes it IS required. And we've all heard that practice makes perfect anyway, right?

I promised I'd report on my progress with the book blogs. First I'm going to share with you all the results of a question that one of the Facebook pages I found posed on Thursday. The question was 'Does size matter?' The size of the BOOK, guys, get your minds out of the gutter. :eusa_naughty: The overwhelming response was that readers won't pay more than 99 cents for a short story, and most don't want to pay more than $2.99 for a full-length novel. If it's under 10,000 words, a lot of readers want it free.

Ok, mine are all under 10,000 words. What to do? Obviously, I need to make those free, and gain some readers. I put the first book of a short series on KDP select and made it free from 8/9-8/11. As of today, almost 600 downloads! Two reviews, resulting in a 4.5 star rating. And two purchases of the second story in the series. That's in less than 24 hours since I took advantage of the exposure offered on that Facebook page. Now I'm writing like crazy to get the third story done in time to take advantage of the buzz, and it will be about 15,000 words, so my readers will be willing to pay 99 cents for it. But you can bet I'll be working toward longer books in the future.

In a case like this couldn't you bundle your short stories together in 1 book and get the total words needed?

 

[COSenior]

In a case like this couldn't you bundle your short stories together in 1 book and get the total words needed?

Since I made that post (months ago), there have been many words written on this forum about that very question. Part of the answer lies with the genre; some accept shorter works more than others. In mine, the Top 10 all tend to be longer.

There is still no consensus, but I personally have chosen to write full-length novels, and if I hope to get to the lofty ranks (under 100 at least), my genre, which has also changed since the post you quoted, demands even more words than I've written so far, though novellas do sell.

Others will disagree, but my publisher insists that the bundled works outsell the short stories by a large margin, so why not just write the longer ones in the first place? The jury's still out, but since novels are what my publisher wants, novels are what I'm writing.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[LisaK]

This was bad advice if you're looking at it as a way to get an ISBN for titles you don't publish through SW. At the time I wrote it, I thought incorrectly that you could use the same ISBN to direct publish to B&N, for example, but that isn't correct. The ISBN that SW provides, if indeed it still does, belongs to SW. If you're pubbing direct to B&N, instead of letting SW do it, you shouldn't use the same ISBN, because it's a different edition. I'm posting this now because people keep liking the original post, and it's imprecise. The best thing to do if you have questions about ISBNs, is Google it for yourself.

Thanks for the reply and yes, right after I posted that I read further and saw it kind of got addressed. I've enjoyed your posts and am of course inspired. Now to some research. As MJ pointed out in the book, now the education.

 

[LisaK]

Hi everyone. I apologize in advance for the length of this post.

I joined here yesterday but was first introduced to the MFL in December of 2011. I am A LOT older than most here (42) and certainly not a millionaire by any stretch of the imagination.

In fact, until the past several months I have never earned enough from any business I have started to support myself completely from that business. I have always worked for others in one fashion or another until recently. But, as of this month, I have earned more in a single month than I ever did working for myself (obviously) or anyone else. This has been an absolutley incredible acheivement for me which took forever to happen but now that it has, I feel 20 years younger.

So I'm not going to waste alot of time talking about all the things I've tried to become successful over the years. It's just not important to me anymore. Pretty much I used to think that sucked at everything I ever did, but then I read MFL and I realized it was the choices I was making that was the culprit.

Now I'd like to say that I read MFL and wham, I started on my fastlane within 24 hours but that would not be true. I still struggled. Mostly because I was mired in several things which produced modest results. But then in mid-2012 I finally burned all those bridges, focused on one thing and it all turned around for me. You see, it was around that time that I a friend of mine (who is not a serial entrepreneur but a real writer) told me about some success he was having writing e-books for platforms like Kindle, Nook and the like.

So, I researched it a bit and to make a long story short, one thing led to another and this month, it looks like I'll clear somewhere around $15,000 for my fiction titles.

Of course I realize that this road violates a couple of fastlane principles - control (ultimately Amazon and the rest are in control of much of what happens) and entry (anyone could write an e-book). Otherwise, it's been scalable as hell, definitely separates my time from my money and, the way I write, is without question an A-Z process.

In other words, I've been able to systematize much of what I do. I think that was the biggest surprise of all to me. But, when you really learn about what the big earners do, it's all systems. Very, very, very few successful fiction writers do it for "passion" and in fact write in a formulaic manner and cater to what the genre wants to read. Honestly, I truly believe that almost anyone can do this if they work this as a system.

Not being a writer myself (thank God for Word's spell and grammar checker!), I relied heavily on my ability to do market research and understand the Amazon ecosystem throughly (in terms of keywords). In my mind, this is definitely what has made me successful in this so far. Aside from that, I am an expert in creating catchy titles, coming up with eye grabbing covers, writing enticing descriptions and hooking folks when they "Look Inside" at the first 10-12% of my books. Of course, I do the very best job I can as a writer but I'm no Shakespeare. Luckily, it turns out that it doesn't matter at all.

My formula is simple.

Step 1 - Look at what is selling.
Step 2 - Come up with my own spin/version of it and sell it.

That said, I don't want to mislead anyone that is reading this... Behind the scenes, within that simplicity are mutiple layers of complexity that represent my system. Nothing I do is accidental or "inspired". I don't write for inspiration or passion.

I write for people and markets. That's it.

Over the long run, I think that this will be my true fastlane. That is, exposing my systems approach to others. The true beauty of it is is that there is no saturation possible. There are thousands of e-book categories on Amazon and hundreds of thousands of possible methods for serving those markets. In my mind, my system is like a Swiss Army knife that can be used in whole or part to achieve goals.

In fact, I hired a programmer last November to help me automate much of the research I do on the biggest platform of them all - Amazon. It is still a long way from being finished but even what I've come up with so far has quintupled my income. I am pretty confident that if it works for me, it will work for others. Time will tell of course - I am still very early in all stages here.

In the meantime, I am writing and building up my credibility as a "non-writing/author" expert. I believe that if I am able to demonstrate competence at a high level using my approach that it will make my job of implementing my fastlane easier down the line. I haven't seen alot of folks on here self pubbing but I just wanted to put this out there for anyone lurking and thinking about giving it a shot.

A word of warning if you do decide to try... Understand that it will not happen overnight.

It took me 227 days or, more precisely, 732 hours, 38 minutes and 44 seconds in working time to get there. How do I know? I use a time tracking program called Toggl to categorize and track every single minute I spend in my business. Again, part of my system since time is my most precious asset.

Beyond the time, it took me 34 titles (ranging from 8,000 - 20,000 words each) to break the $10,000 earned in a single month threshold. You see, once I ironed out what worked (and didn't) in my market, it all turned around - my last three titles have been awesome sellers.

I guess what I'm saying is that if you decide to try it you probably won't get a bestseller but everything sells so just keep at it. In fact, if I can keep doing what I've been doing, I've got a roadmap to $20,000 and even $100,000 per month mapped out.

I figure that even if I'm half wrong, that's still $50,000 per month!

Will I get there? I have no idea. It's a rough and tumble volatile, cutthroat business with Amazon constantly mucking around. But, what business doesn't have an equal number of threats? All I can do is keep it at and see what happens.

Anyway, sorry again for the lengthy post everyone. I hope that I am able to add some value here over time.

Thanks alot MJ for the inspiration - it has changed my life!

Thank you so much for all your candor. After reading the Fastlane I got signed up for the forums and then found this thread. Of course..inspiring, totally. I'm completely green. I've been trying to figure out which way to go and I believe after reading this I will focus on publishing. I have never entertained writing fiction, I'm pretty bottomline and I myself have read

Hi everyone. I apologize in advance for the length of this post.

I joined here yesterday but was first introduced to the MFL in December of 2011. I am A LOT older than most here (42) and certainly not a millionaire by any stretch of the imagination.

In fact, until the past several months I have never earned enough from any business I have started to support myself completely from that business. I have always worked for others in one fashion or another until recently. But, as of this month, I have earned more in a single month than I ever did working for myself (obviously) or anyone else. This has been an absolutley incredible acheivement for me which took forever to happen but now that it has, I feel 20 years younger.

So I'm not going to waste alot of time talking about all the things I've tried to become successful over the years. It's just not important to me anymore. Pretty much I used to think that sucked at everything I ever did, but then I read MFL and I realized it was the choices I was making that was the culprit.

Now I'd like to say that I read MFL and wham, I started on my fastlane within 24 hours but that would not be true. I still struggled. Mostly because I was mired in several things which produced modest results. But then in mid-2012 I finally burned all those bridges, focused on one thing and it all turned around for me. You see, it was around that time that I a friend of mine (who is not a serial entrepreneur but a real writer) told me about some success he was having writing e-books for platforms like Kindle, Nook and the like.

So, I researched it a bit and to make a long story short, one thing led to another and this month, it looks like I'll clear somewhere around $15,000 for my fiction titles.

Of course I realize that this road violates a couple of fastlane principles - control (ultimately Amazon and the rest are in control of much of what happens) and entry (anyone could write an e-book). Otherwise, it's been scalable as hell, definitely separates my time from my money and, the way I write, is without question an A-Z process.

In other words, I've been able to systematize much of what I do. I think that was the biggest surprise of all to me. But, when you really learn about what the big earners do, it's all systems. Very, very, very few successful fiction writers do it for "passion" and in fact write in a formulaic manner and cater to what the genre wants to read. Honestly, I truly believe that almost anyone can do this if they work this as a system.

Not being a writer myself (thank God for Word's spell and grammar checker!), I relied heavily on my ability to do market research and understand the Amazon ecosystem throughly (in terms of keywords). In my mind, this is definitely what has made me successful in this so far. Aside from that, I am an expert in creating catchy titles, coming up with eye grabbing covers, writing enticing descriptions and hooking folks when they "Look Inside" at the first 10-12% of my books. Of course, I do the very best job I can as a writer but I'm no Shakespeare. Luckily, it turns out that it doesn't matter at all.

My formula is simple.

Step 1 - Look at what is selling.
Step 2 - Come up with my own spin/version of it and sell it.

That said, I don't want to mislead anyone that is reading this... Behind the scenes, within that simplicity are mutiple layers of complexity that represent my system. Nothing I do is accidental or "inspired". I don't write for inspiration or passion.

I write for people and markets. That's it.

Over the long run, I think that this will be my true fastlane. That is, exposing my systems approach to others. The true beauty of it is is that there is no saturation possible. There are thousands of e-book categories on Amazon and hundreds of thousands of possible methods for serving those markets. In my mind, my system is like a Swiss Army knife that can be used in whole or part to achieve goals.

In fact, I hired a programmer last November to help me automate much of the research I do on the biggest platform of them all - Amazon. It is still a long way from being finished but even what I've come up with so far has quintupled my income. I am pretty confident that if it works for me, it will work for others. Time will tell of course - I am still very early in all stages here.

In the meantime, I am writing and building up my credibility as a "non-writing/author" expert. I believe that if I am able to demonstrate competence at a high level using my approach that it will make my job of implementing my fastlane easier down the line. I haven't seen alot of folks on here self pubbing but I just wanted to put this out there for anyone lurking and thinking about giving it a shot.

A word of warning if you do decide to try... Understand that it will not happen overnight.

It took me 227 days or, more precisely, 732 hours, 38 minutes and 44 seconds in working time to get there. How do I know? I use a time tracking program called Toggl to categorize and track every single minute I spend in my business. Again, part of my system since time is my most precious asset.

Beyond the time, it took me 34 titles (ranging from 8,000 - 20,000 words each) to break the $10,000 earned in a single month threshold. You see, once I ironed out what worked (and didn't) in my market, it all turned around - my last three titles have been awesome sellers.

I guess what I'm saying is that if you decide to try it you probably won't get a bestseller but everything sells so just keep at it. In fact, if I can keep doing what I've been doing, I've got a roadmap to $20,000 and even $100,000 per month mapped out.

I figure that even if I'm half wrong, that's still $50,000 per month!

Will I get there? I have no idea. It's a rough and tumble volatile, cutthroat business with Amazon constantly mucking around. But, what business doesn't have an equal number of threats? All I can do is keep it at and see what happens.

Anyway, sorry again for the lengthy post everyone. I hope that I am able to add some value here over time.

Thanks alot MJ for the inspiration - it has changed my life!

Phew! Wow! So, 23 forum pages later I want to say thank you so much for your candor and creating this thread. I have not only learned a lot but have now found my focus. I've been toying with writing for awhile but didn't think I'd be able to pull it off. After reading the Fast Lane I joine the forum and began trying to figure out how to make my impace in the world. How was I going to find my million dollar idea? I sasn't sure which direction to go. After reading all these inspiring posts I've decided to try my hand at publishing. I am a voraciouse reader and it’s all been business, self-improvement and psychology books. Wow! I’m not sure what that says exactly about me; I don’t know if I’m boring or what. None the less I’ve had family members tease me and say “don’t you just ever read something for fun?” I’m like, “what’s not fun about business and psychology?. It is precisely why I found and read The Fast Lane!

Anyway, my point is, it appears that fiction is where the money is and I would like to start in front of the Eight ball not behind it. I would not have considered this in the past. I'm creative but I always sort of sell myself short. Well, I'm turning over a new leaf so I might as well turn over a couple more and get out of the box I've created in my head about writing and who I might be as a writer. I’m going to do some research and see if I can get my creative mind moving in this direction. We’ll see. I’m feeling like a door has been opened to a whole realm I didn’t really know could be available to me. I think I have better odds with writing than inventing or innovating right now. This is something I can do while I keep my Slow Lane job and learn. I’m so thankful for everyone who has posted. I learned a lot getting through the current 23 pages! I’ll be keyed in to learn more and begin my journey. I am also feeling very hopeful that if I am diligent a year from now my life can be quite different. The key it seems is TAKE ACTION!

 

[MJ DeMarco]

The key it seems is TAKE ACTION!

Not entirely...

https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/co...our-life-in-30-days-or-less-guaranteed.50600/

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[LisaK]

Not entirely...

https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/co...our-life-in-30-days-or-less-guaranteed.50600/

What’s a process? A process is a systematized series of focused actions. A process is repeated. A process is “taking action X 1000" and making adjustments along the way.
[/quote] Unfortunately, most people leverage “taking action” into some sort of mental masturbation trick designed to give us a fleeting "feel good" moment. It’s a temporary exercise orchestrated to fool yourself into thinking that you are doing something, when in actuality, you’re just painting lipstick on the pig. You’re committed to the idea of change, but not committed to the process of change.

Taking action to me means "quit thinking about it" and begin the process of doing it...what ever "it" is. The process for me right now is to begin some more education through the forums, following some tactics suggested in this thread and begin moving toward writing something. I also need a crash course in ...writing! I don't know what to write yet nor do I know the genre. I have a couple hazey ideas. Up until reading this thread I hadn't considered fiction. I'm at ground zero, I don't even know what I don't know. I am however COMMITED to the process of change and to my ultimate goals. Bottomline...I gotta take some action now. A journey of 1000 miles starts with one step, right? So I will take a Kaizen step...but Mr. DeMarco, I'm on the move!

 

[ChickenHawk]

I am a voraciouse reader and it’s all been business, self-improvement and psychology books.

I bet this comes in handy when you craft a fiction book. Business, self-improvement, psychology -- those should all offer terrific inspiration for some well-rounded characters.

 

[Enigmatic One]

I went through all 23 pages and must say that this thread is Gold indeed. It's not often that someone gives you a step by step plan on how they made themselves successful so I thank you for that HFR. This thread is one of the reasons I joined the forums.

I wish everyone good luck on their journeys and hope that we can all find some success.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Sir Klyne]

Okay, so I must say hello from NJ. I read this thread before I became a member and its threads like these primarily that made me want to come by.

I see you do well for yourself, I wish you luck and keep up the great work. I'll be following this thread.

 

[Lauryn]

I just spent the majority of last night and a good majority of this afternoon reading through these posts from scratch again, liking peoples' comments from like forever and a day ago and literally writing out the juicy portions by hand in my notebook.

There are things I already knew. Things I needed reinforced. And most of all, things I didn't freakin' pay attention to because I was skimming too freakin' much to fully grasp. (Before. Not this time. This time I READ. Butt In Chair!)

Now I'm getting it... reading through is really helping me make the decisions I need to make and gain clarity on things I can do better.

As I write this, I have about 7 or 8 books on Kindle right now. Well, Kindle and Nook. One book... my second book, is still my current bestseller. The rest of my titles have adult filters on them, but I can see things I should do better.

My primary focus is a novella that serves as a standalone story and prequel for a 3 part series I'm cooking up for my homegirl, who is a TOP Amazon self-publisher in her genre. Her guidance is akin to great foreplay the first time you make love to someone new; I'm hot, bothered and damn near ready to penetrate this game on a deeper, more Tantric level right now.

Thank you to @Held for Ransom @ChickenHawk @COSenior @Rawr and all of the others whose posts in here have thoroughly added to this conversation. For a while I was rocking this on my own, but ever since a tip-off from a wonderful person at Warrior Forum led me here (not to mention the countless times MJ's book came across my suggested reads on Amazon), so much growth and persistence has been re-instilled in me.

I honestly love y'all for the realness here...because I swear, while I don't mind people getting paid for profiting off knowledge, the number of crazy "make millions in publishing overnight" stuff really irritated me to no freakin' end. I now send people to this thread when they have an abundance of questions I don't have time to answer.

So grateful for all these juicy arse insights... Class was definitely in session...

 

[karmazon]

I have a question about niche research. Do you guys research it by clicking on amazon's categories or do you type in certain keywords into the search?

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[HD_edacity]

Great thread HFR just finished reading it. I was wondering if I could I get a link to your amazon tool.

 

[Selfy]

I spent a whole week and some studying this thread and of chickenhawk. I have about 5k words now.

I hope to get the tool to please to help me research my genre.

 

[LisaK]

How do we get the "tool" that is talked about on this thread? I'd like to get it I don't know that I know how to research my genre that well so anything would help.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[LisaK]

So, I'm 17,500 words in and I'm wondering if I should finish this part of my story and make it a novella. I didn't realize how many words it takes to impart a story. What I originally believed to be a "small part" the starting point so to speak of my main character. This part of her being introduced so to speak to where my stories are going has taken...17500 words and I'm not done. I imagine I'll be in the 25,000 range. What was in my mind originally was that this part of the story was the introduction of how my character gets involved in the work she does. Turns out though that maybe I can section things off and have my trilogy much quicker than I thought as I have more than 3 story ideas that were originally going to be in 1 book but that is before I realized where my word count was going. This story kind of took a life of it's own and I was able to develop a whole thing around it. I'd love to hear any advice as I'm totally green and absolutely flying by the seat of my pants at this point. My education on all of this so far is ...The Fastlane, this Thread and Chickenhawks thread as my current guide as well as all the posters like COSENIOR. I'm grateful, thank you.

Do you think it would be best to finish this up, keep it as a Novella and just get my first work published? (I'm leaning toward this)

Or, continue on and bundle my original ideas into a longer book and take my chances with something more in the Novel range?

 

[COSenior]

So, I'm 17,500 words in and I'm wondering if I should finish this part of my story and make it a novella. I didn't realize how many words it takes to impart a story. What I originally believed to be a "small part" the starting point so to speak of my main character. This part of her being introduced so to speak to where my stories are going has taken...17500 words and I'm not done. I imagine I'll be in the 25,000 range. What was in my mind originally was that this part of the story was the introduction of how my character gets involved in the work she does. Turns out though that maybe I can section things off and have my trilogy much quicker than I thought as I have more than 3 story ideas that were originally going to be in 1 book but that is before I realized where my word count was going. This story kind of took a life of it's own and I was able to develop a whole thing around it. I'd love to hear any advice as I'm totally green and absolutely flying by the seat of my pants at this point. My education on all of this so far is ...The Fastlane, this Thread and Chickenhawks thread as my current guide as well as all the posters like COSENIOR. I'm grateful, thank you.

Do you think it would be best to finish this up, keep it as a Novella and just get my first work published? (I'm leaning toward this)

Or, continue on and bundle my original ideas into a longer book and take my chances with something more in the Novel range?

Depends on your genre. If you can bring the story to some sort of conclusion while leaving open the idea that there's more to come, and if it's in the Romance genre or any other that has shown itself to support novellas, I'd go ahead and publish, to see how the readers receive it.