24th
of January 2014 marks two years since I entered the world of self-publishing.
It’s been an interesting ride, that’s for sure.
First
up, the reveal-all stats. I have nothing to shout home about but I’ve not done
as bad as a lot of people probably think.
As
of today, I’ve sold 1943 books across all platforms and formats, and made
roughly (Jan’s report isn’t in yet) $2400.
Of
those sales, roughly 1500 were in my second year, so my sales basically tripled
from my first to second years.
In
total I have 32 items available across four different pen names. Four novels, a
novel sampler, five collections of short stories, twelve individual short stories, four novellas (comedy) under
a penname, five short stories (sports) under another penname, and one “work” of
non-fiction.
My
biggest seller is The Tube Riders, which has sold 754 copies across all
platforms. Next up is my standalone horror/thriller, The Man Who Built the
World, which has sold about 600. The only novel that sells without me doing
anything is the sequel to The Tube Riders, The Tube Riders: Exile. All the
others require constant promotion.
During that time I've also written a shade under 600,000 new words, although I was lucky in a sense that I was writing for many years beforehand, and a lot of my published work was written over the last ten years or so.
During that time I've also written a shade under 600,000 new words, although I was lucky in a sense that I was writing for many years beforehand, and a lot of my published work was written over the last ten years or so.
I
consider myself the very definition of a lower midlister – I sell enough and
make enough to call myself an author and justify what I do, but I’m not making
enough yet for it to make any significant difference to my life. In fairness, when
I started out in 2012 it was with a seven-year plan to become full time, and I
expected to make nothing for the first three years. I’m still spending more
than I’ve earned, but the gap is closing. With the third in a trilogy out
by the end of January, I’m hoping that 2014 will be a bit nicer to me.
Here’s
a list of things I’ve learned. Some of these are serious, some are a little
tongue-in-cheek. Be aware this is not really advice, just things I’ve come to
understand, but I tend to talk to myself because I don’t have many friends.
Different things work for different people, and while for me Twitter sucks, for
someone else it could be the key to world dominance. And as always, everything
I say is subject to change.
1. Social media alone
doesn’t sell books
But,
it’s extremely important for maintaining your fanbase. Nothing sells books like
paid promotions. All the Twitter, Goodreads and Facebook in the world won’t
sell you as many books as a Bookbub, but they’re great for fans to come to
AFTER they’ve read your books. Basically, you steer the fans towards you with
promotions, then you net(work, ho hum) them with your social media presence.
Once they’re there you can cultivate them as you choose.
2. Never assume anything
Run
your Bookbub promo or your ENT Book of the Day, but never get too excited.
Always expect the worst – zero sales. Then everything else is a bonus. I’ve
crashed and burned too many times to get excited these days, but that doesn’t
mean I won’t keep coming back. I just refine the way I do things, maybe change the covers, then have at
it again. Be optimistic, but thinking things like, “Yay, I’ve got a Bookbub, I’m
going to make 2000 sales today,” is just asking for trouble. It’s all part of
the process of hardening yourself against the knocks.
3. Be flexible
I
once promised myself I’d never write a sequel. I’m now just finishing the final
touches to a trilogy and have at least two more books planned in the same
world. Write what you love (more on that later) but always be open to new
ideas. Self-publishing requires the most open of minds.
4. Always look for new
opportunities to promote
You
name it, I’ve lost money on it (including Bookbub). In fact, I think the only
promotion site I’ve not lost money on is ENT, and only because they charge a
percentage rather than a flat rate. However, you have to be looking at long
term gains, and especially if you have a series, because you could make your
money back further down the line, in sequels sales or sales of your other
books. And you have to be constantly looking for new ways to promote. New sites
appear, people create multi-author boxed sets and anthologies, and you never
know when one might give you the lift-off you need. Get in on as many different
promo opportunities as you can, but don’t turn into one of those annoying
spammy types who send me private messages on Goodreads or Facebook asking me to review their book. Remember,
for spam, Twitter is your best friend.
5. Don’t trust online
converters :-0
The
worst – or at least most frustrating – review that I’ve received (which was
kindly plastered across two Amazons, Goodreads and blog, complains mostly about
my formatting (it also says my book sucks, but I can deal with that haha). The
reviewer received a review copy I made through an online converter, a mistake
I’ll never make again. If you know what you’re doing with computers that’s
great, but when you’re computer-illiterate like me, it’s better to only use
copies you can trust. When I send out review copies now, I either send a PDF or
a Word and ask the reviewer to convert it to their preference. Amateurish it
might be, but I dread to think how many sales I’ve lost because people have assumed
my Amazon formatting sucks, when it’s actually pretty decent.
6. Don’t condemn someone
for a single breach of etiquette (but block repeat offenders!)
Everyone
is a noob at some point, and like me, not everyone knows the rules on spamming
or pestering people. Several people I’m now good friends with came across as
“please read my book” types at first, and I’m glad I didn’t automatically pull
the shutters down. Give people a chance. However, if someone is repeatedly
spamming your blog or Facebook page, be ruthless about wielding the axe.
Dispatch them like a rotten tree stump and heave their broken remains into the
nearest e-fire.
7. Do not expect or ask
for help from those close to you
If
you have supportive family and friends then that’s great. If they no more care
about your writing than what you did at work or what you ate for dinner, don’t
lean on them and expect them to buy your stuff. They are not your crutch.
Everything – 100% – of your motivation must come from inside you. If you get
support later on from other writers, then great, but if you need just one
person to give you a gee up then learn to deal without them or you will never
be able to survive. If you’ve come up the hard way like I have, through bloody-minded
perseverance in the face of months and months of pathetic sales while everyone
around you is laughing behind their hands because you suck and you’ll never
amount to anything, there’s no point in being a pansy or crying into a pillow. Go
and scrape your fingertips on some sandpaper, dip the bleeding stumps into some
salt, growl into a mirror, and get back to work.
8. Write in a bubble
When
you’re hard at work writing, you’re entirely alone. People can encourage you
but no one can write the book for you (unless you pay them, haha). As I said
above you have to find the motivation but you also have to discipline yourself.
Find time. I work full and part time, but I made the sacrifices necessary to
get in the time I needed – about three hours a day – to do what I need to do. It
wasn’t that hard; I just ditched the waste of time stuff like watching TV and
having friends :-0. I still need more time – but I have enough to produce a
volume of work that keeps me - if not happy - then for the time being, content.
9. Have absolute faith in
your work
There’s
a difference between being self-critical and thinking that you suck. I’m my own
biggest critic but I take criticism from others very well because I always want
to push my writing to another level. However, at a base level, while I might be
a bit rough around the edges, I know that I rock. I don’t just think it. I KNOW
it. My books are almost painfully good. People can tell me I suck a million
times but I will still believe that the narrative I’m creating is a good one
and has merit. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t be doing this. You have to be your own
biggest critic but also your own biggest fan. Confidence is attractive. Have
it.
10. Write what you love
Okay,
here’s the controversial bit. The internet is full of writing advice – pick a
popular genre, write a series, copy all the big guns and do exactly as they do,
blah blah blah – but it is only YOU who is sitting at your desk and it is only
YOU who is writing your book. Forcing yourself to write something that you have
no interest in or that you’re only writing because you’re hoping it will sell
better than the story that you actually want to write is only cheating yourself
and will make you miserable. Sure, some people can deal with it – but it’s a
lot easier to do something you don’t enjoy when you’re earning $1000 a day. That’s
why there are so many lawyers. And once you actually have a fanbase, then is perhaps the time to redefine how you approach a story that will please both yourself and the people waiting to read it. If you’re struggling to make $100 a month though,
you should be concentrating on writing the stories that you can put the
entirety of your soul into. Empty your heart into that story and weave it out
of strings of love. It’ll be a better book for it, and you won’t dread getting
up and going to that writing desk every morning. You’ll be staying up late at
night to write it, or like me, getting more and more dependent on coffee.
11. Cultivate and nurture
relationships
I’ve
met dozens of awesome people over my time in self-publishing, and while the
writing itself is a solitary affair, there are thousands of others out there in
exactly the same boat. Your family might not want to talk about how you felt
after a tough day at the desk, but there are other writers that will. Find them.
Meet them on forums, in groups, even in real life, if you have a life away from
your desk (I go to work and band practice but that’s about it). Be nice to
them, and help them when you can, and they’ll do the same for you. And then in
ten years time when someone you knew as a floundering noob is a literary superstar,
you can sell the paperback they signed for you as a joke on eBay.
12. Give back
Everyone
starts a noob. Today’s noobs are tomorrow’s bestsellers. If anyone has ever
helped you or given you advice then take a little time to give a bit back.
People will appreciate it and they might even read your books. I’ve found that
in general no one really cares what you have to say unless you’ve sold more
than them, but the nature of this business is that we’re all standing on a very
long ladder, and there will always be someone below you. There’s always someone
you can help, so give back what you can. It takes time to develop a thick skin
in writing, but you can help someone else out simply by identifying with the
struggles they’re going through on a daily basis.
13. Set low targets but
aim constantly to break them
Nothing
boosts confidence like a bit of success, but one man’s success is another man’s
failure. Set low targets for yourself and attempt to smash them into oblivion.
Then, when you’re confident you can top them regularly, shift them up a level.
Never set completely unrealistic targets, at least not until you’ve been
punishing yourself at this for a couple of year and you’re sure you can take it.
Hitting yourself in the face with a hammer really kind of sucks, unless it’s
made out of sponge. Then it’s a massage.
14. Never stop learning
Even
after twenty years of writing I still pick up new tips almost every day. Get
critiques from better writers to improve your craft and listen when more
successful people offer advice on marketing and branding. Think with your eyes
open and NEVER stop learning. You might not agree with everything that you hear
but successful people have become successful for a reason and you owe it to
your dreams and your career to at least consider what they have to say.
15. Work your ass off and
be prepare to work it off for no reward
Two
years in, and I write/promote probably three hours a day for roughly $1 an
hour. I've got 51044 words for January already (NaNo, what's that? haha) but I'll be disappointed if I don't hit 70k. And I work full and part time around that. Almost every day I hear of success stories where someone has put out a
book and sold 100 copies off the bat without knowing why, or has maintained a
steady rate of sales over several months or years for no reason and with no promotion.
These are outliers. Applaud them, then push them to the back of your mind. The
majority of indies are floundering. Even with my modest sales I’m probably in
the top 5% when it comes to success, and I barely make enough to pay for my
next cover. At the end of the day I love what I do and I will continue to bust
my ass at it in order to become as successful as I possibly can. And if I never
make it to the higher echelons of sales, at least I will have given my best
effort. Don’t sell yourself short by spending your time whining about not
selling or getting bad reviews. Chain yourself to that desk and get words down
on the screen.
And
that’s about it. Onwards to year three ….
Chris Ward
January 24th 2014
Chris Ward
January 24th 2014
