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

[ChickenHawk]

To avoid cluttering Held for Ransom's incredible self-publishing thread, https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/se...er-self-publishing-success-21.html#post297921, here's my separate progress thread.

The Goal: To Make a Living Through Fiction Writing. To make a great living would be even better.

My Background: I have a Journalism/English/Public Relations degree and supported myself and my family through writing for years now, slowlane style, mostly in marketing and public relations. This gives me a great head start on the mechanics, but not necessarily on story-creation.

Other Publishing Ventures: As I've alluded to elsewhere, I've pursued the traditional fiction-publishing route with only minimal success. I was able to secure a top literary agent, but not a publishing deal. The whole thing was incredibly frustrating, because I spent so much time and energy trying to get published that I didn't have any time or energy left to actually write. Plus, it was one of those scenarios where if even one person in the publishing hierarchy said no, the deal was toast. This lack of control was maddening. Plus, I'm friends with several traditionally published authors and quite honestly, they weren't making enough money to make me think it was the best use of my time, especially when juggling a family and full-time career. (More information on self-publishing versus the traditional route is available on this thread: https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/se...e-book-then-finding-publisher.html#post297561 )

Where I Stand Now: Thanks to the knowledge shared by Held for Ransom and others, I've recently written and published three fiction books. They all went live on Amazon this month. Here is where they stand so far.

• Book #1 (Published 8/1/13): 17 sold, 6 borrows, about 300 "sold" during a two-day free promo.
• Book #2: (Published 8/4/13): 17 sold, 1 borrow, about 200 "sold" during a two-day free promo.
• Book #3: (Published 8/17/13): 43 sold, 3 borrows, about 600 "sold" during a two-day free promo.

Book #1 is about 18,000 words for $2.99. Book #2 is about 300 words for $1.25. Book #3 is about 14,500 words for $2.99. All books are heavy on original illustrations though so they're quite longer than these word counts suggest.

I'm working on Book #4, which will be under the same pen name, and Book #5, which will be under a completely different pen name because it's a very different genre, a genre with a deeper pool of buyers. It will be interesting to compare results for different genres and see which one gains more traction.

Wish me luck!

 

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[ChickenHawk]

Well, it's official. I QUIT MY JOB!!!! Everyone was really excited and supportive of my decision, and oddly unsurprised -- probably because I'm always doing weird stuff like working on inventions, blogs, books, game shows, whatever. Alas, most of these things were spectacular failures, including a line of hypnosis audios that failed to, well, ahem, actually help anyone lose weight. But I digress... I've got about two weeks left, and then I can write full-time. Yay!

Anyway, here's a quick view of the January stats

• Books Sold: Approximately 12,900
• Earnings: Approximately $25,400
• Highest Earnings/Day: $1,475
• Highest Rank: #114 in the Amazon Kindle store
• Current Rank: About #200
• Mailing List: About 680 people signed-up

What I'm Doing Now

• The Job: Quitting the job has been surprisingly time-consuming. Transitioning work, giving the notice, researching health insurance, etc., lots of little details to take care of, it's been a bit of a time-sink. But obviously, that will go away quickly, which will leave more time for..
• Book #2: I've been working like crazy on my outline for book 2, and drafting chapters in totally random order, much like I did for book one. Since much of the material is still hand-written, I'm not sure how many words I have yet. But I'm guessing it's a little over 20,000. I've announced a late March release-date, so even with quitting my job, it's going to be a couple of really busy months to get this out in time. But I'll move Heaven and Earth to make it happen, that's for sure.

An Admission: I'm embarrassed to admit this, but I almost felt uncomfortable sharing the above results, because it felt a little like bragging. And yet, I know firsthand what it's like to be in the trenches, working really hard and not yet seeing any rewards. And I know that here on this forum, I've absolutely loved, loved, loved seeing all the success stories, both because it's wonderful to see hard-working people succeed, but also because it gave me hope that with enough hard work, and the right idea, some of that success might come my way. Anyway, all this to say, I hope this offers encouragement to anyone still in the trenches.

Food for Thought: Remember those four books I published under my original pen name? Well, in January, I sold less than 30 copies of all four books combined. I offer that nugget to encourage anyone who's discouraged with their results so far. Sometimes, a turnaround can come quickly and take you by surprise.

Aaaaand, need I say it? Must. Write. Faster!

 

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[ChickenHawk]

First of all, THANKS everyone for all the encouragement! And I'm beyond honored to have this gold threaded. I've been smiling about it for days!

An update. In a little over three weeks, I've sold more than 8,000 books. Wow, just reading those numbers, I can hardly believe them myself. Somebody pinch me, will ya? Needless to say I'm beyond thrilled. Just 24 days into this month, and I've made double my monthly slowlane income, and I'm approaching the triple-income point. I should also add that I have a fairly decent slowlane job, so this is nothing short of miraculous.

Aaaaaaand, I'm QUITTING MY JOB IN JUST FIVE WEEKS!!!!!!!

I'd be quitting even sooner, but I missed this month's deadline to sign up for non-employer health insurance, so I need to hang on 'til the end of next month for my family's sake. It was exactly like MJ said, it's actually gotten to the point where my slowlane job seems to be costing me money. I'm getting emails from strangers asking me when the sequel to my book is coming out. If I could only write it faster, it would get a huge boost of momentum just from readers of book one. So timing is really critical. The iron is hot, and I feel like I'd regret it forever if I didn't jump out of the slowlane to strike out for the fastlane ASAP.

Right now, book one is ranked #150 in Amazon's entire Kindle Store. I'd say that I'm crapping my pants, except, well, to be honest, I'm completely out of crap, and my pants are so full, I can hardly walk. I can't begin to tell everyone what a difference this will make to my family. So very thankful...

And I know I've said it before, but it bears repeating. Even though this feels like an overnight result, it's been anything but. I wrote my first novel eight years ago, got an agent, lost an agent, set fiction-writing aside, wrote a string of lackluster-selling books under a different pen name, set those aside to switch genres, etc. etc. etc. Plus, I've worked as a writer for most of my professional career, so I've definitely got my 10,000 hours in and then some.

I should also add that this is my first book under this pen name, so alas, I have no back titles I can point people to. And we all know what this means...Must. Write. Faster.

 

[ChickenHawk]

Wow, I'm shocked and beyond thrilled to report that in January alone, I've just sold my 1,000th U.S. copy of my newest book.

It's Jan. 10, so this means I've sold 1,000 copies in less than 10 days, and have spent the last few days in the Amazon top 1,000. Plus, this month, I've also sold about 160 copies overseas. And, I've had 65 people sign up for my mailing list. Hopefully, this will help boost sales of the followup book, which I'm working to release in a couple of months.

So very, very thankful...

For anyone new to this thread, I should probably add that this is the seventh book I've written, so I'm building on a long, discouraging history of less-than-glorious results. In short, it definitely hasn't been a case of overnight (potential) success.

 

[ChickenHawk]

Today, I passed a milestone I thought I'd never see.

For the month of January, I've officially earned more from Kindle Books than from my day job. And the month is only half over. This means that if I don't sell a single book for the rest of January, I'd still make more from Amazon this month than I do from my dreaded day job.

I REALLY need to finish my next book. If it shows any substantial promise, I'll be quitting my job within the next couple of months. I hate to count my chickens before they hatch, but just imagining the possibilities feels like a dream come true.

THANKS, Held for Ransom, for starting your amazing thread!!! And THANKS, everyone else, for all the insight, advice and encouragement. I've said it before, but I'll say it again. This forum, and the concepts explained so excellently in M.J.s AMAZING book, they're all life-changers, and I couldn't be more thankful.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Why do you want to know so much?

I'm gonna guess he's from Reddit ... you know, unless you give up your name, address, and bank statement, you're just a liar and your story is bull-shit. Success stories need to come with the exacting formula ( 1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8 = "im rich!" ) and if you fail to provide it, sit your a$$ back down.

Earnings: Approximately $25,400

I don't mean to hijack your thread, but I always like to give someone a "knock-knock" when they start making CEO level pay, even if it was only for one month. Based on that rate, you will make $1 million in 39 months. (Taxes excluded.) Now, isn't this a better alternative than to saving $100/mo in your 401k for 45 years and eating roadkill as a form of frugality?

Folks, you win the game on offense.

Offense = income.

 

[ChickenHawk]

Wanna see one reason I'm so thankful for the Fastlane? Well, here it is. These are my workspaces before and after.

See that cubicle? That's where I spent most of my days. Windowless. Musty-smelling. Littered with sticky mouse-traps, along with the occasional belly-up cockroach. Too cold or too hot, depending on the day. See the box of tissues? Those were for sobbing at my desk when my TPS reports were done incorrectly. See the empty mocha cup? That was for keeping awake in long, boring meetings where nothing of real importance was ever discussed. See that little green ball thingy on my desk? That was a portable foot-massager that I took to meetings to make the process slightly less excruciating when someone started yammering about diversity training, ISO audits, or appropriate door-decorations for the office holiday party.

See that Window on the Right? Now, that is my view every single work day. I work from home and live on a mountain top. I don't commute. I take lunch when I want and keep my office-temperature whatever the heck I want it. I don't do TPS reports, and most of my "meetings" are with my family. I do work a ton of hours (maybe even more than before), because I'm a really slow writer, and there's A LOT to do, even aside from writing. But holy crap, is my view on everything so much better.

So very, very thankful...

 

[ChickenHawk]

The crowd is jeering for updates!!!

Thanks so much for asking! Here's a quick overview of my February stats

• Books Sold: Approximately 10,800
• Earnings: Approximately $20,500
• Highest Earnings/Day: $1,157 (Feb. 1.) It's been drifting steadily downward. Feb. 28 the book earned "only" $380. (Still, holy crap!)
• Highest Rank: About #200 in the Amazon Kindle store
• Current Rank: About #600
• Mailing List: About 1,100 currently signed up, including the 680 total from January.

What I'm Doing Now

• The Job: Man, quitting that thing was time-consuming! And distracting too. My word count really suffered. Should've quit sooner.
• At Home: I spent the first week as a total idiot. I thought, "Hey, I don't have a job, I can write AND have lots of time for all the things I've been wanting to do -- cook & clean like June Cleaver, do that yard project I've been putting off, leisurely walks, aaaaaand of course, spend more time here on the Fastlane. This was a big mistake. Between the three weeks lost to job-quitting and my first week of idiocy at home, I lost a month of decent progress, which I'm paying for now, because...
• Book #2: I'd already announced a release date of late March. Come hell or high water, I MUST meet this. So I'm back to neglecting virtually everything else to churn out those words. I'm not a fast writer so this means 12-15 hours a day at the keyboard just to churn out a pathetic 3,000 words, maybe 4,000 on a good day. At least, what I do write is generally decent, quality-wise. Currently, I have 40,000 words on Book 2 with about 35,000 to go. I have 16 days to complete it, or risk missing my announced release date.

Arrrrggghhh!!!! Must Write Faster!!!

 

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[ChickenHawk]

Gosh, it's been FOREVER since I updated this thread, and honestly, I feel a little guilty, because this forum was such a HUGE help as I got started. So in light of that, here's a quick update, closing out 2015. I just finished my tax prep, and here's an annual summary, along with some observations.

Annual 2015 Summary

• Gross Earnings: $280,000
• Advertising Expenses: $43,000
• Net Approximate Earnings: $237,000

Some 2015 Observations

• Advertising: Holy crap! Did you see that giant advertising expense? Well, sadly, that's a big change from the earlier days of self-pubbing. I'm sure many of you will recall that I repeatedly stated that I did almost zero advertising. Not anymore. Most of my 2015 advertising was on Facebook, but I will say this... It's easy to lose a ton of money on Facebook ads. I've personally found them to be profitable, but that's not universal. If, for whatever reason, your book (including its blurb, excerpt, cover, or whatever) isn't compelling, you can spend a ton of money on advertising and and not see the corresponding book-sales. meaning you'd lose money, not gain money.
• Book Covers. Until recently, I was designing my own covers. They were decent, and actually probably better than a lot of the other stuff out there. Not anymore. Almost everyone, it seems, has stepped up their game, going to professional cover-designers. If your cover doesn't look like a bigtime publisher's cover, you're going to be fighting an uphill battle.
• Kindle Unlimited. Oh, how I loathe it. Probably, the majority of my 2015 earnings came not from sales, but from borrows via Kindle Unlimited (where authors are paid per pages read, not actual book sales). But the entire program seems to be on a death-spiral due to scammers and other trickery that is hugely deflating the earnings of genuine authors. And it's also a major force in pushing down ebook prices. Hopefully, Kindle Unlimited will die a gruesome death in the not-too-distant future.
• Price Competition. It's tougher than ever out there. Bigtime publishers are now competing head-to-head with indie publishers on price, so it's not nearly as easy as it used to be, especially if you're new to the writing world. For example, most bigtime publishers were listing their ebooks for approximately $9.99. Now, you see traditional publishers pricing some of their ebooks as low as $2.99 or $3.99. This has made it harder for indies to compete, because just slashing the price isn't enough to gain an edge. This means you've got to up your game as far as the writing, cover, and promotional activities.
• Comparison to the Previous Year. Just like last year, I'm so very, very thankful for my earnings and the opportunity to compete in this biz. My earnings were down compared to the previous year, but competition aside, my reduced earnings were the result of two things -- fewer books published and Kindle Unlimited. This year, I should be releasing more books, so it will be interesting to see what happens.

Final Thoughts

• How About That Gold Rush? In short, if you're looking for a gold rush, self-pubbing isn't what it used to be. But there's still very nice money to be made, especially if you're a good writer who produces a lot and is willing to keep up on trends. Some people are still making a TON of money out there. Hey, I consider my earnings a ton, but there are still authors making double or triple what I make.
• Higher Barriers to Entry. Yup, they're definitely getting higher. The days when you could throw up a book, create your own cover, do zero advertising, and make a ton of money, well, those days might be over. On one hand, that's a bummer. On the other hand, increased barriers to entry probably gives an advantage not only to established authors, but also to authors willing to take those risks and make those investments.

 

[ChickenHawk]

A personal milestone...Tomorrow is the first day of my 11-year-old's Summer vacation. Thanks to the success of this self-pubbing venture, this is the very first Summer he's able to stay home rather than go to some sort of daycare while I trudge off to a grubby, windowless office. The smile on his face is worth more than any sports car or mansion.

He's a happy guy, and so am I -- even as I scramble to finish this next book. Freedom is a wonderful thing, even if you have to wade through lots of failed ventures to get there. Sometimes, I think half of the secret is to keep trying, long after most sane people would give up.

 

[ChickenHawk]

As promised, Here is a Year-End Update. Aside from details on my progress, I'm hoping this offers some insight to help others on this crazy self-pubbing road. A quick disclaimer: All of these numbers are approximate and/or rounded, and they include "borrows", because I've done some limited participation in Kindle Unlimited. These numbers do not include sales of my kids' books, all written under Pen Name #1.

Total Books Released: 4 (Disclaimer: This includes a book released very late in 2013)

Total Copies Sold/Borrowed in 2014: 177,000

Where They Were Sold:

• Amazon U.S. 77.1%
• Amazon International: 7.9%
• ITunes: 6.4% (Referring to ebooks only, not counting audiobooks)
• Barnes & Noble: 4%
• ACX: 1.7% (These are the audiobook versions, sold on Audible & Itunes.)
• Kobo: 1.6%
• CreateSpace: 1% (Printed books sold on Amazon.)
• Other: 0.3% (Smashwords, Oyster, Scribd, Sony)

Which Books Sold?

• Book#1: Accounted for 47% of books sold.
• Book #2: Accounted for 37% of books sold.
• Book #3: Accounted for 4% of books sold.
• Book #4: Accounted for 12% of books sold. (Side note: This is actually a decent percentage, given the fact that this book has only been out a few weeks.)

Sales by Month

• Best Month: April, with 50,000 books sold on Amazon U.S.
• Worst Month: October with 1,100 books sold on Amazon U.S.
• Current Sales-Rate: In December, approximately 17,800 books sold/borrowed on Amazon U.S.

Review Ratio: 215: 1
This means that approximately one of every 215 books sold resulted in a review.

Mailing List Ratio: 75: 1
This means that approximately one of every 75 books sold resulted in a mailing list signup.

Ebook Vs. Print Ratio: 95: 1
This means I sell approximately 95 ebooks for every printed-copy.

Ebook Vs. Audio Ratio: 53: 1
This means I sell approximately 53 ebooks for every audiobook.
(Side note: These numbers are somewhat misleading, because my audiobooks were generally released several months after the ebooks. Over time, this ratio will likely even out a little.)

Highlights:

• Three books hit Amazon's top 100 in the Kindle Store.
• One book hit the USA Today Bestseller list.

Some Comments/Observations

• Holy Crap!: Wow, looking at those numbers, I remain incredibly thankful for so many things -- wonderful forum members who nudged me into self-pubbing, readers who actually buy/review my books, my family for putting up with all my "crazy" ideas, and people here who continue to offer insight and encouragement. THANKS SO MUCH!!! Okay, now for some less sentimental comments...
• Production is Key: See the huge drop off in October? This goes to show how important it is to keep writing and producing. Since I write full-length books, it's usually a few months between books. Because Book#3 wasn't a huge performer, it didn't offer the momentum to sustain high sales beyond a certain point. If I hadn't released a "hit" in November, likely, I would've seen a significant drop-off in sales through the year-end.
• About My Best Month/Best Day: See where I sold 50,000 books in April? During this month, I had two books hit Amazon's top 100. One peaked at #29, while the other one peaked at #37. They remained in the top 100 for most of the month. On my very best day, I sold over 2,000 books. (Wow, again, so, so, so thankful...)
• 'Hate' Isn't All Bad: My favorite book is Book#3. It has the highest review-rating, but the poorest sales figures. Very few people hate it, but it doesn't inspire enough interest to gain a lot of traction. In contrast, my other three (best-selling) books are frequently loathed. Either that's because they get more visibility due to their higher sales ranks, or the same qualities that inspire hate also inspire love/passion/whatever. These higher-performing books seem to be somewhat polarizing, with people either loving them or hating them. Those who hate these books REALLY hate them. Understanding this dynamic makes me less bummed out when I get a one-star review, because it tells me that at least the books aren't boring. (I can point to other reasons why book#3 doesn't do as well, but I think the love/hate thing is an interesting dynamic.)
• About International Sales: A weird dynamic, not all books hit equally in different countries. For example, Books#1 and #2 were surprise hits in the U.K., while Book#4 was a surprise hit in Australia. In contrast, Books#1 and #2 didn't do much in Australia, while Book#4 didn't do much in the U.K. Either it's Amazon's algos at work, or different books speak to different audiences.
• Marketing: I did almost zero marketing this year, and will likely continue the trend. As I've mentioned before, I believe the best thing you can do to promote book#1 is write book#2, and so-on. The only thing you MUST do, IMO, is maintain a mailing list, because it helps ensure you're never 100% at the mercy of Amazon or whoever.

Future Plans: Looking ahead, I'm planning to release at least three, possibly four, full-length books in 2015. And you know what I'm gonna say next...MUST WRITE FASTER!

 

[ChickenHawk]

I offer this as an encouragement to anyone deep in the trenches. Below is a screen capture of my sales dashboard for April (U.S. Sales Only). I've deleted the titles, but broken them out by pen names. As you can see, the results from my first pen name are pretty darn discouraging. I might've been tempted to give up, but I'm so glad I didn't. Needless to say, you never know when lightning might strike, especially if you're willing to work really hard and find a genre that suits your voice.

 

[ChickenHawk]

Hi ChickenHawk! I was wondering if you could provide us with an update! How are sales going? How's your profits looking since the beginning? Any other details you'd like to provide? Also how is writing going and what other books are you currently working on? Thanks in advance and I hope all is going great for you!

Thanks for asking! Sales are going really well. For various reasons, I almost hesitate to share specifics, but I recall so vividly what it's like to be in the trenches, wondering what kind of potential is out there. So, here goes...

April Highlights

• Books sold this month: Over 50,000 (I know I've said it before, but it bears repeating...Holy crap!)
• Rankings: Both books spent most of April in the Amazon's top 100, and dropped out in early May. Book #1 peaked at #37. Book #2 peaked at #29.

Other Developments: I've been contacted by some publishers and an agent. Although it's so wonderful to be asked, I'm planning to remain an indie.

Where Things Stand Now: Obviously, with sales are decreasing daily as the burst from a new release fades, but I still feel beyond thankful for every book sold.

Promotional/Marketing Activity: None, other than sending out the "new release" email to my subscribers and briefly mentioning it on Facebook & Twitter.

Current Book: Plugging away. Must write faster!

A Personal Note About Privacy: A special thanks to everyone, not only for all the encouragement, but also for respecting my wishes to not mention specific rankings while the books were in the top 100. A few odd things happened last month, which made me duck under for a lower profile. Among other things, someone locally guessed my pen name (I'm guessing by a combination of geography and by finding out that I'm a "romance novelist") and mentioned to my gradeschooler, not unkindly or anything, that my books contained awful language. Fortunately, he already knew this, because I'd already warned him. Still, it made me question the amount of info I share, here and elsewhere. When people guess my pen name, it's only a few steps to my real name, which is only a few steps to my family. Some day, and maybe even soon, I might "come out of the closet," but for various reasons, I'm not quite ready for that yet, so I'm really thankful for the help in keeping the info private.

I know I've already mentioned this, but seriously, THANKS EVERYONE, for all the support and encouragement! I'm cheering each and everyone of you on too!

 

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[ChickenHawk]

Fun Fastlane Stats. To reinforce the concepts explained so wonderfully in the Millionaire Fastlane Book, here are some fun facts.

$27,000 = The amount in my 401K after six years of employment in a soul-killing, windowless job.
Feb. 2 = The date my 2014 kindle earnings reached 27,000.

$70,000 = My approximate annual slowlane salary
April 2 = The date my 2014 kindle earnings reached $70,000.

Disclaimer: All of this is pretax earnings, and I did lose my company sponsored health insurance, so it's not exactly apples to apples. Still, I thought it was interesting.

 

[ChickenHawk]

I just realized something funny...It's been one full year since I left my slowlane job to pursue self-publishing.

The Upsides:

• I love Mondays! That's the day when I get a fresh start on my writing goals.
• Last year, my income was nearly five times my slowlane salary -- a big life-changer to say the least.
• If I want to make more money, I don't need to beg for a raise or look for another job. Instead, I work harder.
• Flexibility. Last year, I had a family emergency, where I had to be gone for a couple of weeks. I didn't need to beg for time off or worry that no money was coming in. On a cheerier note, my son can come straight home from school every day, and can stay home in the summer like kids did way back when.

The Downsides:

• I have a harder time relaxing sometimes, because I always could be working.
• I've gained more weight. Shameful, considering I have a ton more flexibility, schedule-wise.
• Because I'm home, I've assumed far too much of the housework. It really eats into my writing time. I need to keep a better eye on this. (We'll eventually hire a housekeeping service, but in our current home, it's really not feasible.)
• My income can vary wildly from month to month. As I publish more books, I'm hoping this will even out a little. But for now, I'm definitely not complaining. It's just an observation.

Obviously, the upsides WAAAAAAY outweigh any potential downsides. In comparison to the upsides, they're barely worth a mention. I only noted them as a point of interest for anyone looking to follow on this path. And boy, has time flown!

Alright, back to Book Number 5.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Same principles apply.

Producing 5 piece of shit books a year doesn't work as good as it used to.
Selling on amazon with zero marketing efforts and zero ad budget doesn't work anymore.

"Wait! But I thought I'm a successful writer! I only have 3 flops in a year because I have no F*cking clue how to survive in actual business, but it doesn't matter!"

Success rises with time.
Shortcuts get cut every year. With every update of some platform. With every change of the algorithm. With every 1000 of new players entering the market.

This whole thread is based on shortcuts. Success of Chickenhawk is based on shortcuts.
On every page. Every comment. Every line of text by the author of this thread is nothing but seeking shortcuts.

Now, everyone here can circlejerk each other 24/7, but the truth doesn't care if it's too hard to swallow.

You either swallow it, or you choke on it.

Ill choke on it while your a$$ gets my boot.

I'm tired of your armchair entrepreneuring and frankly, you've insulted the wrong person.

Insulting someone on this board who has sold MILLIONS of books and has been writing for decades is SHORTCUTS?

Get F*cking lost.

Our self-proclaimed second-coming of Elon Musk has been banned for two weeks.

 

[ChickenHawk]

Just a brief progress update, along with a warning for Facebook advertisers... (Note Scary Red Text for emphasis.)

The Good: Sales have been pretty decent for my last book. While not an Amazon top 100 seller or anything, it's making steady income, boosting the sales of prior books, and netting me new readers. Right now, I'm selling around 100 books a day, and averaging around 90-100K daily page reads in Kindle Unlimited. When I adjust for advertising, this gives me a net income ranging from $400 to $600 a day and sometimes more. (So thankful!)

The Surprise: One neat thing about this last book is that it didn't have a big dropoff from the initial release. In fact, sales have been fairly steady, which gives me hope that it will provide steady income for a while.

The Bad: Over the last couple of months, I've fallen into a few time-sinks that I didn't anticipate. I ran into some problems with my Facebook ads, and had to decipher what I was doing wrong. Basically, Facebook started pulling my ads for unspecified violations, and fearful of losing my Facebook advertising account, I spent an obscene amount of time chasing my tail, trying to figure out what I was doing wrong. (Were my ads too sexy? Were my books considered porn? Was it something with my links? My wording? My author page? What????? Arrrrggggh!!!!)

I still don't know 100% for sure, but I'm fairly certain this is the issue: Redirects. Facebook is cracking down on them. Basically, I was running Facebook ads that linked to my book(s) on Amazon. But rather than linking straight to Amazon, I routed this link through my Website, so I could pick up an Amazon affiliate link and gather data via the Facebook tracking pixel. Now, I no longer do this, and have since pulled all of my ads with this redirect. Unfortunately, it took me a while to figure this out, and then, I had to create new ads, which had zero social proof. Ugh!

Also, while I was desperately trying to figure out what I was doing wrong, I spent a frustrating amount of time and effort changing things that, as it turned out, probably didn't need to be changed -- book covers, descriptions, ad designs. Sheesh! Like I said, it was a big time sink. However, it does have a silver lining...

The Interesting (aka the silver lining): These Facebook advertising problems reinforced my need to diversify my advertising, so I took the steps necessary to begin advertising on Amazon itself. One reason I hadn't pursued this earlier was because my covers were considered too risque for Amazon ads. However, armed with a newly redesigned cover, I actually had an ad approved. So anyway, I'm now directing some of my advertising dollars into that, which shows some promise.

Here's a funny thing though. According to Amazon metrics, I'm spending $1.30 to get each $1.00 worth of sales. Fortunately, I have a good sell-through rate, which means that even if I lose money on the first book-sale, I make it up on sales of future books. Plus, I also make a decent chunk of money through Kindle Unlimited, which doesn't show up on Amazon's advertising interface. In summary, my ads are profitable, even if they don't look like it. But I'm not sure how profitable they'd be for someone with only one book. So hard to say!

Where I stand now: I learned a ton over the last few weeks, but unfortunately, lost some precious writing time. So now, I must beat myself with a stick and chant my usual mantra -- must write faster!

 

[MJ DeMarco]

For the month of January, I've officially earned more from Kindle Books than from my day job. And the month is only half over. This means that if I don't sell a single book for the rest of January, I'd still make more from Amazon this month than I do from my dreaded day job.

Congratulations!!

I cannot tell you how exciting this is ... I'm sharing in the jubilation with you. (Anytime I hear a story like this my adrenaline flies). To be able to pull your own income without the help of ANYONE. It's ALL YOU. YOU!!! There is no words that can describe the feeling of self-sufficiency. People are consuming your creative masterpieces and the market is telling you "we like it!!!" -- the momentum should really start to build this point forward, especially if your backtitles are under the same penname.

I will speculate this: By June you will no longer need your job as your audience and income grows to the point where HAVING the job is costing you more money than keeping it. If I'm wrong, Ill be wrong late. (March? April?)



Ah, and last but not least... thread tagged GOLD.

 

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[ChickenHawk]

Thanks so much for all the encouragement! I'm so very, very thankful for it! And boy, I've gotta admit, I'm also really thankful to see this book doing well out of the gate. For anyone who's curious, here is an interim status update:

Quick First Day Stats: (At 23-Hour Point)

• Books Sold: About 1,200 Worldwide. (900 U.S., 300 Other)
• Mailing List: Over 1,300 people

Some Related Observations/Theories:

• About the Rank of This Book: I'm guessing the rank will drop after this initial burst, because most of these early sales must be from people on my mailing list, or readers who were actively watching for it. If this happens, hopefully, the rank will go up again after the book's "also boughts" get populated. I'm really, reeeeally crossing my fingers to hit the top 100 with this one. But if it doesn't happen, I'll have to try all that much harder with the next one!
• About the Rank of the Previous book: This new book has slightly boosted the rank of my previous book. Before this latest release, book #1 had fallen to #1,500. Now it's around #1,000 again. I do think, though, that many of these early sales are coming from people who already read the first book and were eager for the follow-up. If sales of book#1 do get a serious boost, I bet it will happen later down the road, once again, after the also-boughts populate. And of course, even a rank of #1,500 feels like a dream come true, so I'm definitely not complaining!
• A Sales Trend Prediction: Just a prediction, but I'm betting that the sales of this book will be stronger during the first 30 days, and then taper more quickly. Meaning, that if my total sales numbers for book #2 are similar to those from book #1, I think I'll see more of those sales on the early side, which will lead to a higher early peak and a lower valley down the road.

In a Personal Note: In totally unrelated news, I went to the grocery store for the very first time this month. Then, I actually made dinner as opposed to us getting takeout. My husband and son were like, "Oh wow! She's cooking again! Whooohooo!" You'll all be relieved to hear that I even washed my hair.

 

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[ChickenHawk]

A couple side notes to all of this...

About My Mistakes...
It would be wonderful to come here every time and announce that I did an amazing job, that I did everything perfectly, and was raking in gobs of money. But when I make mistakes, I try very hard to own them.

I share these mistakes here, because this forum has literally changed my life. After all the help and encouragement I've received here, I owe you that -- to tell you what I did right and AND share what I did wrong, in hopes it might prove helpful to others.

It would be very easy to blame my lackluster year on market forces, but in my case, it was the result of poor decision-making, along with several unrelated distractions that made this year harder than normal on the writing front. Hopefully, those are in the rear-view, which should help immensely.

And About My "Flops"...
I should also clarify something. Even my "flops" ranked in Amazon's top 1,000 and gained me new readers, new additions to my mailing list, and new Facebook fans. When I started out, I would've been THRILLED to "only" make nearly six-figures, working from a beautiful mountain retreat, with no boss, no co-workers, and no TPS reports. By any normal standards, my year was a fine success. The only thing that makes it "lackluster" for me is the fact that I KNOW I can do better, which I plan to do in 2017.

 

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[ChickenHawk]

It's been one full month since publishing book #3. It continues to outsell my first two books at a ratio of about five-to-one, and has not yet dropped back into oblivion. This is particularly interesting considering that Book #3 is very similar to Book #1. To see if I can boost some interest in Book #1, I just changed the title, redesigned the cover, tweaked the description, and did a limited rewrite, mostly to make the opening more interesting. It should be "live" tomorrow. It will be interesting to see if this helps.

Rough estimates so far:
Book #1 (Published 8/1/13): 45 sales/borrows.
Book #2: (Published 8/4/13): 35 sales/borrows.
Book #3: (Published 8/17/13): 145 sales/borrows.

I've finished the first draft of Book #4, but have a bunch of illustrations to do, so I'm probably at least a week away from hitting the publish button. I seriously need to clone myself. It's almost 2 a.m., and I've got to be at work at 8 a.m. I think I'll send the clone to work.

 

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[ChickenHawk]

Congrats on your success CH!

Any ideas what might have caused the initial burst of sales? No backlist, no author recognition, you published a book under a brand new name, and with no promotion, off it went. Any idea why or how to reproduce such results?

I've seen other authors make similar reports -- which makes me wonder: If a title doesn't see immediate sales, has it missed its cover/blurb/sample mark? Will titles that are properly hitting those 3 areas (provided the genre is large enough) always see a few sales from the moment they're live?

That's the million-dollar question, isn't it? I wonder the same thing. Take the first four books I published under a different pen name. Three were in a series starring the same character. They were of a similar length, a similar plot, similar everything. Book one did, eh, not much. But that was okay, because it was the first book. I wasn't expecting much. Then book two showed promise. Yay! Gaining momentum. But nope. Book three was a total dud. To this day, book two still outsells the others by a ratio of 3 to 1.

I've changed titles, changed covers, rewrote the openings. Nothing seems to budge them from this ratio. Sales for all of them are still quite low, but the ratio between them is beyond obvious. Of course, book three was struck by some bad luck right out of the gate. The "look inside" feature wasn't active for the first couple of weeks, and no one bought it during that timeframe. Then, after the "look inside" was finally live, ALMOST no one bought it. This month, it's sold a lofty three copies in the U.S.

Although I do think that writing the best book you can, writing the best blurb, and generating a compelling cover are paramount, I'm betting there's still an element of luck or a certain thing that no one really understands, and probably never will. Maybe I was on the "also boughts" of some monster sellers fairly soon after the release. Maybe my book fills a sub, sub, sub niche that people (including me) aren't quite aware of. Like everyone else here, I HAVE seen certain books take off like rockets for reasons I don't quite understand.

Some of those books were not my cup of tea. Bridges of Madison County comes to mind, along with the Bridget Jones series. (Not ripping on these amazing books. The sales figures definitely speak for themselves!) Meanwhile, there were other books I loved and devoured for no obvious reason. Twilight comes to mind. I'm semi embarrassed to admit it, but I absolutely love that book. I've probably read it five times. Why? Hard to say. People seem to love it or hate it, without much in-between. Based on my reviews, I'd say my book generates a similar love-hate response. (Now, if it could only generate Twilighty sales, hah!)

Book publishers, agents, writers -- they've been trying to crack the code forever. And there are some incredible misses, books publishers have spent fortunes on, only to see them tank. Then, there are some incredible surprises, like Water for Elephants, which clawed its way to the top mostly by word of mouth, along with a semi-last minute push from the publisher, after it showed such surprising potential. Meanwhile, the author's followup book didn't do a whole lot and might be considered a disappointment, sales-wise. No one really knows why.

To make a long story short (too late for that, huh?), mathematics, algos, timing, are definitely a factor. But as far as that other stuff, it might always be a big mystery. I'm not sure how big of an indicator this is, but this particular book has also done surprisingly well on Barnes & Noble. Not compared to Amazon, of course. But it's sold nearly 300 copies on B&N, to my utter delight and astonishment.

I will say this though. If you're determined to win at this, keep writing, keep publishing, keep going. And as Held for Ransom so excellently advised, choose a niche with a deep pool of buyers. Because you never know which book might surprise you. Or, if you don't "get lucky" and have one particular book break out, the cumulative sales of all your books will build you a foundation that's probably a whole lot steadier than mine right now. At this moment, I have only ONE book that's doing well. It's beyond thrilling, but incredibly risky. If Amazon removed that book tomorrow, my income would dry up to almost nothing.

This, of course, brings me to the usual point. Must. Write. Faster.

 

[ChickenHawk]

Well, I'm a little nervous. My second book under this pen name is officially written and edited. I'll be releasing it within just a couple of days. I've been saying for weeks that this is a "make-or-break" book, because the first one surprised me so much, results-wise. Let's just hope this turns out to be more "make" than "break."

It ended up over 80,000 words, most of that written within the last month. Needless to say, I haven't done a whole lot of cooking...or cleaning...or bathing. If anyone came to the door, they'd surely think, "Oh God, what a lazy hag!" because I'm still in my "jammies" at noon and haven't yet washed my hair. I may need Botox to erase this perpetually scared-shitless look from my face.

In less disturbing news, the rank for book #1 is still hovering around #1,000. I'll be interested to see what happens within the next month.

 

[ChickenHawk]

Well, as usual, I've gone waaaaay too long between updates, but here's a quick snapshot of where I stand today. I just released a new book within the last month, and am now in the advertising phase. The newest book is doing okay, but not as good as I hoped. On a cheerier note, a book I released a few months ago is doing much better. In fact, this is where I'm spending most of my current advertising budget, just because that's where it's been most profitable. About my newest book, I'll probably tweak the cover and/or blurb in hopes of increasing sales, but who knows if it will help. Some books move, while others don't. If anyone knew why, we'd all be bestsellers, hah!

Something that's increasingly obvious, though, is that publishing frequently is the most important thing a popular writer can do. I've been averaging about three books a year, and I'm frustrated to say that it's simply not enough. If I want to reclaim my earlier success, I need to boost that up to at least four books a year, possibly more (six to eight seems to be the magic number). Since my books tend to be longer than average, one thing I'll need to strongly consider is writing shorter books in order to increase my number of titles per year.

The above graph shows my status for yesterday. While this looks pretty good, I should add that when I go a few months between books, my daily income drops substantially, sometimes as low as just $30 a day. (Yikes!) I've also been moving some books in and out of Kindle Unlimited, trying to use it as a visibility booster while keeping some books wide. This has been a decent strategy and would be even better if I had more books. There are lots of days where it honestly feels like a never-ending hamster wheel. Write, write, write... and never fast enough. I am getting faster, but it's obviously something I need to continually work on and really must do better.

There's been some discussion of whether or not writing a book generates passive income. I still believe that it does, but the shelf-life is getting shorter and shorter with returns that diminish faster and faster. Yesterday, my all-time biggest seller earned $2.23, and it might not have even earned that if I didn't have newer books boosting its visibility. This sort of degradation is especially true with genre fiction, where churn-and-burn has become the norm. (Have I mentioned it feels like a hamster wheel?)

Another thing that's making it a larger challenge is the crazy amount of advertising that's needed, at least in my genre. One day this month, I spent over $800 in Facebook ads alone (I repeat, in just one day!!!). This makes it insanely hard, I think, for anyone just starting out, because it's getting harder and harder for new writers to gain an audience without spending a ton of money.

On the upside, it's still a TON better than a day job, and if I want to boost my income, at least it's within my power, and not at the whim of some corporate overlord, so there's that. And now, back to outlining my next book....

 

[ChickenHawk]

That was a comment on both of your posts. You have 3 flops. And the problem is not with writing on demand or anything else from your first post. But apparently it doesn't get through the state of denial, so I'm not wasting more of my time on it.

Yes. Please spend your valuable time elsewhere. I, for one, would welcome that.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Yes. Please spend your valuable time elsewhere. I, for one, would welcome that.

Don't you love it when someone who doesn't play football, tells you how to play football? Or when someone who has never owned a business or been responsible for a payroll, tells you how to create jobs?

How many books have you sold now? Approaching 2,000,000?

Well, I've sold NONE.... but here's some advice...

 

[ChickenHawk]

By this phase in almost every book I've written, I've loathed it... But then, when I actually read my first draft, I'm like, "Wow, I actually like it." Hopefully, this one will be the same way.

Well, it finally happened. I HATED my first draft. Sometimes, it's hard to know if something's good, but it's a lot easier to know when something sucks. And this book SUCKED, at least compared to its potential. The beginning was strong. The ending was strong. But the middle was a convoluted mess. I had to trash almost 20,000 words and add 12,000 new ones. And then, during my final edit, I cut another 5,000 words to improve the pacing.

Now, I'm actually pretty happy with it. My husband is my first reader, and when I interrupted him yesterday to ask how it was going, he refused to even look up. "Go away! I want to know how this turns out!" Hopefully, this is a good sign, LOL!

Why Was My First Draft so Awful? Two Reasons Come to Mind:
1. Head-Health Issues: I've been reluctant to mention it before, but I've been struggling with serious migraines over the last couple of years. I've always had headache-problems, but within the last 1.5 years, they've made it nearly impossible for me to write as well as I should. I'm not a wuss. I've written books with the flu, with a fever, with almost no sleep, in a car, on my lunch break, etc. But I can't write super-great with a blinding headache. It's like a runner, trying to win a race with a broken foot. The will might be there, but the odds of a strong performance aren't terrific. I'd already been seeing a headache specialist, but his solution was/is always the same -- more drugs, which might eliminate the pain, but unfortunately, dull that certain spark of creativity. As a result, I've been struggling either way. (Do I want to be in too much pain to write well? Or too dull-witted to write well?) The only reason I'm mentioning this now, is because I've finally got a much better handle on them, and have reduced these headaches from maybe 25-30 days a month to 5-7 days a month. HUGE improvement!!!!
2. I Didn't Stop To Read This Book When It Was Halfway Done: Generally, I try to stop mid-way through writing a book and read/edit the first half before writing the second half. With this book, I just plowed forward and kept writing, because I was already so far behind schedule. Big mistake. If I'd only stopped halfway, I would've recognized the problems sooner and thus, avoided a lot of rework.

Where Things Stand Now: I'll be releasing this book within the next few weeks. I don't anticipate it doing terrific on release, because it's a two-book series, and I'm planning to delay the biggest promotional push until Book #2 is out, hopefully within three months. This will allow me to get more bang for my promotional buck and gain added momentum as the books cross-promote each other. It will be interesting to see how this strategy plays out!

 

[ChickenHawk]

Update: I'm 42,000 words into my new project, which I plan to issue as a serial. The genre is romance/new adult/light erotica.

Thought for the Day: Someday, when (hopefully not IF) this pays off, I know people will think I'm "lucky." But I've gotta tell you, it's so hard to squeeze in the writing time around a full-time job and family. My husband is an electrical contractor, and he's super-busy right now. Case in point, it's after 9 p.m. on a Friday night, and he's still working. This means I'm also doing all the housework, which is only fair. No matter what, the family comes first, which is only right since I'm a Wife/Mom.

I've managed to average 1,000 - 2,000 words a day, but I'd love for these numbers to be higher. I write on my lunch hour at work, I write when I'm waiting for an appointment, and I write at midnight when the house is quiet. Due to network and office privacy issues, my only real option (other than in my own house, obviously) is to write in long-hand. This means I've got to retype all my work when I get home. Happily, I'm a super-fast typist.

Anyway, all this to say that we all make our own luck, and I'm focused on doing whatever it takes to make sure I'm one of the "lucky" ones.

 

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[Vigilante]

 

[ChickenHawk]

Oh hey, a funny side note... Last night, I went through my sales history and discovered something funny. One of my "failure" books has already made over $10,000 so far this year, with no advertising or followup effort on my part. It just quietly delivered loot to my bank account while I was off doing other things. How awesome is that?

I must add, though, that this book was loosely related to my breakout books, so no doubt, it benefited from their success and advertising. Still, I find this dynamic to be encouraging. A rising tide lifts all boats. Plus, as we all know from @Vigilante's awesome posts, those passive-income deposits are quite addicting!

 

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