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

srodrigo

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readers have so many free books that they're overloaded
Not only that. Readers probably have other hobbies too. You are not only competing with thousands of books, but with Facebook, Netflix, YouTube, video games, etc. In my view, the problem is not only your crowded niche, but competing with other kinds of entertainment for readers' time. There's more entertainment than ever, more than anyone can consume, and people seem to be busier than ever too with work, social life, etc. Not a good combination. I think it's not about money anymore (I don't care about paying $3.99+ vs $0.99), it's about time, and users' availability is not going to get any better soon.
 
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ChickenHawk

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And just think, I'm looking forward to writing fiction, sounds like I should not be so optimistic.
I think a lot depends on the genre. The romance market is pretty brutal right now, but multiple writers on the KBoards have mentioned finding success in genres that aren't so shark-infested. Wisely, they never say what those genres are, but brighter spots apparently do exist. The secret, I think, is to find a genre that meets some/all of the following criteria:

- Not fully infested with Kindle Unlimited books. (The top 100 of my genre is at least 95% infested.)
- Has a decent price point. (As an example, it's nice to see a few ebooks priced at $7.99 or above.)
- Still has a presence of traditionally published books. (Some of these might be priced as high as $14.99.)
- Isn't so obscure that it has no readers. (For example, a genre with no competition is only nice if there are still enough readers to make it worth the effort.)

I'm sure there are a lot more things to look for, but those are just the things I've theorized off the top of my head. Regardless of which way you go, I hope you'll keep us posted! Your non-fiction writing really is amazing, and I could see that translating really well to the fiction market.
 

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I'm sure there are a lot more things to look for, but those are just the things I've theorized off the top of my head. Regardless of which way you go, I hope you'll keep us posted! Your non-fiction writing really is amazing, and I could see that translating really well to the fiction market.

Aww thanks, I think I'm gravitating toward Mystery and Psychological / Political Thrillers. My guess is that would probably be a pretty saturated market.
 

MJ DeMarco

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

That's truly how I feel. And because I write very slowly and methodically, it really is a shakedown at minimum wages. The only respite I can rest my mind on is that I'm not writing as a career to get rich, but more of a passion project. I imagine if your writing is responsible for "food on the table", it can become stressful and frustrating.
 
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Hi Chicken, I'm writing a children's book/YA. Two questions: 1. Why are you keeping your genre secret? 2. What do you suggest re getting illustrations? (It ain't me babe.) Greg
 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

His question was not what her genre is, but why she is keeping it private.

Your response does not address the question of why *ChickenHawk* has decided to keep her genre private... unless you know for sure that she is wary of copycats. Is that what she has disclosed to you before?

I know that’s why *you* keep your business dealing generally private, and I wouldn’t challenge that — I’m also curious why ChickenHawk would keep her genre private especially at her level of success.

This is less a question of ripping her off, and more understanding the thought process of someone at her level of success; especially since there are many people who believe in the opposite (i.e. that sharing as much as you can increases the surface area for ”lucky” things to happen because of serendipity — the founders of YC backed companies like AirBNB and Stripe come to mind)

I would imagine that copying her work in any capacity would be impossible unless she invented the genre and had a conceptual monopoly on it or something. I assume her reasoning goes beyond avoiding copycats.
 
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I can totally understand why she prefers a modicum of anonymity. Why risk (however remote) the business you have put so much time and effort into?

We should all be grateful for the marvellous insights she has been willing to share. The genre is academic at best anyway.
 

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His question was not what her genre is, but why she is keeping it private.

Your response does not address the question of why *ChickenHawk* has decided to keep her genre private... unless you know for sure that she is wary of copycats. Is that what she has disclosed to you before?

I know that’s why *you* keep your business dealing generally private, and I wouldn’t challenge that — I’m also curious why ChickenHawk would keep her genre private especially at her level of success.

This is less a question of ripping her off, and more understanding the thought process of someone at her level of success; especially since there are many people who believe in the opposite (i.e. that sharing as much as you can increases the surface area for ”lucky” things to happen because of serendipity — the founders of YC backed companies like AirBNB and Stripe come to mind)

I would imagine that copying her work in any capacity would be impossible unless she invented the genre and had a conceptual monopoly on it or something. I assume her reasoning goes beyond avoiding copycats.
I can totally understand why she prefers a modicum of anonymity. Why risk (however remote) the business you have put so much time and effort into?

We should all be grateful for the marvellous insights she has been willing to share. The genre is academic at best anyway.

I've encountered my share of psychos on the internet, here and elsewhere. In a world where reviews govern spiraling sales (up and down), and keyboard jockeys proliferate these pages and others... there's 99 reasons for anonymity against every 1 reason for disclosure.
 

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I can totally understand why she prefers a modicum of anonymity. Why risk (however remote) the business you have put so much time and effort into?

We should all be grateful for the marvellous insights she has been willing to share. The genre is academic at best anyway.

I've encountered my share of psychos on the internet, here and elsewhere. In a world where reviews govern spiraling sales (up and down), and keyboard jockeys proliferate these pages and others... there's 99 reasons for anonymity against every 1 reason for disclosure.

I could totally understand this viewpoint.

Is that her viewpoint, though? I'm curious to know her reason – because I respect, admire and am inspired by her.

IMO this is a very interesting question for all entrepreneurs (new ones especially): how much of the kimono do I open, for whom, and why?

In the early days, Sarah Blakely kept her business (Spanx) private not because of copycats, but because she felt the new idea was fragile and didn't want it to be exposed to scrutiny. Once she hit a threshold, her tact changed and she was telling everyone. I get that.​
MJ and Vig keep their ideas private to avoid copycats and giving their competitors an edge. I get that, too.​
On the flipside, Sid Sijbrandij (founder of GitLab) has his entire business open and publicly available - including GitLab's 3000+ page handbook, their entire source code (i.e. the thing that makes them money). He talks about his reasoning for doing so on this podcast. His company is valued at $2.5B+. My mind was blown at that; and now I get it.​

Is there some secret here on the power of transparency? Is it good in some situations, but not others?

This isn't totally selfish: wouldn't it be great if we discussed this and unlocked even more potential for @ChickenHawk?

I think it's too important of a discussion to be dismiss with dogma about copycats and risk, especially coming from a successful female entrepreneur.

I would love to hear her rationale on this. I already know where you both stand on this from your other threads.

If she doesn't want to answer, that's fine too – totally up to her.
 
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One potential issue I see with your plan is that you're hiring a ghost-writer. That can make it difficult to build an audience, because unless you hire the same ghost-writer each time, the "voice" of your books might not be as consistent as it needs to be. (In general, I'm not a fan of the ghost-writer approach for long-term success, but others might view this differently.)
As a sometime ghostwriter, may I point out that a professional ghostwriter is expected to emulate the voice of the writer? Since I backed into ghostwriting I never learned to do that. However, I've written 20+ books for my main client, and my voice is now his voice, as our process involved me teaching him to write. I still developmentally edit for him. He made six figures on my writing last year, so it can be done. The problem isn't ghostwriters per se, but incompetent ghostwriters. Further to that, it's people hiring ghostwriters for substandard wages and getting nothing but amateur writers in return.

If Stephen King were struggling to sell his books, would this mean that he's no longer a good writer and he has to switch to teaching others how to write or that perhaps it was time to reinvent himself?
Stephen King has published at least three nonfiction books. One doesn't need to be struggling to desire to teach.

I failed to grab the quote as I was binge-reading to catch up with the thread, but PLEASE don't throw a course up on Udemy. That's a terrible idea. If you're going to do a course, don't do it from a 'guru' perspective, but from a desire to truly help. Frankly, unless you are a 'bro marketer' as MJ has mentioned, an online course isn't an answer. Online courses are beginning to go the way @ChickenHawk has experienced in indie publishing. People perceive it as an easy entry, then marketers exploit the naive and it winds up with a bad name and downward pressure on prices. Proper instructional design, real expertise, and a reasonable price for both sides of the transaction are required for a mainstream audience, and it's too late to reach innovators and early adopters of that market.

I think I'm gravitating toward Mystery and Psychological / Political Thrillers. My guess is that would probably be a pretty saturated market.
Speaking strictly as a reader, I binge-read new-to-me authors of those genres as much as I do romance writers. No author can keep up with my reading habits, and I'm picky about what I read. I wouldn't worry about saturation so much as writing well, especially if it's a passion project.

I know that’s why *you* keep your business dealing generally private, and I wouldn’t challenge that — I’m also curious why ChickenHawk would keep her genre private especially at her level of success.
I don't understand these comments about @ChickenHawk keeping her genre private. She has stated plainly many times that she's writing romance, and even what sub-genre she writes. Now, if she decides to jump genres, it will be because she's found one that isn't saturated with wannabes, and then it would make perfect sense to keep it private, lest that change.
 

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What an amazing and inspiring thread. Thank you @ChickenHawk for sharing your journey! You and @MTF may not realize just how inspiring and motivating it is for newbies like us in the self pub journey to read about your ups and downs and how you persevere.
 
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As a sometime ghostwriter, may I point out that a professional ghostwriter is expected to emulate the voice of the writer? Since I backed into ghostwriting I never learned to do that. However, I've written 20+ books for my main client, and my voice is now his voice, as our process involved me teaching him to write. I still developmentally edit for him. He made six figures on my writing last year, so it can be done. The problem isn't ghostwriters per se, but incompetent ghostwriters. Further to that, it's people hiring ghostwriters for substandard wages and getting nothing but amateur writers in return.


Stephen King has published at least three nonfiction books. One doesn't need to be struggling to desire to teach.

I failed to grab the quote as I was binge-reading to catch up with the thread, but PLEASE don't throw a course up on Udemy. That's a terrible idea. If you're going to do a course, don't do it from a 'guru' perspective, but from a desire to truly help. Frankly, unless you are a 'bro marketer' as MJ has mentioned, an online course isn't an answer. Online courses are beginning to go the way @ChickenHawk has experienced in indie publishing. People perceive it as an easy entry, then marketers exploit the naive and it winds up with a bad name and downward pressure on prices. Proper instructional design, real expertise, and a reasonable price for both sides of the transaction are required for a mainstream audience, and it's too late to reach innovators and early adopters of that market.


Speaking strictly as a reader, I binge-read new-to-me authors of those genres as much as I do romance writers. No author can keep up with my reading habits, and I'm picky about what I read. I wouldn't worry about saturation so much as writing well, especially if it's a passion project.


I don't understand these comments about @ChickenHawk keeping her genre private. She has stated plainly many times that she's writing romance, and even what sub-genre she writes. Now, if she decides to jump genres, it will be because she's found one that isn't saturated with wannabes, and then it would make perfect sense to keep it private, lest that change.
Hi Guys, Maybe it was a good thing to stir the pot here, though not my intent.
There were two motives for my query, one noble and one not. The not noble one is just being nosy. I'm not going to make an excuse, but I will apologize if it's warranted. The other reason was to learn so I wouldn't make a dumb mistake myself by revealing too much. That was successful thanks to you guys because hopefully me and others did learn. Feel free to criticize me, I often deserve it. So don't be kind, wollop me if you feel like it. Greg
 
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ChickenHawk

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Hi Chicken, I'm writing a children's book/YA. Two questions: 1. Why are you keeping your genre secret?

First off, to everyone, I'm so sorry for the delay in responding! I saw this question pop up a week ago, but happened to be in the midst of a massive book-related time-crunch -- one of those no-sleep, no-hair washing deadline thingies, and didn't want to dash off a quick answer to a complicated question.

As @COSenior pointed out, it's no secret that my genre is romance. If, however, I were to find a nice, obscure, untapped genre, I wouldn't be sharing it on a public forum. No siree. Already, I'm writing in an oversaturated, cut-throat, high-stakes genre (romance). If I switched to an unsaturated one (such as cyborg space mysteries), I'd have to be an idiot to announce it here and invite more competition. After all, it's not just competition for readers. It's competition for reviewers, ad space, clicks, etc. Why drive up my costs (and thus, drive down my profits) if the whole idea is to find something that isn't so crowded?

And of course @Vigilante is absolutely right. As far as sharing more specific information on a public forum, the potential downsides far outweigh the potential upsides. Even on the Amazon forums, writers have stopped sharing details under their real pen names, because it's not worth the potential trouble. The world is filled with wonderful people, but alas, we've also got our fair share of vindictive/jealous/creepy/awful people. Why put a target on my back if it's not necessary? As @Vigilante pointed out, a few trustworthy people on the forum know my genre, my pen name, and even my real name. In fact, some of the people on this forum were some of the first buyers and reviewers of my books, which was such a huge help, especially in the beginning. Knowing you have terrific people in your corner who want you to succeed -- man, that's one heck of a gift. Even now, I get a little misty thinking about how blessed I was to have people on this forum cheering me on. Lucky me, seriously!

2. What do you suggest re getting illustrations? (It ain't me babe.)
I know you said you're not interested in doing your own, but are you sure? I wrote some kids' books a while back and actually did my own illustrations in spite of the fact that I'm no Van Gogh. It wasn't as hard as I anticipated. I bought a book on drawing cartoons, which was a huge help. Of course, my illustrations were quite simple. In fact, my Fastlane photo is one of those illustrations. If you're dead set on not doing your own, alas, I'm probably not the best person to ask -- just because I haven't gone that route personally. Whatever route you go, I hope you'll keep us posted.
 

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And of course @Vigilante is absolutely right. As far as sharing more specific information on a public forum, the potential downsides far outweigh the potential upsides. Even on the Amazon forums, writers have stopped sharing details under their real pen names, because it's not worth the potential trouble. The world is filled with wonderful people, but alas, we've also got our fair share of vindictive/jealous/creepy/awful people. Why put a target on my back if it's not necessary? As @Vigilante pointed out, a few trustworthy people on the forum know my genre, my pen name, and even my real name. In fact, some of the people on this forum were some of the first buyers and reviewers of my books, which was such a huge help, especially in the beginning. Knowing you have terrific people in your corner who want you to succeed -- man, that's one heck of a gift. Even now, I get a little misty thinking about how blessed I was to have people on this forum cheering me on. Lucky me, seriously!

Thank you so much for sharing!

I have a theory around where being public is valuable, and where being public is very harmful, which leads me to a question: would you say the barrier to entry on writing books for Amazon is incredibly low right now? Moderate? Or very high?

I think it's very low, but interested in your take (or another Amazon self-publisher)
 

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would you say the barrier to entry on writing books for Amazon is incredibly low right now? Moderate? Or very high? I think it's very low, but interested in your take (or another Amazon self-publisher)

As far as writing and publishing a book on Amazon, I agree with you that it's very low. In fact, you can still technically publish for free. Simply write your own book, self-edit, design your own cover, and hit publish. Viola!

But... (cue scary music) getting visibility? Oh, boy. The barriers in competitive genres are pretty high right now. If, for example, you're trying to break into the romance market, you'll probably have to spend thousands and thousands of dollars just to get noticed. We're talking Facebook ads, Amazon ads, BookBub ads, blog tours, and building your mailing list. When I'm launching a book, even WITH having a decent mailing list, it's not uncommon for me to spend like 15K a month in advertising. And let's say you do that, but for whatever reason, the sales don't come through, you could easily lose money on your book.

It's such a weird dichotomy, that the barriers to entry are technically quite low, but the barriers to actual success are currently pretty high, at least in my own opinion. Happily though, I don't think this is necessarily the case in less cut-throat genres.

If I were just starting out, I'd probably find a nice little niche and rock along there quite happily without spending so much time/effort/money on advertising. Who knows...I might go that route yet. One HUGE upside to this approach? By picking a genre that's not so advertising-intensive, you could actually focus more on the actual writing, both in terms of quality and quantity.
 
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Does anyone use and recommend useful tools for researching Kindle markets and niches, and slicing up the big data of Amazon?
 
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As far as writing and publishing a book on Amazon, I agree with you that it's very low. In fact, you can still technically publish for free. Simply write your own book, self-edit, design your own cover, and hit publish. Viola!

But... (cue scary music) getting visibility? Oh, boy. The barriers in competitive genres are pretty high right now. If, for example, you're trying to break into the romance market, you'll probably have to spend thousands and thousands of dollars just to get noticed. We're talking Facebook ads, Amazon ads, BookBub ads, blog tours, and building your mailing list. When I'm launching a book, even WITH having a decent mailing list, it's not uncommon for me to spend like 15K a month in advertising. And let's say you do that, but for whatever reason, the sales don't come through, you could easily lose money on your book.

It's such a weird dichotomy, that the barriers to entry are technically quite low, but the barriers to actual success are currently pretty high, at least in my own opinion. Happily though, I don't think this is necessarily the case in less cut-throat genres.

If I were just starting out, I'd probably find a nice little niche and rock along there quite happily without spending so much time/effort/money on advertising. Who knows...I might go that route yet. One HUGE upside to this approach? By picking a genre that's not so advertising-intensive, you could actually focus more on the actual writing, both in terms of quality and quantity.

This is the crux of my theory, really. At the risk of falling victim to confirmation bias, this seems to support my theory.

That is, when the barrier of entry is really low, the barriers to actual success are still very high. So people get over the entry barrier, then are faced with a general-but-necessary hodgepodge of things to do that are necessary for success in that industry.

In industries like this (e.g. self-publishing), this means that any details you share about your journey are going to give anyone else who reads it an advantage. By sharing too much, you can sway the ecosystem out of your own favor.

Another example is SEO. When you tell everyone what's successful in SEO, a bunch of other people jump on the bandwagon – then Google slams everyone doing that. So the more you share, the worse you make it for yourself. So why on earth would you do that?

These industries have a low barrier to entry + specific formula for success.

Building on this theory, in industries where the barriers to entry are higher, the barriers to success are still high, but they aren't general.

For example, in my industry (building software products), building the actual software itself is a huge barrier to entry. So, evangelizing the idea, the team, the process, etc. is crucial to inspiring people to get on the boat with you and make it happen. It's also crucial to build up early brand awareness in your market.

To make a tech product successful, you will have to do things very differently to nearly every competitor and need to think about all approaches from the ground up.

So the innovating tech space has high barrier to entry + unique formula for success. So sharing what you're doing with people helps to formulate those specific ideas, and get over the barrier of entry.

I'm not sure if this is right. It's just a theory. Thanks for adding your bits of experience to help me refine it @ChickenHawk
 

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This is the crux of my theory, really. At the risk of falling victim to confirmation bias, this seems to support my theory.

That is, when the barrier of entry is really low, the barriers to actual success are still very high. So people get over the entry barrier, then are faced with a general-but-necessary hodgepodge of things to do that are necessary for success in that industry.

In industries like this (e.g. self-publishing), this means that any details you share about your journey are going to give anyone else who reads it an advantage. By sharing too much, you can sway the ecosystem out of your own favor.

Another example is SEO. When you tell everyone what's successful in SEO, a bunch of other people jump on the bandwagon – then Google slams everyone doing that. So the more you share, the worse you make it for yourself. So why on earth would you do that?

These industries have a low barrier to entry + specific formula for success.

Building on this theory, in industries where the barriers to entry are higher, the barriers to success are still high, but they aren't general.

For example, in my industry (building software products), building the actual software itself is a huge barrier to entry. So, evangelizing the idea, the team, the process, etc. is crucial to inspiring people to get on the boat with you and make it happen. It's also crucial to build up early brand awareness in your market.

To make a tech product successful, you will have to do things very differently to nearly every competitor and need to think about all approaches from the ground up.

So the innovating tech space has high barrier to entry + unique formula for success. So sharing what you're doing with people helps to formulate those specific ideas, and get over the barrier of entry.

I'm not sure if this is right. It's just a theory. Thanks for adding your bits of experience to help me refine it @ChickenHawk
Not wanting to derail, but I think this makes sense. I share a lot of What I do and Why, and even have a course sharing How, but I’d be dumb to share everything as it would be removing competitive advantages (and IP!) that I’ve built up over time.
 
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Does anyone use and recommend useful tools for researching Kindle markets and niches, and slicing up the big data of Amazon?

One tool is KindleSpy. It's a good program for analyzing how saturated/competitive individual genres are. It also lets you do a quick analysis of individual authors. One caution though: If you buy it and discover that Author XYZ is making a ton of money, keep in mind that the program doesn't take advertising into account. For example, "Roxie Romance" might show a monthly income of 20K, while "Marvin Mystery" might show a monthly income of 5K. If Roxie is spending 15K on advertising, they're actually making the same amount of money. (I know this is obvious, but I feel the need to point it out, because it's easy to get distracted by those impressive sales figures in the super-competitive genres.)
 

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First off, to everyone, I'm so sorry for the delay in responding! I saw this question pop up a week ago, but happened to be in the midst of a massive book-related time-crunch -- one of those no-sleep, no-hair washing deadline thingies, and didn't want to dash off a quick answer to a complicated question.

As @COSenior pointed out, it's no secret that my genre is romance. If, however, I were to find a nice, obscure, untapped genre, I wouldn't be sharing it on a public forum. No siree. Already, I'm writing in an oversaturated, cut-throat, high-stakes genre (romance). If I switched to an unsaturated one (such as cyborg space mysteries), I'd have to be an idiot to announce it here and invite more competition. After all, it's not just competition for readers. It's competition for reviewers, ad space, clicks, etc. Why drive up my costs (and thus, drive down my profits) if the whole idea is to find something that isn't so crowded?

And of course @Vigilante is absolutely right. As far as sharing more specific information on a public forum, the potential downsides far outweigh the potential upsides. Even on the Amazon forums, writers have stopped sharing details under their real pen names, because it's not worth the potential trouble. The world is filled with wonderful people, but alas, we've also got our fair share of vindictive/jealous/creepy/awful people. Why put a target on my back if it's not necessary? As @Vigilante pointed out, a few trustworthy people on the forum know my genre, my pen name, and even my real name. In fact, some of the people on this forum were some of the first buyers and reviewers of my books, which was such a huge help, especially in the beginning. Knowing you have terrific people in your corner who want you to succeed -- man, that's one heck of a gift. Even now, I get a little misty thinking about how blessed I was to have people on this forum cheering me on. Lucky me, seriously!


I know you said you're not interested in doing your own, but are you sure? I wrote some kids' books a while back and actually did my own illustrations in spite of the fact that I'm no Van Gogh. It wasn't as hard as I anticipated. I bought a book on drawing cartoons, which was a huge help. Of course, my illustrations were quite simple. In fact, my Fastlane photo is one of those illustrations. If you're dead set on not doing your own, alas, I'm probably not the best person to ask -- just because I haven't gone that route personally. Whatever route you go, I hope you'll keep us posted.
Hi Chicken, Thanks for that suggestion. I just re-read Huck and Wizard of Oz and both had super-simple cartoons. It never even occurred to me that I could do that. Getting words on the page will probably be my focus for some time; part of me wants to read this thread b/c it is valuable for making $, but I've only x amt of time and energy; so I'm devoting it all to writing. Greg
 

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Well, I just published another book, and it's not going well. Ugh.

Some background: In the summer, I published a book that should've done fairly well. However, Amazon had some glitch where also-boughts were extremely delayed for some books, including mine. This is a big deal, because also-boughts are really important in getting free visibility for your book. "Also-boughts" normally take like three or four days to populate, but for my summer book, they took three whole weeks, which meant that my book was invisible for much of that critical 30-day launch period. It slaughtered my progress right out of the gate because nearly every sale I had to get personally, with zero help from Amazon's eco-system. Thanks to some pretty intense advertising, the book did end up making money, although not as much as it should have.

Still, I figured I could make up some of this lost ground because I was writing a second book set in the same world. I'd simply have a better launch for book two and cross-promote to recapture that lost momentum. Easy, peasy-right? Hah! Wrong. So very wrong.

And why? It's because my newest book was hit by the same FREAKING glitch. It's just bad luck, apparently, and I'm not alone. Still, it's so discouraging. For this newest book, I held off on seriously advertising, waiting for the also-boughts to populate. But they're still not there, and the clock is ticking. So I started advertising in earnest a few days ago. So far, the book is on track to lose money, which means that unless something turns around, I would've been better off spending the last few months eating cheesy poofs on the sofa.

Normally, I try to be upbeat, but dang, these last few months have been such a slog. During the last month, I literally worked like 18-hour days to get this book out before Thanksgiving. Turns out, I would've been better off if I'd waited, because books published a week after mine weren't impacted by that stupid glitch. (And now for a cynical side note... For some amazing reason, none of Amazon's imprints seem to have been impacted by this glitch. Weird, huh? Things that make you go, "hmmmm...")

This past year has me thinking that I need to make some serious changes, if only because the hamster wheel is spinning too fast for me to keep up. I have some ideas that I'm mulling, but I'm going to hold off for a little bit until I see how this latest book shakes out.

The saga will continue...
 
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I’m sorry that you’re going through that issue @ChickenHawk . You’re an inspiration to an aspiring author like me. If I can do anything to help, just ping me!
 

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@Chicken, a very nice Story. Your story. Its interesting reading your first posts and than your last ones. Like a nice story its own!
Dont be Too disappointed about your diss-success! You are successful 5 years now. written more than 90% of all. Earned more than 90%.
dont stress yourself, be happy!
 

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I recall Mark Dawson saying something to the effect that also boughts are being replaced by advertising on Amazon. Of course he is selling an advertising course, but he seems to think only advertising can make authors immune to the whims of Amazon, and the game has changed.
 
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I recall Mark Dawson saying something to the effect that also boughts are being replaced by advertising on Amazon. Of course he is selling an advertising course, but he seems to think only advertising can make authors immune to the whims of Amazon, and the game has changed.
As far as the also-boughts, it's true that Amazon has been doing a lot of experimenting with them. Sometimes they're gone, sometimes they're moved to the bottom of the page, sometimes they're presented in a short list rather than in the traditional format. But Amazon hasn't completely eliminated them, which means that also-boughts remain one of the few remaining ways that authors can get free exposure for their book. As a result, it also means that when the also-boughts don't show up for a particular book, it's a huge disadvantage to the author.

Those also-boughts represent some very valuable real-estate, even in the sense that if I have a new release, and advertise the heck out of it, it's a huge help when my OTHER books appear as also-boughts to my hot new release. Increasingly, this is becoming iffier.

A funny thing, too... Even if you buy advertising on Amazon, you're still subject to their whims, because it's their system that decides where the ads appear, how often they appear, and how much you'll be charged for them. (We bid on ads, but there's all kinds of variables that make it difficult to know exactly how much Amazon will spend.)

The whole thing is a bit crazy at the moment, and not necessarily in a good way.
 

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Does anyone use and recommend useful tools for researching Kindle markets and niches, and slicing up the big data of Amazon?
I used Find the best book market opportunities in seconds! to figure out if my choice of genre was worth pursuing. It wasn’t. I’m thankful I learned that before I sunk time and money into it. Alex sells memberships and you can buy individual reports. I found the individual report option worked better for me because there aren’t that many genres I’m willing to write in.
 

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I used Find the best book market opportunities in seconds! to figure out if my choice of genre was worth pursuing. It wasn’t. I’m thankful I learned that before I sunk time and money into it. Alex sells memberships and you can buy individual reports. I found the individual report option worked better for me because there aren’t that many genres I’m willing to write in.
 
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Happy 2020, Everyone! Now that I've whined about my book problems, it's time to turn once again toward solutions. In between writing, etc., I've spent the last few weeks doing research, reviewing my strategies, and looking forward. Here's where I stand.

SUMMARY OF PROBLEMS
The Amazon algos very strongly favor authors who release quickly.
Alas, I don't release quickly. Three or four novels a year is my maximum. Although I've gotten a lot faster in the writing department, all of that extra time (and then some) has been eaten up by marketing responsibilities. Advertising has become a huge time sink for me – Facebook ads, Amazon ads, BookBub ads, blog tours. Individually, they're manageable, but together, they consume a huuuuuuge amount of resources, which brings me to problem #2.

Advertising costs (in terms of time and money), have gone through the roof. In the beginning, nearly no advertising avenues existed. This was a mixed bag, because it made the process hard to control. But overall, IMO, it was better for writers, because authors received the lion's share of the profits. Now, Facebook earns more on my books than I do. (Sad, but true.) As an example, this past August, I spent $10,400 on Facebook ads, $1,900 on Amazon ads, and $700 on BookBub ads. My gross earnings for that month were $22,400. This means that I earned a net of $9,400. This was my second-best month for 2019. Decent, but not great. Some of this was due to the fact that I had two "bad luck books" back-to back. (See the next point.)

Bad Luck Books. I've coined this term for books that are inadvertently hosed by Amazon or outside events. A few years ago, I read about a newly discovered traditional author who FINALLY got her big break -- a huge book launch with a traditional publishing house. The publisher set her up with interviews, TV appearances, the works. The book's launch date was… (cue scary music) …Sept. 11, 2001. Yes, THAT 911. Needless to say, no one was the least interested in her book, given what else was going on. On a similar note, there were also authors who launched their first romance book, one they'd lovingly crafted for months/years, only to have it fall on the exact day that Harlequin released hundreds of their backlist titles into the Amazon digital ecosystem, making visibility terrible for everyone else who published that day.

On a smaller scale, you can also have the bad luck of publishing when Amazon is doing something behind the scenes that messes up everything. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I had two bad-luck books back-to-back this year. Both of these books were missing their also-boughts for an obscene amount of time, which meant that my books were hosed for nearly all of that critical 30-day launch window. Because I release "only" three novels a year, this hit me particularly hard.

Conclusion: Obviously, I need to do something differently. But what?

REJECTED SOLUTIONS
Rejected Solution #1: Use Ghost Writer(s) or Team up With Another Writer.
After giving it a ton of thought, I still don't see myself doing this. If my name is on the book, it's going to be written by me. Period.

Rejected Solution #2: Stop or Greatly Reduce Advertising. It's tempting. And I may try this sometime in the future. But I'm not quite there yet. So much effort goes into writing a book that it seems terribly stupid (at least in my case) to not push it as hard as I can on the advertising front.

AND NOW FOR THE SOLUTION(S)...(FINALLY, you say!).
I'm switching to a new strategy that plays to my primary strength (writing) and hopefully minimizes the negative impact of things I can't control -- bad luck, Amazon algos, etc. And here it is...

In 2020, I'm switching to a rapid-release strategy. Under this strategy, you release multiple books in quick succession rather than spacing them out. Using myself as an example, let's say I write three novels a year. Until now, I would've released these books as soon as they're completed…one book every four months or so.

However, in today's Amazon ecosystem, this is a real challenge. Lately, I release a book, and even if it claws its way onto Amazon's bestseller lists, it sinks with shocking speed unless I throw an obscene amount of advertising at it. As a result, advertising is eating me alive, both in terms of time and money.

But…If you release multiple books in quick intervals, (one book a month, for example), the books can help boost each other, rank-wise, and in terms of visibility.

If I'm recalling correctly, @MTF tried this approach on the non-fiction front, and wasn't thrilled with the results. My theory is that it will work better with fiction, especially if the books are part of a larger series. This seems even more likely in the romance genre, where binge-reading is pretty common.

Another Side Benefit to the Rapid Release Strategy: Under my current scenario, I won't be releasing another book until nearly six months from now. During this time, I'll be focusing on the actual writing, instead of tweaking/designing/monitoring Facebook ads, etc. This should free up a huge chunk of time. And then, when I DO get in advertising mode, I'll be advertising two or three books at once, which should result in better economies of scale.

My plan for 2020 is to release six books total. Three will be full-length novels, and three will be short novellas. This is the equivalent of four full-length books, and will require me to write around 90,000 more words in 2020 compared to 2019. It will be a challenge, but I believe that by eliminating some of those advertising distractions while I stockpile books, it will not only be doable, but less stressful than my 2019 writing experience. I'm also going to make better use of pre-orders and pre-promotion to help fuel (and keep) momentum.

I know this was a long post, but since it's such a departure from my previous strategy, I figured it was worth sharing the thought-process behind it. Wish me luck!

P.S. If anyone is interested, here's a good book about release strategies: "Release Strategies" by Craig Martelle. The whole topic was pretty darn interesting, and offered some great insight. (It's on audiobook, too, by the way.)
 
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@ChickenHawk, I'd consider translating your bestselling novel and/or entire series into Spanish, French, German, and Italian. There's a lot of money to be made on these less competitive markets and it won't cost you much time.
 

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