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

[AroundTheWorld]

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

@Klondike98

hmmmm....

Ask yourself:

Why do you want to know so much? So much that you will actually "snap" at someone that chooses not to answer your question.
It is fun to follow a success story, for sure. Somehow knowing the title might make the success story seem more "real" to you. But what will that do for you, really?

Will it make YOU take action in your own life?
Will it make YOU become a success story?
Will it TEACH you something you don't already know?

The answer to all of these questions is no. You and you alone can do these things.

Your strong response suggests you are either feeling frustrated or escaping your own reality by seeking out all you can in the success story of another.

 

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[lleone]

Thanks so much, and congrats on finishing your novella! That's AWESOME! And for what it's worth "only" 45K words. Hah! That's still a TON of words, IMO.

If you haven't already (I apologize if I've just missed it), I hope you'll start a thread highlighting your background, your journey, your successes, things you learned, etc. I know we have a lot of them going, but it's so exciting to see the different paths and follow along!

Thanks again for the encouraging words! Thanks also for your suggestion....I started my own post here!: https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/co...hing-fiction-non-fiction-ebook-journey.50384/

Hope to be able to contribute a little something back.

 

[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.

 

[Rainy_TX]

CH - So very excited for you and the momentum you've been able to gain here! What a fantastic 2014 you're having... and I'm confident it will only get better! (So jealous!) Your journey has been food for thought for most of us, telling us to get off our asses... and WRITE MORE!

 

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[Rainy_TX]

I don't mean to hijack your thread, but I always like to give someone a 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?

Holy crap. I know I didn't think of that. Kinda staggering thought when you consider it all. Such a freakin' great forum!

 

[Vigilante]

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


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.

If this thread wasn't gold already, this post alone was worth the price of admission.

 

[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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[COSenior]

I get a kick out of your avatar every time I read a new post here. Perfectly shows what I'd look like if something like your January runaway success happened to me. Still tickled to death for you, and can't help but give you props for graciously answering questions that some would consider impertinent.

 

[MorgothBauglir]

I don't know if you mentioned this, but what program do you use to build your mailing list? I'm looking to start one also.

Thanks, and congratulations once again. 12,900 is just unreal.

 

[ChickenHawk]

I don't know if you mentioned this, but what program do you use to build your mailing list? I'm looking to start one also.

Thanks, and congratulations once again. 12,900 is just unreal.

Thanks so much! I'm using MailCheat(Chimp). I haven't yet sent a mailing, but so far, I've been really happy. One of the things I like is you can create and post a signup link without actually having your own Web site. Since I didn't have a Web site at the time, this was perfect. And it's free until you have a certain number of subscribers, 2,000 maybe? It's definitely worth checking out!

 

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[MorgothBauglir]

Thanks so much! I'm using MailCheat(Chimp). I haven't yet sent a mailing, but so far, I've been really happy. One of the things I like is you can create and post a signup link without actually having your own Web site. Since I didn't have a Web site at the time, this was perfect. And it's free until you have a certain number of subscribers, 2,000 maybe? It's definitely worth checking out!

Thank you heaps, I'll get right on that.

 

[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!

 

[Cruor Vult]

Talk about a thrilling and inspiring thread. So just a lifetime of writing plus six months of intense work for overnight success... seems like you just had to get in the Fastlane to release the potential
Thanks for letting us follow your every step.

 

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[Lauryn]

Congratulations. This is amazing and inspiring.

Selling that much in books without "active marketing" or promotion shows basically that a great product for a thirsty market moves on its own. You never needed to get marketing to sell your craft. You've worked so long and so hard that it's all selling itself. Now marketing can boost and enhance what you've created, but remember you created it, because you are the Creator.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

The crowd is jeering for updates!!!

 

[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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[AllenCrawley]

Killer update! Rep Transferred.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

etween 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...

ahhhhhh bit by Parkinsons Law...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson's_law

 

[ctcrompton]

@ChickenHawk Wow! Really inspiring progress. Keep it up!

 

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[Rawr]

That switch to fulltime is tricky. Most people think they'll write more, but I've heard many echo that it will actually be harder to find the time to write. That was true for me too. You'll get it done CH, whatever it takes!

 

[MorgothBauglir]

15 hours a day of writing :O!!!!

I gotta step it up!

 

[lleone]

Highest Rank: About #200 in the Amazon Kindle store

Mailing List: About 1,100 currently signed up

That's amazing! You are the bomb.

I'm not a fast writer so this means 12-15 hours a day at the keyboard

I wish I could do this....my head just goes to mush after about 4 to 5 hours!

Looking forward to your next update...so motivating.

 

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[JPBB]

ChickenHawk - you're an inspiration to self-doubting authors. Thanks for sharing your updates!

 

[Lauryn]

Again.... amazing!!!!

Parkinson's law is the reason I keep 2 jobs and copywriting/web design hustles going.
Whenever I have nothing to do, that's what happens: nothing.

Effin' shame.

 

[Faithlaine]

Thank you and congratulations Chickenhawk- I'm far far away for this level. I wrote 4 e-books, one did great.
But this month no sales. I published the first one in september.
Thank you MJ DeMarco for the Parkinson law, and the link. I was thinking about that. I don't think that I'm working better by staying in front of my computer, so since yesterday or this morning, I decided to work from 8pm-12am - will see the results.

 

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[Blueskies4me]

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

You rock! At least you don't spend more time REWRITING... it's awesome so don't stress about it! You are an encouragement to us procrastinators!

 

[COSenior]

You totally know she is going to write a break through novel, and then we will all be looking for an autographed copy, for which she will simply send us to her web site like the rest of the peasants.

Oh well. At least we will be able to say we knew her when...

Just re-reading this thread and wow, what prophecy! She did indeed. Still smiling whenever I think of your progress, @ChickenHawk

 

[Xanothraxos]

This was awesome. I read stuff like this out loud to my wife so she can start to get it in her head that I'm not crazy lol

 

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[Cybria]

I've been reading this thread...*looks at clock* for the past two hours or so. Thank you for sharing it. Between you and HFR, the wheels in my head are really turning.

 

[LisaK]

Having read the Held for Ransom thread I thought it would be good to follow the posters in that thread and wow this is very inspiring. Then I felt complete fear about moving forward. I have no background like yours and I'm suddenly wondering what I'm thinking? Wow...the ability to give up before I even start. I was ready to get going. What is that? Has anyone else felt that? I've tried to do some research on my genre and I'm a little confused at how to find what is "hot". Then again, right now the idea I have may or may not be hot but I at least feel some passion about it and have characters talking in my head. Is that good or have I just lost it? We have to start somewhere but I'm confused I see some people are using ghost writers and I am maybe confused. I want the fastlane..I'd like this to be the vehicle but I may be completely unqualified at best or off my rocker at worst. Seeing the dream come true knowing how long you've worked for it and hoping for something similar more quickly then seems wrong. I don't know. I'm having a moment. I don't have 3 books in my head, I don't know if I can even write 2000 words a day. I have a day job. I never thought about writing fiction until this forum. It has opened up something for me and in me. I was all excited, now I'm scared.