Time For Some Accountability!

[mws87]

You know what really gets me motivated to make things happen? Reading through progress threads. You know what kills my motivation? Progress threads that abruptly come to a stop, left buried in the FLF graveyard beneath everything else.

WARNING: This is going to be long! If you're looking for the short progress thread that tells you how I went from being broke to buying a sports car in a week - this isn't the thread for you! It's going to be filled with real failures, real progress and, eventually, real success. I can have a bit of a scatter-brain at times, therefore I will try to keep this as organized as possible. I apologize in advance if I confuse/lose people on this.

Aside from a couple members I've had conversations with here, not many know me or what I do. Nobody here knows my intentions, my goals or my motives for being on this forum. Why? I've never publicized them, for a few reasons. The first being I don't like talking very much. Don't let my post replies fool you - I have an extremely introverted personality and usually keep to myself. I usually watch, read, observe and learn. I used to be a huge "talker" and that was the problem, nothing ever developed; it was all talk. Things have been very different for me the past few months, before I read TMF and even more so after.

The Goal
You've read this in every other progress thread and my goal isn't very much different from everyone else's.

What I'm Doing
Initially, I wasn't sure what I wanted to do, but I wanted to do something other than working 13+ hours a day at my job as my mental and personal health degraded for a secure paycheck, so I quit. Currently, I am doing Self-Pub on Amazon (as a lot of us are) as well as another project.

PUBLISHING
Let me preface this by saying I do not have a background in writing whatsoever. As a matter of fact, I don't think I've written much for the past 10 years. So, why did I start? I had to do something different. I had to get out of my comfort zone. I've always been the creative type - I've been a creator for years, but never looked at it from a business perspective.

I started with a few non-fiction titles. #1 was over 150 pages, #2 and #3 were shorter at around 35 pages. #1 was more of a self-help book, #2 was a short guide on making extra income (realistic, not ridiculous) and #3 was about dating.

I ran some small advertising for the first 3 non-fic titles. What I discovered is the "money" book and the "dating" book had way more clicks and purchases than the actual self-help book. For non-fic it seems people are more interested in getting laid and paid rather than taking time to make positive adjustments to their lives. As mentioned everywhere, most people want results NOW, not later.

So, did I make huge profit from those books? F*ck no, actually, the exact opposite. It was pretty much what I expected, although all those videos on youtube and blog articles with Joe Schmo talking about how they make $30k+ a month doing eBooks made me hopeful, deep down I knew it wasn't realistic.

I'd be lying to you if I said I wasn't discouraged. I kept reading about the Erotica buzz. I really didn't want to do Erotica for one reason: it is an extremely saturated genre. I was discouraged from the start to even try it. Then, one day, humoring the idea I actually checked out some of the better selling (not best-selling) erotica stories. A few things I noticed: they were all short stories and, using Kindle's "Look inside" feature, a lot of them were terribly written. "I can write way better than this". Wait, what? Could I? Yes, I could.
I was initially worried that I would be wasting more of my time, worried that people would be expecting crap as per what eBooks usually are now. So, I decided to add some value for readers via QUALITY CONTENT.

I published two short Erotica stories last week and put them on the "Free Download" promotion over the weekend, the results? Over 350 downloads in two days and "Normalized Pages Read" to match. Nothing phenomenal, but compare that to the fact those TWO days and TWO titles gave me more downloads than all of my non-fic titles over the course of a month is pretty eye opening. It even got me a few sales, once again, nothing amazing. I think my current royalties are only $14. Hardly anything to brag about, but a LOT to learn from.

I don't plan on doing Erotica forever, I feel like I'm secretly doing porn or something. Although, if the market screams at me, demanding more, I'll provide more. I'd ultimately like to get into thrillers/mystery, but remember: the market doesn't care about what you want.

The whole goal with the free downloads is to get the book ranked, get the out and start building a customer/fan base. As for the pen name I'm using for those titles - I don't have a platform yet. I've contemplated making one, but want to wait for more results/demand first. If the market shows me it wants more, I'll provide more.

The plan is to knock out 2 short erotica stories a week. So far, so good. In the future, I want to begin writing mysteries and thrillers when time permits. "LULZ, Erotica is all the same! What makes you special?" Well, nothing makes me special, but through research I've come to find most erotica stories are nothing short of porn scenes on paper. They are literally just pounding and pumping for pages and pages, with a very short or lacking story. Therefore, I decided to actually include interesting stories and plots to my works, the smut is just a bonus.

What I Learned (So Far)
-Only outsource if you ABSOLUTELY have to, and even then you'd better find a great writer. Amazon is flooded with outsourced, poorly written crap thanks to the money chasers following the "2012/2013" method of flooding with quantity over quality.

-Advertising works, but it won't work on it's own. Don't rely on your ad's copy to make sales - your book cover, description AND ad description should all be viewed as COPY. I had a lot of clicks, but not many purchases. This showed me I had some good copy on my ads that got people interested and most read the description, but only a small amount purchased. Why? The descriptions needed re-working.

-If you absolutely must do advertising, try not to be cheap with your PPC. The suggested range topped off at around $0.68 if I recall correctly. To experiment, I upped it to $0.75/click. It worked getting more traffic. I recommend everyone interested in marketing to read all of the threads by @Andy Black . Although his threads usually revolve around Google Adwords, the lessons from his overall approach and methods can truly help you out a lot! Also, if you're not sure how to demonstrate value via copy, go read @SinisterLex threads on it NOW.

-DON'T WRITE CRAP! It seems like the quantity over quality strategy has begun to fade a bit. I'm pretty sure this is the reason why Amazon has instilled their new policies, assuring the "quick buck" writers don't get paid as much. Everyone was running around in a panic when these new policies came out while I was actually relieved. To me, it sounded like people who actually are trying to provide great quality content for readers still have a shot.

-On the other hand, Don't try to write a best-seller right away. This isn't me telling you to not put in great effort toward your writing, but don't expect to blow up overnight either. It's all about getting your customer base established.

-Use Free Downloads Wisely! I used to make the mistake of running my free promos consecutively, 5 days in a row. Don't do that. As mentioned, I put up 2 of the erotica titles for free for the weekend only, and will use the other 2 next weekend, then the remaining one at a later date. The whole goal with your free downloads is to get your product ranked and get your content out there for readers. You want to gain enough of a following to not have to rely on free downloads or KDP select. I chose the weekends for free downloads because of the audience I am targeting. I won't go into detail about who the stories target, but they're more likely to read a lot of books on the weekends instead of partying.

-Write now, edit later. As many others have mentioned, the "inner-editor" can be a real son-of-a-bitch. Just start the writing and edit it later or you'll take forever to make any progress.

-Don't pay for bullshit courses. I have to LOL at myself for this. I FINALLY cracked and purchased a course on KDP marketing and selling strategies only to realize *trumpet ensemble and drum roll please* IT WAS STUFF I ALREADY KNEW. Most of the shit in these courses people are selling is easily available on the internet for FREE through basic research and logic. Myself along with another member on here have discussed this heavily. If you need resources just ask Google, or use the best resource - READ BOOKS. I had no clue how to write a fiction book, so I started reading fiction books. Not for plot devices or ideas, but for structure reference.

-Do research and keep your books in a specific genre/niche. I went wrong with this on my first book. The overall idea is great, but it has content from too many niches. I initially thought this would be a great idea since it would get a wider audience, but man, I was extremely wrong. If you have a bunch of topics that you think would fit under one book, split it up into different books. Or, read any posts by @ChickenHawk

-The most important thing I've learned so far: RELAX. When I first started a little over a month ago, I was so anxious to get it done and get it published. This worked against me. I spent 12+ hours in one day writing relentlessly because I was anxious. It killed my focus, it killed my energy and it left me exhausted. It was a great learning experience. The biggest thing I'm struggling with now is my life/writing balance. Get outside, smell the roses, hit the beach, interact with the real-world. This is your palette-cleanser, it will help you overcome blocks.

MY "OTHER" VENTURE
I'm not going to go into detail yet because it hasn't launched. I'll just say it involves something I "love". I figured out a way to utilize something I love in a way to provide value to others. There will always be a huge need for it. Entry is difficult as hell, not because a lot of people are doing it, but because it is DIFFICULT to do, it's quite a long process (for now). I will hold 100% control over it. It can be scaled greatly and, once it's launched, it will be able to provide me with passive income. The actual product creation and platform is what's been taking the most time, but once it's launched, the platform time will be out of the equation, only the product time which I have no problem knocking out.

IN CLOSING
I'm sure this post is ridiculously long, boring, dumb, filled with errors, etc. Whatever. I'm going to be updating it as I go along. The point of it was to just get it up and take accountability.

 

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[ChickenHawk]

Only outsource if you ABSOLUTELY have to, and even then you'd better find a great writer. Amazon is flooded with outsourced, poorly written crap thanks to the money chasers following the "2012/2013" method of flooding with quantity over quality.

Yes!!! In related news, I believe that the recent change in Kindle Unlimited (paying for pages read as opposed to paying a flat-rate per borrow) will cut down on the noise of poorly written, outsourced stuff. This should help authors who aren't purely in the money-chasing camp.

-Write now, edit later. As many others have mentioned, the "inner-editor" can be a real son-of-a-bitch.

This is great advice.

-Advertising works, but it won't work on it's own. Don't rely on your ad's copy to make sales - your book cover, description AND ad description should all be viewed as COPY.

I've noticed a trend lately that I'm almost reluctant to comment on, but here it goes anyway...
Lots and lots of authors are using Facebook ads right now to try to sell books. On closed Facebook groups, I've seen lots of posts by frustrated authors saying, "Why isn't my ad working? I'm getting lots of clicks, but no buys." Here's the thing. The ad is doing its job. It's the book itself that needs work. I can't tell you how many of these ads I've clicked on, only to find a book that doesn't engage me at all. Frustrated authors are hoping that marketing and advertising can boost sales, but in my experience, this only works if your book (along with its cover and description) is already good enough to get organic sales. Also, too many authors are still desperately marketing their first and only book. IMO, this is a huge waste of time and resources. Even if they CAN make some sales, what then? Without a backlist of other books, where does the reader go from there?

Some advice for those looking to promote: If you're getting eyeballs on your book, but no one is buying, stop advertising and focus on the book itself. Advertising only works if you've got a product that people actually want.

About your progress post, It looks to me like you've got the right attitude to succeed in this. Good luck!

 

[mws87]

I've noticed a trend lately that I'm almost reluctant to comment on, but here it goes anyway...
Lots and lots of authors are using Facebook ads right now to try to sell books. On closed Facebook groups, I've seen lots of posts by frustrated authors saying, "Why isn't my ad working? I'm getting lots of clicks, but no buys." Here's the thing. The ad is doing its job. It's the book itself that needs work. I can't tell you how many of these ads I've clicked on, only to find a book that doesn't engage me at all. Frustrated authors are hoping that marketing and advertising can boost sales, but in my experience, this only works if your book (along with its cover and description) is already good enough to get organic sales. Also, too many authors are still desperately marketing their first and only book. IMO, this is a huge waste of time and resources. Even if they CAN make some sales, what then? Without a backlist of other books, where does the reader go from there?

Some advice for those looking to promote: If you're getting eyeballs on your book, but no one is buying, stop advertising and focus on the book itself. Advertising only works if you've got a product that people actually want.

Solid input here ^^^. You actually just reminded me about something I completely forgot to mention as far as platforms go. Facebook! I made a Facebook page for one of the titles and did a little paid advertising there as an experiment as well. It did exactly what it promised. Although I received a lot of Likes and an audience on the page, it still fell short when it came to converting them into sales. Like mentioned here, the book obviously wasn't engaging people in one way or another (this was my 1st book btw) yet, the likes stayed around on the page. People like the posts I make from the page and the page continues to grow organically even after the advertising. So, as ChikenHawk mentioned, it would be best to promote when you have a catalog.

Also, everyone reading this, please note that I did not take the marketing route expecting some crazy success from it- It was merely done as an experiment to see which titles would yield the best results. I went into it knowing it was going to be a sunken cost, but did it anyway to simply learn a little more as to what people were interested in. I do believe there are several ways to create a buzz without relying on paid advertisement.

I almost quit before I started, I felt like the eBook ship already sailed and I was late to the party, then I realized something: Although I'm here late, I'll be here when the next "ship" comes. When things get hard, you've got to create new ways to make it work. Right now, everyone is in the whole "Oh no! eBooks area dead because of this and that" scare, which may be good for people who are actually serious about it.

Also, thank you @ChickenHawk

 

[mws87]

Publishing Progress
Published another title yesterday (my 3rd fiction) which is a part of a series and seems to be gaining some momentum, slowly but surely. Actually have daily sales now. Although the sales are very, very small, it's encouraging to see my fiction writing is actually making some progress. I thought to myself "Okay - so it's sold a few consistently now, how am I going to explode this?". I have made sure to improve with each title I work on rather than just stick to my current writing and story/plot style. Like I discussed with another member here: those tiny, small sales felt way better than spending 12 hours at my scummy day job.

Also, here's why it is important to time your free downloads wisely:
My 2nd fiction title shot up to #70 over the weekend, but immediately dropped to the 4,000's after it was done, but It's maintained since and is the primary seller for my titles right now. Sounds bad, but it's not too awful when compared to my first fiction title dropped to the 28,000 area (ouch). To me, this says: the 2nd title had better quality and targeted the right market. Looking at expanding it.

So remember: know your audience and when they are most likely to look for their content. Obviously, with eBooks this is hard to narrow down 100%, but having a strategy is way more effective than aimlessly shooting in the dark. Your free downloads should be used as a way to boost your rank to get more interest on your titles. And, as ChickenHawk has said: if you're getting a lot of eyes but no purchases, find the leak! So far with the fiction titles, I've kept the description a bit short, but with intriguing details that captures interest.

Next short-term goal: finish up another title (not in the series) by tomorrow and set it for "free" on the weekend to see how it does.
Long-term goal: Within a couple of months, depending on how this genre is working out, I'd like to begin having full-length novels up. Not sure what genre they would be considered (It's a bit horror, a bit mystery, a bit thriller). Considering taking the same route and starting with short-stories to see how much interest there is in it.

The "Other" Project
Progress is steady, but slow as it's taking a lot of work and I don't want to lose momentum from publishing. Finishing up my first virtual product and plan to have the website launched by next week. I'm still keeping details about this pretty vague, but will get a bit more in-depth when it's launched. For some reason, the domain has been getting a lot of traffic (unique, real visitors - not spiders and robots). It's only displaying a "coming soon" page right now, but I have details about the business on the page. Could be the domain name itself bringing traffic, could be the description. Not really sure at this point. Although this is my "dream" project, I'm being sure to take the right route with it and not rush it. This project is going to require some marketing, so a strategy will need to be implemented soon.

Okay - back to it.

 

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[MKHB]

You know what really gets me motivated to make things happen? Reading through progress threads. You know what kills my motivation? Progress threads that abruptly come to a stop, left buried in the FLF graveyard beneath everything else.

WARNING: This is going to be long! If you're looking for the short progress thread that tells you how I went from being broke to buying a sports car in a week - this isn't the thread for you! It's going to be filled with real failures, real progress and, eventually, real success. I can have a bit of a scatter-brain at times, therefore I will try to keep this as organized as possible. I apologize in advance if I confuse/lose people on this.

Aside from a couple members I've had conversations with here, not many know me or what I do. Nobody here knows my intentions, my goals or my motives for being on this forum. Why? I've never publicized them, for a few reasons. The first being I don't like talking very much. Don't let my post replies fool you - I have an extremely introverted personality and usually keep to myself. I usually watch, read, observe and learn. I used to be a huge "talker" and that was the problem, nothing ever developed; it was all talk. Things have been very different for me the past few months, before I read TMF and even more so after.

The Goal
You've read this in every other progress thread and my goal isn't very much different from everyone else's.

What I'm Doing
Initially, I wasn't sure what I wanted to do, but I wanted to do something other than working 13+ hours a day at my job as my mental and personal health degraded for a secure paycheck, so I quit. Currently, I am doing Self-Pub on Amazon (as a lot of us are) as well as another project.

PUBLISHING
Let me preface this by saying I do not have a background in writing whatsoever. As a matter of fact, I don't think I've written much for the past 10 years. So, why did I start? I had to do something different. I had to get out of my comfort zone. I've always been the creative type - I've been a creator for years, but never looked at it from a business perspective.

I started with a few non-fiction titles. #1 was over 150 pages, #2 and #3 were shorter at around 35 pages. #1 was more of a self-help book, #2 was a short guide on making extra income (realistic, not ridiculous) and #3 was about dating.

I ran some small advertising for the first 3 non-fic titles. What I discovered is the "money" book and the "dating" book had way more clicks and purchases than the actual self-help book. For non-fic it seems people are more interested in getting laid and paid rather than taking time to make positive adjustments to their lives. As mentioned everywhere, most people want results NOW, not later.

So, did I make huge profit from those books? F*ck no, actually, the exact opposite. It was pretty much what I expected, although all those videos on youtube and blog articles with Joe Schmo talking about how they make $30k+ a month doing eBooks made me hopeful, deep down I knew it wasn't realistic.

I'd be lying to you if I said I wasn't discouraged. I kept reading about the Erotica buzz. I really didn't want to do Erotica for one reason: it is an extremely saturated genre. I was discouraged from the start to even try it. Then, one day, humoring the idea I actually checked out some of the better selling (not best-selling) erotica stories. A few things I noticed: they were all short stories and, using Kindle's "Look inside" feature, a lot of them were terribly written. "I can write way better than this". Wait, what? Could I? Yes, I could.
I was initially worried that I would be wasting more of my time, worried that people would be expecting crap as per what eBooks usually are now. So, I decided to add some value for readers via QUALITY CONTENT.

I published two short Erotica stories last week and put them on the "Free Download" promotion over the weekend, the results? Over 350 downloads in two days and "Normalized Pages Read" to match. Nothing phenomenal, but compare that to the fact those TWO days and TWO titles gave me more downloads than all of my non-fic titles over the course of a month is pretty eye opening. It even got me a few sales, once again, nothing amazing. I think my current royalties are only $14. Hardly anything to brag about, but a LOT to learn from.

I don't plan on doing Erotica forever, I feel like I'm secretly doing porn or something. Although, if the market screams at me, demanding more, I'll provide more. I'd ultimately like to get into thrillers/mystery, but remember: the market doesn't care about what you want.

The whole goal with the free downloads is to get the book ranked, get the out and start building a customer/fan base. As for the pen name I'm using for those titles - I don't have a platform yet. I've contemplated making one, but want to wait for more results/demand first. If the market shows me it wants more, I'll provide more.

The plan is to knock out 2 short erotica stories a week. So far, so good. In the future, I want to begin writing mysteries and thrillers when time permits. "LULZ, Erotica is all the same! What makes you special?" Well, nothing makes me special, but through research I've come to find most erotica stories are nothing short of porn scenes on paper. They are literally just pounding and pumping for pages and pages, with a very short or lacking story. Therefore, I decided to actually include interesting stories and plots to my works, the smut is just a bonus.

What I Learned (So Far)
-Only outsource if you ABSOLUTELY have to, and even then you'd better find a great writer. Amazon is flooded with outsourced, poorly written crap thanks to the money chasers following the "2012/2013" method of flooding with quantity over quality.

-Advertising works, but it won't work on it's own. Don't rely on your ad's copy to make sales - your book cover, description AND ad description should all be viewed as COPY. I had a lot of clicks, but not many purchases. This showed me I had some good copy on my ads that got people interested and most read the description, but only a small amount purchased. Why? The descriptions needed re-working.

-If you absolutely must do advertising, try not to be cheap with your PPC. The suggested range topped off at around $0.68 if I recall correctly. To experiment, I upped it to $0.75/click. It worked getting more traffic. I recommend everyone interested in marketing to read all of the threads by @Andy Black . Although his threads usually revolve around Google Adwords, the lessons from his overall approach and methods can truly help you out a lot! Also, if you're not sure how to demonstrate value via copy, go read @SinisterLex threads on it NOW.

-DON'T WRITE CRAP! It seems like the quantity over quality strategy has begun to fade a bit. I'm pretty sure this is the reason why Amazon has instilled their new policies, assuring the "quick buck" writers don't get paid as much. Everyone was running around in a panic when these new policies came out while I was actually relieved. To me, it sounded like people who actually are trying to provide great quality content for readers still have a shot.

-On the other hand, Don't try to write a best-seller right away. This isn't me telling you to not put in great effort toward your writing, but don't expect to blow up overnight either. It's all about getting your customer base established.

-Use Free Downloads Wisely! I used to make the mistake of running my free promos consecutively, 5 days in a row. Don't do that. As mentioned, I put up 2 of the erotica titles for free for the weekend only, and will use the other 2 next weekend, then the remaining one at a later date. The whole goal with your free downloads is to get your product ranked and get your content out there for readers. You want to gain enough of a following to not have to rely on free downloads or KDP select. I chose the weekends for free downloads because of the audience I am targeting. I won't go into detail about who the stories target, but they're more likely to read a lot of books on the weekends instead of partying.

-Write now, edit later. As many others have mentioned, the "inner-editor" can be a real son-of-a-bitch. Just start the writing and edit it later or you'll take forever to make any progress.

-Don't pay for bullshit courses. I have to LOL at myself for this. I FINALLY cracked and purchased a course on KDP marketing and selling strategies only to realize *trumpet ensemble and drum roll please* IT WAS STUFF I ALREADY KNEW. Most of the shit in these courses people are selling is easily available on the internet for FREE through basic research and logic. Myself along with another member on here have discussed this heavily. If you need resources just ask Google, or use the best resource - READ BOOKS. I had no clue how to write a fiction book, so I started reading fiction books. Not for plot devices or ideas, but for structure reference.

-Do research and keep your books in a specific genre/niche. I went wrong with this on my first book. The overall idea is great, but it has content from too many niches. I initially thought this would be a great idea since it would get a wider audience, but man, I was extremely wrong. If you have a bunch of topics that you think would fit under one book, split it up into different books. Or, read any posts by @ChickenHawk

-The most important thing I've learned so far: RELAX. When I first started a little over a month ago, I was so anxious to get it done and get it published. This worked against me. I spent 12+ hours in one day writing relentlessly because I was anxious. It killed my focus, it killed my energy and it left me exhausted. It was a great learning experience. The biggest thing I'm struggling with now is my life/writing balance. Get outside, smell the roses, hit the beach, interact with the real-world. This is your palette-cleanser, it will help you overcome blocks.

MY "OTHER" VENTURE
I'm not going to go into detail yet because it hasn't launched. I'll just say it involves something I "love". I figured out a way to utilize something I love in a way to provide value to others. There will always be a huge need for it. Entry is difficult as hell, not because a lot of people are doing it, but because it is DIFFICULT to do, it's quite a long process (for now). I will hold 100% control over it. It can be scaled greatly and, once it's launched, it will be able to provide me with passive income. The actual product creation and platform is what's been taking the most time, but once it's launched, the platform time will be out of the equation, only the product time which I have no problem knocking out.

IN CLOSING
I'm sure this post is ridiculously long, boring, dumb, filled with errors, etc. Whatever. I'm going to be updating it as I go along. The point of it was to just get it up and take accountability.

Absolutely outstanding post; neither boring nor dumb - an extremely articulate insight into your trials and tribs.

Thanks for sharing.

 

[mws87]

Alright, time for a quick update.

Had TWO huge lessons regarding control this week. The first actually started last week. I had another title published (a sequel to one of my other works). I went to view the title on Amazon and bam - Title Not Available For Purchase. Only was getting this error on the US store, yet all my other titles were readily available. I did some googling and discovered several people were having the same issue that day. Shortly after reading about the issues, I contacted Amazon. Apparently, there was some kind of bug going around that day for newly published titles. This sucked a bit as most of my audience is US based. It took about 2-3 days until my title was finally available in the US store.

Not a huge ordeal, but it could have been way worse. We've all heard about this happening to the guys who are doing FBA, although their situations are far more severe, like getting their store shut down temporarily. Nonetheless, lesson learned. After I build a stronger following, going to diversify and spread out my titles on different platforms.

Today was the second lesson. Had JUST finished a new story on my laptop via OpenOffice. I had just saved the final draft and took a break to watch a video. No more than ten minutes later, I go to wake my laptop up from sleep mode to discover *DUN DUN DUN* all of my work was a complete waste - it was gone. Yes, I save CONSTANTLY. Attempted all the recovery methods to no avail, the document was lost forever. Initially, I was pissed off. Hell, I still am a bit. It was like hours of work for nothing. Oh, and apparently OpenOffice doesn't have a backup function set by default, you have to go through the settings and activate it yourself.

Initially, I wanted to rip the laptop in half like a carnival strong man. But, I realized I can only be mad at myself for relying on the software to work 100% correctly. I have my own a$$ to kick for not saving it to an external drive or cloud storage.

It was a reminder that control applies to everything, not just a selling platform. I couldn't help but think of TMF when MJ mentioned he had been writing the book the whole time without a backup. Ha.

PROGRESS
However, aside from those ordeals I do have some positive updates!
Looks like my sales have been increasing more every day. Wondering if it was just because the pricing was low, I decided to raise the price on two of the titles (one being a sequel). Much to my surprise, they sold more. What really caught my interest is the sequel to one of my titles is selling which (hopefully) means these are returning customers.

Nonetheless, back to re-writing this whole story tonight to preserve my time tomorrow for more writing.

 

[Mattie]

Always back up your work on a flash drive or two if you're writing a novel. Every writer will run into those issues now an again, and some of the best have lost major stuff. Sounds like you're doing good.

 

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[mws87]

Always back up your work on a flash drive or two if you're writing a novel. Every writer will run into those issues now an again, and some of the best have lost major stuff. Sounds like you're doing good.

Lesson learned the hard way, my friend. I'm just glad I learned it early on and not in the midst of some crazy 300 page masterpiece. Trying my hardest to do good, man. It definitely takes a lot of self-discipline to stay consistent. When I first started it was definitely easier not to do it. I definitely have a huge respect for all writers now.

Will be keeping this thread updated once a week hereon.

 

[Mattie]

I learned it early on and not in the midst of some crazy 300 page masterpiece.

Ha ha! Yes reason I say two flash drives. I had my flash drive in my laptop when I first got to the Netherlands, and tripped over the cord, because it was charging, and If i remember right flash drive bent and cracked when it fell from the coffee table to the carpet. Laptop was fine, I was fine, but I was freaking out with 185,000 words on a broken flash drive I carried all the way from U.S. to the Netherlands. New computer and my son had mine in U.S. lol.
Yes two I keep plus on hard drive.

 

[mws87]

So, a little update. Unfortunately, hit a bit of a road block this week with writing. I literally had been mentally struggling all week with everything. Found myself to be extremely stressed out (unrelated reasons) and depressed. Whenever I would sit down to write, it was as if my brain couldn't even process a single action. BUT - I did, however build a platform for one of my pen name's as the sales have been at a steady pace and am actually reversing my strategy a bit to test results. Previously, I had free downloads scheduled for the weekend, which I noticed always caused a spike in Monday sales and sales overall through the week. Aiming to get more weekend sales, set a couple free downloads for Friday to raise rank and see what happens over the weekend since my target audience are those who are more likely to enjoy reading over the weekend than partying and blacking out.

So, as mentioned I was a little emotional this week and mentally absent. What did I do? Pinpointed my stress to being impatient, one of my worst traits. Knew I was going to have to get a slowlane job again at some point and was dreading it. After my self-pity party ended, I smacked myself in the face and had to remind myself to practice what I preach. Instead of settling for a small, part-time job, I aimed higher. Found a sales job that I'm definitely not qualified for, sent the manager an e-mail which was essentially my effort at writing copy, got a call within 5 minutes, did an interview the complete opposite way I usually did them and got hired, all within 24 hours. It's a job that has the potential of making really good money, but not something I plan to stick around with forever. What really caught my attention was the manager's view of formal education, sounded very similar to a lot of views on here; I liked his mindset.

The end game: payoff all my debt in 2016, keep writing and be able to match income, save a bunch of the money up and take off from California. Obviously I don't plan on writing being my fastlane, nor is this job. But I feel very confident that 2016 will have many life-changing (for the better) events via process.

Needless to say, after buckling down and getting off my a$$ to get my shit together, I feel a lot better an am once again onto my next publishing effort. I got too comfortable with the way things were going, had to step out. I notice a lot of people on here dread going back to jobs, but I think that's because we often default to thinking it's going to be "forever" or it's a "one or the other" type situation - bullshit. I'm not deserting and I don't plan on staying at this job forever. Just a way to get me financially closer to where I need to be. Since I've pretty much figured out how much time I need to write, I shouldn't have a problem balancing the two.

Lessons Learned (TL;DR)
-Don't avoid getting a job to pay bills because you fear it's a "one or the other" situation; it's not. Sure, I could let shit fall behind and totally sidewalk it, but that's not my style. My bills are a reflection of choices I made and I am an adult - get 'em taken care of and move on.
-Ditch the self-pity mindset as soon as possible - it's just going to hold you back in the long run.
-Stop being comfortable and do whatever it takes to get you to where you need to be, even if that means working for someone temporarily.
-Stop whining and get your shit together.
-Are you REALLY sure your mindset is as strong as you think it is? Mine wasn't. Quit being impatient, but don't confuse having patience with being lazy and negligent.

 

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[Omni]

I'm not sure how you're currently marketing your books. Try a permafree model, where the 1st book in a series is free and at the end of it, put an email signup + link to your next book or portfolio. Way more sustainable than one off email marketing blasts.

 

[Omni]

Also, as long as your job serves a purpose toward your fastlane path (e.g. funding it), you're still moving toward your destination. As long as you're honest about your job intentions. Sure, you might be taking a longer route to get there but you won't fail unless you completely stop.

 

[mws87]

I'm not sure how you're currently marketing your books. Try a permafree model, where the 1st book in a series is free and at the end of it, put an email signup + link to your next book or portfolio. Way more sustainable than one off email marketing blasts.

Thanks for the reply. I was actually curious about how to do the permafree method on KDP.

And just implemented the portfolio approach as well. Have "other titles" in the content for easy access to them.

 

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[mws87]

Also, as long as your job serves a purpose toward your fastlane path (e.g. funding it), you're still moving toward your destination. As long as you're honest about your job intentions. Sure, you might be taking a longer route to get there but you won't fail unless you completely stop.

Yeah, these past two months have been a crazy learning experience, but a very useful one. Job = funding for now. Not to mention a chance to get some other things taken care of.

 

[Omni]

For permafree, you can't have the book enrolled in KDP select. You'll need to publish to another platform like kobo or b&n for $0, then ask amazon to price match it under your kdp contact us.

 

[mws87]

A lot of hypocrisy on my end, LOL. Eating some words for sure.
I was going to be updating this thread weekly, then quickly realized that would leave me updating with every single nuance.

Nonetheless, here's what's been done the past few weeks:
-Started a slowlane job to get a little income for the time being (sales job)
-Got depressed, got over it, got depressed again, got over it again.
-Sales actually FLATLINED for the first time - FOR A WEEK. This is what happens when you think the little you've done so far will carry you a long way. Lesson learned.

So, the Erotica stories are still doing OK. I haven't published another Erotica story since early August. Why? I wanted to try something different. I know, I know - don't go niche hopping.

Well, a funny thing happened. I found myself in a really bad spot - mentally - during August. I reached a point where my motivation started to fade and I grew worried this was just another one of those "trial run" type deals. Eventually, I grew extremely frustrated and just started writing a rambling. Deep down inside, I knew I wanted to continue what I started. It was something I enjoyed, no matter how grueling or tiring. Remembering all those people reading my work fueled my fire a bit more.

I began to feel cluttered and distracted at my residence. I couldn't focus, I would start writing and cool off for a couple days. I wanted do a test, so I left and stayed elsewhere for a day. On my getaway, I opened the rambling story I wrote to myself and realized something - I had written a psychological thriller. The remainder of that night, I finished it, edited it, designed a great cover and put it up online. It was crazy, that small amount of time away from everything did the trick. The motivation is back and I'm running with it.

So August was a bit uneventful, settling into a new job and going through some changes caused me to put things on the back burner for a moment. But - I'm not ready to go out that quickly. I can't. Strangely enough, at my new job there are times in which it gets really slow. So, I open Google Docs and continue writing. Google docs on my phone as well for when I'm not in an office.

So, within the past week I've...
-Figured out how to balance my slowlane job w/ my writing
-Published a story under a new niche/pen name
-Leveraged social media to gather a following under this new pen name (which has actually been picking up quickly).
-New title is pacing slowly right now, but I remember this always happens with the first title under a new name.

Goals
-This month I am going to be working on my new genre as well as the erotica. Hitting that bump in the road really made me smack myself in the face. It's all about momentum now, I have to keep it going.

-Plan to have several of my new genre's stories up by the end of this month, bundle 'em together as a compilation a la HP Lovecraft and have prints.
By the end of the month the majority of my stuff in Amazon should be out of Kindle Direct. I have already created accounts for several other platforms and will have them up elsewhere instead of relying on Amazon.

Pretty boring update, I know. But, as I mentioned - I will be updating here with failures too. Luckily, I made it through the funk I was in, and am actually glad I went through it because it helped me grow and I learned a lot. It helped me create, and through that my writing has gotten a lot better (except for on the forum, lol).

 

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[Boozoon]

You are not alone when it comes to depression man.

John Romannielo, pretty cool guy in average and awesome trainer, recently wrote the following article about his experience with depression and three attempts at suicide ->
romanfitnesssystems.com/articles/depression/

What I really like was the fact that he articulated how I feel when I am depressed and his part on "Control" was great, seriously great. I think that small things like not washing the dishes, not tidying up my clothes, keeping the garbage a day or two in the house can be warning signs, at least for me. You might find some good, practical advice in it, I know I did!

I am also new in the self publishing, wrote two fantasy short stories but I only published only the first one, for 2 reasons:

1) Money is tight at the moment, and I would have to pay +5$ dollars for a fiverr cover.
2) I will start writing erotica short stories. I can not say they are saturated since I have been reading some relatively new authors that are absolutely killing it.

Can I ask what you are doing when it comes to social media? I will start implementing the advice Billy from foreverjobless gave, regarding instagram :
1) Make an account
2) post a pic
3) write 30 hashtags in the first comment, regarding the genre/target group.

Anything you want to add?

 

[mws87]

What I really like was the fact that he articulated how I feel when I am depressed and his part on "Control" was great, seriously great. I think that small things like not washing the dishes, not tidying up my clothes, keeping the garbage a day or two in the house can be warning signs, at least for me. You might find some good, practical advice in it, I know I did!

I've struggled with it in my younger years, coupled with panic attacks = good times (not really). Recently I've dealt with it after years of not having it even cross my mind, mostly because of poor dietary choices, decrease in my physical exercise and my obsession with time and control. Anytime I'm sick, or just exhausted, it frustrates me seeing the clock tick down, even though I'm physically and mentally unable to perform any further, it really gets to me. The thought of those moments lost, never to be regained again drives me absolutely apeshit. It's something I've been trying to work on and curb. I'm pretty sure most of us here experience really high ups and really, REALLY low downs. I've never gotten to the point where I thought of physical harm or anything (thankfully), I just try my best to deal with it, feeling as though I'm trapped in purgatory. I always have to remind myself that things are going to have to be difficult before they get easy (if I'm truly seeking progress). Balancing my slowlane job and publishing has been difficult and demanding, hence the now slow progress updates. But, I do what I can when I can - whether that be opening up my work online on my phone any chance I get and adding words, any downtime at work, etc.

I am also new in the self publishing, wrote two fantasy short stories but I only published only the first one, for 2 reasons:

1) Money is tight at the moment, and I would have to pay +5$ dollars for a fiverr cover.
2) I will start writing erotica short stories. I can not say they are saturated since I have been reading some relatively new authors that are absolutely killing it.

1) Do you have photoshop? If so, I'd highly recommend checking out tutorials for it. In my earlier years, youtube tutorials weren't a thing, let alone Fiverr. Photoshop resources in general were a bit scarce (they all seemed to revolve around web design and tutorials on how to replicate iMac "glossy buttons" lol). However, I searched, learned and repeated. It's pretty surprising how well those things will burn into your mind once you figure it out and the light bulb goes off. Even though fiverr is generally only $5, learning the skills you need is always gratifying and useful.

2) Yeah, Erotica is strange (in many, many ways). Title sales rankings fluctuate so drastically. Honestly, I slowed down a lot on it for a few reasons. The biggest reason was although I had been writing good content (actual stories, character development, etc) I found it to be something I began rushing eventually. I didn't want to just start being another Erotica writer with hundreds of books lacking quality. I turned to a new genre for the time being, something I am able to produce massive content for while maintaining good quality. I'll end up doing some more erotica soon, but only when I am able to produce something I feel readers will truly want. The stuff i'm writing now I actually enjoy and am excited to do. Luckily, the market size for it is probably only 2nd to Erotica itself.

Can I ask what you are doing when it comes to social media? I will start implementing the advice Billy from foreverjobless gave, regarding instagram :
1) Make an account
2) post a pic
3) write 30 hashtags in the first comment, regarding the genre/target group.

Anything you want to add?

So, here's the good thing about my social media and publishing. I already have a small, yet decent following from a musical effort (hobby) I've been doing for years. Luckily, I am able to tie in my writing to it and incorporate it onto my own platform. So, I wasn't just starting in the dark with my new publishing genre.

I wanted to start an Instagram for it, however I wasn't sure how to make it work with publishing. Then, right when I was going to reply to this I came across this post from @Gymjunkie
https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/co...sources-and-websites.47909/page-5#post-484993

One thing I've done on social media which is pretty common was find authors who my works are similar to, as I feel their audience would enjoy the same thing. Check out their followers and start adding/following them. It's worked out decently so far as many people will follow back, and has also begun bringing in organic followers as well.

Another thing I finally did, which I had put off forever, was adding my books to facebook groups. It's still too early to tell what kind of improvement (if any) it will make, but I'll be keeping my eyes peeled to it.

Wish this progress thread was filled with more "OMG! LOOK AT MY NUMBERS!" type stuff, which is disappointing to me. However, that's just the old anxious-annie in me coming out. Have to keep reminding myself it takes time and learning through failure.

It's funny, actually. I have a friend who saw what I was doing and asked "wow, so anyone can sell stuff on Amazon?". I know the guy is the typical incarnation of a money chaser. Before I explained to him it's not as easy as everyone makes it seem (and it's really not. It's still a business) I thought about it for a moment, and knew he would only hear what he wanted to hear in my response. My reply was simple - "Yes. Anyone can do it, you should go for it!".

Anyway, this concludes my ramblings for today. Can't keep showing my face around here without further progress!

 

[mws87]

Can't keep showing my face around here without further progress!

LOL. My thread should be re-titled "Time For Some Action-Faking!"

Ugh, reading back through this makes me cringe a bit. Not because I didn't accomplish anything, but because I realized delusions of grandeur are best slept on . . . keep sleeping on it . . . there, all gone? Good. Anyway, a lot has changed, and I can't let this thread eat up space where other members post valuable information. Having said that, I do have some updates. But, before I begin, as I've stated before: I ramble a lot. This is why I don't write nonfiction anymore. Also, a lot of this stuff is common sense. Unfortunately, I had to get my a$$ kicked to notice it. I don't know if anyone will find value in this--I'm sure that will come with my future posts--but, here it is.

What's Changed?
Well, if there was a word for it—and, there is—the word would be EVERYTHING. Seriously. If there were a "bulldoze" function on this thread, I would trample over all of my original posts and push them off the side of a cliff. But, I guess that's the good thing about progress threads, they're like journals. And, if you're reading a journal/progress thread as the same person who started it, you probably haven't progressed much. Thankfully, I have.

I've since changed my perspective on not only self-publishing, but everything regarding entrepreneurship. You see, I thought I had things figured out back when I started this thread. And, well, months passed, I got lazy, tried doing too many things at once, and doubted myself a bunch along the way. However, I decided against giving up on self-publishing since it was the only thing I was doing that was validated via sales (small ones, albeit). When I look back at my early writing, I cringe. Hell, I cringe when I look back at stuff I wrote a month ago. The good thing is I have at least noticed this stuff, and I knew how to fix it (which I did.)

Instead of feeding the delusion that I had it all figured out, I shut the hell up, sat down, and watched, took notes, and implemented new strategies. Things that I thought were valuable before were no longer valuable once I took my magnifying glass to it. I thought I was adding value to a marketplace, when, really, I was simply adding value to the bottom of the barrel; it wasn't acceptable to me, anyway.

Needless to say, things either needed to change or needed to be stopped. I changed course, and I am glad I did.

What was I doing? Lying to myself. Heh, well, not entirely, and not intentionally. I was embracing the "set it and forget it" method far too much. Unless you're an already established author, that shit (generally) doesn't fly anymore. I was picking popular niches, churning out what I could, and waiting for the sales—dumb-du-dumb-dumb-duummb. I was also blindly writing by the seam of my pants. Also dumb. And, I wasn't learning enough about "the craft" along the way. No, I simply believed everything will flow naturally while my subconscious does all the work (Passive Learning?). When I would look at competitors, I was doing just that: looking at them. I wasn't studying them, figuring out what makes them tick. When I would finish a title, I wasn't being critical enough about my own work. I was patting myself on the back too much.

I decided to take the laser focus approach and work on ONE thing at a time. I've also realized I am a bit ADD when it comes to things, and focusing was really hard. Anyway, I was searching through author rankings for my genre and came across a couple people at the top who were self-publishers. I looked through their titles and thought "I could do way better than this." And, for a moment, I realized it wasn't just the inner-guru trying to self-motivate. It was true. I could, and I currently am. What held me back, in the beginning, was the genre is something I know, and have known my entire life. It's something I've studied, it's something I was (so sorry for using this word) passionate about. And, even better, it can be quite lucrative once you break some ground and unearth it from the other scattered titles (no--it isn't romance). So, why didn't I do that to being with? Well, I kinda did. But I figured that, because I was passionate about it and enjoyed it, I shouldn't be doing it. Some logic, huh?

Anyway, I focused really hard, I studied everything the other writers were doing. Studied the genre even further, and began looking at the world of self-publishing from all angles. I published a new novel and, rather than using the "set it and forget it" method, I went into marketing mode. What happened? It sold more than all of my previous titles combined within the first week. Even better, when I took a proper approach to marketing free days, rather than getting the few hundred downloads I was used to getting when I fist started, I got thousands. And, with it, a lot of positive reviews. Funny, I did the whole "raise your price point before free promo" approach, and completely forgot to set it back to the $2.99 price point afterward, but got even more sales the following day. Seems like the title really caught on, but I'm reserving my celebrations.

Now, when I say I studied everything, what I mean is rather than simply "looking" at what other people were doing, I switched my X-Ray goggles from consumer mode to producer mode. I read in between the lines of everything. I joined several Facebook groups on self-publishing. However, I didn't join to post, I joined to see what others were doing, and noted what I shouldn't be doing. You know who most of those members in those Facebook groups are? AUTHORS. Seriously, every post is "read my book", "hey! check out this book!". My twitter feed is filled with the same. So, I decided to go where others aren't, and picked up on some paid promotion sites and other platforms regarding the GENRE, not just books themselves. I don't get spammy with things, I don't plead people to read my books. Basically, I don't act like another self-publishing author. I learn, write, market, publish, improve, and repeat.

It's funny, all of this stuff I pretty much said with my initial posts here. However, at the time, I thought I was doing it right. Now, with my new approach, feedback suggests I actually am, and have actually improved. The problem I had before was my own anxiety; I was rushing to get things done because I felt, for some reason, that I had only limited time to get things going and the more stuff I put out, the better. While it's true the bigger the catalog, the better your chances, it's also true that rushing to grow your catalog only hurts you in the long run. Don't do this. Focus and refine. You can only chop at the block so much until you need to sharpen your blade.

What I've Learned (and will continue to apply)

• With writing and publishing, preparation and organization is the key. With writing and publishing fiction, your ability to tell a story is just as important (as anyone, especially HFR, will tell you.) I've known this all along, but, for some reason, never applied it previously. I've since begun focusing on the important things in a story (character dev, world building, etc.) and, it seems to be working really well. Also, since switching my "goggles" over to producer-mode, I can't watch any movies, or ready anything without noticing the cues within. This is a good thing. I'm leaving producer-mode on.

• There is no "Magic Formula": Just because a specific approach worked for Jon Doe or Jane Doe doesn't mean it will work for you. Whatever phase in the process it is, you have to find what works for YOU. Don't try to convince yourself that because Stephen King does this or that, it must work for everyone. No, knock it off. What's worked for me is learning from the approach of others, but tweaking it until it's properly fitted for my use. For example: I've noticed everyone outlines differently, and some people are incredibly skilled at it. I've tried their methods, and wound up essentially writing a book about the book I was going to write. That's good for some stories and some people. For me, however, it's the equivalent of being strangled and wrestled into submission with only enough room left for shallow breaths. I've developed my own way of outlining, and it's just what I need. It keeps me on track, gives me some breathing room, and doesn't pin me into a corner.
  
  
• Watch Everything: As mentioned, I used to study other authors. But, what was I really doing? Well, nothing. I was looking at their ranks, their "also boughts" and skimming the preview of their books. I repeated this loop of nonsense until I stepped back and looked at their catalog, sorted by publication date. Look at what they've been putting out, for how long, and looked for the sudden "change". Do their older titles have only 3 or 4 reviews when, suddenly, a new title has a ton? What's changed? Compare everything, and figure out what shifted during that time. You can mindless throw books up every month, but if you're not developing an effective approach for collecting eyeballs, nothing will change. Hell, there are some authors in my genre who have an insane amount of titles in their catalog, and good one, too. Yet, their books just sit and collect e-dust. Although you'll likely notice a change in writing, story-telling, etc. You'll also come to realize that a lot of the work went into the back end of the process. And, although the back end of someone's process is usually hidden pretty well, you can still figure it out.
  

There is a lot more I wanted to add to this post, but it's taken me way too long to write it already. Time I could spend working. So, unlike before, I'll be popping in here and using this place as a mind dump. All in all, I feel foolish for starting the thread with such high hopes to begin with, but also thankful I did, and I'm thankful my initial approach failed. Phase 2 has begun.

 

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[mws87]

I am a little over 20,000 words into my next title. I was hoping to knock out 4,000 more yesterday, but ended up with only 2,000. Needless to say I was a little disappointed. I wish I could blame it on "writer's block" or something else, but the truth is I messed up -- I began over-thinking the story and direction, thus violating my #1 rule I set for myself: get the story down now, fix it later.

The story is outlined well, but not enough to restrict me. And it actually makes sense on paper, yet when I reached a certain part of the book yesterday, I felt the sub-plot I was constructing was becoming redundant and began over-shadowing the main plot. Once that thought came about, I found myself writing two pages, deleting, and starting over again—don't do this. This is how manuscripts end up in the trash and how screenplays end up in developmental hell. I will continue on today, get the story down, and come back in the revision to fill in the gaps and trim the fat.

My recently-released novel is losing a little steam at the moment. But, I know why and it's nothing to jump ship over (it never really is, is it?) With that title, I've been keeping my eyes to the back-end of things really close, and I've seen the error of my ways. Basically, when I launched, I made the mistake of setting up all my promos, marketing, etc. on the same day. From what I've seen, it appears that, while the sudden "spikes" in sales and downloads helps climb rankings, it also leads to a quicker falloff if you're not maintaining the momentum. Whereas staggered promotion and a "slow ramp-up" of numbers will help you maintain your position a bit more. The problem here is I was too focused on being a writer and getting my next title done rather than being a publisher and covering all bases. Lesson learned.

Random Thoughts

Handwriting
There have been several things that helped me overhaul my mindset and approach lately. One of the most helpful habits I've been using is handwriting. No, not entire novels--I'm no Clive Barker (apparently he does all of his first drafts in longhand, 100,000+ words!)

Whether it's plot synopsis, outline, notes, etc., I do it longhand. Yes, I have Scrivener, and I find it to be a very useful tool, yet handwriting really helps get the gears in my head turning. I've noticed when I type everything out (in the initial phase, anyway) it becomes far too easy for me to just delete and change. That should be a good thing, right? Well, no. Not for me, at least. It was allowing me to waste too much time trying to construct the "perfect outline" (lol--chasing the dragon, you could say).

Also, I've found it very helpful to jot down my notes regarding the content I've written for the day. Possibly a fruitless exercise for some, but a valuable one for me as it helps me catch plot-holes a lot easier in the revision and also helps me remember things that may need to be changed later.

Learn, Develop, and Advance
No-brainer, here. Just make sure you aren't spending all your time learning without applying your knowledge. That is like mental-hoarding. I did it for months and it only further discouraged me from getting things done. Put things down on paper, make mistakes, fail, and figure out what you don't like about the process, then figure out how to fix it. If you look back at your old work (whatever it may be) and don't see ways you can improve--or need to--then you're either a genius or a fool. I was a fool for a long time and thought things were "good enough." Sure, they may have been for that moment, but it got me stuck in a rut for a long time.

Also, with reading, I like to make sure it's actually useful. If it's fiction, I'll note the structure, grammar, themes, etc. I like to dissect things figure out what makes it tick. And if it's non-fiction, I like to make sure it's something I can actually apply to myself in some way. Anything else is just a time-suck.

That's all I have for now. May not be useful to most, but it helps me de-clutter my brain. Moving forward, I'm planning on sealing up the first draft of my new title within two weeks, and will update upon further progress.

 

[mws87]

My recently-released novel is losing a little steam at the moment.

And it shot up over 20,000 ranks this morning. Ha. I'm used to Saturdays being pretty minute, so I was a little surprised. The good thing is, since I've refined my work and started over, I haven't had any days without sales other than free promo days. And, even then, I still consider the free downloads a win (when they're high, that is.)

The downside to "starting fresh" is, of course, having less titles in my catalog. However, doing everything differently has brought better results in a shorter amount of time, which is promising.

I am a little over 20,000 words into my next title. I was hoping to knock out 4,000 more yesterday, but ended up with only 2,000. Needless to say I was a little disappointed. I wish I could blame it on "writer's block" or something else, but the truth is I messed up -- I began over-thinking the story and direction, thus violating my #1 rule I set for myself: get the story down now, fix it later.

Got over this and knocked out 3,000 words yesterday w/ no problem. Realized part of the problem is getting too ahead of myself with typing. My average WPM is between 90-100, give or take. The problem is, I know this, and I try to blast through things before my brain can even process what's going on, haha. Gotta slow it down.

There is a huge thing I forgot to mention in my previous posts. It doesn't have to do with publishing progress, but I still like to count it as personal progress.

I've mentioned before about dealing with depression and anxiety issues, as a lot of members here have. Well, part of the reason I had put self-publishing on hold for a few months was because I had to figure myself out before I could figure anything else out. So, I took a step back and looked at my own life. My health was suffering, as was my mind. And all I had to do was make some minor changes to see great results. Yup, small changes lead to big results, sometimes. Here are some of my personal ramblings/rants:

• Leave Problems Where They Belong: Whenever I began to feel stressed about anything, I realized I carried it around with me everywhere. This leads to the "I'm having a bad day" syndrome. It's bullshit. You're only letting yourself have a bad day. Most of the time, it comes from losing control over your emotions. Now, if anything happens that I'm not too fond of, I acknowledge it, take care of it, and move on from it. If it's a matter I can't attend to immediately, I tuck it away for later. And, when it's tucked away, I don't worry about it. It reminds me of mass-hysteria in a way. If news broke that a comet was coming toward earth, everyone would freak the hell out and likely panic themselves into cardiac arrest. WHY? Unless you're superman and plan on tying on your cape, flying out to space, and knocking the comet into smithereens, you can't do anything about it. That was a pretty extreme example, but I feel people act the same way with trivial matters. Oh, you owe money on your taxes? Shucks, your bills are too high? Seriously, it's not the end of the world, and unless you're able to pay everything off immediately, there's no point in worrying about it. People work themselves into a frenzy over the smallest issues when they don't have to. I can't thank @Vigilante enough for the link he put up to his podcast in which he explains his darkest days. I think that podcast needs to be stickied on this forum.
  
  
• You Have Control of Your Life, Whether You Believe it or Not: This is heavily touched on in TMF , and I feel it goes hand-in-hand with CHOICES. Unless you're in prison, or live in a country under an oppressive government, you do have control, and you have to make the decision to take and maintain control. I had always known this, but it didn't click in my brain until I was out for a hike one day. I remember I had stopped smoking (and haven't smoked since!) and my sense of smell had begun to return (you wouldn't believe how much smoking dulls your senses) I could smell the blades of grass, the flowers, the trees, hell--I could even "smell" the mist from the nearby waterfalls. It was an intense moment of tranquility. I felt free. Nobody was going to come and put a gun to my head and demand me to go home or force me to live life a certain way. Then, I thought about bills, car payments, etc. and wondered "if I lost EVERYTHING, what would happen?" Well . . . nothing. I would still be alive, I just wouldn't have things. By the way, this should never be used as an excuse to not take care of your responsibilities, it's just an exercise that demonstrates a point. I then realized--in my life, anyway--I had been living with the subconscious belief there was an "invisible controller" who ruled my life. There isn't, and there never will be. This is the same reason people get sucked into dead-end jobs. Hell, even if you're married and have a family, you still have the freedom to make choices and take control. Stop lying to yourself. Speaking of which. . .
  
  
• Naysayers Gonna Say Nay: One of my closest friends called me the other day and we chatted a bit. I've told him before of what I'm doing, why I'm doing it, etc. His first response was: "I wish I could do something like that, but . . ." He then inserted the "I'm too old, not smart enough, etc." excuses. Anyway, he calls me, and starts the whole "You know, I've been thinking a lot lately. And I thought 'man, I hope Mike can find a good job and setup his retirement. Dude, I wish I would have started investing in my 401k when I was your age (he's 10 years my elder)" I laughed and told him no thx. The sad thing is, he even said, IN HIS OWN WORDS, "I won't be able to retire until I'm 70!" Ummm... HELLO! You seriously just relinquished control of your life! You just made the choice that you will live the same life, every day, until you're 70 (if you even make it that far). The point is, people are going to doubt you. Who cares. Get over it. Their reality shouldn't change yours. The problem here is, when you make choices and set goals that are far from the reality of others, they seem to take it as a threat to their reality. A lot of people will want you to fail just so they don't feel shitty about their own decisions. Anyway, we're still good friends and, when that topic closed, we went back to discussion as usual.
  
  
• Take Care of Your Health: Self-explanatory. Stop making excuses about being tired or under the weather. I go on 6-7 mile hikes, six times a week when the wonderful, bi-polar California weather permits. And, when it doesn't, I go for runs around the nearby Lake. If there was ever something I was passionate about, it would be my hate for running, but I still do it. When I tell people this, their heads look like their about to explode. "Wh-wh-wwhhaaat? Why do you do it then??" For my health. Not only that, but for a mental discipline to build a healthy habit. I'm glad I started doing it, too. No more does my mind feel "cluttered" and "foggy". Hell, it helps me solve problems, too. When I'm out and exercising, I keep my mind clear. Then, I end up figuring things out. Treat your body good, treat your brain good, and it will reward you.
  
  
• Stop Getting in Your Way: Aside from the healthy habits I've been developing, I've also developed another pet peeve. This one ties in with Choices and Control and my first point: "Ugh, I already know I'm going to have a bad day," "Dammit, looks like today is going to suck!" "I feel so lazy today" (insert other trivial gripe here). I hate this. I hate it because you've already DECIDED that life is going to shit on you. You've already made up your mind that misery is absolute. Just knock it off, seriously. I feel this relates a lot to the post MJ made about people having ice cream in their freezer and struggling to not eat it (you lost the battle in the grocery store). Once you've decided everything is going to suck, you just lost. There is no invisible man antagonizing you throughout the day, there's only YOU. Stop tripping over your own feet. Had a bad morning? Cool, I have plenty. They happen, they pass, I get over it and move on.

This concludes my mind-dump (mindless, maybe?) for the day. I'm sure there's a lot of redundancy, but getting it out of my head helps it not crop back up.

 

[mws87]

Looks like today will be the first flat-line in sales (Mondays, huh? haha). Guess it's time to give up . . .

. . . Jk. Knocked out only about 1200 words for my next novel (we'll call it Book #2). Had another story brewing in my mind (we'll call this guy Short-Story #1) that wouldn't go away. So, I normally wouldn't give in to temptation and stray from my main project, but I gave it a shot and ended up knocking out 2k words of Short-Story #1 in less than an hour, which actually helped me clear it from my brain and get my focus back onto Book #2. Like I said, I don't normally fall for the "shiny object" syndrome, but in this case it actually helped. I'll be crunching away another 2k words tonight for Book #2.

One thing I've been thinking about lately is whether or not to build up a "backlog" of content before I publish. What I've always done is finish a title (revisions, editing, etc.) and publish it before going onto the next thing. However, I've been thinking about getting some things done, sitting on them, and releasing them over time. I'm not immediately certain if there would be any major benefits to doing this other than having a stream of content being released while I work on more. @ChickenHawk I read through your entire progress thread again today (still one of my favorite!) and I think you mentioned completing an entire series before publishing, I could be mistaken, though. (I'm wiped out today!) I know you're a busy gal, but would you be able to shine some light on this?

 

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[ChickenHawk]

@ChickenHawk I read through your entire progress thread again today (still one of my favorite!) and I think you mentioned completing an entire series before publishing, I could be mistaken, though. (I'm wiped out today!) I know you're a busy gal, but would you be able to shine some light on this?

Thanks for your kind words about my progress thread!

I've heard about some writers completing a whole series before publishing, but I've never taken this approach. I usually release my books as soon as they're ready, mostly because I'm always in a crazy panic to hit my promised release date.

But there's definitely something to theory of letting books marinate before giving them a final edit. It's just hard to sit on a product when you could get it out there, you know? Also, it seems like the market is getting more competitive all the time, so there's something to be said for making hay while the sun shines. This year is more competitive than last year, which was more competitive than the previous year, etc.

But I will say this. From those impressive word counts you've listed above, you're a much faster writer than I am! With those speeds, you could probably afford to do both, write some that you push out immediately, and others that you let marinate for a bit.

I'll be interested to see what you do, and how it goes.

 

[mws87]

I usually release my books as soon as they're ready, mostly because I'm always in a crazy panic to hit my promised release date.

It relieves me to know I'm not the only one who gets into it's-done-I-need-to-publish mode! I don't even have a large audience yet (wishful thinking, maybe) and I still get overwhelmed with anxiety when I have a title finished up.

But there's definitely something to theory of letting books marinate before giving them a final edit. It's just hard to sit on a product when you could get it out there, you know?

YES! This reminds me of when I was 16 and used to sell music I created to customers online (this was before it caught on, when you weren't considered a "real artist" if you were on the internet. Funny yet saddening when I think about what I could have done had I kept at it.)

I've thought about the whole "sit on it for __ weeks" approach. I'm tempted, but like you said, it's hard. It's even worse when I look back at my work (even the recently published one I was so proud of upon completion) and think "Ugh, wtf was I thinking? This is terrible!" Then again, that may only be because I try to develop further with everything I write, and you know how personal critique can be. The title I recently finished has sold over 100 copies thus far, but I know I can do better. I have to.

Also, it seems like the market is getting more competitive all the time, so there's something to be said for making hay while the sun shines. This year is more competitive than last year, which was more competitive than the previous year, etc.

This is what discouraged me early on. Well, that and not accepting I wasn't doing enough. I peeked into the top-sellers in my genre and read some of their stuff. Then the thought popped up, "I can do this, and I can do this better."

But I will say this. From those impressive word counts you've listed above, you're a much faster writer than I am! With those speeds, you could probably afford to do both, write some that you push out immediately, and others that you let marinate for a bit.

I need to find a good, "balanced" speed. When I go too fast, I have more things to fix later. And when I go too slow, I start loosing steam >:[

I'll be interested to see what you do, and how it goes.

Thank you! This means a lot to me.
Thanks again for your insight and all the knowledge you and all the others have provided here. In my leisure time I can't think of anything else to do but learn from the best on here. So thankful for this forum!

 

[mws87]

Word Count Today: 3,000

I got tired of my legal yellow pads looking like the scribbled ramblings of a madman, so I decided to fully migrate my manuscript into Scrivener. After a while of setting it up, I'm feeling a lot better. I've noticed when writing in Word or Open Office things can look a bit cluttered and it becomes a little counter-productive after a while (Wow! Looks like I've got a good 2,000 words done! Oh, only 500.) Getting lost in text is no fun, and it sucks when it comes to revisions.

With the layout options of Scrivener, I've found my productivity and focus come back. Kinda upset with myself for waiting so long to use it. Looking to finish this thing up this week, hopefully. Then I can expand it. As I mentioned (I think I did, at least) I do things backward and don't follow the common "2nd draft = 1st draft -10%" approach. A lot of people would probably frown upon that, but I find it to be the most effective for me.

Another thing I should have prepared for a long time ago: back pain. Get a good chair. Seriously. This one I'm using has been beat down and decomposed into what feels like a flat, piece of wood under my a$$—not good! Guess I'll be knocking that out this week too.

 

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[mws87]

Got another 3k done, but finished it much earlier in the day, which means I'll likely get bored sometime tonight and add another three thousand to it.

With the summer approaching in about two months, I'm considering the "marinate" process (leaving a title alone for X amount of days, working on something else, then coming back to revise). Then again, as ChickenHawk stated, the thought of sitting on your product can drive you damn-near insane. We'll see what happens.

One thing I've noticed is, although writing becomes easier the more I do it, my self-doubt still likes to pop its ugly mug in every now and then and say hello. This usually stems from me watching videos or reading posts of other author successes and it lives me with that b.s. thought "maybe I'm not good enough." Eh, nonsense. I know I can do this. And I will. Thankfully the doubts that plagued me so much before aren't nearly as strong as they used to be, and it's a little easier to plow through.

It's probably my subconscious setting my standards up to the success of others. Meh. Whatever.

Onward!

 

[Selfy]

Got another 3k done, but finished it much earlier in the day, which means I'll likely get bored sometime tonight and add another three thousand to it.

With the summer approaching in about two months, I'm considering the "marinate" process (leaving a title alone for X amount of days, working on something else, then coming back to revise). Then again, as ChickenHawk stated, the thought of sitting on your product can drive you damn-near insane. We'll see what happens.

I used to write at 3k, but it started burning me out, so I reduced it to 1k some time ago, and now it is up to 2k. Still, I get pretty tired, but not as much. Even then, I figured 2k for 300 days (roughly one year take one day off/week) counts to 600,000 words, which is roughly more than half-a-million. They say you need to write a million words to turn pro in the world of fiction.

It turns out I want my stories to end quickly, so I make them as short as I can, and aim for the next one, with the goal of getting the practice in. I also mix and match them and work on several stories simultaneously. So far it works for me. I think your progress thread is a breathe of fresh air here, so I hope you can keep posting. Here's a story I found that might be of use.

Student: Master, how many years until I become a Master like you?
Master: It will take ten years.
Student. But Master! I want to get better faster.
Master: *brushes beard*
Student. What if I work twice as hard and twice as long. How long will it take to become a master like you?
Master: Twenty years.

 

[mws87]

I used to write at 3k, but it started burning me out, so I reduced it to 1k some time ago, and now it is up to 2k. Still, I get pretty tired, but not as much. Even then, I figured 2k for 300 days (roughly one year take one day off/week) counts to 600,000 words, which is roughly more than half-a-million. They say you need to write a million words to turn pro in the world of fiction.

It turns out I want my stories to end quickly, so I make them as short as I can, and aim for the next one, with the goal of getting the practice in. I also mix and match them and work on several stories simultaneously. So far it works for me. I think your progress thread is a breathe of fresh air here, so I hope you can keep posting. Here's a story I found that might be of use.

Student: Master, how many years until I become a Master like you?
Master: It will take ten years.
Student. But Master! I want to get better faster.
Master: *brushes beard*
Student. What if I work twice as hard and twice as long. How long will it take to become a master like you?
Master: Twenty years.

That's exactly why I'm doing 3k, haha. When I first started, I was cranking out around 20-30 pages a day. Great speed, but a whole lot more work come editing time. Lots and lots of work. I got burned out quick from it, not to mention it wasn't helping my writing get any better. It's just satisfying to know I can do it. As far as days off go, I don't really have a "set" schedule, maybe I should. I usually write six days a week, sometimes seven. Then, there are days when it's five, but I usually play "catch up" on one of those days and double my writing.

Thanks for the kind words. Greatly appreciated Funny story, and sort of ties into what I mentioned about writing too quickly and having to do more editing--turns into working twice as long, haha.

Since I've changed my approach to this business, I've realized the things I previously hated the most (marketing) aren't really that difficult; it just comes down to a basic strategy. The most difficult part--for me, at least--is dealing with Amazon's algo and balancing the dates of promotion and marketing. That shit literally requires a strategically-made schedule.

Hopefully I'll be updating this in a couple months with some big updates, but I don't want to get too ahead of myself (starting over from scratch is tough . . . in some aspects.)

For now, my first draft of my next novel is nearly complete. Going to fight temptation to power through the revision and work on something else instead.

After this title, I may be trying out a different genre for a while, will have to do more research though. Cheers.

-Mike

 

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[Selfy]

Since I've changed my approach to this business, I've realized the things I previously hated the most (marketing) aren't really that difficult; it just comes down to a basic strategy. The most difficult part--for me, at least--is dealing with Amazon's algo and balancing the dates of promotion and marketing. That shit literally requires a strategically-made schedule.

If it's any help, I think the first year of writing teaches you how not to write. Meaning, once you feel that painful stretch of having written yourself to a corner, with your motivation diminishing and even sinking below zero, then you will try, instinctively, to avoid that. The pain of having botched a story is too great.

Also, IMO, I hope you take this constructively, it seems that you are focusing a little too much on the marketing/promotion, because it seems to me that marketing is the last piece of the pie, and is the domain of the writers who had already mastered the craft like @ChickenHawk, with a market-tested skill of writing built upon decades of honing. Marketing, IMO, is the easy part, at least for me, who fancies himself an entrepreneur, a newbie writer who finds under-supply situations in niches, and who defines promotion as maybe a freebie (if I remember to do it); but the writing, good-excellent writing, is the part that is hard to develop. In golf, the name of the game is to get a powerful, repeating swing. In self-publishing fiction, it is the writing.