[PROGRESS THREAD] ChickenHawk's Self-Published Fiction EBooks

[ChickenHawk]

Well, in the category of "oversharing," here's a funny problem I've been dealing with lately.

Middle Eastern men have been emailing graphic wiener-pix to my Facebook Fan page. It started all at once, maybe a few weeks ago. Every few days, I get a handful of new surprises in my Facebook in-box. Some are still-images. Some are live-action videos, close-ups. And I mean CLOSE-UPS. They are all disgusting. None of these messages originate in countries where I have a decent fan-base, such as the USA or UK. (I know they're all Middle-Eastern men, because of their names, pictures, and the fact that their messages are never in English, but rather in what looks to be Arabic, along with a few other languages.)

I briefly debated shutting down my Facebook in-box (assuming that's even possible), but then found a "Country Restrictions" feature where I could make my page "invisible" in certain countries. I changed my settings, and am hoping that does the trick. My "invisible" countries now include: Algeria, France, Indonesia, Kenya, Pakistan, Tunisia, and a few more.

I'm filing this under: Problems I NEVER anticipated.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

I am sure the guy had a bad day and fired his comments while in emotionally aroused state.

No, he is like that in pretty much every post.

Like others have stated, he "generally" has some decent advice but it's so salty and holier-than-thou, it becomes unpalatable. Throw in the fact that he is completely anonymous with ZERO evidence of credentials, success, or track-record, it has me wanting for less. And less is what we shall now have.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

@ChickenHawk --I just want you to know how much this thread has inspired me! I've toyed with the idea of self publishing fiction but never read such an in depth first hand account. It really should be marked Platinum.

There's also another thread on the inside about a man (not in the US/UK) who started his self-publishing journey 3 years ago. After a lot of struggles and internal battles (do I quit or go on!?) he's now at $100K/month. Yup, you read that right: $100K.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Kindle Unlimited is wreaking havoc on the pricing in my genre. Almost everything in the top 100 of my categories is priced at 99 cents, compared to $3.99 or $2.99 when I last released. Basically, most authors are selling their books for 99 cents to "buy" sales-rank, and then making their money on the borrows. This led me to ask myself, "Should I do that?" Here's my list of pros and cons.

Hearing this drives me insane.

What we have here is the deleterious effect of a lack of ENTRY in CENTS. Lack of entry has suppressed prices with saturation. The more competent writers are being muzzled and priced out. Suddenly the phrase "2 Es beats 1 E" comes into play. Executional excellence can defeat poor entry. In other words, with entry barriers gone, you NEED to be better than the rest so your cream can rise. "Better" can be the writing, more books, better mailing list, better marketing, anything, but the bottomline is the honeymoon is over as self-publishing being some kind of passive income machine for the newbs. Sure is, but it will take work like anything.

Thanks for the updates!

 

[ChickenHawk]

Just a quick update... I've recently put out another book. It's doing surprisingly good, considering that all romance segments of Amazon's bookstore are in awful shape, and I'm doing only the bare minimum of advertising. Basically, the romance lists remain a massive trainwreck as scammery has consumed almost every romance bestseller list in the entire Amazon store. In truth, if I didn't already have an existing fan-base to keep engaged, I would've held off on releasing anything until things settle down. But I didn't want my fans to forget me entirely, so I released this latest book in spite of my misgivings. It's not doing terrific, but it's doing a lot better than I might've expected, all things considered.

In cheerier news, Amazon is finally taking steps to rein in the stuffing and scamming. Will it work? The jury is still out. But either way, I'm moving forward with a goal of releasing two more books before year-end. (Need I say it? Must write faster!) The plan is to release two related books within a couple of months together so I can make better use of my advertising funds.

Regarding the stuffing and scamming, I might need to start a separate thread, because some new developments offer some interesting insights that extend beyond the self-publishing world and serve to reinforce some of the lessons our gracious host relayed in The Millionaire Fastlane . Stay tuned...*

*Edit to add link to the thread about stuffing and scamming:
Money-Chasing Burns Bestselling Author...*Poof!* His pen name is gone.

 

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[ChickenHawk]

How's the writing for the new book coming along CH? How are sales going on the old ones? Keep it up!

Thanks so much for the encouragement!

About the new book, it's been a slog, but happily, I'm only 2,800 words from writing "the end." This book is huuuuuge, over 120,000 words. I expect to hit publish within the next ten days. Whew!

About the first two books, sales are still pretty decent. As expected, they're dropping each month, but I'm definitely not complaining. Here's a quick summary of my approximate Amazon sales:

• May = 20,000 books
• June = 6,500 books
• July = 1,600 books so far at mid-month.

It will be interesting to see how book #3 does, and how it impacts sales of the first two books. Crossing my fingers!

 

[ChickenHawk]

Hey ChickenHawk, congrats on all the success!
Have you considered outsourcing some of the writing?

Thanks so much for the congrats! As far as outsourcing, I totally see what you're saying, but I'd never do that. Each writer has a unique voice. For whatever reason, readers have embraced the "voice" of my current pen name. I'd never risk my current success by introducing a new voice to the mix. Plus, in all honesty, I'm not a fan of the ghostwriting model. I realize that others have had success with it, but I don't like the idea of putting my pen name (whether new or established) on a product that was, in fact, written by someone else.

Plus, in order for ghostwriting to work on any serious level (unless you're purely into the numbers game, meaning publish as many inexpensive books as humanly possible), you need to be an amazing editor to make it work -- because you must edit the book to make it appear that the original writer wrote it. I hate editing other people's stuff, and honestly, I'm not all that good at it.

My personal belief, whether right or wrong, is that quality will win out. And the best way to ensure the quality remains consistent is to write it myself. What I really need to outsource is housework. I'm not even kidding. It's become painfully obvious to me that every hour spent on housework is a huge waste of time and money.

 

[Vigilante]

Thanks, everyone, for your thoughts and encouragement on this. It's one of the reasons I love this place!

Creative ventures are a weird thing, because we can't always know which products will resonate with the audience. This extends beyond writing. Take successful movie producers, actors, playwrights, whatever. Even AFTER they've "made it," they still have "flops."

Here's a scary truth: Even after my lessons of this past year, odds are pretty high I'll see more "flops" in the future. Why? Because I plan to get up to bat as often as possible. Sometimes, I'll hit a home-run. Sometimes, I'll strike out. Sometimes, I'll hit a single. Here's how it's stacked up so far, starting with my very first book a decade ago.

My Books, Color-Coded by Basic Success-Level. Pink=happy results. Blue=disappointing results.

• Book #1, Mystery/Romance: A promising failure. Got picked up by a hotshot New York agent, but no publisher wanted it.
• Book #2, Mystery/Paranormal Romance: A total failure. It was so bad, apparently, that my agent dropped me after she read it.
• Book #3: An Illustrated Kids Book for Middle Schoolers. Made a few hundred bucks, but ultimately wasn't worth the effort.
• Book #4: A Picture Book for Little Kids. Made nearly nothing.
• Book #5: An Illustrated Kids Book for Middle Schoolers. Made a few hundred bucks, but that's it.
• Book #6: Another middle school book. Made a few hundred bucks, but that's it.
• Book #7: Romance. THIS WAS MY BREAKOUT BOOK. A "holy crap!" home-run.
• Book #8: Romance. A Grand-slam. Hit the Amazon top 30, pulled the previous book up with it, and earned me a spot on the USA Today List.
• Book #9: Mystery/Romance (Rewritten version of book #1). A strong single. This was a disappointment. Sales weren't terrific, and sometimes, in the dead of night, I almost wondered, "Oh crap. What if I'm a one-hit wonder...? What if that breakout book(s) was a fluke? What if it was just luck or something?" But I kept going, because I wasn't going to let one disappointment deter me.
• Book #10: Another home run. Hit the Amazon Top 100.
• Book #11: Home run. Also hit the Amazon Top 100
• Book #12: A strong single.
• Book #13: A strong single.
• Book #14: A double, maybe? It's still too early to tell for sure.

A few observations. Not all of my books will be home-runs. Some will strike out. Some will be a nice single. Some will be extra-frustrating, because they could've been a home-run, if only I'd swung at a different time. But one thing is for certain. In order to hit a home-run, I must get up to bat, over and over again. Swing for the fence. Rinse, analyze, and repeat.

Of course, there's also the chance that I'll never hit a home-run again. But I will surely hit more singles and doubles. And unless something drastically changes, it will be enough to continue to give me the kind of freedom we all dream of. I think that's the lesson in all of this: Keep Swinging!

Ultimately, @Vigilante is 100% correct. The most important thing I can do is write faster. Time to say it again. Must write faster!

(And, of course, I'm already working on my next book, so there, hah!)

Overnight success.

Gold post.

 

[ChickenHawk]

A quick update... I've released another book, but am still unsure how this one will do. It's book#1 of a two-book series, and I held back on some of the launch activities, looking to save the biggest push for after book#2 is available. But of course, this means I'm frantically writing book #2 so I can tap into Amazon algorithms (which tend to favor newer books, especially in multiples). My goal is to have a draft of book#2 done in five weeks and release it approximately two months from now.

Looking at the above sentence, I'm pretty sure I'm nuts. But really, I just want to put this book behind me. I don't think this particular series will be a breakout best-seller, but I do think it will be another private in my passive-income army. Something I've figured out over the last few months is that I need to stop obsessing about each individual book. I need to write fast, get it out there, and release another one. Rinse, repeat. Not all of the books will be breakout successes. Some will hit. Some will miss. Some will no doubt embarrass me at some future date.

I've come up with my next goal: I want 20 books out there, earning for me in one way or another. I'm about a third of the way there. Must write faster!

 

[ChickenHawk]

Did you get through my last post? Congrats if you did, because it was quite the rant, wasn't it?

Now, where does this leave me? Already, I've pulled half of my books from Kindle Unlimited and published them wide. On the writing front, I'm still plugging along. I'm drafting my next book, with tentative plans to release it in the Spring. However, I'm not announcing a release date quite yet. If the market is still messed up, I might hold off until conditions are more favorable. The only problem is, if I wait too long, I risk losing my audience, so it's always a balancing act.

I do think that Amazon will eventually have to address the loopholes of Kindle Unlimited, and I'm cautiously optimistic that it will happen sometime this year. If it doesn't, I might consider moving into another genre or potentially into non-fiction, where the price-points haven't been driven down by scammery. Happily, I'm a strong writer and actually write non-fiction much faster than fiction, so it would be a nice change in a way. The big downside, of course, is that I'd be starting from scratch as far as building an audience is concerned.

Either way, here's a sad truth. If these guys are allowed to continue, the poison will spread until they've ruined every profitable category in the Kindle Store. Even if it's not the same exact team of marketers, the loopholes are there to exploit. It's only a matter of time.

For anyone thinking of getting into self-publishing, here's the big takeaway. Strike while the iron is hot. If you've got a great idea, and your genre isn't filled with 99-cent crap, publish your book now, damn it! The longer you wait, the more opportunity you risk losing. If, however, you're writing in a genre that's been targeted by Kindle Unlimited exploiters, I'd suggest holding off a bit to see what happens. (While you wait, write that book! And the followup book, so you can be ready.) Amazon has a history of changing the rules very suddenly. And when they do, this might be the perfect time to slip in and claim some of that lost market share as the scammers scream in pain at the injustice of it all.

Here's a funny thing, too. These dudes are purely chasing money. No doubt, they're raking it in, bigtime. But it's all based on artificial, unsustainable conditions. After all, nowhere in the real world can you SELL a product for 99 cents, but RENT it out for nine bucks. When this unnatural condition evaporates, so does their "business." Poof! Overnight. Of course, they'll regroup and move onto other things, but this will present a nice opening for genuine authors to jump back in and reclaim some lost ground.

That's my plan anyway. I'll keep you posted!

 

[Andy Black]

I recorded me doing some keyword research for you @ChickenHawk.
I'm a bit low on energy as it's just after midnight, but hopefully it gives you some ideas.

View: https://youtu.be/UcKpEWhQ2cw

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Pouring your heart and soul into a book and all of the intricate details of characters and plot development, only to give it away in order to sell more books for .99 cents - 3.99 just sounds like a shakedown in the worst way. This is clearly below even minimum wage with all of the hours put into creating and selling a book. Books should be selling for more without all of this lowest price point nonsense that Amazon encourages.

That's truly how I feel. And because I write very slowly and methodically, it really is a shakedown at minimum wages. The only respite I can rest my mind on is that I'm not writing as a career to get rich, but more of a passion project. I imagine if your writing is responsible for "food on the table", it can become stressful and frustrating.

 

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[Vigilante]

Hi Chicken, I'm writing a children's book/YA. Two questions: 1. Why are you keeping your genre secret? 2. What do you suggest re getting illustrations? (It ain't me babe.) Greg

Many people that know her here (including me) know what she writes, and have purchased her books. However, much like ANY product thread, exactly what she does is not germane to the value of her incredible thread and advice. There are a million creepers and copy cats out there, and people generally don't borrow imitations for themselves.

There are a lot of people that have tried (more than a decade later) to replicate @MJ DeMarco 's original business, rather than focusing on process.

I had a business once that gained national attention, only to fail miserably. The ONLY solace for me through that hard time was watching all of the copy cats fail in the identical fashion.

So, focus on what she said, not what she published. That's where the value of this thread is.

 

[ChickenHawk]

Well, as usual, I've gone way too long between updates. But here's a biggie. After giving it much thought, I've decided to take a serious break from self-publishing -- a break that may become permanent.

There are lots of reasons for this, including massive burnout, but the primary thing fueling this decision is the high cost of advertising both in terms of time and money. This has transformed a great source of passive income into a never-ending hamster wheel of shoveling time and money at Amazon and Facebook to get visibility in addition to the time/energy/effort to actually write the book(s). On many days, the tech giants make more money off my books than I do, and my share of the pie has decreased to the levels comparable to what I made at the dreaded day job. This wouldn't be so bad if I were only working 40 hours per week, but sadly, the writing/advertising hamster wheel is all-consuming and requires much more than 40-hours to be competitive.

It may be that my genre (romance) remains over saturated, or it might simply be too many writers are chasing too few readers and advertising slots. Either way, "The juice is no longer worth the squeeze" in spite of my nice backlist and established fanbase.

It's been a tough decision, but one I feel better about after looking up several well-known authors in my genre and seeing that many of them haven't published anything for a couple of years now. And these were serious "rock stars" in the publishing world. Crazy, huh?

In short, I'm not the only one.

The real problem, I think, is that Amazon has become a virtual monopoly and is now nearly all pay-for-play in terms of visibility. At 42-cents per click on a $3.99 product, it's easy to see how the profits can be gobbled up rather quickly, especially when the product pages for individual books are filled with ads for competing books. As an Amazon customer, I find it incredibly frustrating. But as an author, it's become a show-stopper. And don't get me started on the commandment of control.

My current plan is to take a long hiatus, focus on some other things, and see how things look in a six months to a year. I've got one new book written and another 75% written, but I don't anticipate releasing either one in the near future, if ever.

But there's a method to this madness. During this journey, there were a couple of bad years where scammers were dominating the Amazon charts, making it nearly impossible for honest authors to compete. If I'd been smart, I would've dropped out during this timeframe and waited for the dust to clear before publishing anything new -- because if the game is rigged, it's smarter not to play. Happily, I've learned from this mistake.

Now, by taking a break (whether permanent or temporary), I'll be able to see how things shake out before shoveling more time or money into this venture. Who knows? I might jump back in. Or I might not.

Only time will tell.

Regardless, thanks for all of the support and on this venture! Even though I haven't updated this thread as often as I should've, you guys have been amazing, and I feel so lucky to have had all the great insight and encouragement on this crazy journey. Seriously, thanks a million!!!

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

I'm new to the Fast Lane Forum and British, so I might not be understanding everything in this thread correctly. But I do understand Amazon Publishing.

DON'T GIVE UP.

I've been publishing on Amazon since 2012. In 2017 I closed down my other business (very profitable but a big demand on my time) to focus on my publishing business; it's supported me since that day. My example is probably different from you because I'm a non-fiction author, but it's in a relatively small niche of photo editing.

When I started out, there wasn't much competition but then within 12 months my niche became flooded with rubbish and people trying to make an instant profit for no work. I managed to survive and ultimately prosper as I'll explain.

At one time I became fixated on writing more books because of the boost when one launches. Then I realised that's the road to being like the competitors trying to make a fast buck. Instead, I doubled down on quality to produce the best books I could and raised the price (but still within the 70% commission rate).

Next, I focused on building what I call a business ecosystem.

To give an example, when you buy one of my books it contains examples for you to follow. It directs you to my website where you can download the sample images to follow the examples. Whilst you're there I encourage you to join my monthly newsletter as everyone does. But this isn't your standard newsletter, I share more valuable tutorials and interesting things I've found on the internet each month that relate to my niche. As well as tutorials I publish YouTube videos which I embed in my tutorials. Best of all, I can include links to the videos in my books to better illustrate examples. On my website, you can either buy my books directly or you buy from Amazon. I earn affiliate commission from the Amazon links and some other affiliate schemes (but only for products I buy and use myself).

I won't bore you with more details of my "ecosystem" other than to say I'm always looking for ways for each element to feed the other elements. When I launch a book it goes in the newsletter and I have a single email announcement. I do Amazon advertising as well but only to maintain sales and all ads are profitable. I honestly believe the ecosystem idea and focusing on quality has made a big difference.

Reading through the thread (as much as I could because it's very long) there are lots of great promotional ideas but I don't think these sparks will ignite your business. What you need is more fuel before putting a spark to it. Your books aren't the fuel though, your customers are. Spend your time off thinking about how you could build a business ecosystem. How can you use this to give your customers more? How can you make contact with them and stay in contact? What are their expectations when they buy one of your books and how can you blow those expectations out of the water?

I could be very wrong but reading this thread it feels like you are focused on production (writing) and marketing the product. Sorry for the tough love and may not make me any friends but I can feel your pain and I don't want you to give up. Take time out yes but use it to think about how to come back stronger.

Good luck (unless you decide to give up).

This reflects something I stressed in The Great Rat Race Escape .

There are two elements to a successful Fastlane venture with scale and passive income potential -- the specialized unit and the business system. Too many people focus on the specialized unit (the books) and few time on the business system (your platform, lists, systems) so much so, they have no business system.

Publishing a book and throwing it on Amazon is not a business system. Placing a few ads for books you wrote is not a business system. This is how most new authors go about publishing with starry eyes and big dreams.

You've described your business system, which is working well. It also is a bit of a different game with you (and me) because we publish non-fiction. This forum, my lists, my YT channel, my social media outreach -- all part of the business system -- it helps me sell books, year after year after year.

Question is, how can we modify a non-fiction business system for fiction? Lists are great, but there has to be much, much more.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

As an author myself who truly loves fiction over non-fiction, this is one of my favorite progress threads. Thank you for the contribution and updates.

 

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[ChickenHawk]

Quick Update: I'm still writing like crazy on my current project/pen name. Right now, this book is shaping up to be about 70,000 words. Of this, I have about 55,000 written. I'm also playing with that aforementioned previous novel, and ended up with an exciting brainstorm of tying these projects together to form a series of sorts.

On one hand, this is GREAT news, because it should offer added momentum once I start publishing. On the other hand, %$%^##!!. This is making me crazy, because this plan will delay my hitting the "publish" button for several weeks, possibly months, because it involves creating a prequel to what I'm working on now.

Here's the current plan.
Book 1: A prequel to a novel I'd already written. (Estimated word count: 50K words. About 20K are written.)
Book 2: My current project. (Estimated word count: 70K. About 55K are written.)
Book 3: A sequel to my current project (Estimated word count: 60K. About 7K are written.)
Book 4: My previously written novel, cut in half and spiced up (Estimated word count: 70K. About 50K are written.)
Book 5: Second revised part of my previously written novel. (Estimated word count: 65K. About 50K are written.)

So basically, I'm working on five full-length books totaling 320K words. I've got 180K written, but not on the same book. Aaaand, I'll need to revise much of my previous material to ensure it fits the genre. I think it's a good long-term strategy, but short-term, it's definitely making me a little nuts. Oh, how I long to hit "publish" sooner. Waaaah!!!

 

[AubreyRose]

Whoa...you get defensive just because I ask the title of your book so I can go buy a copy?

Some people have their real names tied to account names and they don't want to out themselves. Especially as a female author, it's scary to know that anyone can find you IRL - I've had dozens of FB messages and emails ranging from guys telling me that they loved me and would treat me right 4EVA if only I would marry them to guys telling me in explicit detail how they're going to find me and rape me. And all of my personal info is very surface-hidden, anyone wanting to find me could do so with a few clicks. Hell, I even have a real picture of myself, which most authors don't use for their author pics.

I don't blame anyone for wanting to keep their privacy. From conservative family members to "friends" hitting you up for money when they know you're rich to neighbors who report you to the police for your erotica (ALL this has happened to author friends of mine)... a little bit of defensiveness is justified.

 

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[ChickenHawk]

ChickenHawk what kind of promotional do you run on your books?

So far I've done almost zero. This book is first in a two-part series, so I planned to save all my promotional time/effort/money for when I had multiple books. I did buy the domain name of my pen name, but that was mostly to keep someone else from grabbing it. But then, after the initial sales surprised me, I had to scramble to catch up on a few things, like actually getting up a Web site, setting up Facebook, Twitter, a Goodreads profile, etc. But most of this has been incidental, more to avoid looking unprofessional than to actually promote the book.

I'll definitely do some promotional things for my next book. For starters, I'll be able to email the subscribers to my mailing list, which hopefully will give it a nice boost right out of the gate. I may also look at other advertising opportunities, but I'm not sure what or when.

Since release, I have had some nice folks include my book in their promotion efforts or on FaceBook pages/twitter/mailings though, so I can't exactly say that zero promotional things have taken place. It's just that I personally haven't done much of anything. Hope this helps!

 

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[Held for Ransom]

Holy smokes! Man, I logoff for a couple of weeks and miss all the action... Argh.

Boy, you *rarely* hear about this kind of thing with a first release but I suppose that's what happens when you work on your craft for almost a decade... overnight success!

Congratulations to a terrific lady. You are a real inspiration and the success is well-deserved, it's a great book!

 

[Vigilante]

WOW. This is the things that dreams are made of. Dreams and sweat equity.


A star is born.

 

[Vigilante]

Every once in a while, when I see @ChickenHawk's name pop up here on the forum, I just take a millisecond to think "damn... she is awesome." Then I go about the rest of my day. She is a hell of an example of what tenacity plus intelligence gets you.

Carry on. And to all of you aspiring authors following in her footsteps... write faster.

 

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[LisaK]

I needed to share a little win with you all since you are the ones who will understand...I made it into the top 100 of my genre today. Not sure if it will last until tomorrow but I thought it was very exciting and thought I'd share! Clearly my genre is a niche when you get into the top 100 at #50,941...none the less, it feels good!

Product Details

• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #50,941 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
  • #83 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Metaphysical & Visionary

 

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[ChickenHawk]

I'd give you a bid on the film rights today, but you'd be a fool to take my offer.

Hah! Oh to dream...
Funny, just listening to the audiobooks was a HUGE thrill. The voice-actress was amazing, and it was so cool to hear the stories read out loud by a professional. I almost felt like a "real" author!

 

[ChickenHawk]

ChickenHawk: How is everything going? Hope you will post updates again soon.
I also have a question. Since you are publishing so many books, how do you handle planning new plots? Are you working with templates and predefined outlines?

In happy news, I just pushed out my latest book. Yay! I'll definitely be posting an update within the next couple of days with more specifics. But suffice it to say I'm really glad to get another title out there. Crossing my fingers!

For planning plots, I usually start by basic brainstorming, and then bounce ideas off my husband or best friend. Once I have a plot in mind, I do an outline in Excel. Of course, the outline changes constantly as I add, delete, and change things. I think half the battle, really, is just to start writing, because often the characters will get their own ideas and take you along for the ride.

 

[ChickenHawk]

So I'm working on my next book, and I've realized something. It's not that I write terribly slow, so much as my internal editor is a screaming harpie who hates almost everything.

Example: Earlier this week, I took several hours to write a little over 300 words -- but only because I went back over that section again and again. (It was a very tense scene between the two leads, so it had to be just right.) Regardless of the type of scene, I reread everything I've just written and find myself thinking things like, "Boy, that wording really sucks. No one would ever talk like that." Or "Holy crap, that's boring. If I were reading this, I'd skim over this part. It needs to be either a lot shorter, or a lot more exciting." Etc. Etc. Etc.

During this process, I second-guess almost everything. I read dialogue-sections aloud (with voices). I run things past my husband, and sometimes even my sixth-grader. The process seems to take forever and ever. But then, when I have a "first-draft", it's really like a 20th draft, because I've spent so much time tweaking it. As a result, I can usually hit publish within a couple days of writing "the end."

Unfortunately, this doesn't help me catch typos, because I get so familiar with the text that I don't see those "little" mistakes. As a result, I've found some really embarrassing typos a few months later (when the story isn't as fresh to me).

Anyway, all this to say, I've been really fortunate to earn an amazing amount of money per word, but what people don't see is that each word takes me a really, reeeeeeally long time. I'm not sure I'd recommend this approach, because it takes more time and effort than it would otherwise. But for me, I can't bring myself to do anything else.

On that note, back to grind!

 

[ChickenHawk]

I have to say I read your thread from top to bottom. The results you have accomplished are rather phenomenal. I'd love to make a few thousand dollars at my age (23) from writing so that I don't have to get a slowlane job when college is over.

Thanks so much! And of course, I'd love to see you earn money from this too.

1. How do you find the "thing" that makes you sit down and write for such a period of time?

It's fear, mostly. I wish I could say I'm kidding. Every single book I've written, I've hated it for much of the time. Midway through, I always think, "This is crap. The plot isn't coming together. It isn't making any sense. Everyone will hate it. Sheesh, even I hate it.." But I'm terrified of ever going back to a day job, and inspired at the kind of success that is possible if you have a breakout book. I think half the battle is plodding along whether you feel "inspired" or not.

2. I never really used to sit down and outline my writing, but from writing 2k words ( a bit less ) today, I'm finding that I can't stick to something specific and may tend to bounce around : / How do you keep your thoughts in one place? 40k word novels, is a lot of thoughts...does it just flow onto the paper? Or are you planning anything out beforehand?

The nice thing is if yo have an outline, you can bounce around writing-wise. For my first breakout book, I had an outline (which changed greatly as I wrote), and I wrote whatever scene I felt like writing that night. For example, if I felt like writing a funny scene, that's what I'd do. I think it made the writing process go faster overall, but I had to cut a TON of words. One thing that might surprise you...40K words goes a lot faster than you'd think.

Any thoughts/suggestions to someone that wants to publish his first book?

Half the battle is just to write it and put it out there. You learn so much by doing. Also, read in your genre to make sure you know the rules.

Remember, sentences turn into paragraphs, which turn into chapters, which turn into a nice, finished book. Sometimes it's a slog, but then viola. Your own book! Good luck!

 

[ChickenHawk]

Selling on amazon with zero marketing efforts and zero ad budget doesn't work anymore.

Yes. What worked two years ago no longer works. That was kind of the whole point. Is English your second language or something?

About shortcuts, I have no idea what you're talking about. Perhaps you can enlighten me. Where is your publishing progress thread? Surely, you've sold millions of books by now. Please tell us how you did it.

 

[Vigilante]

Here's to wishing MJ had done more than a two week ban. That will give you all enough time to use the ignore poster feature. He can come back to an audience of himself.

 

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[MTF]

@ChickenHawk, don't worry about being unable to repeat the success of your most successful books. I think that everyone here knows you're not a one-hit wonder. I believe it takes a lot of time and many more tries than just a few to publish another hit. It's just the nature of this business for people like us (people like Tim Ferriss are the exception; their new books are pretty much always a guaranteed hit).

About 80-90% of my income comes from just one bestselling book (and most of that from the audiobook, not the ebook). I've released four books since my biggest bestseller and none of them performed even 10% as well as my biggest bestseller (in fact, most were flops). Curiously enough, I've also noticed that the more I focus on the book (I write it carefully, try to make it as perfect as possible, cover every single issue), the less copies it sells. I honestly believe that my biggest bestsellers are badly written (when compared to my new releases), but it's the sales of my new releases that sucks so there's that.

I guess that's just the way it is; you can never predict which book is going to be successful and which one is going to be a failure (despite your certainty that it's your best book yet, as it is in my case). The only solution is to keep going until you have another hit.

I'm not sure how lucrative it is in fiction, but I would strongly consider turning all of your books into audiobooks and paperbacks as well. It's always another source of income, even if it's not that much in the grand scheme of things.