[PROGRESS THREAD]: Six-figure Fiction

[Mark Anthony Le]

Thrifty,

A wise man once told me "No matter how hard it gets.. No matter how hard it is... I'm going to make it...."

Patience and consistent action will get us there. The fact that we're even doing this separates us from the billions of side walkers and slowlaners.

We are all in in this together. You have everyone here to talk to. Don't say you're lonely.

 

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[MorgothBauglir]

How are things going? As a writer myself I am really enjoying this thread.

Keep up the great work.

 

[ROBugatti]

Just finished going through all of the pages in this thread, and I've found it to be very inspiring. I was thinking of going the novella route, but my genre may not support that. Thanks (a LOT) for the genre list and what the readers expect, which helps me decide. I do write horror, so maybe I can get away with it there, but I'll probably end up doing a lot more research on the length of books before picking a final category/genre.

 

[Thriftypreneur]

How are things going? As a writer myself I am really enjoying this thread.
Keep up the great work.

Just finished going through all of the pages in this thread, and I've found it to be very inspiring. I was thinking of going the novella route, but my genre may not support that. Thanks (a LOT) for the genre list and what the readers expect, which helps me decide. I do write horror, so maybe I can get away with it there, but I'll probably end up doing a lot more research on the length of books before picking a final category/genre.

Thanks. As for an update, to be honest, I haven't done much.

December and January have been rough. I'm finishing up a pretty lengthy edit on all 3 of my novellas, publishing all 3 as individual products, making the first one perma-free, and also releasing the omnibus product. Pretty much following the exact plan that I outlined in November.

And, to continue to be honest, I really haven't gotten as much done on this front as I hoped. In fact, things have slowed down drastically from where they started. I've been dealing with pretty severe, crippling depression and anxiety, and some days, just getting myself out of bed is a victory. So, naturally, getting any writing or editing done has been a huge, huge challenge. I'm still plugging away though, however slow it may be. I'm hoping to have the entire product published and uploaded by Monday, so all that's left is getting the perma-free to go into effect. At which point, I'll begin plotting, outlining, and writing my next trilogy product (novels, not novellas), just as I had been planning.

 

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[ChickenHawk]

Sometimes, it really IS hard to keep going, isn't it? Bravo to you for keeping it up, and moving forward!

At least to my untrained eye, your plan looks really solid, and once the perma-free kicks in, it hopefully will bring a ton more eyeballs to your books. Plus, it sounds like a lot of the work you've been doing has been laying the groundwork behind the scenes. That should really come in handy once you've got your books available and featured the way you want them.

 

[joanna]

In fact, things have slowed down drastically from where they started. I've been dealing with pretty severe, crippling depression and anxiety, and some days, just getting myself out of bed is a victory. So, naturally, getting any writing or editing done has been a huge, huge challenge. I'm still plugging away though, however slow it may be.

I can't say I have a solution, since I've been struggling with similar issues to a degree throughout last year. Unfortunately a writer's life usually lends itself to these kind of anxieties. Going from "Yeah! Awesome, this masterpiece will be finished in a week! With editing! Everyone one will love this epic ****!" to "No one buys my books. My writing sucks, my marketing sucks, life sucks." I've read about the impostor syndrome, but that doesn't mean knowing it's a thing will make it go away. You get this cycle in general, as well as it seems with each book.

What I do try to do in these moments is to focus on the next small step and try to forget about the big picture. Keeping track of bits you accomplished can help too - break up the tasks and have something to tick off on a daily basis. That's where monitoring your daily word output can be handy. Any amount of words is better than 0

 

[Held for Ransom]

Hang in there, Thrifty. Just know that you aren't alone with these types of feelings. Remember that this is a long-term game and that for most folks, success is slow in coming.

Thanks for posting. Good to hear from you!

 

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[MorgothBauglir]

Hang in there man! Small, winnable victories. Do what you can with what you have.
I hope things get better.

 

[Breaking Free]

Persistence is the name of the game. My two books are doing so-so, but the feedback has been good, so I'm optimistic about future releases. Just need to keep writing, form my series, and keep going.

Every writer has readers and an audience waiting. You just have to find them.

 

[webcomber]

Thrifty -

You are doing what most people will never even start, so of course it is going to be enormously challenging. But it is also going to be enormously rewarding. It's a daily battle. Keep slaying the beast of doubt every day and you will get there.

WC

 

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[Thriftypreneur]

You are doing what most people will never even start, so of course it is going to be enormously challenging. But it is also going to be enormously rewarding. It's a daily battle. Keep slaying the beast of doubt every day and you will get there.
WC

I wish that the depression and anxiety bouts were just related to my venture in writing, but, alas, they are not. It's been a lifelong battle for me, that, up until recently, has never been this severe. But you're right, on both fronts it's a daily battle where small victories can lead to astounding results. And because of that, the battle will always be fought. =)

 

[COSenior]

I wish that the depression and anxiety bouts were just related to my venture in writing, but, alas, they are not. It's been a lifelong battle for me, that, up until recently, has never been this severe. But you're right, on both fronts it's a daily battle where small victories can lead to astounding results. And because of that, the battle will always be fought. =)

I was just scrolling to the bottom to add my two cents' worth, because like many people I didn't understand depression and anxiety, thought it was event- or circumstance-related, until I married into a family that seems to have a genetic predisposition for it. I don't know what type of medication you may be taking, if any, but I do know that some of them exacerbate the very symptoms they're designed to combat. I hope you're getting the medical help you need, because it is a medical condition after all. Have you ever looked at natural methods, also? I hesitate to offer this advice, because of course I'm not medically qualified, but as you no doubt know, depression and anxiety result from a brain chemistry imbalance. There are ways of restoring balance that don't involve prescription drugs and their dangerous side effects. Whatever your solution is, hope you find your way back to an even keel soon.

 

[britnidanielle]

Hang in there Thrifty! We're all rooting for you.

 

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[Thriftypreneur]

Thanks all. Still plugging away.

I've finished the lengthy edit on all 3 of my novellas, published them all, as well as the box set.

I'm now in the process of distributing the first book to the main outlets (Kobo, Itunes, B&N, etc) for the sole purpose of getting the first in the series set as perma-free on Amazon. I won't go into the formatting difference between all the different outlets (because it's a pain in the a$$ and might not work for your books), but here are a few things I've picked up that might be helpful to others...
CreateSpace

I went through and made a print version of my book for a few reasons:

1. I want to have a paperback version of my books just 'cuz it's neato.
2. I want Amazon to display the multiple formats on my Kindle sales page, thus giving it a more 'established' feel.
3. I want my Kindle sales page to show the "$6.99 - $0.00! You save $6.99! (100%)" to give the impression of a bargain deal.
4. I wanted the increased page count that I thought a print version would bring my sales page.

The interesting thing I noted was that publishing through CreateSpace after already making the kindle version available did not increase the page count as I expected. I can only assume that the 'estimated page count' is matched to the print book only if you publish to KDP through CreateSpace.

Turns out it just takes time for the new print page count to sync up.

B&N

As far as I can tell, it seems the only way to get a book listed as free on B&N is to distribute it through Smashwords. (Draft2Digital does not allow you to publish at $0.00 to Amazon or B&N)

Smashwords

Amazon will not price match based upon a Smashwords listing. Your book must be listed at other places.


After distributing my first book, I'm currently maintaining 5 different versions of the finished work. Which leaves me debating on whether I want to publish the rest of my books to these outlets as well.

 

[Blueskies4me]

picked a genre with a deep pool of buyers

So, you are saying that the novella has a deeper pool of buyers than most?

 

[Blueskies4me]

purchasing stock VIDEO

Where is the best place to find reasonably priced stock VIDEO. I have another project related to Commercial Real Estate that I've been working on & want a nice promo video but can't find anything of high end luxury lifestyle that is really good and affordable.

 

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[Thriftypreneur]

February Update

Figure it's time for an update, even though it feels like I'm turning in a bad report card.

Novella Trilogy has been completed and published for a while now, haven't really wrote anything since. Started out tossing around ideas, trying to get my bearings straight on genre and content. Since I wasn't putting words on paper, my writing time has turned into writing research/learning. After my experiences so far with my first works published, I'm pretty humbled to say the least, and I'll admit it. I realize I have a LOT of work to do to compete on par with the level most of you are even starting out at.

So, I've created a study list of books/authors in my genre and been reading like crazy, along with a couple books on the technical side (Writing the Breakout Novel and The Emotion Thesaurus - both books recommended by other fastlaners). I think I've read nearly 1000 pages in the last 3 days. Not much for some, but that's more fiction than I've read of in all my years combined.

I've been taking these books, reading them, studying prose and style, taking the content and reverse engineering it into common genre themes and beat sheets--seeing how these authors "flow," what the genre really expects/likes, and looking at the elements that make their stories and style stand out above the rest. It's been eye-opening. After reading some of the books in my study list, I honestly felt the urge to unpublish what I've got up, lol.

Anyway, after much hoo-ha, I manged to get the first in my trilogy perma-free. I probably won't be posting regular earnings or anything, but here are my results for February:

Book 1 - Free
Book 2 - $2.99
Book 3 - $2.99
Omnibus - $4.99

Managed a little short of 800 free downloads for the month, with an income of $40+. Total sales of only 14, with the omnibus taking the bulk of them by a big margin. Free downloads started out around 50-60/day, but the few reviews I've had on my perma-free were poor and that's reduced that number pretty significantly. Sucks, but I don't really disagree with what they've said--it is the first story I've ever wrote, after all.

At 800 downloads, that conversion rate is really, really poor when I compare it to numbers of other authors' perma-free reports (5% conversion is a good number to shoot for). And in a case like this, the numbers really don't lie--the first book is poor (in my opinion, the worst of the three). But, on the bright side, I've had a tiny handful of people subscribe to my mailing list for new release alerts (some people like what I wrote, yay!), and I've yet to have a paid refund on any of my titles since I started.

I think the numbers are pretty interesting, though. It gives me a pretty clear idea of how powerful perma-free advertising can be. The second that first book went free, I started seeing a drastic improvement in sales, even though my numbers are small. The lull between finishing the edit/publishing of everything in Jan and going permafree in Feb, sales were just not there, I published and into the abyss my work went. Had my story been better, more targeted to the genre, and able to climb lists based on its quality, those numbers would be way higher. Even just achieving 5% of 800 free downloads, that still would have translated into around 40 sales. It's pretty nice to see the potential there.

Anyway, that's pretty much it for the writing update. Despite the poor performance and realizing that I have a lot of work to do to get my numbers up to where some of you are starting out with your very first books, I'm not stopping. Not gonna lie, humbled and, at times, discouraged a bit--feeling like I'm in over my head and have no business writing, but I'm still going! For now, just going to keep reading and studying my genre, outline my new series of novels and get started ASAP.

The other thing I did this month was remove my books from any visibility on author forums that I'm apart of. Not based on my personal experiences, but throughout all my research, I've noticed that a lot of budding authors get a majority of their poor reviews from what appear to be other writers. As I listed in my report above, if you're just starting out, a few poor reviews can put dents in your small numbers, so I just leave it for regular readers who aren't nearly as critical and difficult to please.

That's it... Keep succeeding and updating your threads all, it's an inspiration to me and fun to watch.

 

[COSenior]

At 800 downloads, that conversion rate is really, really poor when I compare it to numbers of other authors' perma-free reports (5% conversion is a good number to shoot for). And in a case like this, the numbers really don't lie--the first book is poor (in my opinion, the worst of the three). But, on the bright side, I've had a tiny handful of people subscribe to my mailing list for new release alerts (some people like what I wrote, yay!), and I've yet to have a paid refund on any of my titles since I started.

Interesting number there. If I'd managed that with my second book during or after the first was free, I'd have 4200 sales. Sadly, that is very much not the case. Darn, I was pretty happy with a tenth of that!

As for the rest, you know I've always been a fan of your methodical research and analysis. Just don't get paralyzed by it. I don't know how many of us started out with even a small amount of success with our first few books. I'll be the first to say that mine were terrible, and I'm pulling them down to either feed the circular file or redraft them if the story line is worthy. Don't let a little adversity get in the way of progress, just learn from it and keep going.

Good to see your update, bad report card notwithstanding. It's an inspiration to me to see what steps you're taking. I keep seeing Writing the Breakout Novel in threads today, looks like I need to exercise my 1-click finger and see what it's all about.

 

[Thriftypreneur]

Interesting number there. If I'd managed that with my second book during or after the first was free, I'd have 4200 sales. Sadly, that is very much not the case. Darn, I was pretty happy with a tenth of that!

Honestly, I don't know how accurate the 5% is, it's just the number that I mentally noted as a benchmark from reading waaay too much at Kboards and similar places. 1%-3% might be more realistic, I dunno.

 

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[COSenior]

Honestly, I don't know how accurate the 5% is, it's just the number that I mentally noted as a benchmark from reading waaay too much at Kboards and similar places. 1%-3% might be more realistic, I dunno.

Like you say, it's something to shoot for...

 

[Held for Ransom]

Thanks for the update @Thriftypreneur.

I think once you find your genre and hammer away at it, you will see progress. Remember that the path to success isn't a straight line but that squiggly one MJ posts now and again.

And within that squiggly line are smaller ups and downs. I don't know if that picture represents days, months or years. Sometimes, it seems like minute to minute for me.

Hah.

I read something the other day by a NYT and USA Today bestselling author back when that was well, not what it is now. IOW, it took WORK on a massive scale. This same person was absolutely convinced he lost his career no fewer than four times over a nearly twenty five year career.

So, imagine that...

Here we all sit making whatever each of us makes thinking we are blazing some new trail. But when you listen to guys like this that have been through the real, ugly nitty gritty of becoming a successful fiction author...

Wow, really puts it in perspective. For me at least.

I have a ton of respect for them. *That* was hard work back in the day. @ChickenHawk could probably relate to that. I know I can't.

Anyway, mostly I'm glad to hear your state of mind seems to be better. I remember not that long ago when it was a bit on the downside. It's understandable but reading this brought a smile to my face.

Hang tough. You can do it.

 

[Thriftypreneur]

and I'm pulling them down to either feed the circular file or redraft them if the story line is worthy.

Care to expand on this? I've thought of pulling and redoing what I've got because I actually really, really like the premise, but it just seems criminal to me to spend even more time on that trilogy when I could invest it in something new, much more targeted to the genre, and much, much better executed and written.

 

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[COSenior]

Care to expand on this? I've thought of pulling and redoing what I've got because I actually really, really like the premise, but it just seems criminal to me to spend even more time on that trilogy when I could invest it in something new, much more targeted to the genre, and much, much better executed and written.

I'll PM you.

 

[Rawr]

Hey what if you tried putting book 2 at 99cents for a week and seeing if sales pick up? Maybe that's a nicer stepping stone over the jump to 2.99. I know this method is pretty popular.

 

[Dave C]

I'll PM you.

PM me too please. I'm also curious as to what circular file actually means and when to redraft.

 

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[ChickenHawk]

Figure it's time for an update, even though it feels like I'm turning in a bad report card.

This isn't a bad report. This is progress toward success, darn it all!

When it comes to writing, you've already pulled away from the pack just in the sheer fact that you've actually written books and published them. As you find your voice, your results will only improve. Plus, you've had people sign up for your mailing list. You officially have fans! Bad report card? Hah!

 

[Deleted0x8687]

Hey Everyone -

Thought I'd share a couple of great interviews I stumbled upon this morning. Two indie authors who offer a lot of good advice and inspiration. One fiction author, the other non-fiction. Good reads.

http://www.thedailyinterview.com/ernest-dempsey/

http://www.thedailyinterview.com/steve-scott/

 

[VeeGirl]

Awesome thread and tons of great info! Thank you! I'm not done reading but had a question for you Thrifty. How much research did you do before writing your first novel? You mentioned that you don't like reading, so what kind of research did you do to help you start the process of writing a novel? I want to get into romance/erotica which is the genre I enjoy reading, and have 3 different stories in mind. I am not a writer, never was good at it and all the grammatical stuff. I haven't put any of my ideas down on paper yet, feel like I might end up doing it all wrong or making a fool of myself... I really feel lost as to where and how I should start. I read a lot of novels and get all hyped up about getting to work on my stories, and when I sit down all sorts of doubts start to creep in. I did publish 2 recipe books previously but those were so much easier to do.

 

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[Thriftypreneur]

How much research did you do before writing your first novel?

Not near enough. I'm currently doing what I probably should have done in the beginning, which is read a lot in my genre.

I am not a writer, never was good at it and all the grammatical stuff. I haven't put any of my ideas down on paper yet, feel like I might end up doing it all wrong or making a fool of myself... I really feel lost as to where and how I should start. I read a lot of novels and get all hyped up about getting to work on my stories, and when I sit down all sorts of doubts start to creep in.

I find that publishing anonymously under a pen name helps. In the end it's a big learning experience, I accepted early on that my first works were going to be bad and be like sacrificial lambs as I learned the ins and outs of it all. Give yourself permission to make a few mistakes while you learn.

 

[VeeGirl]

Thanks Thrifty! Your thread has been full of so much great info. I guess the only way to get better is to just do it! I will definitely be writing under a pen name for many different reasons. Last night I actually sat down and Starbucks and started working on my plot and characters. I am actually really excited for this story, just need to stay focused and not let doubt get in the way.