Persistence is what makes the impossible possible, the possible likely, and the likely definite. – Robert Half
I’ve had several conversations in the last week with other writers that surrounded the subject of doubt demons, dealing with stress, and career paths. I’m sure part of it is that January was fast coming to a close, and if they’re anything like me they’re thinking… “Damn, time is just whipping by…again.” and if others are like me they’re thinking maybe they need to revise their goals for the year. But I think the other part of it, the bigger part, is that we’re writers, and no matter how much you write, how many sales you have, or how well your last book did, we still have doubts.
It’s funny because I know me and my friends fight these demons off to somewhat regular intervals, and I often hope that someday I’ll get to that point where I don’t doubt my skill/talent/or drive anymore, but I doubt it. Yes, there’s another doubt.
Because it seemed to be such a prominent topic of conversation I figured I’d share some thoughts of my own, as well as some that I’ve seen elsewhere that have stuck with me.
Carrie Vaughn’s post a while back called A NYT Bestseller has a meltdown really hit home with me, not just because of what she said, but because of who she is. I’ve been a fan of Carrie’s for years, and think she does a fabulous job on every Kitty novel, as well as her other stand alone’s.
The truth of it is, we all have doubts, and it’s not always a bad thing. Doubts are very bad, when you let them cripple you, or worse yet, stall you altogether. Doubts are bad when you give in to them and let them take over. But I believe if you acknowledge them, and consciously work to run right over them on your way to the finish line (whatever that is in your case) that they can be a both of a good thing because doubts mean we care about what we’re doing. That we’re not just churning out the same thing again and again in some sort of formula that once worked and we think will work again.
Like most things in this often crazy business, doubts are all about how you use them.
If you want more reinforcement that you’re not alone in having self doubt…check out this articles, that quote’s some pretty well-known authors voicing their doubts, and gives some great advice for dealing with doubts.
I’m going to leave you today with a couple of steps from a post I found on romance writer Kelly Wolf’s blog
1. Keep writing. You won’t want to, but you can. It’s all in your head. Really. Just do it.
2. Read a book on your craft.
3. Write some more.
4. Check out blogs by your favorite author or other writers with information on your craft.
5. Write again.
6. Read. And then read some more. Remember why you love books.
The last year has seen big changes for authors. Yes, self publishing has become the norm for many, with results falling all over the board. My own efforts have been pretty small compared to many of my friends and easily summed up.
Now, before you get to the numbers and information I want to point out that the differences in $$ numbers are not just so large because of higher/lower sales, but because of the price of books. 35% of .99 is not the same as 70% of 4.99 and the same goes for every price in between. So keep that in mind, and take the information from each situation as it is, and not necessarily as comparisons.
We’ll start small…with my short stories.
I self-published three releases in 2011.
Book 1) Rock My World -a 11K short story that was part of a duet with Charlene Teglia. (New and orginal)
Book 2 ) Mavericks of Space- 2 6k short stories, connected, and put together for sale. (Both previously published)
Book 3) Highland Heat – a 14k short story, completely new and original.
Book 1 released in March , and had slow, but steady sales all year, with no noticable bump in those numbers when book 2 or 3 were released late in the year. Book 2, released in early November, and sold about half of what Book 1 does on a regular basis. Book 3 released in early December, and sold almost exactly the same amount as the first two.
So, while none of these books were huge sellers, they’ve been slow and steady, and adding more stories/releases obviously increases my check size, but it hasn’t boosted actually sales numbers for the stories. What this makes me think is that the people buying the stories are obviously enjoying them enough to buy my other releases, but the word hasn’t been spreading, and each new release has not increased the readership as a whole…yet.
In general, I’d say my average income was $50 a month per short story. Not as good as many I’ve heard from, but not bad either considering Mavericks of Space were simple rereleases, and the other 2 stories, while new material, were short stories that took me less than a week to write. Of course when self publishing, you also have to deal with edit and covers and formatting and everything else, so I’m not too convinced self publishing is for me just yet. I’m still openminded, because I also know I did nothing to promote any of these other than put them on my website, facebook and twitter, but I’m not drunk on the kool-aid yet.
Note: NONE of my stories were enrolled in Kindle Select plan.
Now, on to some information friend and Genreality alum Alison Kent was generously willing to share. Alison had 2 books, both previously published category length novels that she’d re-released on her own. And both of her books had been available on Amazon and at other electronic publishers previous to entering the Select program.
Here’s’ what Alison Kent had to share about her December numbers.
My UK sales $ moved from about $20 per month to $170. And my USA sales $ moved from about $400 a month to $1200… BUT, most of that action was the week after Christmas. I had the two enrolled books listed for free for three days over the holiday weekend. And had around 4000 free downloads, which wasn’t a lot. ( Overall, an approx gain of about $900)
Here’s the thing, though. About 80% of the month’s money came AFTER the books went back to their regular price of $3.25. This says to me that hitting the various Kindle lists in the 100 – 200 range while free put the books in front of readers long enough to have some traction. January’s numbers are falling back to the usual dismal amounts, but since it’s still enough to buy groceries, I can’t complain!
Not bad at all I think. I’d be happy with that, especially when you remember that those are backlist books that Alison got the rights back to, and then self-published.
This third author had three connected novels in the Kindle Select program for December. All three novels had been available both at Amazon, and in other venues previously, but, like many of us Author A (for anonymous) was intrigued by the opportunities self-publishing gives us, and thought to give the new Select program a try.
Book 1 average from the three months before was just over $1,100 Book 1was free for 5 days through Select and total sales income on Amazon (all countries) from this book in Dec was $400. Because this book was in the Select program , there was also a loss of sales due to removing it from other venues. The average from those venues on this book was about $800 a month which meant the total loss of income for the was probably over $1,500
Book 2 and 3 were not free at any time during December, as the hope was by making Book 1 free, it would increase the sales in book 2 and 3 of the series. This did not happen, and in fact, seemed to have hurt the sales of those titles even more than Book 1. Over all, when adding in the loss of sales from other venues, as well as a drop in sales at Amazon Author A suffered a loss of income of approx $8,000 by putting three novels that were already selling well into the Kindle Select program.
We have one more Author who was willing to share some numbers with me. Author B, who also wants to remain anonymous, had one book in the Kindle Select program. It was an unpublished novel by a new, unknown author, and she took advantage of the 5 free days you get with the program.
For Amazon.com she had over 260 downloads in December for this book, that equaled just over $400 in sales. Other Amazon sales for this book in Dec made her close to $2,000 which brought the total sales to just over $2,300
That book had been for sale on amazon for a couple of months before enrolling in the Kindle Select program, and it had been making about $800 a month for the author, so for her, the Kindle Select program paid off with an over all gain of approx $1,500
Now, this is what *I* get from looking at all this information.
- The way to make money with self publishing (aside from writing a good story, and getting a good cover, and all that other stuff) is the same as it’s always been….backlist is king. More than one title is what helps bring in the income, and get readers talking.
-If you’re already making decent sales and money on your self-published books, then you’re only going to hurt yourself by taking putting them into the Kindle Select program.
-If you’re a new author looking to get your title in front of readers fast, then the select program and those 5 free days could be the tool to help do that.
It’s the first theme week of 2012 here at Genreality and the topic is business goals for the year. Yesterday Carrie talked about her process, and I bit back a smile as I read her post because she works this stuff the opposite of me-and I’m jealous.
You see, I love the idea of goals, but I seem to have problems with them; both making them and sticking to them. I used to make them all the time, and at first I reached them often, but as time wore on I noticed that I’d stopped reaching them… Because I’d stopped striving for them. I’m not sure if this is because I’ve never been someone to look to far into the future, or because I, as a person, have changed so much as I grew older.
Reading what I just wrote you’d think I’m not a very goal oriented person, but I really am, it’s just that my goals are sort of hazy. I love to write lists, but once they’re written I rarely read them, let alone check things off. I love agendas and organizers, yet after I buy them I tend to use them rarely.
Make sense yet?
You see, I’m always thinking about my goals, about what I want out of life, out of my career, out of myself. And they goals are constantly changing. But being that way isn;t a good thing when it comes to running a business, and I look at my writing as my career, my business. So yes, I have goals. And yes, I write them down, in one of those list I never look at again. I write them down so I feel commuted, but I don’t read them again because I’m more committed to what the goals represent than what they are. To me they represent moving forward, expanding, reaching for the next pinnacle. In reality, as long as I’m moving forward, I’m going after my gaols.
As I reread this post I wonder if it’s going to make any sense to anyone because it makes very little sense to me. It’s times like this I accept that I might have a bit of the cliched “crazy artistic creative person” inside me.
So, I’ll share my current 2012 list with you.
-start a series
- write three novellas
- write one full length single title novel
- work steady and bring in a steady income.
- organize your receipts for taxes every quarter, so you’re not swamped at year end.
You might notice how all of those goals tie together, and that all of those things are within my control. I can only control what *I* do, and I can pretty much guaranteed that this list will look different at this time next month.
That it’s all about me. Yes, Seriously it is.
Let me explain. When I first started out writing I had no support system, and had taken no writing classes, or workshops. Despite that I only had one rejection before I was published, and after that, everything I sent out was accepted, and published. In the 9 years that I’ve been writing I’ve had 4 rejections. The first 2 were within the first year of my starting, (and one was a revise and resubmit) the other 2 were in this past year.
There were no rejections in the 8 years in between. What does that tell me? That I need to go back to the beginning, when I didn’t worry about what was happening in the rest of the industry, or where I would submit something or what readers would think. I just wrote what I wanted, the way I wanted to. So what did I learn with all this thinking and planning I’ve been doing this past year? That it doesn’t really matter, what really matters is the writing, and in order for me to get motivated and be productive again, I need to trust myself. So, yes, it’s al about me…at least until after the story is finished, then there will be time to think, worry, edit and stress. *g*
This clip is 7 minutes long, but the first 2 minutes of it isn’t what I want you to see., the last minute is nothing special either. It’s the 4 minutes in the middle that are gold.
Enjoy, and remember.
“The first key to writing is to write… not to think.”
Hey everyone! Christmas is less than a week away! WHoo Hooo!
That means 2012 is getting closer as well!
I figured since I talked about Self-publishing some stuff earlier this year, I’d let you know what’s going one with them. Plus, since 2 out of 3 of my self pubbed offers are FREE this week, I thought you might be interested.
I’ve been keeping track of some of the numbers as I try various promotional things, and I’ll post the results in January. I’m waiting until January because then I’ll have a full month worth of info for Highland Heat, which was released earlier this month.
Mavericks of Space is a Free Read on Smashwords and All Romance eBooks for this week only. (Feel free to mention on Amazon that it’s cheaper elsewhere, but Amazon will only price match, they won’t let us self publish free reads.
ABDUCTION
When Max Cooper, a “damaged” ex-Coast Guard officer, wakes up naked in a strange bed with no memory of how he got there, “alien abduction” is not what pops into his head.
It’s Captain Tyla Natori’s job to bring males from other worlds back to her own female-dominated planet to be put “on the market.” When she finds a perfect male speciman in the form of Max Cooper, however, she decides he’s the one for her…and he has no choice in the matter…Or does he? TRANSPLANT
Max made his choice to stick with Tyla and become a Transplant on Triton. Only things aren’t going too smoothly, right from the start. Max wants to be Tyla’s only lover, and for a Triton woman, monogamy is unheard of. Then there’s the fact that the queen’s ordered Tyla to marry a Durian prince in order to prevent a war.
Nothing brings two people closer together than facing a common foe, but can Max and Tyla stop the marriage and still prevent a war?
Abduction:6,700 words
Transplant:6,591 words
Please note: These stories have been previously published, separately, and with a different cover. They contains explicit language, frequent graphic sex scenes.
MEANDROS is a free read posted everywhere, and always.
Only once more, always once more.
Dancer Tammi Johnson thought she knew everything about her body–until she was almost crippled in a car accident. She’d resigned herself to a life without joy until the sexy and dynamic Tom showed her that dancing wasn’t the only passion, or pleasure, she could experience. He taught her to live and love with her whole body–and her whole heart
But when tragedy strikes again, Tammi is devastated. Until she acknowledges that the only way to honor the love of her life is to celebrate what he taught her, and for Tom, she’d do anything once more.
HIGHLAND HEAT is a new release, and it’s new work. It’s not for free anywhere, but hey, it’s only $2.99 so I hope you might check it out anyway.
The story of a Highlanders Heart
When Dougal MacNeil refused to do an evil witch’s bidding he saved his honor, but lost the chance of a life with his soul-mate. Now, almost three hundred years later he has a chance to finally have what he’s always wanted, a life with the woman he’s always loved, or the re-incarnation of her anyway. In this life, she’s already married to man he calls friend.
Dougal is shocked when the couple asks him to join them in their bed, but unable to walk away. Will sharing her love with another man shatter his heart forever, or can this traditional Scotsman find his happy ending with a new beginning?
