Ruth Ann Nordin's Blog, page 13

You Need to Adjust With the Times (A Writer Post)

This post is inspired by a couple of resources. One is the Dave Ramsey show. A caller asked if the baby emergency fund of $1000 should be raised to adjust for inflation. Two is the post by Kristine Kathryn Rusch on how writers fail.

On the Dave Ramsey show, Dave Ramsey and company argue that $1000 is just as valid today as it was when Dave came up with his plan. Well, that would all be well and good IF the cost of things remained stagnant, but the problem is that inflation is a real thing. Fixing or replacing things is more expensive today than it used to be. I love the Dave Ramsey show, but I wish they would adjust with the times. Their other baby steps might still work, but, in my opinion, the baby emergency fund of $1000 isn’t one of them. Yes, you want to be uncomfortable so you’re motivated to get out of debt, but you don’t need to be so uncomfortable that you can’t breathe.

Life is always changing. Nothing stays constant. This is not only true with finances, but it’s true for writers. I really enjoyed Kris’ post about how authors fail because she points out how life is always changing, and, as writers, we need to adjust with those changes. There is always something we can do to improve things in our favor. Maybe those things won’t work, but if you don’t try them, how will you know? Not doing anything at all will guarantee failure.

I’m not a big proponent of trying every new fad that comes along. You only have so much time in a day. I suggest picking the things that most interest you because if you choose something you’re interested in, you will be more likely to stick with it long enough to see results. Just because another writer loves to do something and is seeing success with it, it doesn’t mean you have to do it. For example, I hate click ads. I don’t care how many authors see more sales from Amazon and Facebook ads. I don’t feel like spending my time adjusting keywords or tracking clicks or even creating a banner for the ad. But if click ads are your cup of tea, you should give them a try and see if they work for you. Also, a lot of authors say they are seeing success on TikTok or You Tube. I tried video, and I don’t care for it, but it’s an area that has some success. I’ll stick with writing blog posts, free book strategy, my email list, and my one-and-done ads. Marketing is something that has to be tailored to your specific strengths and interests.

While we’re discussing changes, I want to tackle the fact that technology is going to impact how we need to move forward as authors. Earlier this year, I got a lot of push back on the AI audiobook thing. A lot of people came to me and said that if a human narrator isn’t making the book, then it’s going to fail. Just the other day, I heard that Apple is now coming out with their own AI narration tool for authors to use. AI narration is not going away. It’s only getting started. AI narration is what ebooks were back in 2010. A lot of authors didn’t believe ebooks were going to take off, but they did. Amazon (through ACX) is going to have to get into AI narration at some point because they’ll leave a lot of money on the table if they don’t. I believe Findaway Voices will finally allow AI narrated books in the upcoming future. Kobo is already allowing AI narrated books on their store. Google Play was ahead of its time by making it easy and efficient for their authors to make AI narrated books earlier this year. You can protest all you want about changes, but you can’t stop the changes from happening.

In another post, I pointed out that only 14% of authors make $35K or more a year. Maybe putting your book in a new format won’t earn you more sales. Maybe it’ll be a bust. But if you don’t do it, you’ll never have the chance to increase your income with that new format. Take a lesson from the Big Trad Publishers who dragged their feet on adapting with the times. In Kris’ post on how writers fail, she pointed this out:

But one particular statistic shocked all of us. From Jane Friedman’s industry newsletter, The Hot Sheet, on August 31, 2022:

…of the 58,000 trade titles published per year, fully half of those titles “sell fewer than one dozen books.” (Not a typo, that’s one dozen.)

That’s very eye opening, and it should make every indie author feel a lot better about their situation. Most indie authors I know sell more than one dozen books. Plus, as indies, we keep full control over our content, and we can put that book into different formats (paperback, ebook, audio, serial, etc) to help increase our possible revenue streams. We don’t need to hope a publisher will do that for us. Now, if you were to find a small publishing house with people on staff who know how to market effectively, I suppose that would be a win if you really don’t want to be an indie publisher. But I prefer publishing my own books because I get full say over everything that happens with the book.

However, let’s say in some future time, the retailers decide they will no longer take indie books. (I don’t see it happening, but let’s say it happens.) At that time, I would look into a small publisher. I would have to be willing to adapt with the changes. Or let’s say that every retailer offers a subscription service for ebooks. Amazon, Kobo, and Scribd all have them. I think this is a very real possibility. Fortunately, I don’t see any retailer besides Amazon requiring exclusivity to be in this kind of program. Amazon just has too many customers in their basket. If an author has to be exclusive, they would go with Amazon instead of another retailer, even if Amazon has a bad reputation for suspending accounts of innocent authors.

Now, I do think there are some things that authors can do to help buffer themselves against the unpredictable future, and these are things that are in our control. The first is to write a story that compels the reader to keep reading. Granted, a good story is the eye of the beholder, but if you can deliver on a story that makes someone excited about your work, you will have one less obstacle in your way. Remember, you’re not writing for everyone. You are writing for the people who embrace your vision for storytelling. Deliver on every book to this group. The second is to make sure you let your readers know when you have a new book out so they know it’s available. This can be in a newsletter you mail out to people on your email list or in a blog post that people signed up to follow. I prefer to get into people’s inboxes over just announcing it on social media. Posts in social media don’t always reach the intended audience. The third is to try to make the next story better than the one that came before it. I know that it might not be better as far as the reader is concerned, but I’m saying that it should be something you try to make better. You want to keep up the quality in every story you write. That means no cutting corners on the storytelling. Give the story the full attention it deserves. I know it’s tempting to try to skimp on things when you’re trying to get more books published in a year in hopes of earning more money. (The more time you spend in a story with writing and editing, the longer it will take to get it out into the world.) But if you keep delivering a solid story to your readers, you better your chances that they’ll keep buying your books. Also, they might spread word about your books to others. Word of mouth is very important.

My Thoughts on “The Making of A Six Figure Author: How Authors Evolve With Their Income” post by Written Word Media

I really love the posts Written Word Media come up with. This one looks into a survey results from over 1,300 authors. Here is the post if you want to read it.

Today, I’m just going to focus on the things that stood out to me while reading their post. There is a lot of information in that post. I think it’s worth taking the time to read through it.

My initial thought while looking at the chart in the post was that Bookbub Deals is still credited for having a good marketing impact. From the Facebook posts I’ve seen this year, I was under the assumption that Bookbub was no longer as effective as it once was, but this survey seems to argue that Bookbub is still a good player in an author’s marketing arsenal.

My second thought was that authors making good money are not necessarily writing all the time. They’re also not marketing all the time. This means these authors have time in the week to pursue other things. So this idea that a writer has to be stuck at a computer 40 hours a week in order to make a living at their work, is a myth. When I’m not trying to move, I typically spend about four hours a day out of five days a week on writing. Then I spend about maybe ten hours a week on marketing. Knowing what you’re going to write before you sit down at the computer goes a long way in making the most of your writing time. Even a panster (like me) can make some good progress if I know what is going to happen when I sit down at the computer. My trick is to leave a writing session with a couple of sentences that lead into the next writing session. Plotters will have a more defined system in place. But it is good news that an author doesn’t have to wear themselves out by putting in long work days in order to complete their books.

Also, it’s good news that you don’t have to wear yourself out by marketing all the time. Seventeen hours a week was the most authors in this survey put in for marketing, though it’s more like ten to thirteen for some. Marketing is a large category. It’s not just ads. Marketing can be things like updating your site, making a blog post, doing a video, and engaging with readers in some way (including social media and emails). Every little bit adds up. Now, the priority should be the writing. It’s hard to market a book that isn’t published.

Stage 1 writers (those making $0-$249 a month) do most of their own editing or have family/friends edit for them. In my opinion, people should not hate on these authors for choosing this method of editing. These authors are barely making anything, and with people feeling the effects of inflation, it is hard for them to have the spare money to spend on a professional editor. We should also not assume that every indie author lacks editing skills. Some authors are acquainted with the grammar rules and have a solid feel for storytelling. As for what these authors spend on covers, you don’t need to spend a lot on a cover in order to have an attractive one. There are pre-made covers that make it very affordable to get something of good quality. I spend about $100 on my covers. If you have the money to spare, then by all means, invest in a professional editor and a cover artist. If you don’t, don’t go into debt for this stuff. You need to cash flow things when you’re a writer. Writing income is too much of a roller coaster to take on the risk of debt. Also, you can always barter services to get your stuff done. You don’t need to spend money.

Stage 2 writers (those making $250-$499 a month) find social media to be a waste of time. I thought that was interesting. I agree with them about social media taking up way too much time and yielding too little results. Time is better spent elsewhere if you’re going to market your book. I don’t participate in newsletter swaps because it is so hard to find someone who writes books comparable to mine, but I did find it interesting that quite a few authors benefit from this strategy. If you are going to engage in newsletter swaps, you need to be a good fit for that swap. You are looking to gain an audience that another author already has and vice versa. It makes no sense for a steamy romance author, for example, to do a newsletter swap with a clean romance author. Also, it does no good for a wide author to do a newsletter swap with a KU author. The two have very different audiences. So if you do these swaps, make sure you are a good fit for it.

Stage 3 writers (those making $500-$999 a month) take the initial dip into audiobooks. You start making some good money by this time, and that prompts you to start thinking about alternative formats to get your books into. Each format is a different avenue to get onto a reader’s radar. I also found it interesting that this particular group pointed out free books as a key element in their success. If I had to choose between running a promo on a free book versus running an Amazon or Facebook ad, I would go with the free book promo. I realize this doesn’t work for all genres, but if you’re in romance, I would definitely give the free book a try, esp. if that book is the first book in a series.

Stage 4 writers (those making $1,000-$2,499 a month) have not ruled out editing their own books, though it’s a smaller amount than those in Stage 1. I thought that was interesting. So not all the “poorly selling books” out there have been self-edited. Some books that have gained traction have authors who do their own editing, too. As I mentioned earlier, you can’t say that all authors are unqualified to edit their own book. That aside, I thought it was also interesting that this is where the value of in-person events took a downturn for most authors. I have found in-person events to be a waste of time if you’re looking to make money. Most people will just sit and talk to you without buying the book, and while that is fine if you have a lot of free time on your hands, it’s not fine when you need to make the most of your time. Online sales is where the bulk of the money is at.

At Stage 5 (those making $2,500-$4,999 a month), writers are starting to hire assistants to help with marketing. This tells me that quite a few authors would rather write than market. That makes me feel better since I hate marketing. I would rather just sit and write, too. But I have met a few authors who would rather market than write. (It boggles my mind, but I’m sure I make no sense to them, too. :P) Anyway, this group of writers also seem to realize that doing most of what works is better than wasting your time on every new thing that pops up. This is the stage where most authors get focused. I think it takes time to figure out where each individual author finds the most success. We all have different strengths to pull from. Just because one author sees wild success in one area, it doesn’t mean another author will. At this stage, my guess is that these authors are finding out where their sweet spots are.

From this point on, the blog post pretty much came up with same results that boiled down to this: authors making the most money will be more likely to pay an editor, a cover artist, and someone to help with marketing. These authors have the money to do it, so it makes sense. Also, they have learned that the by giving someone else these tasks to do, it frees them up to write more books. So even if an author can edit their own book, make their own cover, and do their own marketing, they might not want to do it simply so they can do more writing (or maybe they want to spend more time with family/friends, etc). We don’t all end up wanting to seal ourselves in a room to write all the time when we’ve been at this writing gig for a good number of years. It’s easy to be consumed by writing when you’re starting out. It’s like being in love. At first, you want to spend all of your time with your love interest, but the day comes when you’d rather hang out with a friend or be alone. It doesn’t mean you don’t love the person; it just means you remember all the fun you had with other people or by yourself. Writing is like that. It consumes you for a while, but eventually, you start to want to go back to some other interests, too. This is why I think that none of these authors are writing 40 hours a week. We want to also have a life.

Back from Omaha

Well, I went down to Omaha, Nebraska to look at houses. I did find one, but I will need to sell my current home in order to fulfill my contract to buy it. I am not going to get stuck having to make a mortgage payment without selling my current home first. I did put that into the contract with the Omaha house so that the seller is aware of my situation. I’ve made a lot of money mistakes in my life, but this isn’t going to be one of them. I’m not sure if that will go through because the first buyer on my Montana place backed out. I’m currently waiting to see what the second buyer will want to do. This is why I didn’t want to tell the schools about the move. As long as a house is pending, it doesn’t mean the sale will go through. I’m thinking if this buyer changes their mind and backs out, I’ll probably just stay in Montana. It is a pain to deal with selling a house. It’s a lot easier to buy one.

However, on that note, I did learn that it’s important to check the plumbing, look for cracks in walls, and search for any signs of water damage while checking out a home to buy. This is in addition to checking the neighborhood. It’s amazing how many homes I looked through had some kind of plumbing issue. I only went through 15 total, but only 5 had plumbing that worked right through the entire house. In all of the others, there was a toilet that didn’t flush, a faucet that didn’t work, or was faucet that was loose. To be fair, I didn’t check the plumbing in two of the homes, but they were still being constructed. I didn’t go with one of the new homes because they came with HOAs, and after reading through the HOA 30-page guide to rules and regulations, I decided that an HOA wasn’t for me. I found out that some of these homes that people buy to fix up and sell aren’t so great, either. Two of those homes had evidence of work where the people fixing the place up cut some corners. So check the closets when going through one of these homes. There needs to be more than a pretty kitchen, new paint, and new flooring to sell a place.

Because I have been on the road and looking at houses, I have gotten nothing written. Today was the first day I got back to the computer, and it was like pulling teeth to write. Some authors get tons of energy when they take a long break from writing. I don’t. I lose momentum. It’s easier for me to write at a slow and steady pace and take a couple of days to a week off. I have had to go through the three stories I’m working on to reacquaint myself with the characters. I can only hope the stories end up making sense when they’re all done. I actually got scared when I sat down to write today because my first thought was, “I don’t think I can complete these books.” But I had to remind myself to just focus on what I will write today instead of looking at the entire story. When you think of completing the whole project, it can get overwhelming. So I went back to the “baby steps”. My goal was 500 words (instead of 1000) in each story today, and it took about the whole day to do it, but I finally managed to get it done. It also helped to put on some music that I usually listen to while writing.

So we’ll see what happens from here. Either way, I am going to keep on writing.

Updates On What I’m Doing

A New Chapter Might Open in my Life

Things are hectic around here right now because I spent the past two weeks getting the house ready to put up for sale. My time in Montana is coming to an end. It’s time to return to Nebraska. Of course, this is ultimately up to God. If He decides I should stay here, then things will work out so that I can’t move. If He decides I should go, then a door will open for me to go. I’ve finally learned that I need to follow God’s leading. I’ve been hit on top of the head enough by now to have figured that out. If God wills it, I’ll get another chance to live in Nebraska, and that would be an exciting prospect if it happens.

There is something about physical work and getting away from the computer that opens up the creative mind. I have this current Regency series I’m working on but no idea on what I’ll do for the next one. Then yesterday morning when I finally had a chance to get a good writing session in, I got the idea for Book 1 in a new Regency series. Today as I was writing, the idea has been getting fleshed out because the heroine’s brother in Midnight Wedding is the person I have the idea. Since I’m writing Midnight Wedding, more ideas for his story is working out in the back of my mind. My mind is blank on the historical westerns. I have a fragment of two different ideas, but sometimes those fragments lose their spark, and if there’s not a spark, I refuse to write the story.

I Made Small Progress in my Stories

This is probably the way it’s going to be for a while. I’ll be going at these books at a snail’s pace. My writing is going to be here and there. I have no idea how many books I’ll get out next year, so I’m glad I held off on getting Heiress of Misfortune out in January. That puts off the pressure of having to get to the computer so I can focus on any moving stuff I need to deal with.

Here is the Marriage by Obligation Series and the order of the books:

     

I managed to get up to 32,000 words in Midnight Wedding. Now we’re shifting into the second part of the book where things take an unexpected turn. I’ve almost completed 100 romances, and I’m just now realizing I have a second part within the middle of the story that marks the transition toward the end. How weird is that? Still, I wouldn’t want to bore myself by plotting a book out first. It’s more fun when I get to find out what happens as I go along. Like today, I discovered that something surprising that is going to happen in the course of this story. That “ah-ha” moment made me fall in love with writing all over again. I don’t want to know exactly how things will play out ahead of time.

I am at 22,000 in The Earl’s Jilted Bride. I have not hit the second part within the middle of the story yet. The heroine is still adjusting to her new marriage and has not been accused of murder yet. I have something that needs to take place before that happens.

I am at 19,000 words in Worth the Risk, and today while I was writing, I wrote out a nightmare scene our hero is going through. I didn’t intend it, but while writing, I picked out the elements in the nightmare and what they represent in the character’s waking life. This romance is turning out to be more psychological in nature than I expected. I guess my Psychology degree didn’t go wasted after all.

Secret Admirer is still in the editing stage. My estimated release month for that book is March.

Updates on What I’m Doing

I created a MeWe “The Indie Author Experience” group.

I noticed that MeWe doesn’t have a writing group that focuses on indie writing, publishing, and promotion. (If they do, I haven’t been able to find it over the past two years.) About half of the authors on that site seem to still want a traditional publisher or are brand new to writing. There’s nothing wrong with that, but I wanted a group dedicated specifically to indies and the issues indie authors face. I finally broke down and created the group myself.

Here is the link.

I’m still on Facebook and in those writing groups, but MeWe needs a group for experienced indie authors. I don’t know if anyone reading this is on MeWe, you’re welcome to join if you want. One thing is that I don’t want this group to end up being a bunch of “buy my book” posts, so no self-promotion is allowed. This group is dedicated to topics that indie authors face in writing, publishing, and promotion.

I’m still uploading AI Audiobooks to Kobo.

I’m finally in the Nebraska Series in my book list. This puts me at about 49 books to go. When you have a big backlist, it takes time to go through these things when you are uploading files one chapter at a time. I’m only putting up my romances, except for the Virginia Series. The Virginia Series has some serious flaws, and I’m not comfortable with it. I probably will never rewrite those books because there are always new stories to tell, and I’d rather focus on the future than the past.

I have gotten a couple of new paperbacks up through Draft2Digital.

Since I have some paperback interior files on my hard drive, I can get to some paperbacks up before next year. Last week, I worked on getting the complete Wyoming Series up in paperback. I don’t know if I’ll get any more done this week. There’s a lot going on around here, and I do want to focus on writing my next books.

Which brings me to where I’m at with writing.

Midnight Wedding is halfway done!

I’m hoping to get to 30,000 words by the end of this week. There are some humorous moments in here, but yes, it does have that darkness to it. I’m figuring by this point in the story, you will figure out what that darkness is. I gave a heavy hint to it, but another big hint comes a bit later. I’ve already written a future scene for this book where the characters find a secret room in the manor. I got the idea for a secret room from a Fantasy Island episode I watched on Tubi. (These are the 1970s series episodes.) I had been debating how I would get from point A to point C in this book. In one of the episodes where the lady is trying to solve a murder, she stumbles upon a secret room. That’s when I got my answer, and now there is a secret room in this story. Now I can go from where things are right now in the story to where they need to end up.

The Earl’s Jilted Bride is almost at the halfway point.

I’m hoping to get 22,000 words into this by the end of the week. Remember how I decided to kill off the duke in this series because I had no interest in writing that story? Well, that duke’s death will serve a good purpose in this book. The duke was supposed to marry the heroine of this story, but neither one wanted the marriage. At the beginning of this book, the heroine receives a suicide note from the duke. As a result, she marries the hero. So far, everything has been going great, but you know, things can’t get too great or else there’s no plot. Every story needs conflict. The conflict in this story will come from the fact that the heroine is going to be accused of murdering the duke. She doesn’t realize she’s been accused yet, but the detective in question has already talked to her and the hero without them realizing his identity. It’ll be interesting to see how things develop after they do realize it.

Worth the Risk is halfway done.

This one isn’t going to be as long as my usual books. I should get just shy of 20,000 words in this one by the end of the week. I figure this will be about 40,000 words when all is said and done. My usual book is 60,000, or just under that. I don’t believe in extending a story to make it longer. However long it’s going to be is what it’ll be. Sagging middles are not for me. So anyway, I reached the halfway point. The hero is sickly but not at death’s door. I will never write the whole “hero falls in love and then dies” kind of story. I want to be happy when I finish a book, not depressed. The main conflict of this story is more psychological than anything else. It’s about fear vs. hope. Corin will not be happy to learn that Reuben has gotten married. That’s the tension in this story. While Reuben’s brother means well by protecting him from illnesses (and potential death), he has also prevented Reuben from getting the most he can out of life. Life is more than just surviving; life is about the moments that bring you the most joy. That is the message in this book.

Building Relationships with Readers

Today’s topic is not about making money. It’s about building relationships with readers. Building relationships with readers can lead to sales, but it’s not the focus of what you’re doing. So I wouldn’t go into this with the idea that you’ll make more money. The best way to make sales is to publish a new book, make the first book in a series free (especially if you’re in romance), or run ads. When you’re building relationships with readers, you’re building friendships. The friendships don’t have to be super close. They can be casual. But these relationships go beyond the “you’re an author and they’re a reader” stage. You’ll recognize them as soon as you see their name.

Here are some ideas on how you can find and build relationships with readers:

1. Be yourself.

I know this sounds simple, but this is the first step. You need to be who you really are. There’s no sense in trying to imitate someone else. I realize that some personality types have an easier time attracting people. There’s just something about them that makes you want to comment on their posts or email them. They have a strong appeal.

It’s not so easy for people who tend to be shy and awkward in personal situations to put ourselves out there. I am a huge introvert. It’s hard for me to communicate with people I don’t know that well. That’s why I take days (sometimes even weeks) to respond to blog posts and emails. I have to think about what I’m going to say. While writing a story comes easy, corresponding to people in real life doesn’t. I’m the person who will sit in the corner of a room and check the watch to see when I can go home. I’m not outgoing. Unless someone approaches me, I won’t talk to anyone. Over the years, I’ve learned how to be a great listener, but for the most part, I consider myself to be “boring”. There’s no real highs or lows in my life. It’s all pretty level, and “level” is not exciting to talk about. If you see yourself in this paragraph, you’re in the same boat I’m in. We need to be who we are, but we also need time to plan out what we’ll do. This makes going out and finding readers harder than it is for extrovert authors who can entertain people with their fun (and often humorous) posts.

If you’re the life the of the party in real life, finding readers probably comes easily to you. It’s a gift. Appreciate it because not all of us have it. Whether you are an extrovert or an introvert, you still should be who you are. In order to build real relationships with people, you have to be authentic.

As a final note: I realize authors are busy people, and some use assistants to communicate with readers. I, personally, do not like this. If you are looking to build a sincere relationship with your readers, you need to be the one communicating with them. Even if you take longer to get back to them, it’s better if you are the one who is doing it. Anyone who takes time out of their day to say good things about your book deserves your full attention.

2. Offer a book for free and add links to where people can find you.

To me, this is the easiest way to find readers. You are letting readers take the initiative. Remember what I said about being the person in the corner of the room? Well, in this online simulation of being in the corner of the room, having those links on where people can find you is an invitation for people to come over and talk to you. The free book in this case is not about selling your paid books. This free book is there in hopes that someone will love your work and contact you. That contact allows you the opportunity to build a relationship with them.

So add links at the beginning or end (or both) of the book for your email list, your social media account(s), and your blog/website. I would put in all the places where I’m available so that they can pick the method of contact that is most comfortable for them. Some people prefer emailing directly, but others prefer to leave a comment in social media or your blog.

3. Have a contact form on your blog and/or website.

The reason I prefer a form to writing out your email address is because there are a lot of spammers out there who will put you on a list without your permission. This contact form is a good way for people to reach out to you in private. Be warned, though, that not all emails will be pleasant. Most will be. But there will be those few from people who want to complain about your books. I just want you to be aware of that in case you haven’t dealt with this yet. You can ignore reviews on a retailer. You have to see whatever comes into your inbox. You should respond to all of the good comments, even if it’s just to thank the person because I feel it’s important to let the person who took the time to contact you that you appreciate them. Words of praise are the lifeblood of every author and should be acknowledged. Also, I would answer any question that comes in. However, if someone is rude, you are under no obligation to answer that person. You might even want to block them, depending on how rude that person is.

4. Be active on social media.

In another post, I said that if you want to maximize your money-making potential, then social media is a waste of time. But if your goal is to build relationships with readers, then social media is ideal. Social media is like a party where everyone is going from person to person to chat. Now, as a general rule of thumb, I don’t like to get political on social media because you might turn off a reader (or potential reader) who has a different point of view that you do. You don’t want to alienate people who are reading your books, especially when we’re in an atmosphere that is highly charged when it comes to politics. I know a lot of authors will disagree with me, but when you’re an author in the social media sphere, you are representing your books. Unless you write political books or fiction with a high level of political leanings in them, I don’t see how this will help your author brand.

That aside, I have some suggestions that I have found helpful in building relationships with readers in the past. First, I hate to say it, but MeWe still doesn’t hold a candle to Facebook. Facebook is like Amazon. It has the majority of readers. I don’t know if MeWe will ever catch on, but I have heard authors having success on Instagram and TikTok. I’m not on either of those. I’m not on Twitter, either, but when I was, I really didn’t see any use for it with fiction. Twitter seemed to work better for nonfiction authors. Maybe it’s because Twitter was a good way of sharing articles, and posting articles typically work better for nonfiction. I did do very well with building relationships when I was on Facebook as Ruth.

The one thing that worked really well was asking questions to people in my timeline. The key is to get people talking about themselves. Since this is social media, you don’t need to stick with a certain topic. Even though I wrote romance, I could ask other things like, “What is the strangest repair you ever had to do to your house?” or “If you could live in any time period, what would it be and why?” Then I would take the time to answer every single comment, and if that person mentioned something that sparked my interest, I would ask that person more questions. I ended up recognizing a lot of people by name, and better yet, I knew something about them afterwards. Sometimes these people and I would end up chatting on Facebook messenger. Other fun things was asking people to share a picture of something they loved or to share a gif that Facebook will let you post on how their day is going. There are many things you can do to get a conversation going, and a lot of these were fun.

Also, comment on other people’s timelines. You don’t have to reply to every post they make. Just comment on the ones that interest you. This way, you can reach out to them in a comfortable environment. You’re also returning a favor. They took the time to comment on your timeline. You can show your appreciation by commenting on theirs. Relationships work best when it’s give-and-take.

Another good thing were giveaways. Giveaways are horrible for making money, but they are wonderful ways to meet new people and to say “thank you” to your readers. I found that personal gifts meant more to people than a book or a gift card. These personal gifts took more time and effort, but they were worth it because I still remember the people who won those gifts. If I were to see their names, I’d know who they were, something about them, and what gift they won.

5. Your email list.

There are different ways you can do this one. I am so overwhelmed with all the things I have to do as a wife and mother while trying to take care of the writing and the publishing side of things. So I have opted to only send out an email when I have a new release out. But authors who see the most success from their email list usually do automated emails. I have no idea how to create these things. All of my emails have been manually done. That said, authors who say they see the most engagement with their readers say they will share stories from their personal lives, and they’ll share pictures of it. These don’t have to even relate to their books, but they can if you find the angle to it. One author who writes contemporary western romances said she runs a farm, and she’ll make an email about milking a cow or branding a cow, and she’ll share pictures. Another author I used to talk to said she would share recipes from what her characters made. Another author would just share funny stories about things that happened with her husband and kids. Some authors will share a story and ask if someone has anything similar to share. Some authors like to ask questions (like what I mentioned in the social media part of this post).

The key is to answer everyone who replies to the email. Authors who do more than email when a new book comes out do have a lot more engagement and a lot more subscribers. So I would say the more effort you put into this, the better your results will be. And that makes sense since that’s the way it is with everything.

***

That’s all the ideas I have on this subject. If anyone has more ideas, I’d love to hear them.

Some Things an Author Does Will be a Waste of Time

There are a couple of problems that every author faces.

1. There are a lot of marketing strategies out there.

2. An author can’t predict which marketing strategy will pay off.

3. What works for one author might not work for another author.

4. While marketing, an author needs to devote time to writing the next book. The book is the best marketing strategy any author has because authors are in the business of selling books.

An assistant who knows what they’re doing will charge between $15-$20 an hour, and since they do know what they’re doing, they’re worth that price. The learning curve is steep in this business, regardless of whether you need someone to upload books for you, maintain ads, or work on your blog/website. Authors who can afford assistants are often more productive than those who can’t because they can focus their time on things they know will pay off.

But alas, we are in the real world, and a lot of us can’t afford an assistant to do the things that might not pay off. As a result, a lot of us will end up wasting our time at some point in our writing career. The only things we can do is hedge our bets and do those things which have the best chance of success.

So what do we do in a sea of uncertainty?

This is why it’s best to be as wide as you can with your books. You never know what will take off, and you never know when it’ll take off. You might be doing well on one retailer one month but do better on another retailer another month. One month, you’ll see a nice boost in sales on one book then another boost in sales on another book. One month, you won’t sell anything in paperbacks, and suddenly, you’ll see some sales in paperbacks. I had given up on paperback sales until I saw some money coming in at D2D on the paperbacks I put up over there a couple of months ago. People said AI audiobooks would never sell because people will only listen to human-narrated books, but I made a few bucks on those AI audiobooks on Google Play. Granted, paperbacks and audiobooks do not sell as well as ebooks, but they do sell. Every little bit you make will add up. At least when you already have the book done and out there, it stays there. Once in a while, I’ll get a comment from someone who just now found the books that I published in 2009 and 2010. The world is a big place, and there are a lot of people who have never seen your books, no matter how long they’ve been available.

I’ve been publishing since 2009, and it’s a roller coaster. If you think this business is going to be steady, you’re wrong. Anyone who tells you that you can expect your income to always go up either doesn’t know what they’re talking about or is lying. Sometimes income even goes down. You can do things to give you an advantage, but you aren’t guaranteed that those things will work.

That’s why some things you do will be a waste of time. It’s like throwing spaghetti at the wall and seeing what will stick. If you can get something to stick, then you want to do it again to see if it’ll pay off. If it does, then you have something worth devoting more time into. If, however, it doesn’t stick, maybe you want to try it again, just to make sure. Sometimes what looks like a failure is just a delayed reward. It can be hard to know in this business. But if it’s still not sticking after a few tries, then it’s best to try something else. For example, I took a couple of weeks out of my schedule to make a Payhip store so I could sell ebooks directly to people. This has turned into a huge flop for me, even though it’s worked out great for other authors. I tried running different coupons, but nothing worked. Over the past two years, I saw one sale. That was it. Doing all of that work on Payhip was a waste of time. I keep the site up, though. I went through the trouble and work to put everything there. Maybe someday it will pay off. For now, it hasn’t. Another example, so far I have received 0 sales from the AI audiobooks I’m putting on Kobo. I’m only continuing to do it because I can upload the files while writing, but if I couldn’t write while uploading the files, I’d stop and move onto something else. I’m all for exploring your options because until you try something, you don’t know how things will pan out, but there has to be a time when you decide enough is enough.

Choose the things that interest you.

There are a ton of things you could be doing to get your books out into the world. It seems like every time you turn around, there’s a brand new marketing trend that sparks through the writing community like wildfire. Since you are limited on time, you need to pick which strategies you’re going to go with. I suggest you go with the ones that most interest you.

For example, I have no interest in podcasting. I’d rather share what I learned as an author through a blog. Writing is a lot easier for me than speaking. When I speak, the ideas just don’t come out as easily. I communicate faster and more effectively when I type things out. But other authors do very well by speaking their thoughts out. For them, speaking makes more sense than blogging. I’ll throw in another example. Some authors love running Amazon ads. Their favorite part of the day is checking on keywords and seeing how those keywords are doing on getting clicks. To me, this is a form of torture. But these authors would rather be checking on their ads than blogging like I am now.

Just because someone else has huge success in one area, it doesn’t mean you have to do it if it’s something you’re not interested in. If you can afford to hire out for stuff you don’t like, do it. If, however, you can’t afford it, there’s no sense in doing it. You have plenty of things out there that you can do. And let’s say what you pick does end up being a waste of time. At least you enjoyed what you were doing. Granted, you probably will want to quit that once you realize it’s not paying off. Just choose something else that interests you. Also, you don’t have to be tied into the same thing year after year. Let’s say you did enjoy doing something for a while but then lost interest in it. Let’s say you want to try something else. You can. The beauty of this business is that you can be flexible.

Moving Paperback Files to Draft2Digital

I don’t know how many authors read my blog posts, but a discussion came up yesterday in a writing group where the question was posed, “Which is the best place to publish paperbacks?” Hands down, I’d say Draft2Digital (D2D). The process is easy, the author copies are reasonably priced, the dashboard is nicely set up, and the paperbacks are good quality.

I started out publishing paperbacks before I got into ebooks. This was back in 2008 when CreateSpace was around in the US. Back then, CreateSpace was what D2D is now. Sadly, Amazon decided to drop CreateSpace, and now authors have to use the KDP dashboard in order to make paperbacks. I know they recently added a hardback option, but they can’t even get a paperback cover right, so what makes me believe they’ll make the hardback look good?

In the comments of the writing group I mentioned above, an author friend, who is more marketing savvy than I am, made a comment that convinced me it was time to get serious about moving my paperbacks from KDP to D2D. In a nutshell, she said she lost money in paperbacks using KDP’s Expanded Distribution option. I had noticed that since Amazon switched from CreateSpace to KDP that my paperback income plummeted. I was getting about $100/mo in CreateSpace, but once KDP got put into place, I’ve been lucky to make $20/mo. Considering I have more books out, that’s not good. I knew KDP had done something to put the nail in the coffin on my paperback sales, but I didn’t know what that nail was. Could KDP’s Expanded Distribution be the nail? I don’t have any proof to say it is, but considering how smart my author friend is, I have to consider it a real possibility.

All I know is that I am not happy with the quality of the paperbacks, and I am definitely not happy with the way Amazon bullies authors around. I understand there is no perfect retailer, but I’d rather put my time and attention into places that don’t jump on authors for the littlest thing. (If you’ve been reading my posts for a while, you know I’ve been hassled by Amazon quite a bit to prove my copyright after I’ve done minor things like making a price change on my book.)

I like D2D a lot. The people running it are nice to authors. So I’m taking all of my paperbacks off of KDP and moving them to D2D. I did have an author ask me yesterday about making more money per sale on Amazon if the files were in KDP. Yes, it’s like anywhere else you choose not to go direct. If you use a distributor for your books, that distributor will take a percentage. That’s how the distributor makes money. Every retailer you upload directly to will take a percentage of the sale, too. I understand when you use a distributor, that distributor AND the retailer takes a cut from the sale. But sometimes it’s worth using the distributor to eliminate the hassle of being direct everywhere AND to have a good quality product. To me, the crappy quality of the paperbacks KDP produces just isn’t worth it. KDP is like a flip of the coin. Sometimes their printer does a good job, and sometimes it doesn’t. You don’t know what you’re going to get until the book is at your door. With D2D, I’ve never had a bad experience. With KDP, about 70% of the books were “off” in some way. If a reader buys one paperback that is poor in quality, chances are, they’ll decide not to buy any more paperbacks from the same author. They’ll assume all of the author’s books will look terrible. Considering how expensive paperbacks are, who can blame them for not wanting any more paperbacks?

Anyway, this morning I went into my KDP dashboard and unpublished over half of my paperbacks. (I plan to get to the others later.) It took a surprising amount of time to create my list, so I don’t forget which books to work on. I am going to start uploading files to D2D soon. This is going to take me a while to do. I have a few paperbacks already on D2D. But I have over 100 books out in all (when you count my Ruth books and my Barbara books). I believe I have about 80ish books to upload to D2D. I’m just going to take my time. When this project gets done, it gets done.

In the meantime, I’m still working through my catalogue to put my AI audiobooks up on Kobo, and I’m still writing the Marriage by Obligation Series. The writing is the priority, so my word count goals for the day gets done before anything else does. On some days, I’m unable to get around to anything but the writing.

The Books I’m Writing at the Moment

I’m happy to say my current works in progress are coming along better than I had expected. I thought I’d share what is going on with them.

First, I wanted to say this is the definitive order of the Marriage by Obligation Series:

I decided to drop The Duke’s Return, which was originally supposed to be Book 5 in this series, because I don’t have an interest in writing it. I realize some people will want a certain character in Secret Admirer to get his story, but there’s no plot idea that sparks my interest with him. I’ve had to say “no” to a few projects in the past because I didn’t find anything exciting enough to write about for a particular character. It just is what it is. I can’t force a story that isn’t there.

So anyway, this is the complete list of books for the Marriage by Obligation Series.

Now onto the stories themselves…

Midnight Wedding

I am 16,000 words in, and there’s already been an old bloody settee found in the attic. (This becomes important later in the story.) This story takes place at the heroine’s family estate, so the main characters are in a secluded environment. The main characters are the heroine, her two brothers, and the hero. There is only one servant available due to the heroine’s family’s financial ruin. Lord Quinton is the answer to their prayers. I thought he would be upset with being kidnapped and whisked off to marry the heroine, but he developed affections for her in Secret Admirer and is quite agreeable to the match, though he’s not all that excited they didn’t think to take any of his clothes with him when they kidnapped him.

I originally introduced Lord Quinton in The Cursed Earl. He’s the character who is obsessed with good and bad luck. I brought him back in Secret Admirer, which is due out March 2023, and he’s still convinced that he needs to tip the balance of luck in his favor. He is the right character for the gothic story I’ve been wanting to tell since 2020. So far, the humor is strong. But I already know what these characters are going to find in a remote area on the property, and the subject matter will turn dark. Something terrible did happen at this estate back in the 1600s, and these characters are about to uncover it.

I originally thought I should tone it down since this is a romance, and I know a lot of romance readers don’t like dark elements in their books. But then I decided this is my story, and if I want it done right, I need to do it this way. I have to write this for myself. If people don’t like the direction it goes, then they don’t have to read it. I’d say it’s going to be close to The Duke’s Secluded Bride. So if you are fine with that book, you’ll be okay with this one. But if that disturbed you, skip this one. That all said, there is still the humor that will help to lighten the mood. Lord Quinton’s reaction to things and the fact that the heroine’s older brother thinks Lord Quinton is the oddest person he’s ever met will help balance the darker elements.

The Earl’s Jilted Bride

I don’t know if anyone remembers that duke I was planning to get rid of who was supposed to come back. I wrote that post a while back. Anyway, my original idea for this series was to introduce the duke in Secret Admirer. He was betrothed to Lady Carol, but he resented being fixed up to marry her so he was supposed to run off. She was supposed to end up with someone else instead, who then would die, and when the duke returned, he was supposed to make things right. But honestly, I wasn’t feeling it. The plot felt stale and boring. So after taking time to figure things out, I went a different route. I decided to have news of the duke’s suicide come out at the end of Secret Admirer, thereby setting up the events for The Earl’s Jilted Bride.

In the suicide note, the duke makes it clear he is killing himself so he doesn’t have to marry Lady Carol. Lord Wright, who desperately needs a mother for his two-year-old daughter, jumps at the chance to marry her. Since she can’t imagine anyone else taking her, and since her guardian is threatening to run her to a convent, she accepts the marriage proposal. I introduce Lord Wright and Lady Carol in Secret Admirer, though they don’t meet each other until this book.

I’m only in Chapter 5, so there hasn’t been much build up to this story yet. What I know are two things: 1) Lord Wright is not the girl’s biological father, but to save the family from scandal, he hides this fact. 2) Carol is going to be accused of murdering the duke. The fact that she’s going to be accused of murder can go in many directions. I won’t know how the others in this story will respond until I write those scenes. The fun part of writing is not knowing what will happen until you’re writing it out. This drives plotters nuts, but it works for me. I want to be surprised. I don’t want to know how things will play out in advance. This is why when I read how predictable my books are, I’m thinking, “They weren’t predictable to me.” Except, perhaps, the predictable aspect stems from the fact that these are romances, and in romance, you are guaranteed the hero and heroine will work things out and have a happy ending. If that’s the case, then yes, my books are predictable, because even I know this element of the story going into it. But how I get from the beginning to the end is always up in the air to me.

Worth the Risk

Anyone remember Reuben St. George from It It Takes a Scandal? He was the kid brother of Corin St. George (Lord Durrant). In the story, he ran out to his estate because he thought Reuben was seriously ill. Anyway, Reuben is now an adult and ready for his own romance. I bring Reuben and Corin back in Secret Admirer, but the emphasis leans more heavily in Reuben’s direction since he is the hero of Book 4 in this series. In Secret Admirer, he meets Miss Amelia Carnel. Amelia is Lord Wright’s sister. Since Lord Wright’s book is The Earl’s Jilted Bride, I am able to bring Reuben and Amelia in for quite a few scenes that will set things up for the events that take place in Worth the Risk.

Worth the Risk starts with Reuben coming down with another illness that scared Corin enough where he demands that Reuben leave London and return to the estate. Reuben, used to taking orders from a brother 15 years his senior and reasoning that Amelia should have a husband who is healthier, heeds his brother’s wishes. He writes a missive to Amelia explaining why he’s leaving, adding that he wishes things could have been different between them. Well, Amelia is not the kind of lady who is just going to let true love walk out of her life, and so she and her brother follow him out to the estate.

This story is going to have a happy ending because it is a romance. My husband thought I was going to kill Reuben off because he’s sickly, but I’m not going to use that all-too-familiar trope because, quite frankly, that trope sucks. The reason I love romance is that it’s all about hope. Even thought Reuben is sickly, the lesson is that we can’t stop living out of fear that we might die. We have to enjoy life. It does no good to hole yourself up from other people. A meaningful relationship is worth the risk (hence the title of the story). Meaningful relationships are what makes living worth it.

Naturally, this will create some conflict between Reuben and Corin, but I’m not the far into the story yet. I’m only in Chapter 4. There’s still plenty of things that need to happen before Corin finds out that Amelia’s with Reuben. Of the three stories, this one will probably have the lightest tone, though it will not be a comedy. Midnight Wedding will have the comedic moments that will border on comedy. Worth the Risk is more of a tender and sweet romance.

Realistic Expectations For Publishing

I came across this video from Wide for the Win, and I thought it contained many good points, so I’m passing it along. In this blog post, I’m going to give my reaction to it.

First of all, I’m very happy that the focus is on being wide. There are so many videos that cater specifically to Amazon. While I think Amazon is an important place to be, I don’t like the idea of it being the only place I’m on. I’m a huge proponent of putting your eggs in multiple baskets because you never know when one of those baskets will come through for you. I’ve been publishing since 2009, and sometimes I’ll see an unexpected spike in sales on a retailer that wasn’t doing much for months, or even years. My guess is that a reader on that retailer liked my book and passed the information on to their friends who happen to buy from the same retailer, and this led to a domino effect. I mean, I run ads from time to time, but these spikes came when I wasn’t promoting anything. But who knows what caused those spikes? I have no idea. All I know is that it’s nice when those surprise spikes occur, and it’s why I like to look at videos that feature a wide mindset.

With that aside, let’s discuss the actual video:

Income

I learned that only up to 14% of authors make $35,000 or more a year from book sales. I was shocked by this. I knew that a majority of authors aren’t making a living with their book sales. Most have to supplement their income another way. But I thought 30% of authors were making a living from their writing. I didn’t expect that number to be as low as 14%. Also, I was surprised to learn that most books will make less than $500.

This just shows how much of a bubble the writing community is. We are surrounded with stories of authors making a living wherever we go. We rarely ever hear about authors who are struggling to get by. When I browse books, videos, and articles catered to the indie author, I mostly see stuff like, “How to Make a Six-Figure Income”, or the people mention making a living with their work. So I guess it’s no wonder we think most authors are making a living with their books.

Book sales aren’t stable

I know I’ve pointed this out over the years on this blog, but I think it’s worth repeating since they brought it up in the video. My book sales have pretty much been a roller coaster ride over the 13 years I’ve been doing this. I’m glad the people in the video pointed out that sometimes it’s the market that is responsible for the shift. The example they pointed to was 2020. Book sales spiked in that time because a lot of people were staying home. Now, in 2022, it’s dropped off, probably because people are going out more. Stuff that happens in the world can impact our sales. It’s a relief to know we can only do so much. I think we tend to blame ourselves too much when we don’t see sales. Sometimes it really isn’t our fault. (And for the record, my sales have dipped this year, too. So I noticed the downward trend.)

Also, they mentioned that book sales can spike due to a genre’s burst of popularity (like with the vampire craze when Twilight came out). Personally, this is why I think it’s important to write what you love. If you developed started writing books that focused on what is currently popular, you might build up a readership for that. And all is well and good until the overall excitement for that genre fizzles. What if you didn’t like that genre? What if you only wrote it to make money? There will still be readers for that genre, but the number of readers will be less than before. So you’re making less money. Will you still want to keep writing in that genre? It’s hard to write something you don’t enjoy for the long term. I know of authors who’ve cried because they felt trapped. So they were stuck with two options: either they had to keep pressing on with that genre (and be miserable), or they had to develop another genre and hope it took off.

Know the expectations of your genre

The “Book 1 in a series at free” is a great strategy for some genres (esp. romance), but it sucks for other genres. That is something I’ve noticed from talking with other authors. I’m glad they mentioned it in this video because it’s important for authors to know that just because a certain marketing strategy worked for someone else, it doesn’t mean it’ll work for you. When pricing, I’d look at what the books in my genre are priced at. Readers of certain genres expect certain prices, and some don’t trust free books.

Also, they point out that different covers appeal to different genre readers. That’s a simple marketing strategy you have full control over. Look at the covers in your genre and see which ones resonate most with the readers. I think the cover is the most important part of the book’s product page because we pick up on images faster than we do words. If we can grab someone with the cover, we can get them to read the description.

A third thing I got from this video is that you do need to meet the “story expectation” of readers in your genre. This is a harder one for those of us who write for passion to agree with, but it’s just the reality of the business. I’ll give an example from my life. Once upon a time, I joined a multi-author boxed set with other Regency authors. Those authors knew exactly what most Regency readers want, and they wrote books specifically for those readers. I, however, have gone my own way from what most Regency readers enjoy. I realize this, but I managed to get some readers who were happy with my books over the years, so I thought nothing of joining the other authors in this boxed set. These authors all sold way more than I ever did. I only got into this boxed set because the person organizing it was a personal friend. Anyway, I did read the reviews on this boxed set, and every time someone mentioned my book, they 1-starred it. The other books in the boxed set might sometimes get a low rating, but most of the time, those other books got high ratings. I was the only author who was told (over and over in the reviews) that my book sucked. Why? Because I failed to make my book compatible with the other books in the set. I didn’t meet the expectations of the fans that these other authors had acquired over the years. I was relieved when the boxed set came to an end because my book was such a bad fit, and to this day, I feel bad for even joining. I knew I wrote “different” from the Regency norm, but I didn’t realize “how” different I was. So if you’re going to go with passion, it’s going to be harder to fit in because you probably won’t meet genre expectations.

Before I leave this topic, I want to point out something I especially liked in this video. It’s important to listen to your readers instead of other authors. Your readers are better equipped to tell you what works best for you. The example in the video had to do with covers, but I think you can listen to your readers about anything. Authors mean well, but they aren’t the ones who are reading your books. If authors are telling you one thing, but your readers are telling you another, it’s best to go with your readers’ advice.

Link to multiple retailers

This one is important if you’re wide, but so many authors don’t do it. I don’t know why. Okay. I understand why if the retailer is a small place that is not easy to find, like Thalia. (I’m in the US, and I don’t even know what country/countries that is based in.) But Kobo, Barnes & Noble, Apple, Google Play, and Scribd are big enough where you can do an internet search and easily find your book. If you upload through Draft2Digital, you can use their Books2Read link to send people to the retailer they prefer. I like listing the retailers out so that readers know I’m on different place. If they know one of my books is on Scribd, for example, they might search for other books I have other there. So why not make them aware you’re on more than Amazon if you’re wide? It could mean an unexpected spike in sales in the future.

To close

There were a lot of good tips in here. I couldn’t list them all. I think the video is worth watching. If anything, it should set your mind at ease that you’re actually doing things right.