Lurve stories for fun and profit [progress thread]

[AubreyRose]

Hi there, I have been writing and self-publishing romance/erotic romance since January 2012. Profits have been variable and I do enjoy my day job, so for now I'm just a part-timer. Still, hoping to make a decent amount in 2014; I try to focus on writing goals instead of sales goals since I have little control over the latter.

Right now my short-term goal is to finish the sequel to my first romance novel under this pen name. I'm on Chapter 20 right now. I can't post again until I'm onto Chapter 21. How's that for motivation?

 

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[H. Palmer]

Pls enlighten us what "lurve" is.

 

[AubreyRose]

Pls enlighten us what "lurve" is.

Ermagerd, lurve is the best feeling in the world. You see Amschel, when a man and a woman lurve each other VERY MUCH...

Just finished Chapter 20, onto Chapter 21. I use a version of the snowflake method to write, so I have the outline done, just need to write the darn words! I'm at 36000 words right now.

 

[H. Palmer]

Ermagerd, lurve is the best feeling in the world. You see Amschel, when a man and a woman lurve each other VERY MUCH...

Sounds like fun.

 

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[Thriftypreneur]

Welcome to the progress thread club.

 

[FutureWorldDominator]

hahah I guess that's good motivation... you must really LURVE posting on this forum...

 

[Held for Ransom]

It is a REAL THRILL to have you here Aubrey!

Your success is an inspiration to me and should be to others regardless of the genre they happen to write in. I look forward to learning about your journey and learning from you in coming months.

Thanks for sharing and welcome again!

 

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[britnidanielle]

Welcome! Good luck!

 

[AubreyRose]

Thanks everyone for the warm welcome! Just broke 40k for the story. Shooting for 50-60k with this one and hope to have it done this week.
I think in January I might start work on a tutorial series for how to write a romance novel, since a lot of my friends have been asking about it. I know only like 1% of people will follow through on actually doing the work, though, so we'll see..

 

[Held for Ransom]

One percenter here...

Where's the early enrollment form?

 

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[AubreyRose]

Haha, I'll post here as soon as it's live.
Novel update: on Chapter 25 of 33. Gonna finish this week or die trying!

 

[AubreyRose]

Just finished the first draft of the novel, woot Sending it out to beta readers and doing edits this week and next, then publish time! Eek!

Still working back towards five figures like my best month in 2013. Here's hoping January will be it!

 

[Lauryn]

Awesome!

Some people compensate beta readers. Do you?

 

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[COSenior]

One percenter here...

Where's the early enrollment form?

Same here!

 

[AubreyRose]

Some people compensate beta readers. Do you?

Most of my beta readers are fellow authors, and so we trade beta reads. The others are all fans who are just excited to get the book early and for free, and for them I have special giveaways and sneak previews, etc... but I don't pay them since they all end up reviewing the book and I don't want to get into trouble with buying reviews. For this novel I'll probably send them all free autographed copies after it comes out, though!

 

[AubreyRose]

Just published two things:
- a new adult romance novel (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HHD6KJ8/?tag=tff-amazonparser-20)
- a boxed set of previous shifter romance novellas (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HHEVSK8/?tag=tff-amazonparser-20)

Working on outlining my next project, also I have a mailing list up for my tutorial webpage, so if you're interested in writing romance, give it a looksie! http://howtowritearomancenovel.com/

I'm hopefully going to start recording and putting up tutorials next week. Kick me in the butt if I don't, k?

 

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[GiroudJD]

I'd price that box-set way higher - don't undersell your work! But great idea on a tutorial webpage, you can easily build that up and monetize the lessons, while growing your brand.

Nice work!

 

[AubreyRose]

I'd price that box-set way higher - don't undersell your work!

It's not underselling, it's building readership and rank. I price everything at 99 cents the first week to hit all of the subcat bestseller lists for visibility and to give my fans a sale, then bump it up to $2.99. Boxed sets and novels will all end up being $3.99/$4.99 eventually with targeted 99 cent price pulsing to boost rank during my advertising run days when the rank starts to slip. Rank is all-important if you're an unknown, and right now I'm a relative unknown.

This next year will be all about boosting my readership so that I can grow my mailing list - right now I have 1600 subscribers, and it usually gives me 300-600 sales right off the bat when I send out a new release email, which is a nice bump, but not enough to hit the top 20 of the subcat bestseller lists consistently unless I'm lucky with other promotions. And the top 20 is all that matters since it's the front page, unfortunately. So that's my rationale. Hope it helps other people on here with pricing strategy!

 

[Hicks]

Just published two things:
- a new adult romance novel (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HHD6KJ8/?tag=tff-amazonparser-20)
- a boxed set of previous shifter romance novellas (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HHEVSK8/?tag=tff-amazonparser-20)

Working on outlining my next project, also I have a mailing list up for my tutorial webpage, so if you're interested in writing romance, give it a looksie! http://howtowritearomancenovel.com/

I'm hopefully going to start recording and putting up tutorials next week. Kick me in the butt if I don't, k?

hi, i was wondering about the course that you are releasing. Technically how are you going to do this? It looks like youve used wordpress...
are you going to use a membership website plug-in to restrict access to paying customers.
Or are you going to be selling pdfs etc?

The reason i ask is because I have a course that I wrote years ago that I changed into a book but all the audio and flash quizzes etc are just going to waste so I am going to set up a membership website....Ive used amember before but was wondering how you are going to 'sell' the course.

interested to hear about the technical aspect of what you're doing.

ps: lurve the progress

 

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[AubreyRose]

hi, i was wondering about the course that you are releasing. Technically how are you going to do this? It looks like youve used wordpress...
are you going to use a membership website plug-in to restrict access to paying customers.
Or are you going to be selling pdfs etc?

Technically, I have no idea. I'm guessing the first few tutorials will just be embedded Youtube videos, and I'm hoping to have follow up tutorials on promotion and marketing on a platform like Udemy that I can link to as paid content. What do you suggest? I'm completely new to doing something like this, so I'm way open to ideas. Initially at least, the tutorials will all be free. I want to give something back and help other people out with their writing.

 

[AubreyRose]

Woop woop, this year is starting out great! I was worried that October's crazy peak of $20k would be unsustainable without another breakout hit, but November was just under $10k and December was $15k, and January looks to be holding steady at the same pace as December. I have another novel to finish by the end of the month, and two novellas to edit, and then I'm taking a well-deserved 2-week break in Maui.

Tutorials are written up and just got my taping setup done yesterday; will be filming them this week and putting them out before I leave. WHEW! Anything else? Oh yeah, I want to start writing a nonfiction blog to turn into a book about creative entrepreneurs.

New goals for 2014:
- Six figures with writing
- Write and pub at least 40k words a month
- Write, edit, publish a new set of tutorials every month for HTWARN. Looking at possibly turning this into speaking/workshop gigs so that I can get paid to go places and teach people how to write, that would be cool.
- Purchase another property
- Write my nonfiction blog/book
- Don't get fired from my day job while doing all this crap

 

[COSenior]

- Don't get fired from my day job while doing all this crap

Jeez, with all those other goals, I'd think leaving the day job would be somewhere in the list.

 

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[AubreyRose]

I would, but I really do love my day job (managing a test prep center). My two best friends are there, it's a young, smart, fun workplace, I get a management title on my resume, we have an office dog and a brewery right across the street - it's basically the perfect job except that I don't make six figures, and since I'm right under the CEO, there's no room to get promoted. I have been ratcheting down my hours slowly and delegating a lot of my work out, so I haven't felt the stress too much, but I don't think I'll quit the day job until I'm ready to leave San Diego for good!

 

[Hicks]

Technically, I have no idea. I'm guessing the first few tutorials will just be embedded Youtube videos, and I'm hoping to have follow up tutorials on promotion and marketing on a platform like Udemy that I can link to as paid content. What do you suggest? I'm completely new to doing something like this, so I'm way open to ideas. Initially at least, the tutorials will all be free. I want to give something back and help other people out with their writing.

Hi, I went off and did a little research which may be of interest to you. If you would like to charge for content on a wordpress site (such as yours) then wishlist http://member.wishlistproducts.com/ seems to be the way to go for simplicity. I found this out via the guy at http://www.membershipacademy.com/ who was really helpful. I hope this helps. It looks like I might go with another product as I don't usually use wordpress but it is tempting at that price and considering how simple it is to install. Let me know what avenue you take. Also I will definitely sign up

 

[AubreyRose]

Thanks, Hicks, that looks perfect for what I want to do! I will let you know when I try it how it goes..

 

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[Rawr]

I am so impressed with your output. You're a machine!!

 

[AubreyRose]

New release out today, as always just 99 cents for the first week! This one's a romantic comedy about a lovably dumb stripper turned secret agent: http://amzn.to/1hTL3rt

 

[ChickenHawk]

right now I have 1600 subscribers, and it usually gives me 300-600 sales right off the bat when I send out a new release email

WOW, how long did it take to build up such a huge list? That's pretty darn impressive!

Funny, I was shocked to see that you had a day job. With all the books you've been putting out, I guess I figured you did this full time, or sheesh, double-time. Again, impressive!

 

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[AubreyRose]

WOW, how long did it take to build up such a huge list? That's pretty darn impressive!

Funny, I was shocked to see that you had a day job. With all the books you've been putting out, I guess I figured you did this full time, or sheesh, double-time. Again, impressive!

Not long - this list started in March, I think. It just takes one decent size hit! You'll get there soon enough the way you're going, too

Yeah, I like my day job, but I don't think I can do this forever. It's wearing me down..

 

[Rob Williams]

I'm clicking the Buy button. You had me at "stripper"
Seriously, though, happy to do my small part and give you a boost during the first week and always keen to read your work, thanks for sharing it with us.