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Just do it! Article on self-publishing in Huffington Post
Eh, I've been sinking money into marketing (2500 so far) and been trying to shop my books around. Aside from constantly writing, I haven't even hit the 10 mark and one of the books I've had in print 5 years now.I've been doing just about everything possible to promote my books, but it all comes down to money I don't have. So in the end, I just keep writing. Even if I don't sell any more copies, just knowing my books exists out there somewhere keeps me together...
There isn't much difference between self-publishing, indie press, and traditional publishing. None of these models have ever had a built-in guarantee of success, and this has always been a fact.While it is a good article, I don't feel the author gave enough consideration to the basic business models. Let's be honest, this is not about being the next amazing author. This is business.
In traditional publishing, they can afford (in comparison to indie) to publish say, 500 new titles a year, in hopes that one of the titles sells enough to at least break even, if not make a profit.
Here's the harsh truth. 90% of books are suppose to fail. I know, it seems unfair that only 10% will see even a small amount of success, but that's the reality of business. Throw out 100% of books, 10% of those books will be your profit.
For indies, it's exactly the same, just on a much smaller, individual level. Write and publish ten books a year, that one book out of ten, will have a chance of being your profit.
That's why it's important to market and promote, at least a little bit, for every single book. It may not pay off within a year, but if you keep at it, it might pay off in ten years. If you want the business of publishing, it's a lifetime commitment.
Or, wait and hope your book ends up being the super lucky one out of a billion.
It's just business.
Becoming a successful author is a worthy goal. Don't let anyone dissuade you from nurturing your dream. Some dreams do come true.The dreams that do come true are usually those that include hard work, study, practice, patience, pereverance and the occasional reality check.
That said; please allow me to share a bit of wisdom that comes with age and experience.
Life is no big thing. It is a thousand little things. Too often, we hardly notice the thousand wonderful little things going on around us; some of which could have a profound impact upon our lives, because we are so focused upon waiting for that one big thing to happen.
By all means, follow your dream; it may come true. However, keep your options open just in case it doesn't. Another dream may be just waiting for you to acknowledge its presence, recognize its potential and be willing to perform the hard work, study and occasional reality check to make it come true.
Whatever future awaits you, I sincerely hope that it is bright and rewarding.
IMO the best thing any author can do is write more books. A big backlist is a good thing and if a reader isn't in to your debut novel, they might love your second. Keep putting things out there and honing your craft, and you'll get some measure of success. It all depends on how you define success of course, but perseverance is the name of the game.
K.P. wrote: "Eh, I've been sinking money into marketing (2500 so far) and been trying to shop my books around. Aside from constantly writing, I haven't even hit the 10 mark and one of the books I've had in prin..."If you'd like I'll give you some feedback once I am done with your book.
These statistics remind me of shark attacks.I recently read an article (from Cracked, they're awesome!) about the comparison between shark attacks and other things, like lightning strikes or lottery winners.
Basically, if you take all the numbers together, yes, you are less likely to get eaten by a shark than struck by lightning. HOWEVER! Those numbers include people in Nevada that will never ever be near a body of water that has a shark in it. When you narrow the search field down to people who have the actual OPPORTUNITY to get eaten, then the statistics change suddenly.
I imagine that, if you began applying some filter to that data, you would find some of what it is that makes it much more likely your book will be one of the 10%.
*smiles* Some really good points here. I believe the lesson, warning crudeness coming up, is simply... fuck 'em, and keep writing.
Tiger wrote: "IMO the best thing any author can do is write more books. A big backlist is a good thing and if a reader isn't in to your debut novel, they might love your second. Keep putting things out there..."That's why I write a lot of books. I have about 70 more in here that I'm dusting off, editing, fixing, and sending to print. I write a lot of doorstoppers. That's why I've resigned to knowing at least the books exist out there floating in the wild.
Tiger wrote: "If you'd like I'll give you some feedback once I am done with your book.
No problem at all! I'm always up for improvement.
Also true for me. I don't have 70, but I have one that's out, one done editing, one almost done editing, and one in editing...and one being written. Do the best you can with each one, but then let them go and start on the next!
Lily wrote: "*smiles* Some really good points here. I believe the lesson, warning crudeness coming up, is simply... fuck 'em, and keep writing."Best comment of the bunch ;)
To me, the point is more that success in writing is self-defined. Selling 5,000 books for some people might be a very big success, whereas for other people it's 5. If you only know a handful of people who will buy your book and you don't mind just writing for those people, then in theory you are a successful writer.
Amy wrote: "To me, the point is more that success in writing is self-defined. Selling 5,000 books for some people might be a very big success, whereas for other people it's 5. If you only know a handful of people who will buy your book and you don't mind just writing for those people, then in theory you are a successful writer. "I never thought of it that way, as my family keep nagging at me to get a "real job" and that writing isn't paying the rent. (i'm a poor artist, really not starving though). I set the bar too high, selling at least 100 copies of my books. So now I just keep writing because I want to see these stories in print. Yay backlog! ^_^
For me, success is making a living from my writing. I am not successful yet :)But I also know that the only way to be successful is to keep pushing, keep making things happen. I am happy with my progress so far - my book is well-received and I have several others in the pipeline, I have promotional activities going on, and I'm making connections both here and in other communities.
Groundwork.
Mod
Great article, Amy, and fantastic comment, Lily. I believe that if your writing is good, you will be successful. Now successful is a relative term. You probably won't make millions of dollars (few do, no matter how they are published) but I do think it's possible to make a modest living from writing. The key, as Lily pointed out in colorful fashion, is to keep writing, keep publishing and be patient. Three years is not a long time to wait to start to see success
Hahaha... I love how everyone is so appreciative of my momentary laspe into crudeness lol
@Mark agreed. you have to have your eye on the long game in this business. if you're not willing to put a good ten plus years in to it, turn back now.
Depends on how fast you write, but I mean years. The odds of being a success (if your definition of success is making a living off of your writing) is very unlikely in less time, imo. Stand outs like Amanda Hocking are a thing, of course, but that's not at all the norm.
Do any of us know how long Amanda Hockings or EL James were writing before their books became a success? There's an old business adage I often remind myself of, and I think I might have posted this on another thread somewhere."It took me twenty years to get this overnight success."
The wonders of the internet has provided amazing opportunites. Without it, we wouldn't even be having this conversation. Realistically though, all it's done is shortened the average amount of time to ten years.
Does that mean you should give up now? Absolutely not. It simply means that creative writing, fiction, is a craft, not a job. Be prepared, regardless if it takes ten minutes or ten years, just keep writing and never give up.
Excellent feedback, every word, every post.
I agree! Thank you, Amy, again, for sharing this article :)
I just put that in there because the last time I mentioned something like that elsewhere, someone went b...but amanda hocking!!
Tiger wrote: "I just put that in there because the last time I mentioned something like that elsewhere, someone went b...but amanda hocking!!"Yeah, I know, she's always the stock answer. So I expanded on that ;)
Lily wrote: "Tiger wrote: "I just put that in there because the last time I mentioned something like that elsewhere, someone went b...but amanda hocking!!"Yeah, I know, she's always the stock answer. So I exp..."
and a very good expansion it was! :)
Tiger wrote: "and a very good expansion it was! :)"Many thanks!
I wish there was a way to frame a thread. Honestly, this thread right here, is a fantastic conversation!
Mod
I can relate to the writing years before publishing anything. I've had a lot of false starts on books, misfired and ones I need to retool. I hope I've grown to be a better storyteller through trial and error. I wrote a book a decade ago that never got a response from agents. That's something I'd have to aggressively rework and I'm utterly stumped on where to go with the series so I'll leave it be. But maybe I'll make a better impression on agents than I did at 22.
You never know :)I started writing in 2003, well, the end of 2002, but same difference. And I don't regret any amount of time I've taken to develop my writing. Sure, it would nice to use a time machine and write knowing what I know now, but it wouldn't be the same. That experience is invaluable, and it only comes with time. And I'm not finished yet ;)
Yes, I think this article had a lot of good points for discussion! I've always thought that success in writing (or in anything) boils down to two things: getting good and getting known. You have to work your a*$ off in both areas to be successful.
And like Lily said above, we often aren't privy to all of the blood, sweat and tears that a successful author put in. We just see the success and think "holy crow, how did they do that?"
And we see the exceptions to the "getting good" rule all the time. I have read all of two pages of 50 Shades of Grey, and to me the writing is pretty terrible. Many people agree with me. So why were those books so successful? Because E.L. James had a "what-if" idea that caught on as social currency. It was the titillation factor that made people want to share it. (And as my university creative writing professor always said, it takes just as much work to write something bad as it does to write something good.)
Do you want to write something for the titillation factor alone? Do you want to put out tripe just to make a million dollars? Assuming that finding something that will go viral is easy, because it really isn't.
A lot of "mainstream" writers also work very hard to understand what their audiences want and spend a lot of time creating a platform to figure out how to write for them. This is talked about a lot in any edition of the Writer's Market you pick up.
So how do you build an audience? How do you build a platform? How do you engage with people about your writing? There are a zillion ways to do it, and these are questions that are easy to put aside as you develop your craft...
Unfortunately, it's not just about the writing.
(Says the person who kind of believes that it's all about the writing.)
Heh, as we all do :)I have to disagree about 50 Shades though. If the internet didn't exist right now, the book never would have gained any attention, never mind success. This is the downfall to online publishing, which has a rejection rate of 0% on average.
She got a huge following in the fanfiction community. An online ebook company that publishes deriative fiction specifically offered, not accepted or considered, directly offered to publish her books.
The ensuing popularity, honestly, I can't explain. I don't think anyone can explain it. It's not tiltilating. It's not sexy. It's not erotic. It's not anything really. Parody perhaps. But I look at this way. I have never once seen or heard from anyone anywhere that they love this book because it's so good. Not one person. I have, however, seen and heard many, many people buy the books and read them just because of supposed popularity. Just so they can join discussions and also say, it's a badly written book. Love to hate.
I'm quitte sure, some time from now or maybe soon, the books will be referred to as the great literary swindle. It's an online marketing scheme, nothing more.
Lily wrote: "The ensuing popularity, honestly, I can't explain. I don't think anyone can explain it. It's not tiltilating. It's not sexy. It's not erotic. It's not anything really. Parody perhaps. But I look at this way. I have never once seen or heard from anyone anywhere that they love this book because it's so good. Not one person. I have, however, seen and heard many, many people buy the books and read them just because of supposed popularity. Just so they can join discussions and also say, it's a badly written book. Love to hate."I have to disagree with you on part of this. I was at a party yesterday and the women were discussing how hot that book was. I asked if any of them had read about sex like that before and none of them had. To them it was very sexy.
I read the trilogy and while I struggled to get through the third book, I did find the story compelling in the first two. People do like the book as a book.
Interesting. News to me lolBut what about the writing?
I asked what they thought of the writing because I was pulled out a couple times because of it. Not one of them thought it was bad writing.
I find it interested the article suggests you write one book a year. I think the ones that are successful right now are writing a couple a year. I'm thinking of Jasinda Wilder and HM Ward because they are in my genre. They write 5 or so a year. I'm planning on 4 this year and at least 5 next year. Of course in romance you can get away with 75K word books. I know fantasy can be close to double that, right?
I'm not sure what to think. I find it hard to believe if anyone found the book at say, a cheap paperback at the gas station, they would think, the writing's fine or even good.Are people simply assuming the writing is fine because of the popularity? If it didn't become hugely popular, would people then assume it's badly written? That's why I'm disbelieving. Good because of the book itself, or good because of popularity?
I'll use a comparison. As a child of the 80's, I've seen so many trends come and go. Way back, there was a hyped up toy called the Pogo Ball. Neat idea, instead of a bouncing pogo stick, it was a bouncing pogo ball. Every kid wanted one. Parents rushed out to buy one. Millions of dollars were had, if not more. The toy failed for one reason only.
Really bad design. The ball was so stiff, you would have to weigh at least 200 pounds just to get it to bounce a tiny bit. The toy looked fantastic. In practice, it was useless. People kept buying anyway, even after both parents and kids reported the toy had failed. Just because of popularity.
Honestly, I think people read so many things that bad writing just doesn't phase them if the story keeps them engaged.
Violet wrote: "I find it interested the article suggests you write one book a year. I think the ones that are successful right now are writing a couple a year. I'm thinking of Jasinda Wilder and HM Ward because..."Word count varies a lot in different genres, self-pubishing versus traditonal publishing, all kinds of factors. Stephen King pumps out 130 k manuscripts before his editor has at it. What you see in the manuscript, isn't what you get in any market.
Regardless, I do agree that continuing to write one book after the other is best, instead of putting all eggs into on basket, and hoping one book will be enough. Some get lucky, but most don't.
Violet wrote: "Honestly, I think people read so many things that bad writing just doesn't phase them if the story keeps them engaged."Well... that is a sad truth lol
Series are a good marketing tool as well. That's my plan. While my books are stand-alones, they are set in the same town and share characters.
It is a sad truth. But, it hammers home the point - a compelling story should be priority number 1.
Three of my four adult children - the females - read Fifty Shades of Grey and said they liked it; so I borrowed a copy from the library.After forcing myself to read three chapters, I gave up. It wasn't because I'm a prude; my late wife and I had five children together during our first ten years of marriage, before my vasectomy. I'm very much in favor of explicit sex. The amateurish and conistently bad writing was the turn-off.
That said; it is a world-wide best-seller and soon-to-be a movie. The author is now a very wealthy lady. I'm thinking of changing the title of my novel Levels to Fifty Levels of Grey.
I'm sitting here thinking someone needs to write a furry version. :D
Compelling can't be defined in any tangible way. I wish it could be. It would make all our lives so much easier lolI adore my psychological thriller. I slaved away at the manuscript, blood, sweat, and tears. I found every word, every character, every fictional conversation and interactions endlessly fanscinating. I wouldn't have finished the manuscript otherwise. Will others feel the same way, ranging from agents to readers? I have no idea. I only know the story.
A story can't be defined as compelling until after it's unleashed on the pubic. Behind the scenes? We can only guess and hope for the best.
I use teen and 20-something beta readers. When they get back to me in 24 to 48 hours to say they couldn't stop reading, then I know I've got a compelling story.
That's great! Just keep in mind, it will only be compelling for yoour specific audience. If anyone expects the story to be compelling to absolutely every reader, that's too high of an expectation, and it never happens anyway.
Oh I know, I don't expect my books to hit it big. I just want to have a large enough following that I make a decent living.
I think it gives a good breakdown of what success means in both the traditional and self-publishing worlds. Kind of does away with the idea that "traditionally published" means automatic success, because this really isn't true (I'm sure as most people know).
The stat given is that 90% of all books fail, traditionally published or otherwise. Authors have to work no matter how they publish, so finding an agent or publishing house isn't the holy grail that some people make it out to be.
Personally I think there is good advice here (aside from the clichéd Nike reference), but it would be interesting to hear what other people think.