Making Money | CW Hawes

Not For The Money

How much does an indie author make? That is a good question. And one that probably has a skewed answer.

A 2015 survey conducted by The Guardian stated that the average self-published author makes less than $1000 per year. And a third of the authors surveyed made less than $500 per year.

Even though the survey is over six years old, I’d hazard a guess the numbers are still fairly accurate because the number of authors and books in the marketplace is much greater now than it was then. So it’s possible that the figures are even worse today than six years ago.

Now there are indie authors who make big money. When I started in 2014, there were romance authors who made upwards of a couple million a year. Mark Dawson and Michael Anderle take in around a half-million a year from their books, according to the last figures I read.

But I would wager most self-published authors today make very little, if any, money. None of the ones I know are rich.

Last year I had my second best year, earnings wise, of my 7 year self-publishing adventure. I earned royalties of $274. I sold 160 books and had 15,900 Kindle Unlimited page reads.

Which I think is pretty good, considering I didn’t spend a dime on paid advertising. My production costs were also minimal. So most of that money was pure profit.

Sometime ago I received an email from an author who was crowing about his first six-figure month. He’d made $100,000. Then in a fit of honesty, said he’d spent $80,000 in advertising to get that $100K.

In other words, he wasn’t a six-figure author. He was a low five-figure author. Beware of the numbers when the writing gurus speaketh.

And if you factor in production costs (cover, editor, etc), that author probably made less than $20K.

Which is why I made note at the beginning of this post that the numbers are probably skewed when authors talk about what they make from their writing. Especially the ones selling courses, because they need to impress you with their success in order to take your money and feed your dreams of success.

Not that you can’t be monetarily successful. You can. It just takes a lot of money and a lot of time. And a wee bit of luck.

Of course you can hire someone else to do your marketing. Which will take even more of your money.

Given the constant barrage of success stories that we authors hear, and then looking at our own often “pitiful” results, the question begs to be asked — is it worth it? Is it worth all the time and effort expended to end up making a couple hundred bucks?

I can only speak for myself. And for me, the answer is yes. YES!

Very simply, I’m doing something that I love and I’ve gathered an audience over the past 7 years. Not a large audience to be sure, but an audience nevertheless. And that is a very good feeling. There are people out there who like what I write.

Back some 15 to 20 years ago when I was writing poetry and getting it published in ezines and magazines — I got paid exactly nothing. Nothing!

In fact, everybody got paid nothing. Money was a non-factor. The late Jane Reichhold once told me that even poets who were being published by the big poetry publishers made very little, if any, money. Certainly nothing they could live on.

Her recommendation to me was to hang on to the day job and just write. Or get a degree and go into academia so I had a day job and university support to get more poetry published.

In the world of poetry, success has to be defined in a way that doesn’t include the dollar. Because there is no money in poetry. Poets don’t write for money. They write because of some other motivation.

I’ve carried that mindset over into my fiction writing. Success does NOT have to be measured in terms of dollar bills.

So why do we fiction writers think our worth or success has to be measured in currency? When most writers have not and cannot support themselves with their writing? I find the attitude somewhat puzzling.

Oh, I know we fictioneers look to all those who’ve made a living from their pen and we want to do the same. Funny thing, though, is that we never look at the many more who never could make a living from their pens. Those writers get lost in the myth of making money from books.

Throughout history, most writers did not make money from their pens. Throughout most of history writers tended to be men of leisure. That is, they had a means of support apart from their pens.

Only in the 1800s did it become possible for a person to make a living from writing, and especially writing fiction.

Even so, the number of people deluging publishers with their manuscripts was far greater than the number of writers the publishers published. And that has always been the case with traditional publishing. Many submit, but few are chosen.

Today, anybody can publish anything. Thanks to the indie revolution. And that kind of democracy, I think, is a good thing.

There are over 7 million books on Amazon and the number grows daily by over 3,000 new books. The chance of getting your book seen is next to zero. Even with paid advertising, Amazon won’t show your ad if no one buys your book.

Let’s face facts. The book market is glutted as it never was in the past. There are simply too many books and too few readers.

Having come to this realization, I am very pleased that I have my small fiction audience. In addition, my blog gets between 200 and 250 visitors each month. Not a lot, but it is more than nothing.

I will continue to build my mailing list as I look for my 1000 true fans.

I’m retired. I don’t need to make a living from my writing. I have an income. And I dare say, most people who want to be writers also have an income. They don’t need to be full-time writers to make a living. They can be part-time writers for the fun of it.

Very few of us are in the position of Louisa May Alcott who had to make a living from writing because her father was a dreamer and a wastrel and didn’t provide for his family. She turned to writing in order to put food on the table and pay the rent. She took over the breadwinning role using her pen, because it was one of the very few channels open to women by which the possibility existed to make significant money.

Most of us are like Edgar Rice Burroughs and Earl Stanley Gardner. We don’t like our jobs and want to do something else. And we think writing is an easy way to make money.

The fact of the matter is that writing is easy. However, writing well is not.

I write not for the money, but for the sheer love of writing. It’s the love that keeps me going. It’s the obligation to my audience, small though it is, to give them stories they want to read. To entertain them. To not disappoint them. In a sense, it’s not about me — it’s about them.

So all you writers out there, I urge you to write for the love of it. Write for those who want to read your stories, no matter how few they be. It’s not about the money. It’s about doing something that adds value to your life and the lives of your readers.

Comments are always welcome. And until next time, happy reading!

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How Much Money?

How much money would you need to earn in royalties in order for you to quit your day job? That would be your salary plus benefits. How much?

Back in the 90s, when Clinton was president and the Democrats controlled Congress, there was talk of redefining income as your salary plus benefits — for tax purposes. In other words, you’d be taxed on your income + benefits.

My employer gave us a printout of what our salary plus benefits would be for tax purposes. Mine would’ve double. About $100,000 back then.

As a self-employed writer, to quit the day job, you need to replicate your salary and your benefits package. So how much would that be? We’re talking your wages, vacation and sick leave pay, health insurance, and retirement. In addition, self-employment tax is roughly double social security and Medicare withholdings. You may also have to add in your employer’s portion of health insurance and retirement.

I bet we’re talking a lot of money for some of you.

If I was still working, the amount would be roughly $150,000.

If you are selling your ebooks for $3.99, and you get a 70% royalty, the amount you earn per book is about $2.70. Which means, in my case, I’d have to sell 55,556 ebooks each year in order for me to quit my day job — and make roughly the same salary plus benefits.

That is one heck of a lot of ebooks.

Now that number can be reduced to some degree with paperback sales, audiobook sales, and KU page reads. But I’d have to have a lot of paperback and audiobook sales and page reads to significantly alter that number of ebook sales. And that isn’t going to happen without a deep back list of titles.

So to quit your day job, depending on how much your salary plus benefits equal, it is conceivable that you’ll have to sell about 152 ebooks every day. Give or take.

However, we haven’t figured in the cost of production to produce those ebooks, paperbacks, and audiobooks. Which means that you will probably have to sell more than 152 ebooks every day.

Is it any wonder most writers don’t earn a living from selling books? They end up doing other things; such as, offering courses, or becoming ghost writers, or becoming editors. Writing their own books becomes a side thing they do so that they can still call themselves writers.

If we define writing success as making money, it seems to me we’re setting ourselves up for failure. Not that it can’t be done, because it is possible. And so is winning the lottery.

I’ve run across a number of good writers who were daunted by the magnitude of these numbers. They realized that they were not going to make money anytime soon. They realized that earning money from writing is a long game proposition. And when they made that discovery, they became discouraged and quit. Which is sad, because they were good writers and now we don’t get to read their books.

I’m lucky. I’m retired. I have an income and don’t have to work 8 to 5 to get it. For me, I’d simply like to cover the expenses that this writing gig incurs. Because otherwise, it is a doggone expensive hobby.

But if you have the dream of paying for your bread-and-butter peddling stories, go ahead and give it a try. But please do understand that you’re playing the long game. And plan accordingly.

How much money do you need to replace your day job? It’s more than just your paycheck.

Comments are always welcome. And until next time, happy reading (and writing)!

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The Business of Being Indie — Part 2

Last week we took a look at the business side of being an indie authorpreneur. We saw that there are writers who are making piles of money, and those who are strong mid-listers. The mid-listers aren’t on the bestseller lists — but they earn enough to make a decent living. Then there are the rest of us.

We also learned there are no magic wands. There is only work.

TANSTAAFL

Robert Heinlein, in The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, popularize the term TANSTAAFL — There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch.

TANSTAAFL is at the core of economics — and business is economics.

Everything has its cost. Nothing is free. Somebody somewhere always foots the bill. It may be free to me, but somebody is paying for it to be free to me.

So why is it many writers don’t see selling books as a business? I can’t tell you. However, all one has to do is take a look at Penguin Random House to know that publishing is a business. There is a bottom line. The company, or sole proprietor, either makes money or goes out of business.

There is a third path that indie authors can take: they can write and publish books as a hobby. And some indies do take that road.

Most, however, have dreams of quitting the day job and telling stories for a living. It is possible. But it takes work. As I quickly found out after just a few months.

The Business Model

Barring the one in a million chance I am going to write a runaway bestseller like Gone With The Wind or To Kill A Mockingbird at my first go, I am going to have to work to sell my books. So how do I do that?

We said last week that McDonald’s success lies not in its burgers and fries, but in the location of its restaurants.

A good location provides traffic. The traffic will see those Golden Arches and say, “Hey, I’m hungry. I’ll grab a burger. I don’t have to go out of my way to get lunch.” And McDonald’s makes money.

What we have is:

Traffic —->Desire to Buy = Money

If we want to make a lot of money, there’s a third step:

Traffic —->Desire to Buy —->Scale up = Lots of Money

That is the business model in a nutshell. All successful businesses follow that model.

We indie authors must generate traffic to our books. We must make those books so attractive that lookers become buyers. And if we want to make a lot of money, then we have to scale up the business.

Some Ways to Get Traffic

The first step is to get eyes on your book. How do you do that?

Word of mouth. People like your book and tell others about it. The best advertising.

Social media. Works something like word of mouth. Is perhaps most effective if people read your book, like it, and then go on and tell their followers about it.

Promotions. Tactics such as loss leaders, raffles/sweepstakes, and giveaways can get eyes on your book and gain you buying readers down the road.

Advertising. Paying for ads to get your book before potential readers is an expensive, yet frequently used tool. You will need deep pockets at the beginning until you learn how to make advertising effective so that it will sustain itself through sales.

The Mailing List

After nearly 6 years in the independent author/publisher business, I am convinced of one thing: indie authors are mail order businesses.

Think about how people get your books. They get them by mail: email or snail mail.

We indie authors are mail order businesses.

Which means we need to create and build a mailing list.

There are lots of tools available with which to build your list.

- - You can ask people.
  - Social media is also a way you can attract people to your list. Although, I don’t get many sign-ups from social media.
  - Giveaways. Give away a reader magnet using ProlificWorks or BookFunnel. This works best if you join a multi-author promotion, because you will get more traffic. Be aware that you will get a lot of freebie grabbers. But you will also get some gold.
  - Raffles. I never used a raffle. But from what others say, they can be successful. They can also be a miserable failure. In the end, they are just another form of the giveaway. You will get a lot of chaff and a small amount of wheat.

Initially, I asked people I knew if they would like to be on my list. I didn’t ask everyone, just those who I thought might be interested

Once I got a small list established, I used ProlificWorks to build my list. I offered my first in series free, and joined several promotions. I got a lot of subscribers. And a lot of unsubscribers. And the latter are fine, because you don’t want them on your list if they have no interest in you. Mailing lists cost money.

To make your mailing list effective and cost efficient, you will need to periodically winnow the list.

Perhaps once a year send an email to those subscribers who don’t open any of your emails or who don’t buy anything and ask if they are still interested in being on your list. To show that they are interested, you can have them click on a link to your Amazon book page.

Those that don’t click or tap the link remove from your list. Because those folks aren’t interested in you or your books.

Some people advocate having a lot of subscribers on your mailing list. Because according to statistics, they say, a large list equals a lot of sales. And perhaps that is true. But a mailing list costs money. It is not free. To make it an efficient and effective list you will need to get rid of those people who show no interest in you. That is just good business.

Comments are always welcome! And until next time, happy reading — and writing!

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The Indie Writer’s Key to Success

Every day I’m in contact with indie authors (independent author-publishers) who are looking to make it big and are languishing in obscurity.

Back in 2014, when I started publishing, the indie world was changing. The old days were for all intents and purposes gone. The days of simply writing and putting your books up on Amazon, making the first book in your series free or 99¢, and collecting the money. Those days ended in 2014.

Unfortunately, all of the successful writers from whom I was getting my advice, didn’t see the newer, more difficult world coming.

Hindsight is always 20/20.

However, 5 years later, as I continue to look for monetary success, there remain three keys that all successful indie writers follow. These worked in the past and they work now. And while I do follow these three keys, I haven’t struck gold — yet. But that doesn’t mean others haven’t done so by following these keys — for they have.

So, my writer friends, and interested reader friends, lets take a look at these keys. But first,

The Base

Success always builds on a strong base. For writers that base is:

1. 1. Good writing. You have to know how to tell a story. The story your target audience wants to hear in the way they want to hear it. If you can’t tell a good story, you need to learn how before you do anything else.
  2. A good looking package. Your book needs to look appealing. That means appropriate cover art for the genre. Cover art that looks professional.
  3. A pleasant reading experience. The text needs to be well formatted and free of typos and textual issues as much as possible.

Now on to the keys!

Publish Often

Every successful indie author publishes often. “Often”, of course, is subject to debate. How often is often?

There is a well-known phenomenon on Amazon: the 30 day cliff. Publish a book and after 30 days, it drops off the charts. I’ve seen this with my own books. I’d get a few sales in the first 30 days, and after that nothing.

The best way to beat the 30 day cliff is by publishing often.

January through March of 2018 I published the first three Pierce Mostyn books. One each month. Sales didn’t start falling off until July. I published Van Dyne’s Vampires in October, but it was too late to revive dropping sales. The advantage I’d gained from the rapid release was gone.

The lesson I learned was — I can’t wait 7 months to release my next book.

At a minimum, I think indie authors need to publish a book every 3 months. Quarterly is the minimum publishing schedule to maintain some kind of momentum.

However, every other month would be even better.

And monthly is ideal.

Why?

It has has to do with the nature of the indie audience. The readers of indie authored books tend to be voracious readers. Reading several books a week. Or more.

I’m a rather slow reader. Yet I manage to read at least 2 books a month and usually more.

Indie writers need to publish often to feed the indie reader.

If you don’t publish often — you will be forgotten.

Remember, thousands of books are added to Amazon’s catalog every day.

Write Fast

The corollary to Publish Often is to write fast.

In the pulp era, fast writing meant food on the table and a roof over the writer’s head.

Hugh B Cave averaged 5 to 6 stories every week. That’s easily equivalent to 2 novels a month.

Erle Stanley Gardner, while working full time as a partner in his law firm, wrote 100,000 words a month. And in the beginning of his writing career he was experiencing a 90% rejection rate.

My hero, Anthony Trollope, while working full time at the post office, wrote 2,500 words per day.

If you want to make money, if you want readers, writing must be viewed as a job. A business. Set goals and keep them.

Trollope wrote what I think is a doable daily quota. He used writing sprints (he apparently invented them) to achieve his daily goal. He timed himself and aimed for 250 words every 15 minutes.

Using a 15 minute sprint, I’ve easily surpassed 250 words in that 15 minutes. So Trollope’s word count is achievable. And the nice thing about writing sprints is that you can scatter them throughout the day if you have to in order to achieve your word count.

A goal of 2,000 words/day, if met, will produce 730,000 words in a year. That’s a dozen 60,000 word novels. Does any writer actually need more than that?

Write in Series

The final key is that indie authors must write in series. Why? Because indie readers want to read series of books rather than standalone novels.

The readers of traditionally published books tend to read fewer books and are okay with the standalone novel. Not so, indie readers.

Indie readers also prefer novels to short stories. And novels to even novellas. Something to keep in mind.

Summary

Write fast, in series, and publish often. That is the baseline. If you aren’t doing those things, you are setting yourself a nearly impossible task if you want to gain readers and make money from your writing.

Advertising won’t do it. A mailing list won’t do it. A website or a closed Facebook group won’t do it. There are no substitutes.

Michael Anderle fast published his way to a half million a year income from writing. Advertising helped — but only after the series was selling. He knew he could pour money into advertising because the series was already selling on its own.

For me, I know publishing a book a month isn’t realistic. I don’t write fast enough. But I do think once a quarter is doable.

So there it is. Go forth my friends and write and publish and then write some more!

Comments are always welcome! And until next time, happy writing (and reading)!

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Goldrush

We’re familiar with the California Gold Rush of 1848, or the Klondike Gold Rush of 1896, or the Victorian Gold Rush of 1851 in Australia, or the Witwatersrand Gold Rush of 1886 in South Africa.

Today we are in the middle of another gold rush. It’s called self-publishing.

Every gold rush has a life-cycle that moves from low investment, high return to high investment, low return. The key to success is to get in big at the beginning of the cycle. When panning and placer mining are effective. Simple tools and big returns.

Amazon introduced the first Kindle on November 19, 2007. It sold for $399 US and sold out in 5 1/2 hours. On April 2, 2010 Apple released the iPad and sold 300,000 on the first day. These two devices were the game changer that spawned the self-publishing gold rush.

Authors such as Amanda Hocking, John Locke, JA Konrath proved self-publishing was a viable money making enterprise. Now the ability to become a millionaire was for the first time in the hands of the self-published author. No need for agents and no need to battle publishers over draconian contracts. The gold rush had begun.

All one needed in those early and heady days of self-publishing was to offer your book permafree or for 99¢. And write your series as fast as possible.

By the time I got involved with self-publishing, in late 2014, the easy money was gone. Now, like the old Smith-Barney commercials, if you want to make money writing books, you have to earn it.

As with any gold rush, once the easy money is gone, the people who begin to profit are the ones who do so at the miner’s expense. These are the people who sell things to the miners. The infamous middleman.

We see it in the self-publishing world. Writers, hungry for virtual shelf space and recognition, are making loads of money for the middlemen. Everywhere I read about this, I read figures such as $500 or $600 (or more) for editing, $500 for a cover, a couple hundred for formatting. And the list can go on.

That’s a lot of pressure to put one’s self under coming out of the gate. To date (2 years of receiving royalties), I’ve made $533 with virtually no advertising. I made back my investment in initial website cost and copyright fees. If I had editing and cover fees for 20 books to add to my expenses, I’d have to seriously consider becoming a middleman to “help” writers instead of being a writer.

The people who are getting the “easy” money today are:

Editors (often self-proclaimed)
Cover Artists (many using nothing more than stock photos and Photoshop or Gimp)
Review Services (like Kirkus and Reader’s Favorite)
Other authors “selling” the secret of their success so you can be successful (usually by means of high-priced courses)

And success hungry writers, dying to leave their day jobs, are shelling out big bucks for all of the above.

So let’s be honest, shall we? The easy money is gone. We now have to earn it.

How We Earn The Money

The path to self-publishing’s success in 2017 is not unlike trying to drop the ring into Mount Doom. It’s simple, but not easy.

I am obviously not making big bucks writing. But I’m retired. I’ve already dumped the day job. My monetary goal is a bit more humble. Nevertheless, the path is the same for all of us.

Mindset. The first thing we author-publishers must remember is that we are writers and publishers. We must think business. And the first thing we must realize is that self-employment ventures generally take 3 to 5 years to get established — if they even survive.

The second thing is we are direct mail marketers. The mailing list has now replaced permafree and 99¢ books as the building block of our business.

Mail order businesses can’t survive without their mailing lists. And we author-publishers are at base mail order businesses.

Once we have that mindset, we can start to go places. There is no quick money anymore. But there is money to be made. Mark Dawson makes around half a million from Amazon. A nice bit of pocket change that.

My Plan For Success

Plan your work and work your plan. Based on my observation of what universally works for authors, coupled with sage advice from the greats, this is my plan to work:

Write well. This should go without saying and yet needs to be said. Write a good story. Many writers forget to do so.
Write lots. Prolificity is key. No backlist = no sales over the long haul. All successful writers, traditionally published and self-published, say this.
Publish frequently. The reading public that buys indie books tends to be voracious readers. Feed their habit. Frequent publishing also helps to keep you in the forefront of the reader’s mind.
Follow Heinlein’s Writing Advice. The master said it best. In a nutshell — persevere.
Build your mailing list. We are essentially mail order marketers. I wish someone had told me this 3 to 5 years ago. It makes sense, but the reality was obscured by the early success of writers in the Gold Rush. Now that the easy money is gone, the mailing list is the direct marketer’s — and indie author’s — best friend.
Don’t resort to gimmicks. Today there so many authors I never heard of who claim to be New York Times, USA Today, or Amazon bestsellers that the claim is virtually meaningless. There are so many authors winning so many awards, the words “award winning” are equally meaningless. I’ve read plenty of crappy best-selling and award-winning books. And some that are really good that made nobody’s list and have received no award.

That’s my roadmap to success. Which for me is pretty modest. I don’t need beaucoup bucks. Anything from $25K to $50K a year will be just jim dandy. Those of you who need more than that to quit your day job — well, it’s just going to take a bit more work. But you’ll get there.

As always, comments are welcome! And until next time, happy reading!

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Ruminations on the Uptown Art Fair

I had intended to post Part 2 of The Wonderful Machine Age today, but my weekend adventure at Minnesota’s second largest fair spawned some thoughts I decided to share with you. Next week The Wonderful Machine Age will return.

The focus for the summer months (at least here in the northern hemisphere) has been on writing Rand Hart and the third book in the Justinia Wright, PI series and editing/rewriting The Troubled City (The Rocheport Saga #4). As a result, book sales have fallen off the chart. Then again marketing is not my strong suit. I don’t really have a clue how to go about it. Encouragement, though, came to me from a Google+ post by JazzFeathers. She linked to an article: “None of my Marketing Seems to Work”. There are some good suggestions in the comments. Knowing that most authors struggle to get traction for their work is a consolation. I’m in a big boat and lots of us are pulling at the oars.

But I don’t think writers are the only ones struggling with how to sell what they produce. This past weekend my wife and I were at the Uptown Art Fair. It is the second largest fair in Minnesota, drawing 400,000 people over a long weekend. That’s more than live in the city of Minneapolis. Scores of artists paid big money to be there and artist after artist was trying to interest the throngs of people in his or her paintings, prints, drawings, woodwork, glass, metalwork, jewelry, fiber art, plants, and food.

I did succumb a wee bit to the cry of “Buy! Buy! Buy!”. Two tilandsias, a wooden box, a buffalo leather wallet, and a wooden serving spoon. Tilandsias are bromeliads and cousins to the orchid. They make great pets. They’re commonly called air plants.

After I got home and read the above referenced blog post, I asked myself why did I buy what I did? I like plants and the tilandsias weren’t expensive. The box appealed to my eye and contained buckeye wood. The buckeye is Ohio’s state tree and I was born in Ohio. A bit of sentimentality there. The spoon is made of cherrywood, feels good in the hand, and is pretty. I probably won’t use it as a spoon. Maybe a paperweight. The wallet, because mine was wearing out and I liked the looks of the buffalo one.

The lesson for us authors? Price is a factor. I confess, I don’t buy new books anymore from the Big 5 publishers. They are too expensive. I buy them used instead. I don’t even buy eBooks from the Big 5 because they too are way overpriced, IMO. There were many items at the fair I would have liked to buy. The price turned me off to almost all of them. Price is one reason why almost all of the new books I do buy are by indie authors.

Another lesson is eye and sense appeal. All of the items I bought at the fair looked good to me. “To me” being operative here. Not everything looks good to everyone. But our book covers have to look good to someone or no one will buy them. And ideally they should operate at an emotional level too. Also, the first few pages of our books should hook the reader by appealing to his or her emotions and senses. We have to make the reader care. I bought the box because of its emotional appeal, the spoon because it was smooth and pleasing to the touch, the plants because they looked cool, and the wallet because the leather was so soft and supple. These are basic appeals to our senses.

The only thing left to add is need. I bought what I did because at some level I wanted it but also needed it. Of course, in truth, I needed none of those things. Save for maybe the wallet. On the other hand, we all have aesthetic needs and needs for entertainment and pleasure.

Books fill the need for entertainment and pleasure. They also fill the need for knowledge and wisdom. Our books need to hook into those needs. Which means, of course, they need to be well-written and well-edited and in some way enrich the reader.

No food was purchased at the fair. Why? Because my wife and I walked over to The Tin Fish for fish and chips — knowing from past experience we were in for a treat. As it turned out we were disappointed this time around. The lesson here is that previous good experiences linger in the mind. And failure to deliver, produces disappointment. We writers need to be craftsmen and craftswomen. Delivering consistently good products to our readers so we don’t suffer the ire of their disappointment.

I’m not sure how to convert these ruminations into sales. Because ultimately even when the book is visible to the potential reader, readers don’t buy all the books before them. I set aside five other boxes to buy the one I did. I purchased only two tilandsias out of the hundred on the table. Ultimately it comes down to does my book look appealing to the reader. And ultimately that is a decision the reader makes.

Crispian Thurlborn posted a quote from Colin Firth on Google+. I re-quote it here: “I would rather five people knew my work and thought it was good work than five million knew me and were indifferent.”

We all want to make money from writing. The sad truth is the vast majority of writers throughout all time have not. And that includes us today. The vast majority of us won’t see very much money at all. So for now, I guess, while I focus on writing and producing good books, I’m going to be satisfied with those five people who know my work and like it. And if tomorrow I hit the best seller list that will be wonderful. If I don’t, I’m still having a blast writing and publishing what I write and pleasing those faithful five.

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You Have To Work It – Part 1

The other day I ran across Michael Tamblyn’s October 2014 Twitter blast against Amazon. Mr Tamblyn is the new president of Kobo. I’m very sympathetic with Mr Tamblyn’s position. After all, I’m an indie author and it takes guts to go up against the 800 pound gorilla terrorizing the block.

I tweeted the article at the above link when I discovered it because I think we Indie Authors (and really all authors) need to keep in mind publishers and book distributers and booksellers (this includes Amazon) are not our friends. They are businesses whose purpose is to make money off authors to profit the owners of the business. Which was Mr Tamblyn’s point about Amazon and Hachette and by extension how Amazon may end up treating Indie Authors.

For centuries, writers have been given short shrift by book and magazine publishers. This is well documented and a search via your favorite search engine will produce reams of virtual paper. But some examples.

Low pay to authors
Publishers retaining the rights to an author’s work and binding the author to the publisher via restrictive contracts.
Remaindering books when sales are low. Often as soon as 6 months after publishing.
No marketing of the author’s work.
Limited print runs and even limited distribution.

For the most part, authors just put up with it because they had few to no options. Mark Twain started his own publishing company. Almost no author had those kinds of resources back in the day.

Then along came the digital age and self-publishing became a viable reality. Authors, who once upon a time may have never seen print, now had their work out before the public — letting the marketplace and not some editor determine the worthiness of the work.

At first, Amazon rode the wave and encouraged the wave. Now, however, they want to apparently control the wave. Which Indie Authors clearly saw last year in Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited and KDP Select programs. Money. It’s all about the money. No business is altruistic. Businesses exist to make a profit.

What we authors have to realize is we are a business, as well. It is about the money. If it wasn’t, we wouldn’t charge a dime for any of our books. We’d give all of them away for free. We are a business and as a business, we authors need to look to our bottom lines. We need to jealously protect our profit margins.

Linda Gillard’s post is a poignant example of an author’s treatment by traditional publishing. She was dumped by her publisher because she didn’t make the house enough money. Now she self-publishes and makes money for herself. Authors need to profit from their work. Not the middle man.

I have no personal bone to pick with Amazon. The company often offers what I need at a good price. I don’t have unlimited funds. I have to watch my wallet. And because I have to watch my wallet, as an author I have to remind myself the company is not my friend. Amazon lets me self-publish because they want their share of the money I make on selling my books. Hence Mr Tamblyn’s warning. However if Kobo was in Amazon’s place, I wonder if Mr Tamblyn would have sent out those Tweets? You see, he stands to profit by wooing Indie Authors away from Amazon. Getting Indie Authors to diversify. And fear is a great motivator.

Right now I’m exclusive with Amazon and have benefited some from the borrows. But when one puts all of one’s eggs into one basket, one is at the mercy of the basket.

I agree with Mr Tamblyn and am rethinking my current exclusivity with Amazon. Maybe it is wiser to give up the income from the borrows in order to diversify in the marketplace.

There are many other avenues one can stroll down to sell one’s books. Smashwords, Lulu, Apple’s iBooks, Barnes & Noble’s Nook, Kobo, Drive Thru Fiction, and more springing up everyday. Shoot, with all the social media channels out there one could sell direct from one’s website.

Today Amazon is the 800 pound gorilla. Tomorrow? Who knows? But we authors must remember business is about making money for the owners. And they don’t really care about us. Behind every wannabe author, there are always other wannabe authors.

Next week, in part 2, I’ll write about how I think authors need to proceed to protect and promote their interests. As always, feel free to comment and share your opinion.

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Making Money Writing

I have to admit, I’m not much into marketing at this point in my writing career. Mostly because I’m too busy trying to get books written. But Lindsay Buroker’s latest post on her first month’s earnings from her pen name project, made me stop and give this subject some further thought. Mostly because what I’m currently [not] doing might be costing me some big money.

To pull in a little over $3000 as an unknown author in her first month, I’d say is pretty awesome. Doggone phenomenal. Nine days after releasing my first 4 novels I have a mere 14 sales. Not even $35. I’m not complaining, mind you. I’m simply saying maybe I’m missing out on a bit more cash that I could be making if I did a few things differently.

One thing Lindsay mentions and maybe the most important thing, is her use of KDP Select and Kindle Unlimited. Certainly Amazon stacks the deck in favor of those who go exclusive with them. As an author I don’t like it. I cry, “Foul!” “Unfair!” Yet if I was Amazon, it is exactly what I’d do. It’s what traditional publishing has done for over a century. Lock in a stable of money-making authors and — make money!

Right now, authors can make money right along with Amazon. In the future, who knows?

The other thing that stuck out was advertising didn’t seem to do much. I haven’t planned on paying for advertising. From Lindsay’s experience, I don’t think doing so is worth the money at this point.

A great post by Ms Buroker. Informative.

For now, though, I think I’ll continue along with Hugh Howie’s approach and just write.

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