Starting a thread on this distinguished forum is almost as scary as clicking 'Publish' on my first book! But I promised someone I would, so here goes.
My self-publishing journey started with non-fiction. I've always been opinionated, so writing about my experience from my own point of view was appealing. Imagine my surprise and consternation when NO ONE bought the book! Imagine my surprise and delight when I received a check for $11 from KDP Select last year. I still don't know what it was for.
Late in the year, I started paying more attention to my oDesk account, took some tests to rank among contractors for editing and started receiving requests to write. Now, writing on oDesk is NOT a lucrative business. Most people want 500-word articles, for which they are willing to pay up to a princely $5. By the way, they want you to do your own research. So I turned most of those down. However, I received a query from a gentleman who was willing to both provide research for my convenience, and pay a little more. We formed a collaboration, and to date I have written 5 or 6 books for him. He's pleased with the way they're selling. Along the way, he strongly encouraged me to write for myself, too. So I dusted off a couple of Word files I had written years ago, updated them, and published them. Also collaborated with my daughter to publish her story, which concerned a health issue. That brings us to May or early June of this year when my mentor discovered Held for Ransom's epic thread https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/se...006-hello-denver-self-publishing-success.html.
Both of us were set on fire! He started writing children's books, and I, having just read Fifty Shades of Grey, said, 'I can do that!'
After finishing up the work to publish the non-fiction books, I published my first story on July 23rd, the second on July 24th, and the third on July 29th. Then I slowed down and started writing longer stories. The fourth, 16,000+ words went up on August 15th, and the fifth, 30,000+ words, went up on August 28th. Then I started a full-length novel, which I finished at 60,500 words a couple of days ago.
Here were my mistakes:
1) Made my own covers with free images (yes, I used the correct licenses, no worries), which limited me in art. My covers aren't very good, I'll admit it. I'm working on that.
2) Jumped in with little or no research into the genre.
3) Didn't get another pair of eyes on the stories before I published them.
4) Placed one book in KDP Select for the ability to hold a free event, limiting my ability to publish the entire series on other platforms.
Here's where I was lucky:
1) I found a treasure trove of readers of my genre on social media platforms, chiefly Facebook and Goodreads, who have helped get some publicity to the books at no cost to me other than the free copies I've given to reviewers.
2) My reviews and ratings have generally been positive. I wish that the people who returned my books (3) would have given a review so I would know what they didn't like; but, realistically, you can't please everyone. I assume that my very explicit descriptions of sex scenes or the circumstances surrounding them were distasteful to some. Poor souls, I wish them the best.
3) My free event resulted in 854 downloads.
Here's what I'm doing now that I think is right:
1) Maintaining social media relationships with others who can either beta read my work to improve it, review it, or publicize it. I could spend a little less time doing this, but I was a Facebook junkie before I started publishing.
2) Reading and reviewing other authors in my genre and taking note of what works, what I hate and pitfalls to avoid.
3) Occasionally acquiring and reading how-to books on the craft of writing.
4) Following the original thread that inspired me and a few others that have cropped up in this category, especially the very detailed progress threads.
5) Putting a number of these tools together to plan out an extensive series. Meanwhile, I'll be publishing a couple more shorts, just to keep the schedule on track.
At this point, I'm not satisfied with turning out stories that are merely fast to write and steamy in nature. I don't particularly care to read those stories myself, I want more out of a plot. I want to improve both my pacing and my dialogue. I want to write less stiffly and with less formal grammar, as most people speak, but still maintain an eye toward quality that is sorely lacking in indie authors in my genre.
As far as sales go, the stories are selling, albeit slowly. A couple here, a couple there. I'm going on faith that the advice promulgated by Held for Ransom, Thriftypreneur, britnidanielle and ChickenHawk (among others) to write, publish and write some more will eventually result in better sales. To that end, I'm trying to achieve a balance between writing fast and writing well. Wish me luck!
My self-publishing journey started with non-fiction. I've always been opinionated, so writing about my experience from my own point of view was appealing. Imagine my surprise and consternation when NO ONE bought the book! Imagine my surprise and delight when I received a check for $11 from KDP Select last year. I still don't know what it was for.
Late in the year, I started paying more attention to my oDesk account, took some tests to rank among contractors for editing and started receiving requests to write. Now, writing on oDesk is NOT a lucrative business. Most people want 500-word articles, for which they are willing to pay up to a princely $5. By the way, they want you to do your own research. So I turned most of those down. However, I received a query from a gentleman who was willing to both provide research for my convenience, and pay a little more. We formed a collaboration, and to date I have written 5 or 6 books for him. He's pleased with the way they're selling. Along the way, he strongly encouraged me to write for myself, too. So I dusted off a couple of Word files I had written years ago, updated them, and published them. Also collaborated with my daughter to publish her story, which concerned a health issue. That brings us to May or early June of this year when my mentor discovered Held for Ransom's epic thread https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/se...006-hello-denver-self-publishing-success.html.
Both of us were set on fire! He started writing children's books, and I, having just read Fifty Shades of Grey, said, 'I can do that!'
After finishing up the work to publish the non-fiction books, I published my first story on July 23rd, the second on July 24th, and the third on July 29th. Then I slowed down and started writing longer stories. The fourth, 16,000+ words went up on August 15th, and the fifth, 30,000+ words, went up on August 28th. Then I started a full-length novel, which I finished at 60,500 words a couple of days ago.
Here were my mistakes:
1) Made my own covers with free images (yes, I used the correct licenses, no worries), which limited me in art. My covers aren't very good, I'll admit it. I'm working on that.
2) Jumped in with little or no research into the genre.
3) Didn't get another pair of eyes on the stories before I published them.
4) Placed one book in KDP Select for the ability to hold a free event, limiting my ability to publish the entire series on other platforms.
Here's where I was lucky:
1) I found a treasure trove of readers of my genre on social media platforms, chiefly Facebook and Goodreads, who have helped get some publicity to the books at no cost to me other than the free copies I've given to reviewers.
2) My reviews and ratings have generally been positive. I wish that the people who returned my books (3) would have given a review so I would know what they didn't like; but, realistically, you can't please everyone. I assume that my very explicit descriptions of sex scenes or the circumstances surrounding them were distasteful to some. Poor souls, I wish them the best.
3) My free event resulted in 854 downloads.
Here's what I'm doing now that I think is right:
1) Maintaining social media relationships with others who can either beta read my work to improve it, review it, or publicize it. I could spend a little less time doing this, but I was a Facebook junkie before I started publishing.
2) Reading and reviewing other authors in my genre and taking note of what works, what I hate and pitfalls to avoid.
3) Occasionally acquiring and reading how-to books on the craft of writing.
4) Following the original thread that inspired me and a few others that have cropped up in this category, especially the very detailed progress threads.
5) Putting a number of these tools together to plan out an extensive series. Meanwhile, I'll be publishing a couple more shorts, just to keep the schedule on track.
At this point, I'm not satisfied with turning out stories that are merely fast to write and steamy in nature. I don't particularly care to read those stories myself, I want more out of a plot. I want to improve both my pacing and my dialogue. I want to write less stiffly and with less formal grammar, as most people speak, but still maintain an eye toward quality that is sorely lacking in indie authors in my genre.
As far as sales go, the stories are selling, albeit slowly. A couple here, a couple there. I'm going on faith that the advice promulgated by Held for Ransom, Thriftypreneur, britnidanielle and ChickenHawk (among others) to write, publish and write some more will eventually result in better sales. To that end, I'm trying to achieve a balance between writing fast and writing well. Wish me luck!
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