I first started publishing only about 3 months ago and quickly began to see a trend (with myself) in reading comments like the above - I began to lose motivation. Every article I read which focused on the pitfalls made me second guess myself."...The odds are extremely long. Extremely. Better than they were as trad pub, but still very, very slim." Russell Blake
Yes, it's hard, however, I soon realized, as MJ and many others have said "It's supposed to be hard."
As mentioned, it's extremely difficult for those who aren't pursuing it with a fastlane mindset. If you fail, you learn (hopefully). Make adjustments where necessary until something sticks. If you're persistent enough - it will work.
Just like any business, to succeed you have to fight competition, learn, grow and create value. Appreciate your readers, don't treat them like suckers.
I'm actually happy about Amazon's new program, it's putting a damper on the money chasers. I read reviews for certain books by my competition, one really stuck with me: "I'm always reluctant to buy these shorter books, all of the ones out there on kindle seem to be really poorly written. And once again, I regret purchasing this one." Paraphrasing there, but those are the parts that stuck with me.
It's pretty straight forward: create value. Whether that be great quality, something that grabs reader's attention and makes then want more or simply showing readers not all kindle publishers are quantity over quality types.
Remember, as useful as Amazon can be for driving traffic, it's not the only platform available.
If you're putting out books for years and still having the same results, you're not improving. It's similar to when body builders hit a plateau in muscle and strength development. What do they do to overcome it? CHANGE IT UP.
Perhaps some of the more successful writers here can weigh in on how KU has (if at all) affected them.
@ChickenHawk @Held for Ransom @Mattie
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