Hey WC,
My first month, I published three books across Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo and Smashwords.
In all, for the entire month, I sold 21 books. Those freaking books took me forever to write and I *barely* made $40.
Not the greatest of starts. My wife thought I was nuts. :coco:
Anyway, fast forward 8 months and 20+ novellas later and I broke the symbolic $10,000 in a month barrier. Since then, I've struggled with all sorts of various issues but I just kept at it. Today, I bounce around between $15,000 - $20,000 most months and I currently put out a novella a month.
Now, is that "legendary" money? No. Of course not. It's "good" money. It's hard to believe that's what I consider $15,000 a month now but it's the truth. When you start making more, $15,000 won't seem that great.
Still, what earning "good" money has done for me was give me two things I hadn't ever had in abundance in all the years of trying to become successful - time and options. Now, I have both of those and my family *finally* has some breathing room to really accelerate things.
As for me, I aiming for "legendary" money now but as you can see, I'm still a ways off. In my mind, that looks like six figures monthly but at the same time, it will take a lot of time and a lot more books. I think that building a business as an independent publisher is really no different from any other business you read about on here. What I mean is that "overnight success" usually takes more than a few books (and a few months) to manifest itself.
Sure, you'll have breakout authors like Jasinda Wilder but if I were you, I wouldn't waste time comparing my results to theirs. Rather, consider the fact that you are playing on a field where the home run is a real possibility. That's far more important. It's like MJ says, you have to play on a field where you can hit home runs and with e-books, at least with fiction, it's possible.
The last thing I would say is that it could be that writing in the genre you're in or just writing in general isn't for you. That's something that only you can decide. Frustration and doubt is normal but believe me, if you want to do this badly enough you can. I've been fortunate enough to get PMs from other folks here that are really doing well. I won't mention names because they've asked me not to but trust me, there are people here that are doing very well and haven't been at it all that long either.
I hope that's somewhat encouraging to you. I understand your struggles as much as anyone here which is why I felt compelled to chime in.
Here's some links to some things that you might find inspirational/helpful:
List of the top selling authors at Kindle Boards. Take note of how long most of them have been at it. And, that's just with Kindle. Most of them have years of prior writing experience.
The collected posts of H.M. Ward. The thing to consider is this woman's fanatical work ethic - she's a beast.
Here's a particularly relevant quote from her this past June...
I don't know if that's helpful but it's the truth as I see it with over a year in the game now.
My first month, I published three books across Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo and Smashwords.
In all, for the entire month, I sold 21 books. Those freaking books took me forever to write and I *barely* made $40.
Not the greatest of starts. My wife thought I was nuts. :coco:
Anyway, fast forward 8 months and 20+ novellas later and I broke the symbolic $10,000 in a month barrier. Since then, I've struggled with all sorts of various issues but I just kept at it. Today, I bounce around between $15,000 - $20,000 most months and I currently put out a novella a month.
Now, is that "legendary" money? No. Of course not. It's "good" money. It's hard to believe that's what I consider $15,000 a month now but it's the truth. When you start making more, $15,000 won't seem that great.
Still, what earning "good" money has done for me was give me two things I hadn't ever had in abundance in all the years of trying to become successful - time and options. Now, I have both of those and my family *finally* has some breathing room to really accelerate things.
As for me, I aiming for "legendary" money now but as you can see, I'm still a ways off. In my mind, that looks like six figures monthly but at the same time, it will take a lot of time and a lot more books. I think that building a business as an independent publisher is really no different from any other business you read about on here. What I mean is that "overnight success" usually takes more than a few books (and a few months) to manifest itself.
Sure, you'll have breakout authors like Jasinda Wilder but if I were you, I wouldn't waste time comparing my results to theirs. Rather, consider the fact that you are playing on a field where the home run is a real possibility. That's far more important. It's like MJ says, you have to play on a field where you can hit home runs and with e-books, at least with fiction, it's possible.
The last thing I would say is that it could be that writing in the genre you're in or just writing in general isn't for you. That's something that only you can decide. Frustration and doubt is normal but believe me, if you want to do this badly enough you can. I've been fortunate enough to get PMs from other folks here that are really doing well. I won't mention names because they've asked me not to but trust me, there are people here that are doing very well and haven't been at it all that long either.
I hope that's somewhat encouraging to you. I understand your struggles as much as anyone here which is why I felt compelled to chime in.
Here's some links to some things that you might find inspirational/helpful:
List of the top selling authors at Kindle Boards. Take note of how long most of them have been at it. And, that's just with Kindle. Most of them have years of prior writing experience.
The collected posts of H.M. Ward. The thing to consider is this woman's fanatical work ethic - she's a beast.
Here's a particularly relevant quote from her this past June...
I don't know if that's helpful but it's the truth as I see it with over a year in the game now.
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