Getting From Newbie Author To Freedom

[jimr]

Oops, busy weekend (lifted my word count to 17,000) and I missed my self-imposed deadline.

Progress
Proof reading of my second book was completed with one major comment: the storyline probably won't fit into a trilogy as there is a fair amount of complexity that can't be explained in a short series of books. Also, the proof reader found a timeline hole that means I will definitely have to extend the series to maybe five or six books. This might seem like a headache but, really, it gives me the opportunity to further develop the characters and plot. Good news

Image was created but wasn't happy that it conveyed the mystique I've tried to build around the series. Sent back and the editor turned around a new version in about two hours which I was pretty happy with.

Following Rainy_TX's leap into erotica: this refers back to my 17,000 word count. Planned out a skeleton for the remaining chapters and then went for it. I'm fairly pleased with the plot but I've made a conscious decision not to make a book that's simply about sex (although there is a fair amount in there already). The main character has a life which is shattered. She then embarks on (hold on to your pants, cliche coming...) voyage of discovery with a apparently very bad man who works in a library. I'll leave it there for now but I'm considering sending the finished book to a few of the Fast Lane forum members to get their view - PM me and I'll let you know when the work is complete.

Research
Without wanting to sound like a 'wannabe', I do tend to delve into various other forums to see how people are doing. This one caught my eye: http://www.reddit.com/r/writing/comments/m2ejo/broke_1000_in_one_day_for_the_first_time/ Sure, it's two years old but, ignoring the sums the guy is making, there's a treasure trove of useful info in the thread. Hope it helps some of my fellow self-publishers.

Promotion
Here's a couple of promotion ideas I'm going to be implementing in the coming weeks:

Pinterest - posting images of my book covers into relevant groups (including a link back to my Amazon kindle books)

Scoop.it - I run a blog with lots of 'colourful' writing. Scoop.it has brought me significant traffic in the past but my website was never monetised. I'm going to try using very short stories that are related to my books as posts that draw readers in and, hopefully, click the link at the bottom of the page that takes them to my Amazon profile.

That's all for now.

 

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[jimr]

Hi everyone and Happy New Year to all.

It's been a few weeks since I last posted so it's about time to update this thread.

Progress
Book three is on track to be completed by the end of next week and should be about 50,000 words long. My words per day did slip significantly (down to itr of 1,500 per day) but I did take time to enjoy the Christmas period. I'm quite excited about the current book I'm writing as it represents a foray into the erotic style of writing (before, I was authoring thriller/horror).

I'll be sending the book for proof reading next Sunday (a deadline I'm forcing myselfto stick to).

Next Steps
Shorter books. Based on HfR's comments and a number of Reddit sub-fourms, it looks like there's a growing trend for readers to purchase short stories so it would be silly not to dabble in this area. I have a couple of ideas for the horror and erotic shorts which I can complete inside of a week (looking at twenty thousand words). I'll be using the short storied to bulk up my back catalogue as well as utilising them for the purposes of testing the market.

When the first short goes live, I'm going to make it free for one day and will let you all know (it's my underhand way of getting real feedback ).

Another update later this week.

Hope you all have a good weekend.

 

[COSenior]

In the first week, it sold 398 copies

Hi everyone and Happy New Year to all.

It's been a few weeks since I last posted so it's about time to update this thread.

Progress
Book three is on track to be completed by the end of next week and should be about 50,000 words long. My words per day did slip significantly (down to itr of 1,500 per day) but I did take time to enjoy the Christmas period. I'm quite excited about the current book I'm writing as it represents a foray into the erotic style of writing (before, I was authoring thriller/horror).

I'll be sending the book for proof reading next Sunday (a deadline I'm forcing myselfto stick to).

Next Steps
Shorter books. Based on HfR's comments and a number of Reddit sub-fourms, it looks like there's a growing trend for readers to purchase short stories so it would be silly not to dabble in this area. I have a couple of ideas for the horror and erotic shorts which I can complete inside of a week (looking at twenty thousand words). I'll be using the short storied to bulk up my back catalogue as well as utilising them for the purposes of testing the market.

When the first short goes live, I'm going to make it free for one day and will let you all know (it's my underhand way of getting real feedback ).

Another update later this week.

Hope you all have a good weekend.

Has your first one continued to sell as well as it started? How the heck did you get that many sales? Good to hear you're moving forward! I'll be sure to pick up your book when you give us a link to it, but don't expect feedback for at least a month from me--I'm that far behind in my reading list.

 

[jimr]

Has your first one continued to sell as well as it started? How the heck did you get that many sales? Good to hear you're moving forward! I'll be sure to pick up your book when you give us a link to it, but don't expect feedback for at least a month from me--I'm that far behind in my reading list.

Hi, sadly the sales figures dropped off after a couple of really good weeks (hit about five hundreds books shifted since I published). Now I'm getting the odd sale, or two, every now and then. What I have noticed is the publication of second book seems to have helped sales of the first and vice versa i.e. a very small but soon to grow back catalogue under my author name.

As for how I did it - I really don't know. I guess the book landed at the right time.

As for sales of my second book, definitely slower - about nintey copies in the last couple of weeks. Not bad but could be better.

Thanks, I'll let you know as soon as the book is ready. Actually, whilst I'm on the subject, I'd really like to get constructive criticism back i.e. don't hold back because we're members of the same forum otherwise I'll never learn

 

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[COSenior]

As for sales of my second book, definitely slower - about nintey copies in the last couple of weeks. Not bad but could be better.

Still, not at all bad. More than all the copies of all the books I've sold so far. You're doing great!

 

[jimr]

Still, not at all bad. More than all the copies of all the books I've sold so far. You're doing great!

Thank you. To be honest, thriller/horror genre that I tackled first has a lot of overlaps with my real life (barring a run in with the legions of undead, of course ) so, I think, the books were fairly easy to write.

Erotica is a bit more elusive so I've been reading many sources to get an idea of what 'ticks the boxes' for readers.

 

[COSenior]

Erotica is a bit more elusive so I've been reading many sources to get an idea of what 'ticks the boxes' for readers.

I'll give you a hint that slowly dawned on me. There are a number of erotica niches, from paranormal to what should instead be called steamy romance to BDSM. The trouble is, Amazon doesn't separate them into categories. Bottom line, what 'ticks the boxes' for one reader might not do it for the next, and I don't know of any way to get statistical help as to what sells the most, only looking at the Top 100 and New and Popular, maybe buying an assortment and reading them to see if there's common ground--and if you find you have a preference or a talent for one of the special kinks, find the books that appeal to that audience and definitely read and analyze those.

Maybe some of the analytical folks around here can figure it out more scientifically. The one thing I see the most, in reviews, in blogs, etc., is that there MUST be a story, not just page after page of explicit sex. Put it in, for sure, often and well-written, but wrap a story around it.

Good luck.

 

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[jimr]

I agree - there's a story in mine but I've let it slip a little and will put more emphais on it during the editing phase.

 

[jimr]

I'm seem to have let my update slip a little so let's get it on.

Ok, so my first attempt at an erotic story went for proof reading and a general assessment - and it was body slammed!

From the notes I received back, it would appear that I've tried to be a little too loose with my storyline. Also, the antics of the main character mark her out as plain weird.

My use of grammar got a good roasting as did my pedantic descriptions.

Being sensible, I didn't simply accept the comments - I read the book again and tried to see through a buyers eyes and, wow, it needed a lot of work.

The last week has been spent ripping out unnecessary sections and rewriting large tracts of the content. I'm almost there - another few days and I'll have it cracked. Once done, I'll do as I promised and let anyone interested read it.

On a side note, I did get some pointers from a couple of fans of erotica on who to read. Obviously, as COSenior said, it's a case of each to their own but I'm still going to read more and see how I can get my voice heard in the erotica genre.

I'll update later this week (I promise ).

 

[jimr]

Hi all, I've been conspicuously absent for a few weeks (busy getting my fifth and sixth books ready for publishing but now that's done - I'm back).

I did promise to share my first erotica book with the forum and I'm here to keep my word:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00I8YBX2Y/?tag=tff-amazonparser-20

It's free for one week (sold about seventy copies before the slow down kicked in). Feel free to download and let me know your thoughts - could even be worth us all creating a critique group - as I am genuinely interested in your views.

Note: some of the scenes are pretty graphic so if you're easily offended, DON"T READ THE BOOK! .

Ok, I have a writing schedule to honour - see you all soon.

 

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[COSenior]

One-clicked it; can say already that the blurb is effective and the cover is intriguing! I'm slowly catching up on reading obligations, so this one will go to second on the queue so I can give you some feedback soon, and if I can honestly give it a 4 or 5 star review, I'll do that too. Are you on Goodreads? I usually copy my Amazon reviews to Goodreads as well.

 

[jimr]

Thanks CO. I am on GoodReads but have yet to experiment with using the site (I believe you need to review 50 books on there before you can set up your account as author - which I need to do, and soon).

 

[COSenior]

Thanks CO. I am on GoodReads but have yet to experiment with using the site (I believe you need to review 50 books on there before you can set up your account as author - which I need to do, and soon).

I don't see that requirement. Here's how to do it.
https://www.goodreads.com/author/program

 

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[jimr]

Cool - that's fantastic (MJ needs to build a scoring system that allows to give double/triple points when a forum member is exceptionally helpful).

 

[jimr]

Just a quick update: ran the free download offer for a week and just over a thousand copies of my book were downloaded. Looks like erotica is a very lucrative genre (if done right).

 

[COSenior]

Nice result! You're going to do well...it's well-written.

 

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[jimr]

Thanks CO. As you noted, there are still some discrepencies and I really need to either tighten up my own proof reader or pay for a pro to do the work... decisions, decisions

 

[COSenior]

Thanks CO. As you noted, there are still some discrepencies and I really need to either tighten up my own proof reader or pay for a pro to do the work... decisions, decisions

Is your 'own proof reader' unpaid? Maybe you could incentize him/her by offering a per error rate. Make it small enough to fit your budget if he finds hundreds. My publisher pays his proofreader $1 per error, and since the expenses come off the top, you can bet I proofread it thoroughly myself first. But no one is infallible, one or two will probably still slip through, and then you have to depend on friendly readers to point them out so you can fix them if you want.

Here's a trick I learned somewhere...put your book down for several days at least after you've finished it. Don't read it at all. After sufficient time has passed, and it really takes less than a week, format and upload it to your eReader (an app for your desktop might work, but the advice was for eReader). Now read through it, with pencil and notepad in hand. You are engaging your reader brain with that little trick, and you'll see things you never would have otherwise. I filled six or seven sheets with errors on my first full-length novel, and that was after I'd put it through Word's grammar and spell check AND proofed it on-screen at my desktop. But the proofreader only found four that I missed after all that--which was well worth the $4 that we paid him.

 

[jimr]

Is your 'own proof reader' unpaid? Maybe you could incentize him/her by offering a per error rate. Make it small enough to fit your budget if he finds hundreds. My publisher pays his proofreader $1 per error, and since the expenses come off the top, you can bet I proofread it thoroughly myself first. But no one is infallible, one or two will probably still slip through, and then you have to depend on friendly readers to point them out so you can fix them if you want.

Here's a trick I learned somewhere...put your book down for several days at least after you've finished it. Don't read it at all. After sufficient time has passed, and it really takes less than a week, format and upload it to your eReader (an app for your desktop might work, but the advice was for eReader). Now read through it, with pencil and notepad in hand. You are engaging your reader brain with that little trick, and you'll see things you never would have otherwise. I filled six or seven sheets with errors on my first full-length novel, and that was after I'd put it through Word's grammar and spell check AND proofed it on-screen at my desktop. But the proofreader only found four that I missed after all that--which was well worth the $4 that we paid him.

CO, you're absolutely right about letting the book 'settle' before reviewing it - I promised myself I would do this but got caught up in the excitement. A degree of restraint will be applied before hitting the publish button on my future books

 

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[jimr]

Nearly a month since I updated this thread - time flies.

Here's what i've been doing since my last visit to this post:

Finished writing a 70,000 thriller/horror. I have to admit that writing a longer book just felt right. I don't have a problem with shorter books but the challenge of producing something big (whilst eradicating plot holes and staying consistent) did it for me. The book has been sent for proof reading and I expect it back at the end of next week. Cover is in progress.

I also wrote and completed one short (22,000 words) erotic story. I took some of the advice COSenior gave me and I feel pretty good about this title. Book is nearly ready to go - just waiting for the designer to tweak the cover layout.

Started on a second erotic short. Two days in and I'm at 9,000 words (squeezing my writing time in whenever I can - get up at 0430/0500 and crank out 45 minutes, write on the train and then at night.) All in all, I'm pleased with my output in terms of words on paper. This book is an experiment into the performance of books in the 10,000 - 14,000 word range. I'm aiming for the upper end of the aforementioned scale and will have this finished by tomorrow afternoon. Quick edit, cover (made be me) and publish.

I'll share the results in a couple of weeks.

In terms of sales across all books, the initial rush died off (as expected) but I'm pleased to note that I now have a trickle of sales coming through. Also, it would appear the buyers are finding my main pen name and buying all three books at once - bonus . I'll give you all an update on sales next Friday.

Later all and keep up the good work.

 

[Hicks]

Great progress.
I've been thinking about this 'getting up early' business I keep hearing about (I don't even own an alarm clock). How is it working out for you? Are you finding it is easier to be productive? Are you still sleeping the same amount and going to bed earlier. Interested to hear about this.

 

[COSenior]

Great progress! You get to take over as the speed demon of the group, lol. Can't wait to see the next updates!

 

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[jimr]

Great progress.
I've been thinking about this 'getting up early' business I keep hearing about (I don't even own an alarm clock). How is it working out for you? Are you finding it is easier to be productive? Are you still sleeping the same amount and going to bed earlier. Interested to hear about this.

tbh, at first it seemed like hard work but after a couple of weeks just fell into place.

In terms of productivity, I don't feel any more productive than when I write later in the day. In fact, the grey matter doesn't spark into life until I've had two, large cups of filter coffee.

Whilst I'm waiting for my brain to kick into gear I spend ten to twenty minues reviewing the last few paragraphs of what I wrote in the last session. The I read the notes for the next piece of planned work. That way I can get straight into the flow.

I normally only sleep about five to six hours a night so i just go to bed a little earlier.

 

[jimr]

Bit of a late update, but I've been pretty busy recently.

First off, I received Stephen King's 'On Writing' as a birthday present and I've blazed through the book and I am now incorporating a lot of his advice into my writing. One point that did strike me is that my grammar could do with a serious beating so I spent a few days reacquainting myself with the basics of written English. Even a quick dusting off has highlighted quite a few faults (split infinitives being one of my constat crimes against language).

Now, back to my books. I finished proof reading a day later than expect, but only because the book grew from an expected 14,000 to 18,000 words. Not a problem, I'm still relatively pleased with the output. Cover creator has been busy but should have the requested work over to me by tomorrow, which is when I expect to publish.

This last week I started, and finished, a second book. 26,000 words. Finished proof reading this morning and am set to publish tomorrow.

As I've noted in eariler posts, I'm deliberately toying shorter strories to see how well they move. I'll update on the two books above in a couple of weeks.

Yesterday I started a fourth erotica book. Did some research on Amazon decided to go with BDSM as, right now, it's a pretty hot topic. This book WILL be no more than 14,000 words and I WILL finish it by Friday.

Catch you all soon.

 

[seamles]

Just read through your while post. Very inspirational stuff. Hope to continue to hear your journey. I'm tempted to start one of these myself but am trying to go through all the tips on these amazing forums first.

 

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[Lauryn]

I'm tempted to start one of these myself but am trying to go through all the tips on these amazing forums first.

Nah brother...that will take too long. You're stalling... @seamles make your thread so we can give you the tips you need along the way. This is the Fastlane Forum, not the "Hold up I gotta read everything first" forum!

 

[seamles]

Haha wow. I think i love this site. I am still currently doing stuff but haven't posted a new thread yet because every time I've gone to forums like this (except one other) I always get EXTREMELY snooty comments about why do you want us to do all the work when you should read the forums first. Always felt stupid after that. I'll set up my post later today. Thanks for the kick in the butt!

 

[MJ DeMarco]

I always get EXTREMELY snooty comments

Even if these comments do come, here or elsewhere, you CANNOT let it bother you. Entrepreneurship, and especially writers, need a thick skin. Your books/writing will be subject to criticism. Negative, 1 star reviews come with the territory and it doesn't matter how good of a writer you are. That's simply apart of the game. If you are offended easily or take things personally, you either need to change your expectations, or do something else.

 

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[jimr]

Nah brother...that will take too long. You're stalling... @seamles make your thread so we can give you the tips you need along the way. This is the Fastlane Forum, not the "Hold up I gotta read everything first" forum!

Lauryn, you're bang on!

Seamles, I've read 'On Writing' by Stephen King and there some minor irritants in there but the key is this: you're an author so write. When you don't feel like writing remind yourself that this is your craft and, with effort and practise, will become your livelihood.

Brush up on your grammar (if need be), understand the constructs of your chosen language, etc, but at the end of the day, JUST WRITE. In time, everything will fall into place.

 

[jimr]

I always get EXTREMELY snooty comments

And? In my and, from the reviews I've read, the opinion of many others, James Patterson is a poor writer who caters to the lowest common denominator. Do you think he cares what some people think? Of course not; he has fans and a crapload of cash to back him up. There's a lesson in there