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I've decided to go ahead and put myself out there a bit (yikes) and start a progress thread for my self-publishing fiction ebooks plan.
What qualifies me to be a fiction writer?
Absolutely nothing. In fact, I would have to say I'm probably the least qualified that a person could be.
To my surprise, as I've been working on book one of my novella fiction series, I've found that I actually enjoy the process (which I usually don't). I find the creation of fiction, painting a picture and story with words, to be very therapeutic. It may be a form of escapism, but, writing under the anonymity of a pen name and creating your own world, you can really express yourself however you please in your stories.
Additionally, in fiction writing, there aren't really any rules (aside from writing fundamentals, of course). While there are best practices and preferences, from both readers and writers, there's really no right or wrong way to create/tell your story, and that aspect appeals to me greatly.
My Six-Figure Fiction Action Plan:
Based on the research I've done, this is the plan I've come up with:
Produce Novellas - I think these types of books have the highest ROI in terms of time investment and earning potential, especially for new writers. I'd like my books to range between 20,000-40,000 words each.
Everything should be a part of a series - In relation to the point above, I really think series are the way to go. Not only do they, by their very nature, help bolster sales of your catalog and past works, they are a way for writers (inexperienced writers in particular) to maximize earnings.
Where established writers can produce a 300-400 page book and sell it with no problems at $8.99, new writers will have a much harder time doing the same thing. By writing novella series and selling in smaller bites, it's an easier way for less experienced writers to be able to earn that $9 per completed story, like the big boys. For this reason, every book I plan to write will be a part of a series (not all the same series, just part of one).
Genre Selection - For me, I have to write what I enjoy writing. If I don't enjoy it, it's simply not going to get done. With the websites I've ran in the past and the writing I've done for them, I've learned that I have to be interested in what I'm doing, otherwise I completely lose motivation and interest. While I won't say what my genres and sub-genres are, I will say that they are very mainstream, have deep pools of buyers, and have a lot of home-run potential.
Production Goal - Since I'm still very inexperienced in the process, I'm trying keeping this goal achievable, so that as I improve, I can begin to exceed it and get ahead of schedule. I'd like to be able to produce, on average, 2000-4000 word per day or around 30,000 words per two weeks - with a few days to spare for formatting, cover creation, and publishing. The main goal being to improve to a point where I'm publishing a little over 3 books per month.
Initially I'll be doing the cover creation myself, and outsourcing it down the road. I'll likely set up social media profiles and what-not for my pen names, and a mailing list, in order to assist in building pen name followings. However, I don't really plan on doing any outside promotion. Write, Publish, Write, Publish, Write, Publish is my game plan. Anything else seems like mental masturbation to me.
While the Amazon marketplace is my primary focus, I'll be trying to publish to each of the major self-publishing platforms.
Monetary Goal ($8400 in one month) - While this is really hard to quantify, due to the massive amount of variables involved, I still want to have a monetary goal. If each book in the catalog earns, on average, $400/month (naturally, some may earn more and some may earn less - or they may never make this much), it will take me about 20+ titles and around 7 months to reach $8400 in sales per month ($100,000/year). If I achieve or exceed this amount in a one month period, I'll consider the goal achieved.
Even with this goal, however, my primary focus is solely on writing. While I'll be looking to record and track sales to see what's working and what isn't, if it isn't "write, publish, write, publish," I'm not going to let it consume a ton of my time (like compulsive stat checking/social media interaction/figuring out how to game Amazon's search algorithm, etc).
Where I'm at now:
Currently finishing up book one of my first novella fiction series. This book will be the first in a 3 part series, each being priced at $2.99. With only two or three chapters to go, I'm hoping it's completed, edited, formatted and published within a few days of this post.
I'm using OpenOffice for my writing suite, and, I really don't have any experience in proper ebook formatting. So, unfortunately, I'll likely have to spend a few days learning the ins and outs so I can ensure that a quality, correct piece is put up. Hopefully, this won't back me up too long.
What I've learned so far:
Planning is super, super important: I tried to be smart and map out my fiction series in advance. But, it's absolutely amazing to me how easy it is to underestimate the production of a story. Starting with a beginning and an end and planning to fill in the blanks just doesn't work. I went further than this and still ran into problems.
If one thing has slowed me down, it has been a lack of planning. In the future I hope to plan out every scene, with as much detail as possible, before writing a single word. I find that once I map my scenes out in their entirety and define what needs to happen to progress the story, when I finally start writing, the words fly onto the page with ease.
Become a compulsive saver: Nothing worse than going on a run and forgetting to save your work, only to reopen your story and find a chapter or two missing. Save frequently, save often, then save again!
Time happens a lot faster in books: This one really surprised me. I'm sure it'll get much better with experience, but I was astonished at how fast time flies in a book. While I may have been stewing over a scene for a few days, and then finally get it on paper, what seemed like a long, gradual buildup in my head, turned out to be an hour event in my book. Learning how to make your readers feel the passage of time and buildup is an interesting skill to develop.
Don't stop writing!: In relation to the planning point above, I found that it's very easy to get stuck on a scene and have it halt production. What's helped me with this so far, is, when possible, just skip it and keep producing the story. Don't stop writing. For example, I'm about to write the last chapter of my book, while there is a chapter in the middle still missing. Everything can be fixed/adjusted later, so just keep writing - get it done!
That's all I got for now. I'll probably end up posting in this thread too much 😀, but I encourage any kind of discussion/questions/comments in relation to my posts, here. Good luck all!
What qualifies me to be a fiction writer?
Absolutely nothing. In fact, I would have to say I'm probably the least qualified that a person could be.
- English/Writing was always my worst subject in school, by far.
- Up to now, I can only recall reading one fiction book solely for enjoyment, and have probably read less than 5 in my lifetime.
- Due to always being a poor performer in my English classes, I've never been particularly interested in writing, at all. I've only done writing for various small websites I've created over the years (none of which ever really got going).
To my surprise, as I've been working on book one of my novella fiction series, I've found that I actually enjoy the process (which I usually don't). I find the creation of fiction, painting a picture and story with words, to be very therapeutic. It may be a form of escapism, but, writing under the anonymity of a pen name and creating your own world, you can really express yourself however you please in your stories.
Additionally, in fiction writing, there aren't really any rules (aside from writing fundamentals, of course). While there are best practices and preferences, from both readers and writers, there's really no right or wrong way to create/tell your story, and that aspect appeals to me greatly.
My Six-Figure Fiction Action Plan:
Based on the research I've done, this is the plan I've come up with:
Produce Novellas - I think these types of books have the highest ROI in terms of time investment and earning potential, especially for new writers. I'd like my books to range between 20,000-40,000 words each.
Everything should be a part of a series - In relation to the point above, I really think series are the way to go. Not only do they, by their very nature, help bolster sales of your catalog and past works, they are a way for writers (inexperienced writers in particular) to maximize earnings.
Where established writers can produce a 300-400 page book and sell it with no problems at $8.99, new writers will have a much harder time doing the same thing. By writing novella series and selling in smaller bites, it's an easier way for less experienced writers to be able to earn that $9 per completed story, like the big boys. For this reason, every book I plan to write will be a part of a series (not all the same series, just part of one).
Genre Selection - For me, I have to write what I enjoy writing. If I don't enjoy it, it's simply not going to get done. With the websites I've ran in the past and the writing I've done for them, I've learned that I have to be interested in what I'm doing, otherwise I completely lose motivation and interest. While I won't say what my genres and sub-genres are, I will say that they are very mainstream, have deep pools of buyers, and have a lot of home-run potential.
Production Goal - Since I'm still very inexperienced in the process, I'm trying keeping this goal achievable, so that as I improve, I can begin to exceed it and get ahead of schedule. I'd like to be able to produce, on average, 2000-4000 word per day or around 30,000 words per two weeks - with a few days to spare for formatting, cover creation, and publishing. The main goal being to improve to a point where I'm publishing a little over 3 books per month.
Initially I'll be doing the cover creation myself, and outsourcing it down the road. I'll likely set up social media profiles and what-not for my pen names, and a mailing list, in order to assist in building pen name followings. However, I don't really plan on doing any outside promotion. Write, Publish, Write, Publish, Write, Publish is my game plan. Anything else seems like mental masturbation to me.
While the Amazon marketplace is my primary focus, I'll be trying to publish to each of the major self-publishing platforms.
Monetary Goal ($8400 in one month) - While this is really hard to quantify, due to the massive amount of variables involved, I still want to have a monetary goal. If each book in the catalog earns, on average, $400/month (naturally, some may earn more and some may earn less - or they may never make this much), it will take me about 20+ titles and around 7 months to reach $8400 in sales per month ($100,000/year). If I achieve or exceed this amount in a one month period, I'll consider the goal achieved.
Even with this goal, however, my primary focus is solely on writing. While I'll be looking to record and track sales to see what's working and what isn't, if it isn't "write, publish, write, publish," I'm not going to let it consume a ton of my time (like compulsive stat checking/social media interaction/figuring out how to game Amazon's search algorithm, etc).
Where I'm at now:
Currently finishing up book one of my first novella fiction series. This book will be the first in a 3 part series, each being priced at $2.99. With only two or three chapters to go, I'm hoping it's completed, edited, formatted and published within a few days of this post.
I'm using OpenOffice for my writing suite, and, I really don't have any experience in proper ebook formatting. So, unfortunately, I'll likely have to spend a few days learning the ins and outs so I can ensure that a quality, correct piece is put up. Hopefully, this won't back me up too long.
What I've learned so far:
Planning is super, super important: I tried to be smart and map out my fiction series in advance. But, it's absolutely amazing to me how easy it is to underestimate the production of a story. Starting with a beginning and an end and planning to fill in the blanks just doesn't work. I went further than this and still ran into problems.
If one thing has slowed me down, it has been a lack of planning. In the future I hope to plan out every scene, with as much detail as possible, before writing a single word. I find that once I map my scenes out in their entirety and define what needs to happen to progress the story, when I finally start writing, the words fly onto the page with ease.
Become a compulsive saver: Nothing worse than going on a run and forgetting to save your work, only to reopen your story and find a chapter or two missing. Save frequently, save often, then save again!
Time happens a lot faster in books: This one really surprised me. I'm sure it'll get much better with experience, but I was astonished at how fast time flies in a book. While I may have been stewing over a scene for a few days, and then finally get it on paper, what seemed like a long, gradual buildup in my head, turned out to be an hour event in my book. Learning how to make your readers feel the passage of time and buildup is an interesting skill to develop.
Don't stop writing!: In relation to the planning point above, I found that it's very easy to get stuck on a scene and have it halt production. What's helped me with this so far, is, when possible, just skip it and keep producing the story. Don't stop writing. For example, I'm about to write the last chapter of my book, while there is a chapter in the middle still missing. Everything can be fixed/adjusted later, so just keep writing - get it done!
That's all I got for now. I'll probably end up posting in this thread too much 😀, but I encourage any kind of discussion/questions/comments in relation to my posts, here. Good luck all!
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