Whew! I've had quite a spell of silence since my intro thread a few weeks back. Had to wrap up a particularly intense few weeks of college (involving essays, tests I had not covered the material for, and a quite a bit of sleep deprivation). I wasn't completely off of the site though, as I was lurking just about every day and taking in what I could.
This will be a progress thread for my venture into the wonderful (and ever so slightly saturated) world of self-publishing! I've wanted to be a writer since I was young, so I'll be hitting the massive market that is the fiction world. Genre fiction to be exact, none of that purple-prose, existential crisis literary fiction. As an English major, I have enough of that in my classes.
I've done some research and I believe I've found a nice niche to work with. It's got quite a lot of books, but also such a large pool of readers that it may as well be an ocean. These readers go through a number of books as well, so I should be able to hustle and get some sales. It is of course feasible that there's too many books and I'll simply be drowned out, but at worst I'll have gained some great writing experience and I get the ability to say "I wrote a damn book!" which elevates me above a number of wannabe authors.
Theoretically, I could have spent a lot more time doing research, but I worried that if I did I would simply use that to justify not writing and putting off real action. Instead, we're gonna take the research we've done and give it a go! Who knows, we might get a hit.
Sadly, I am not the best writer in the world, but I do think that I'm better than the average monkey at a typewriter. Hell, being sub-par didn't stop a few shall-not-be-named bestsellers featuring terribly written sex.
I've cranked out a 2,000 word rough outline and another thousand words warming up the characters. It's time to break into the actual meat of the writing. I'm not a plotter by nature, but this book will get its own whiteboard, notes, and other organizational tools. I can't run the risk of getting halfway through and getting a block.
A major advantage I think I have is that I'm not scared of marketing. A lot of authors in fiction consider marketing a dirty word, believing that art should stand on its own. Unfortunately, I have expensive dreams and don't care to wait for some lucky break. As I near the end of the book I'll be experimenting with various ways to get the word out, instead of hoping for sales when I drop it into the wide abyss that is Amazon.
Special Note: Thanks to ChickenHawk's progress thread for inspiring me to get off my a$$.
This will be a progress thread for my venture into the wonderful (and ever so slightly saturated) world of self-publishing! I've wanted to be a writer since I was young, so I'll be hitting the massive market that is the fiction world. Genre fiction to be exact, none of that purple-prose, existential crisis literary fiction. As an English major, I have enough of that in my classes.
I've done some research and I believe I've found a nice niche to work with. It's got quite a lot of books, but also such a large pool of readers that it may as well be an ocean. These readers go through a number of books as well, so I should be able to hustle and get some sales. It is of course feasible that there's too many books and I'll simply be drowned out, but at worst I'll have gained some great writing experience and I get the ability to say "I wrote a damn book!" which elevates me above a number of wannabe authors.
Theoretically, I could have spent a lot more time doing research, but I worried that if I did I would simply use that to justify not writing and putting off real action. Instead, we're gonna take the research we've done and give it a go! Who knows, we might get a hit.
Sadly, I am not the best writer in the world, but I do think that I'm better than the average monkey at a typewriter. Hell, being sub-par didn't stop a few shall-not-be-named bestsellers featuring terribly written sex.
I've cranked out a 2,000 word rough outline and another thousand words warming up the characters. It's time to break into the actual meat of the writing. I'm not a plotter by nature, but this book will get its own whiteboard, notes, and other organizational tools. I can't run the risk of getting halfway through and getting a block.
A major advantage I think I have is that I'm not scared of marketing. A lot of authors in fiction consider marketing a dirty word, believing that art should stand on its own. Unfortunately, I have expensive dreams and don't care to wait for some lucky break. As I near the end of the book I'll be experimenting with various ways to get the word out, instead of hoping for sales when I drop it into the wide abyss that is Amazon.
Special Note: Thanks to ChickenHawk's progress thread for inspiring me to get off my a$$.
Dislike ads? Become a Fastlane member:
Subscribe today and surround yourself with winners and millionaire mentors, not those broke friends who only want to drink beer and play video games. :-)
Access Restricted: Unlock 1,000,000+ Posts
Stop Peeking Through the Keyhole.
Open the Door.
You hit a wall because the best advice isn't free—it's earned. Since 2007, MJ DeMarco has been active here daily (99.9% active rate), building a war room for entrepreneurs who refuse to settle for mediocrity.
- Active Daily: Life-changing content posted dozens of times every day. No dead threads.
- MJ's Inner Circle: Direct access to the author of The Millionaire Fastlane.
- Vetted Network: Connect with founders scaling to 7 and 8 figures.
- Proven Roadmaps: Strategy over motivation. Execution over "hustle porn."
"SCALED TO 6-FIGURE MONTHS"
"Tips and advice here saved me from huge mistakes, others allowed me to scale my business to 6-figure months."— User MitchC
"INSANE QUALITY OF PEOPLE"
"The number of high quality people I've met from this forum has been insane. All of it predicated on building real value."— User Richard Peck
"You are the average of the five people you surround yourself with."
Are you surrounding yourself with success?
