The Chronicles of Barsetshire by Anthony Trollope was the first novel series in English.
Trollope had not intended writing a series, but after writing The Warden and Barchester Towers, he found himself returning again and again to the English county of Barsetshire that he had created. And thus, the novel series was born.
The Chronicles is a set of six loosely related novels all set in the imaginary county of Barsetshire. The novels can easily be read as standalones. However, they share a core set of characters, along with the town of Barchester and its environs. Over the course of the six novels, the various subplots eventually find a resolution and bring the series to a close.
In April of last year, I was at a virtual writers conferenceand learned of the multi-author book series. Immediately, I thought of Trollope and Barchester.
I proposed the idea of a multi-author series to my fellow Underground Authors, and nine of us were able to work the project into our schedules.
We then had to come up with a unifying factor, something that would hold the series together. After much discussion, and taking a cue from Trollope, we created the town of Magnolia Bluff, set in the beautiful Texas Hill Country.
Each of our books would be set in Magnolia Bluff. We’d have our own key characters as major players in our individual story, but we’d also make use of each other’s characters as we saw fit. And while each story would be as individual as the author who wrote it, the town of Magnolia Bluff would be there to hold together our diverse imaginations.
In effect, this was a riff on the approach we took with our short story anthology Beyond the Sea. There, each author used the same picture as inspiration for his or her story. And we got a dozen very different tales.
We hadn’t planned on crime also being a unifying factor. That just happened. We came up with stories that all involved murder, and thus, the Magnolia Bluff Crime Chronicles was born. (There’s a bit of a pun there, too, as the town’s newspaper is called the Chronicle.)
So how does a multi-author series work? Don’t things get messed up?
Well, they certainly could. But we derailed that problem by making sure we talked to each other so that we were all on the same page regarding geography and how we portrayed each other’s characters.
There has to be a spirit of community and cooperation, while at the same time maintaining our individual voices. Every step of the way we’ve hashed out issues and problems, coming to a consensus. It helps to have a project first attitude, as well.
Next week, I’ll talk about the first three books in the series; which are launching April, May, and June.
I have to say, if you like murder mysteries that have you scratching your head trying to solve the puzzle, and that keep you awake at night due to the suspense, as well as tickle your funny bone — then you were going to love these books.
Comments are always welcome. And until next time, happy reading!
CW Hawes is a playwright, award-winning poet, and a fictioneer; as well as an armchair philosopher, political theorist, and social commentator. He loves a good cup of tea and agrees that everything’s better with pizza.
Were Ernest Hemingway alive today, would he make it as an independent author/publisher? I don’t think so.
Why do I write that? Because literary fiction is a tough sell to the indie reader. Not that a reader of indie books won’t read literary fiction, because some do. I for one.
However, Lit Fic is not the main diet of the indie reader. Genre fiction is. And genre fiction written in serials.
When we look at Literary Fiction in comparison to genre fiction, we see the problem immediately: most Lit Fic is standalone, and how the heck do you categorize it to get a reader’s eyes on it?
With genre fiction, it’s easy. There are all manner of tags one can use. For mysteries there are: crime fiction, serial killer, detective fiction, police procedural, cozy, amateur sleuth, along with the general mystery and murder mystery.
But what category does a book like The Remains of the Day fall into? Or The Old Man and the Sea?
Amazon does put The Old Man and the Sea into the Sea Stories category, but is it really a sea story? It certainly isn’t what I think of when I think of the sea story category. I think of Patrick O’Brian, and the Horatio Hornblower books. I might think of Moby Dick, or a book by Joseph Conrad. But Moby Dick isn’t really about the sea or whales, and while many Conrad stories involve the sea, they aren’t actually sea stories either.
The Remains of the Day is in an even more difficult place. Classic British Fiction. Now that tells me a lot. And therein lies the problem with indies selling Lit Fic — what the heck do you call it?
Since the indie reader basically demands genres and serial fiction, I think therein lies the answer. And the indie writer of Literary Fiction has no better a model than Anthony Trollope.
Trollope invented the novel series with his Barchester Chronicles: six novels that take place in and around the cathedral town of Barchester.
The six novels loosely follow each other. Although they can be read as standalone books. What they share is a locale and a set of characters that show up in each of the books, but with each novel having a different main character.
Because Trollope touches on so many different aspects of mid-nineteenth century British society, we can fit these books into many categories.
The books are historical fiction and religious fiction. They could possibly be called Christian fiction, although they aren’t evangelical in nature. They are about small town life, church politics and specifically Anglican Church politics, middle-class life, and married life. There is a fair amount of romance, always a campaign for Parliament, so we could call them mildly political novels. They could also be called comedies of manners. And they are filled with humor.
Trollope, as if he had foreseen Twitter, made it easy of us to tweet his books. And therein lies the key to an indie author’s success in writing Literary Fiction: write a series of standalone novels that involve the same locale and a general set of characters.
The old format for the TV series works well here: a main trio of characters, a supporting cast of around nine, and a uniform locale; each week one character is the focal point of the episode. Gunsmoke ran for years on such a formula, as did every other series when I was growing up.
And Anthony Trollope gave us the formula over a century ago.
Comments are always welcome! And until next time, happy reading (and writing)!
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:
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.
A good looking package. Your book needs to look appealing. That means appropriate cover art for the genre. Cover art that looks professional.
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)!
Today I thought I’d share a bit of encouragement with my fellow writers. I don’t normally give writing advice. Primarily because I’m not pulling in 5 figures a month, or have a mailing list of 60,000, or receive critical accolades from dozens of book critics, or been approached by a major publishing house offering me a 7 figure advance for my next book.
Whatever I might have to say on the business side of writing, or on the mechanics of writing, has been said by many others more qualified than I. And I can’t see the advantage in serving up twice fried hash.
However, what I can offer is encouragement. Because I do know what a little bit of encouragement can do to help keep the hands on the plow so the field can be planted.
My writing mentor is Anthony Trollope. He offers sage, timeless, and practical advice, along with inspiration for all author wannabes.
Are you struggling with whether or not you should even be a writer? Rainer Maria Rilke has the answer in his first letter to the young poet. The advice is profound.
Today, I want to talk about success. Particularly, what it means to be a successful writer.
At various times I’ve asked myself, Am I a successful writer? I mean, I’ve written 30 books and am lucky to make $300 in a year. Nobody who’s anybody has discovered me and promoted me and let me ride his or her coattails to fame and glory. And I thought getting recognition in the poetry world was tough!
So am I successful? A successful fiction author? After much thought, my answer is YES!
Of course that “yes” is according to my definition of success. And everyone’s definition is different. I’ll tell you a story to illustrate what I mean by success.
In 1989, when I was 36, I decided to write a novel. I’d never tried a novel and wasn’t sure I could write one. So I thought I’d give it a try and see if I had the makings of a novelist in me.
For over half a dozen years I’d been sitting on my sister and brother PI duo, Tina and Harry Wright, and decided they deserved to be in a novel.
Over the course of a year, I wrote my novel. When completed, I garnered a couple rejections. Then I took a long, hard look at what I’d written. Well, I had written a novel. So now I knew I could do it. I could write novels. I also realized my first attempt wasn’t overly good.
I took stock of my life at that point in time. I was working in an emotionally draining job. I had a family. And I realized I didn’t have the emotional energy to rework the novel, or to spend another year writing a new one.
With a sad heart, I put the typescript away.
But I had to write!
In those days, there was no indie author movement. Traditional publishing was king. An iron-fisted despot. Self-publishing was for losers and the vain. Fiction markets were few and far between, those that paid money that is. There were plenty of small zines that would take your stories. Zines with a circ of 50 or 100 readers at best. Payment was usually 2 contributor copies.
I knew writers who submitted to such zines in the hope of earning publishing credits and a chance at the big time. None of them made it.
After some soul searching, I decided to switch from fiction to poetry. The most important thing in making this change was giving up my dream of making a living from writing.
Because there is no money in poetry.
No money. Period. Nada. Zip. Even those who are lucky enough to have a publisher publish a book of their poetry don’t make money on it. Poets themselves have told me this.
In the world of poetry, there is no money and no hope of money. The last poet who supported himself with his poetry, near as I can tell, was Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. So if there is no money to measure success, success has to be measured by some other marker than cash.
In fiction, the marker is obviously money. Quitting the day job. Living from one’s pen. Poets, however, must come up with some other currency to measure success.
Poets, pure and simple, write for the love of writing. Secondarily they seek prestige and name recognition. Prestige from other poets and the few readers of poetry that are out there. And the thought that when their name is mentioned someone will recognize it. That’s it.
Poets never get rid of the day job, until they retire.
And I am proud to say that I made something of a splash in the micro-poetry world that I chose to write in. I won a few contests, got accepted in some “name” zines, and garnered a bit of name recognition. I was a “success” in the poetry world.
The other day, on Twitter, B. Bernard Ferguson tweeted the quote below. There was no attribution, so I don’t know if the quote is original with him, or copied from another source. Whatever its origin — it’s a beauty.
To all who ever doubted they would become a successful writer…the moment your written words resonate with anyone, including yourself, YOU became a “successful” writer.
I learned the message of that quote writing poetry. Touching another person’s heart and soul — even if only your own — was payment enough.
One man I know, older than I, read one of my poems and told me it helped him understand and come to terms with the dysfunctional relationship he’d had with his father. And I’ve been fortunate to have others express similar comments. That, my friends, is payment enough.
Now I write fiction which has always been my dream, my first love. I don’t make much money. If folks read those free books I gave away, I might have a thousand people who have read my books. But what counts is that I’m having a blast. I’m doing what a mere 25 years ago was impossible — because the technology didn’t exist. I’m writing and publishing books. A dream come true.
And today the self-published stigma, while still present in some circles, is fast disappearing. There are truly excellent self-published books out there. Eat your heart out Big 5!
And along the way of my fiction journey, I’ve touched people. Not a lot, but more than I could have 25 years ago. These folk love Justinia Wright, or Pierce Mostyn, or Bill Arthur. I’ve given them enjoyment and at times something to think about. I’ve helped them enter a different world than the one they live in day to day. I’ve helped them escape boredom, the pressure of their jobs, and even pain. That’s something to think about.
If I never make 4 or 5 figures a month, I will at least leave this life knowing that what I wrote touched other human beings.
Sherlock Holmes-one of the most memorable characters in fiction.
The other day fellow author Jack Tyler posted on his blog advice to writers: it’s the characters.
Characters do indeed make the story. But much more accurately, characters are the story. Think about a novel. Any novel. What do you remember about it? Or a movie or TV series. Any movie or TV series. What do you remember? The plots? Or the characters? Unless it’s The Twilight Zone, it’s the characters you remember. Dorothy. Columbo. Proxy Snyder on Colony. Scarlett and Rhett. Nero Wolfe. Scrooge. Sherlock Holmes.
Generally speaking, we readers read a novel or short story for the characters. People we can relate to who are in a crisis. There is a certain vicarious experience we go through when we read a work of fiction and identify with the hero or heroine. Their struggle becomes our struggle. Their win, our win.
Even in that most well-worn of story forms, the Hero’s Quest, the calamities and the setting and the nature of the obstacles to be surmounted may change, but in the end what we read the story for is not the plot. We already know the plot. It’s the characters. The hero. We read the Hero’s Quest for the hero. His (or her) journey becomes our journey.
The Hobbit is Bilbo’s story. Sure it’s an adventure tale. And we like adventure tales. But what makes The Hobbit unique is Bilbo Baggins. Not the world in which Bilbo lives. That is window dressing. Bilbo makes The Hobbit what it is. Not the orcs, not Gandalf, not the elves, not Middle Earth.
We don’t read the Hero’s Quest for the story. We know the story. We read the Hero’s Quest for the Hero (or Heroine). Is he someone we can relate to? Is the hero us? If he is, we read. If he isn’t, we put the book aside and pick up another. And this applies to any other book or story that we find memorable.
Anthony Trollope, a master at creating believable characters, told future writers what he believed to be the secret of successful fiction. Here is his advice (from his Autobiography):
“A novel should give a picture of common life enlivened by humour and sweetened by pathos. To make that picture worthy of attention, the canvas should be crowded with real portraits, not of individuals known to the world or to the author, but of created personages impregnated with traits of character which are known. To my thinking, the plot is but the vehicle for all this; and when you have the vehicle without the passengers, a story of mystery in which the agents never spring to life, you have but a wooden show.”
As Trollope advised: “…when you have the vehicle without the passengers…you have but a wooden show.”
And sad to say, there are a lot of wooden shows out there. Part of the reason we readers must endure these wooden shows is due to writers who write commercial fiction and don’t have the ability to rise above their formulas. These writers, hoping to earn enough with their keyboards to quit the day job, quite often have no idea how to tell a story. They simply follow the plot beats on the chart. If they didn’t have that chart they wouldn’t have a clue as to what comes next in the story.
As a reader, one of the reasons I steer clear of today’s most popular genres (at least for the most part) is because those genres are filled with the works of hacks who provide nothing but a wooden show. Many of these writers are only interested in the dollar. They are in a gold rush, looking to get rich quick.
Of course one hopes they will learn the craft sufficiently to rise above the wooden show. But to do so, they need to write. Not write to make a buck. Just write. And by writing, learn.
Now I’m not averse to money. I think virtually all writers would like to earn a significant chunk of change from their writing. Me included. Shoot, even Shakespeare wrote for money. But there is a difference between simply writing for money and writing because you just have to tell a story.
Lawrence Block wrote over a hundred trash novels in the ‘50s and into the ‘60s. They were what he cut his writing teeth on. Many of them are being republished now.
I remember him writing somewhere that maybe he stayed too long writing those trash novels. But when he stopped and started writing “the good stuff”, he knocked the ball out of the park. Evan Tanner. Bernie Rhodenbarr. Matt Scudder. Ehrengraff. Just a few of the many memorable characters he created. Block cut his writing teeth by writing. Not by hiring beta readers, or editors, or submitting his work to creative writing workshops. He wrote and improved his craft.
Too many writers today want instant glory. They are mostly young, and grew up being pampered in school. Everyone’s a winner. Hogwash. The real world says otherwise.
One young woman in a closed Facebook group said she uses editors because she doesn’t want to risk losing readers. What? How is an editor going to make something unreadable readable? He/She can’t unless he or she becomes a co-author.
These writers are afraid of failure, so they are doing whatever they can to avert it. Failure, however, is part of life. Letting one’s readers tell you your book is crap, is a tremendous learning experience. In the days before Kindle, editors did that at magazines and publishing houses. Today, for indie authors, the reader takes the place of the editor. Most of today’s young writers don’t understand that.
If you writers want to write for a living, write. Write lots. Publish whatever you can. Let your readers tell you what works and doesn’t work. After all, they are the ones you are writing for. They are the ones who will buy your books.
Of course we readers share in the blame when it comes to mediocre formulaic writing, peopled with lackluster and wooden characters. We share in the blame because we tolerate such writing. We do so because we are either ignorant of quality writing, or we simply don’t care.
If we readers don’t care, then writers won’t either. They’ll shovel whatever crap or swill they can our way — just as long as we buy it and help them quit the day job.
This reader, however, as Popeye said, Can’t Stands No More!
I’ve been so disappointed with the current crop of writers who are award winners and New York Times, USA Today, and Amazon bestsellers — that I no longer even look at the book if it has one of those tags on it. We readers have let the mediocre rise to the top.
What I do instead, is search history’s dustbin for those forgotten treasures from the past. Many are free because they are no longer under copyright, or can be found very cheap on the used market.
I’ve also started looking for the hidden gems on Amazon. Those books that have never found their way into the top million. Yes, that is million. I’ve found fabulous, character-rich reads in many of those books. I’m doing my best to get the word out on those hidden treasures. Aargh, matey! There be buried treasure here!
Every week I post a Book of the Week on my Facebook page. Do make a point to check it out. However, because money hungry Zuckerberg has monetized pages, not all of my 105 followers see my posts. At most 25 do. If I want them all to see the posts, I have to give the Z man $5 to boost the post. So do make a point to check out the Book of the Week each Monday. Good reads are there to be found.
This week’s Book of the Week is Tales of Horror by Bryan C Laesch. A superb trio of monster stories. Give it a read. You won’t be sorry.
Past Book of the Week authors are Dusty Sharp, Zara Altair, Simon Osborne, Jacquie Rogers, and Andy Graham. Writers guaranteed to bring you a respite from your day, or just plain give you a good time.
Characters are fiction. If, my dear fellow readers, you’ve been caught up in the thriller hype. You know, the pages-turn-themselves kind of crap, where the writer simply piles on more and more problems — usually paying little attention to character development. If you’ve been sucked into the fast is better mentality, take some time to experience character-driven fiction.
While character-driven fiction may be slower than the hyperdrive thriller, it doesn’t have to be and often isn’t. Tom Clancy’s novels don’t lack for character — or action.
The plot-driven stuff is fine if you just want a snack. If, however, you want the full-meal deal, you need books with fabulous characters. Because they are like Tootsie Rolls: they last a long time.
Comments are always welcome. And until next time, happy reading!
At every turn, indie writers are encouraged and urged and pressured to write faster. Quality seems to be a second thought. Just as long as thousands of words are written every day, the indie writer is told he or she is on the first step to success.
Books abound telling us how to write faster. The following appeared on the first page of an Amazon search: 2K to 10K, Fast Fiction, Write Fast, 5000 Words Per Hour. And of course the authors of these books are making money hand over fist by telling us how to write faster. But none of the authors of those books are in the same league as Charles Dickens, Anthony Trollope, Stephen King, Sandra Brown or Dean Koontz. Generally speaking the writers of how-to books don’t make their living by writing fiction. They make their money telling wannabe writers how to write. And that should be a warning to us all.
There is no secret to writing fast. To put it bluntly, all one needs to do is to park one’s butt in a chair for a set amount of time, cut the distractions, and write. As Australian science fiction and fantasy writer Patty Jansen has said, 1000 finished words each day will produce at least four novels per year. At the end of three years a writer could have four three-book series for sale. That is a solid step in the direction of writing for a living.
Four weeks ago I mentioned Anthony Trollope’s method for producing three-quarters of a million words per year. In his own day, the Victorian novelist was known as The Writing Machine. In an era when artists were supposed to work by inspiration, Trollope quite baldly and boldly showed that successful artists work by perspiration. Let’s expand a bit on Trollope’s method.
Anthony Trollope viewed writing just like any other business. To be successful, one had to have goals and then set up a plan to meet those goals.
In several different chapters of his Autobiography, Trollope gives us a window into his working life as a successful author. I recommend that every writer read Anthony Trollope’s Autobiography. It’s available for free at Project Gutenberg.
Goals
Trollope’s overall goal was to be a successful author, which by his definition meant he had to earn a livable wage from writing.
The first step in achieving that goal was to write books. For each novel, Trollope set a date for the novel to be completed and submitted to a publisher.
To hold himself accountable, he kept a writing diary and recorded his progress in it. In that way he didn’t have to guess if he was making progress towards his goal. He knew how much he had written every day. He also knew if he was slacking off. The diary was his production manager.
By setting a goal, Trollope had made a commitment. We all know the benefit of setting goals. We also know the benefit of being held accountable to reach those goals. Trollope held himself accountable by means of his writing diary and his desire to earn a livable wage from his writing.
In the end, we are the ones who are responsible for our own success.
Write Every Morning
To achieve his greater goal, Anthony Trollope set smaller goals. Goals that could be achieved every day, and thereby be an encouragement to him.
He set aside three hours every morning as his writing time. This was a daily goal.
He got up at 5:30 AM, spent the first half-hour reviewing the previous day’s production, then wrote for the remaining 2 1/2 hours. Afterwards, he dressed, ate breakfast, and went to his day job at the post office.
Why write in the morning? Why not in the evening? Trollope doesn’t specifically tell us. However, he was a very busy man. He had a family and a full-time job. He was a social person and, after a day at the post office, he’d go to the club, visit with friends, play whist, and two or more times a week he’d go fox hunting.
Practically speaking, that only left mornings in which to write — and early mornings at that.
Psychologically, though, writing first thing in the morning says something else. It says we value it above everything else in our day. It’s so valuable that we make sure we get it done before we do anything else. Even eating breakfast. Whether Trollope realized it or not he was telling himself that writing was the most important thing in his life.
Lawrence Block noted he was fresher first thing in the morning. The issues of the day hadn’t filled up his mind yet. So in addition to the psychological value, writing first thing in the morning means we get to start with a clean slate — and thereby hopefully produce our best work.
Write To The Clock
It’s one thing to get up at 5:30 AM to write and it’s another thing entirely to produce something in the three hours you’ve set aside to write.
Trollope left nothing to chance. To sit and stare at the wall or out the window, waiting for inspiration to strike, was not the Trollope way. He was a busy man. He had to make the most of his time. And make the most of it, he did.
After reviewing the previous day’s work, Trollope took out his watch and set it on the table. He took out a sheet of paper, dipped his steel dip pen into the ink pot, and commenced writing.
Writing 250 words per page, he turned out one page of his novel every 15 minutes. One thousand words per hour. Two thousand five hundred words, or 10 manuscript pages, by the time his morning writing session was over.
By setting both a daily goal and an hourly goal, Trollope could gauge his progress. And we all know how exhilarating even small successes can be.
By writing to the clock, Trollope produced 47 novels, 17 works of nonfiction, 2 plays, 44 short stories, in addition to numerous articles, lectures, and letters. And all that in the span of 35 years, from 1847 (when his first novel was published) to December 1882 (when he died).
Summary
How did Anthony Trollope produce a full-time writer’s output only writing part-time?
He made efficient use of his time. In a nutshell, this is his method:
Write at a set time every day.
Write for a set amount of time every day.
Write a set amount of words in that time every day.
Set a deadline for the work to be completed.
Keep a diary of your progress to inspire you or chastise you.
Two thousand five hundred words each day will give you 912,500 words a year. That’s seven 120,000 novels. Or eleven 80,000 word novels. Or eighteen 50,000 word novels.
Honestly, does anyone need to produce more than that in one year?
As always, comments are welcome! And until next time, happy reading (and writing)!
Last week I wrote that the Victorian writer Anthony Trollope is my writing mentor. He is the one who keeps my feet on the ground when it comes to writing and advice and writing fads.
This week I would like to continue exploring what today’s indie authors can learn from Anthony Trollope. Let’s look at a few more areas where he can teach us valuable lessons.
Gadgets
Lots of writers spend lots of money on all manner of gadgets and software to help them write. I think it is an age thing. Those who grew up with computers are more likely to be attracted to gadgets to help them write.
But gadgets do not make the writer.
Trollope wrote with a steel dip pen, ink, and paper. That’s it. No Scrivener. No Dragon. No Hemingway Editor. No classes to learn how to use Scrivener. And certainly no computer.
We don’t need gadgets to write well. We might think we do because we live in an age filled with gadgets. What we really need to write well, is to know how to tell a story. And sad to say, gadgets can’t help us with that.
There is plenty of evidence that shows writing by hand will produce a superior product. And Trollope has shown us that we can produce 10 books a year simply by using pen and paper.
We don’t need gadgets and we don’t need to spend the money to buy the gadgets or learn how to use them. Writers write.
Beats, Structure, and Formulae
Many of my fellow writers obsess over how to tell the story. They get all wrapped up in making sure they have all of the story beats that somebody told them they needed. Or they struggle to fit their story into three-act structure or five-act structure. Or they slavishly follow Lester Dent’s formula or Freitag’s Pyramid.
To my mind this is all crazy. It’s a waste of time. Most of it anyway. We all know conflict drives a story. The conflict can be external or internal. The conflict can be subtle or violent. We know we have to batter our protagonist until he or she reaches down deep to draw on that inner strength that enables him or her to triumph.
So do it. Just tell the doggone story.
Once again, Trollope shows us how to do it. In his Autobiography, Chapter 5, he wrote:
“[The Warden] has a merit of its own,—a merit by my own perception of which I was enabled to see wherein lay whatever strength I did possess. The characters of the bishop, of the archdeacon, of the archdeacon’s wife, and especially of the warden, are all well and clearly drawn. I had realised to myself a series of portraits, and had been able so to put them on the canvas that my readers should see that which I meant them to see. There is no gift which an author can have more useful to him than this.”
Characters. Well drawn and believable characters. That’s what it’s all about. They’re the secret to telling your story. Not beats or formulae. Ray Bradbury put it this way: create your characters, let them do their thing, and there’s your story.
We can spend all the time we want making sure X happens at the one fifth mark of the book and that Y happens at the one third mark of the book. That the mirror point happens precisely at the 50% mark. Etc. etc.
None of that makes for a good story unless one has good characters. As Trollope noted in the seventh chapter of his Autobiography:
“A novel should give a picture of common life enlivened by humour and sweetened by pathos. To make that picture worthy of attention, the canvas should be crowded with real portraits, not of individuals known to the world or to the author, but of created personages impregnated with traits of character which are known. To my thinking, the plot is but the vehicle for all this; and when you have the vehicle without the passengers, a story of mystery in which the agents never spring to life, you have but a wooden show.”
Sure there has to be a story, and Trollope admits this, but the story, the plot, is secondary to the characters. Plot exists in order to bring out the characters of the story. Characters that come across as real. Characters that make us laugh and tug at our heartstrings.
Therefore, create good characters, throw problems at them, and let them do their thing. Letting a story unfold organically will always lead to a better story then one forced into some kind of mold.
Reviews
Writers today obsess about reviews. If they get one bad review, their world seems to fall apart.
Let’s face facts. There are going to be people who don’t like what we write. There are going to be people who love what we write. And there are going to be people who think our writing is okay but no great shakes.
That’s the name of the game. And to top it off, the public is a very fickle creature. What’s hot today will be cold tomorrow.
Trollope had his share of adverse publisher and reader reactions. His first three books sold nothing. As in zero copies. At least that Trollope was aware of. In fact, he didn’t even get paid for the first two because apparently the publisher didn’t make any money. For his third book he received a £20 advance. And that was all the money he ever saw for it. Again, because the publisher didn’t make any money on it.
After those debacles, Trollope didn’t doubt that he should try to be a writer. He accepted the public’s opinion that they didn’t like those books and decided to try his hand at a play. When his friends told him to go back to novel writing he accepted that too. But he never doubted that he could be a writer. And that’s important. He had self-confidence. He just had to identify what the problem was that other people were signifying that he had.
And the problem for Trollope turned out to be subject matter. Apparently the English public wasn’t ready for Irish novels, or historical novels (at least how Trollope wrote them).
So Trollope turned to writing a contemporary novel set in a fictional English cathedral city. With The Warden, his fourth novel, Anthony Trollope finally made some money. In two years, he made a little over £20 from royalties. Or about $2700 in today’s money. Two years later, Barchester Towers was published, for which he received an advance of £100.
Trollope had finally achieved success. He hit on a subject the English reading public liked. His strength was in writing contemporary novels about the people in his own class. And he did it well. Mostly because his characters are so delightful.
The lesson for us is if we wish to make money writing, then we need to write what we know and write what resonates with the market.
Many writers eschew writing to market. They somehow think that sullies their reputation or the literary quality of what they write. But stop and think about this for a moment. Shakespeare wrote to market. Dickens wrote to market. Longfellow, about the only poet who ever made a living from poetry, wrote to market. There is nothing wrong with writing to market, unless one does a very bad job of it. And unfortunately there are writers who do.
Writing to market simply means you’re writing books or short stories that people want to read. Trollope’s Irish novels are very good, but no one in the 1840s wanted to read them. Trollope loved Ireland and could have written lots more Irish novels, but he wanted to make a living from writing and knew that if he persisted in writing Irish novels he would not be able to accomplish his goal. So he eventually turned to writing about the other thing he knew — his own class, and the reading public devoured his books.
Regardless of what he wrote, Trollope’s goal was to write the best book that he could. Shouldn’t that be our goal? And does the genre or subject matter truly matter that much?
If you like science fiction, and military science fiction is all the rage, then write the best military science fiction novel that you can. Trollope didn’t especially love English cathedral cities. But he knew the setting would enable him to write about the people he knew and from that produce good books. If we want to be successful, doesn’t Trollope’s attitude and approach make sense?
When we get bad reviews, we should look at what the people are really saying. Maybe they’re telling us something, and maybe we need to take heed of what they’re telling us. Trollope did, and went on to become a very successful author.
Anthony Trollope is a person who can show us how to triumph in adversity, set a dream for ourselves, and through perseverance and astute observation achieve that dream.
You can get Anthony Trollope’s Autobiography for free at Project Gutenberg. It’s a marvelous handbook for success.
As always comments are welcome, and until next time happy reading and writing!
Last week we talked about fast writing. This week I want to riff on some of those points we made.
For years now, I’ve maintained “The First Draft” is a myth. There’s no need for it or the accompanying second, third, fourth, fifth, etc drafts. The multiple draft approach is an Academic Belief System all wannabe writers are taught to believe by people who don’t write for a living. It has no basis in reality. At least the reality of those who write fiction for a living.
The belief system of Academia and the editors in the traditional publishing world believe this formula:
Slow Writing = Good Writing.
Or conversely, Fast Writing = Bad Writing.
This is a belief system. A religion. It is not The Truth. It has no basis in reality. It’s no different than belief in God. No one can prove there is or isn’t a God. One either believes there is a God or believes there isn’t one. Simple as that.
We writers can choose to believe the myth about fast and slow writing or we can choose not to believe it. For myself, I don’t believe it.
In high school and college, as a matter of course, mostly due to time pressure is my guess, I wrote out my papers and essays by hand. Then I typed them, editing as I went along. When I was done, I submitted. No first draft, second draft baloney. There was no time. And I’m pleased to say, I never got poor marks on my papers.
But for some odd reason, I didn’t apply that intuitive course of action to my fiction writing. I struggled trying to make it perfect. To do all of the “right” things. And consequently, I got nothing written.
Nearly 40 years ago now, I read a book on writing advice. I don’t remember the title, author, or anything about it except the summary of how Isaac Asimov wrote and his advice for writers. It went something like this:
Write every day — whether or not you feel like it.
Write simply.
Forget the critics.
Don’t rewrite. That’s what editors are for. This point was Asimov’s restatement of Robert Heinlein’s 3rd Rule of Writing, something I learned later. Asimov didn’t rewrite unless his editor demanded it. Asimov followed what, in business, is called the OHIO rule: Only Handle It Once. And it does work for writers. I practiced it with my essays for school.
Don’t use an agent. Because you make more money if you don’t. I.E., you aren’t paying the agent his or her commission.
That book and the brief bit of information from Isaac Asimov was my first introduction to prolific writing. And I loved the concept!
But for some reason, I still didn’t apply it to my fiction. And nothing got written.
Later on, I learned about the Victorian speed demon, Anthony Trollope. I learned Heinlein’s 5 Rules of Writing. I was awed by the fabulous production of Robert E Howard in his very short writing career. And I learned one thing about myself: I needed to be like them. I needed to be a fast writer.
In 1989, I wrote a novel. The process took me a year. I didn’t really know what I was doing. But I did get it written while working full time and learning the ins and outs of raising a very young child. After a few rejections of my query, I set the work aside. I decided it wasn’t up to standard. And in truth, it wasn’t. I didn’t quite have down how to write a good story. I also came to the decision, I couldn’t write longer works of fiction. They took up too much time. So I turned to poetry. And that worked.
For a span of fifteen or so years I wrote thousands of poems, following Asimov’s advice. I was a prolific poet and got hundreds of poems published. But I tired of poetry and wanted to write what I’d always wanted to write and that was fiction. So once again I turned to novel writing. And once again I stubbed my toe on another myth — that of the outline. And no matter how much I tried, I couldn’t get an outline to work. Every time I took my wonderful character or story idea and tried to outline the book, I suddenly lost all inspiration. It vanished.
Then I stumbled upon Kazuo Ishiguro and Yasujirō Ozu and the plotless novel and movie. To be fair, their books and movies aren’t without plot. The storyline, though, is minor. What is important are the character studies taking place on the page and screen. That was what broke the ice. I liked reading about characters. I could not care less about the story. I want interesting characters.
Suddenly, I felt free. There were no restrictions. Just write. Do what Ray Bradbury advised: create your characters, have them do their thing, and that’s your story. Simple as that. The words have been flowing like a flood from my pen ever since.
But getting back to Asimov, there was one “rule” he didn’t articulate but is clearly implied in his methodology — and which I follow. Namely, write it right the first time.
How does one write it right the first time? Confidence. You must be confident you know the basics of good writing. You must be confident you can tell a reasonably good story.
I’m not referring here to deeply profound writing. Or writing that is symbolic or “literary”, whatever that means. Or writing that is approved by Academia. I’m not referring here to writing that will win you the Pulitzer or Nobel or Booker awards. I’m referring here to good writing that will hopefully earn you a few bucks and maybe a lot of bucks. Straightforward writing that tells a good story.
Shakespeare did not set out to become the doyen of English literature. He was writing to make a buck. He used prefab storylines and created memorable characters and wrote some doggone good dialogue. But his main goal was to make a buck to support his family, mistress, and keep his theatre afloat. Shakespeare had confidence he could tell a good story.
The critics hated Isaac Asimov and ridiculed his very simple and straightforward writing style. However, the readers loved him and Asimov himself undoubtedly laughed at his critics all the way to the bank. Why? Because he told a good story. Was it a perfect story? No. And he would have been the first to admit it. But the story was good. In fact, Asimov wrote once that he tried to follow the multiple draft method and couldn’t. He liked what he wrote on the first draft and didn’t see any way he could improve it. Besides, it was a waste of time — if he wanted to be prolific and make a buck. Asimov had confidence.
Dean Wesley Smith tells an interesting anecdote from back when he was part of the traditional publisher world. He wrote a novel and his editor sent it back with a list of rewrites. Smith agreed with most of them and spent a day making the fixes. He was getting ready to send the typescript back when his wife told him to wait 3 weeks. Why? Because if Smith sent it back right away, following the “Slow Writing = Good Writing” myth, the editor would reject his work. He’d done the rewrites too quickly. So Smith waited. After 3 weeks he sent the typescript back and the editor praised his work and how quickly he’d made the fixes. Smith laughed. In those three weeks he’d almost finished another novel!
So what’s my point here? Here it is in a nutshell:
Learn the writing craft. Know your grammar and know the basics of good storytelling. If you don’t know those basics, you will not be able to tell good stories no matter how many rewrites you grind out.
Write every day — even if you don’t feel like it. Routine is good. Stick to it.
Don’t pot around worrying about outline and plot twists and all the other hoopla. Just write the story. Create your characters, put them in a fix or give them a problem to solve and then start writing. You will learn in the course of writing. We are writers. Not rewriters. When I read of writers who LOVE editing and rewriting… Well, there is something wrong there. IMO.
When done, reread to make sure your story is coherent and to catch typos, grammar issues, and any clunky sentences you may have written. But the sake of everything that is of value to you, don’t rewrite the thing. IMO, if you have to rewrite then you don’t know how to tell a story. Yeah, I know, that’s harsh. But it is just my opinion. The choice is yours: pot around rewriting, or get it right the first time and try to make a buck.
I’ve written and/or published in the span of 2 years, 11 novels, 6 novellas, 16 short stories, and a weekly blog. Are there better writers out there than me? Certainly. Are there worse writers? Sure are. But am I a good writer? Like Asimov, when I look at a story or novel I’ve just completed I like it. Do I tweak it? Usually. But I don’t rewrite. I just fix the little things like typos and grammar mistakes and maybe reword a sentence or two if they come off sounding clunky. That’s it. If the beta readers spot a big issue, I’ll fix that. Following Asimov and Heinlein, I only rewrite if my “editors” insist on it. And the so called rewrite is usually only a paragraph or so.
That’s the secret to fast writing. Go out there and tell your stories. Because only YOU can tell YOUR stories.
Comments are always welcome. Until next time, happy reading!
If you are a writer, I’m going to save you at least a buck today. A buck might not be much, but save enough of them and you can retire.
The other day I ran across a podcast interviewing Rachel Aaron, “Miss 10K Words A Day”. After reading through the transcript of the interview I decided to check out her blog. I found the original post from 2011 in which she outlined her system for writing 10,000 words a day. After reading it, I came away singularly unimpressed. There was nothing new there. Which is so often the case with writing advice. As the writer of Ecclesiastes wrote, “There is nothing new under the sun”.
Now my intention is not to put down Ms Aaron. After all she’s radically increased her word count per day — and tossed onto the rubbish heap the myth that fast writing is bad writing. And I say, Good for her! But what’s apparent to me is that she’s young and has little knowledge of the fact high word counts for writers used to be very much the norm. They had to be. Those writers of the pulp era wrote for a living. Every word they wrote was money in their pocket. No words on the page, no money. It was that simple.
Ms Aaron also writes for a living and she too has discovered fast writing is one of the keys to making a livable wage from the writing of fiction. But fast writing is nothing new, although I get the impression she seems to think so.
Nevertheless, she’s come up with a system, a good system by the way, and is willing to sell it to you for 99¢. Which is very generous on her part. Some writing gurus charge a whole lot more for a whole lot less.
But everything she has to say can be gotten for FREE on the Internet. Starting with her own blog post in 2011.
Michael Moorcock
Michael Moorcock, that prodigious writer of science fiction and fantasy, used to write novels in three days. Karen Woodward outlines how he did it in a blog post from 2014. And you can find another article at wetasphalt.com.
The Guardian, in 2010, presented Moorcock’s “Ten Rules For Writers”. Wonderful advice from a master.
The articles above are all free, just click on the links, and if you follow the advice you will increase your daily word count substantially.
Lester Dent
But Moorcock didn’t come up with his method all by himself. He got it from Lester Dent, a pulp era writer with a fantastic output. Dent was the creator of Doc Savage. If you’ve never read Doc Savage, you are missing out on a classic.
Karen Woodward has a fabulous series of blog posts on Lester Dent’s method of fast writing. The first one is “Lester Dent’s Short Story Master Formula”. The links to the other four articles are at the bottom of the initial post. And note, the formula works equally well for novels. A shorter version of Dent’s formula can be found at Dirty 30s! on paper-dragon.com. And once again, this information is all free!
Anthony Trollope
But fast writing didn’t originate during the pulp fiction era either. It began much earlier. Alexandre Dumas (1802 – 1870) made frequent use of assistants and collaborators to increase his production. Which is, of course, a time honored method of doing so. James Patterson does it today.
One of my favorite authors, Anthony Trollope (1815 – 1882), in a writing career that spanned 37 years, produced 35 standalone novels, two 6-novel series, 42 short stories, 2 plays, 18 works of non-fiction, and 3 articles, as well as keeping up a voluminous correspondence. Without the help of assistants or collaborators. How did he do it? Quite simple, really.
For most of his writing career, Trollope worked a full-time job at the post office. Which meant he had to make the most of his time. He’d get up 2 1/2 hours before he had to leave for his day job in order to have time to write. The first half-hour he reviewed what he wrote the previous day. For the next two hours, he wrote.
He wrote by the clock. Literally. There was a clock on his desk. He wrote, by hand, with a dip pen, 250 words every 15 minutes. Or 2000 words in those two hours. He did that every day.
If during the two hours he completed the novel he was working on, he took out a fresh sheet of paper and began the next one. What that tells me is he had the story idea already in his head or written down somewhere. The key is he didn’t have to think about it. It was already there.
Trollope also kept a journal in which he recorded his daily word count. The purpose was to catch himself if he started slacking off.
Let’s summarize Trollope’s method:
Have the storyline in your head, at the very least. Jot a few notes, if you need to. Moorcock and Dent did the same thing by writing in fictional universes they’d already created in detail. They didn’t have to figure out stuff on the fly.
Set aside a regular time and place to write EVERY DAY. This is one of the secrets Rachel Aaron discovered and used to increase her word count.
Review the previous day’s work to prime the pump and get the juices flowing. This is akin to warming up exercises before a person goes jogging.
Don’t dawdle. Write quickly and get the words down. If you need notes or an outline in order to do so, then take a few minutes to jot them down. Writers often get bogged down when they have to spend time thinking about what they are going to write instead of writing it. Another secret Ms Aaron discovered.
Record your progress. That way, if you find you are falling behind, you can easily pinpoint why and correct the problem. This is another one of the secrets Ms Aaron discovered, which I am passing along to you.
There you have it, Anthony Trollope’s secret to speedy writing. The granddaddy of speedy writers. You also now know Michael Moorcock’s method, Lester Dent’s method, and Rachel Aaron’s method of speedy writing. And all for FREE! You’ve just saved yourself a buck.
The secret to fast writing is no secret. Writers have been writing quickly for many, many decades. As Dean Wesley Smith has pointed out, it is the traditional publishing world and academia that has made us think fast writing equals hack writing. I am very glad Rachel Aaron has discovered the secret to fast writing and is popularizing it. But it has never been a secret. It’s just been demonized by those who didn’t and don’t write for a living.
So get out your pencil, pen, or keyboard and start writing. You’ve nothing to lose but those doggone low word counts.
As always, comments are welcome. Until next time, happy reading! And happy fast writing!
In 2014 I made the decision to become an independent writer/publisher, or indie for short. Two factors weighed heavily in my decision. One was the difficulty of going the traditional route. The other being freedom.
I don’t write much on the writing life, because I don’t have much, if anything, to add to the veritable mountain of information that’s out already. Nor is my personal journey all that unique. I’ve made plenty of mistakes and I am slowly correcting them. I’ve also done a few things right.
Today, I’d like to put out into the aether a few thoughts about being an author/publisher. These are my own reflections. For the writers in my audience, I hope you find something of use or encouragement. For the non-writers, hopefully you’ll find applications to your own lives.
Traditional Publishing
Sometime in the middle 1960s I got my first copies of The Writer and Writer’sDigest. Let me be frank here, nothing much has changed in the traditional publishing world during these past 50 years. The most noticeable differences between then and now are these:
There are fewer publishers
An agent is virtually mandatory
The wannabe author has to secure his/her own editorial services
There is the internet
Everything else is the same. The same advice on how to write. The same adulation of critics, pundits, and publishers. The same narrow gate whereby only the few may enter. And once within the hallowed walls of authordom, the same lousy contracts and all the same self-marketing if you want to sell books.
My late friend and author, John J. Koblas, used to have his van filled with boxes of his books to sell at every speaking engagement and signing event. And to whoever might happen by. He made an okay living—but had to hustle to do it.
In truth, very little has changed in 50 years. For all of the perceived change, so much has stayed the same.
Freedom
I value freedom. Robert E. Howard, in a letter to H. P. Lovecraft, confessed the reason he wanted to be a writer was because of the freedom it gave a person. I couldn’t agree more.
A writer is a self-employed artist. A creator and a business person all rolled into one. Unfortunately, the business piece of the partnership usually gets forgotten. The writer leaves that to the agent; or, if self published, too often to magic. When Weird Tales had trouble paying Howard for his stories, Howard followed the money and moved on to the western and fight magazines. He was a businessman as well as an artist.
Any writer can tell you, if he or she is actually writing stories and books, the act of writing is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration. It’s work. It might be fun work, but it’s work nonetheless.
So why do so many writers—myself included—simply toss their books onto Amazon and then conduct tweet barrages to try to sell them? Or think blogging will get them noticed? Or hope that those 10,000 downloads of their free book will automatically turn into book buying fans? Because we want to believe in magic.
After being in indie author for over a year and a half, I’m here to tell you magic doesn’t work.
The freedom of being an independent author/publisher comes with a boatload of responsibility. The responsibility of being your own business person. Of being the one who directs your career, not some money-grubbing middleman (aka publisher) directing it for you.
The Black Hole
I read somewhere 3,000 books a day are published. I don’t know if that is true or not. But I’d hazard a guess it’s at least close to the truth.
Recently I went through a free course on book marketing with Nick Stephenson. Several times he mentioned writing into the black hole. In other words if you’re unknown, just writing books won’t bring you fame. They’re going into the black hole. Because no one knows you exist.
Marketing on social media is kind of doing the same thing. So is offering your book for free. There are lots of people out there who will grab anything for free and that includes books. They may never read those free books. Which means downloads of free books don’t necessarily mean readers, much less fans.
Dumping into the black hole isn’t going to do much to get you noticed. Remember, 3,000 books a day are being published.
Becoming a name, a recognizable name, is the struggle every author has had since authors first stepped onto the career playing field. And we are talking millennia here, folks. Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides weren’t always famous. How many more classical Greek playwrights never became famous? We don’t know. Their names are dust. Anthony Trollope got the attention of a few critics with his fourth novel. He made some money and got a name with his fifth. It was Hugh Howey’s eighth book, Wool, that gave readers cause to sit up and take notice. Very few authors ever hit the big time coming out of the gate.
When I look at Twitter or Facebook or Google Plus or Goodreads, I see writers grouping together primarily with other writers. And that is not all bad. But it won’t necessarily get you out of the black hole. Why? Because we writers want readers to buy our books. There are more readers out there than writers. Somewhere along the line I think we forget that. Although, I do keep hoping Marcia Muller or S J Rozan will discover and plug my Justinia Wright mystery series and I will rake in the dough on the Oprah Effect. I do keep hoping. Magic is alive and well.
The sad fact of the matter is most of us will be swallowed up by the black hole. Why? Because name recognition is much more difficult to obtain then writing a book—and writing a book is difficult enough.
Marketing
To climb out of the black hole, we need to be business people. We need to plan our work and work our plan. We need to become proficient at marketing and self-promotion. And because many of us are introverts and shy, we see self-promotion as something akin to torture. And who wants to willingly lie on the rack or step into the Iron Maiden?
Nevertheless, we need to learn how to sell our books and ourselves—if we want to make a career of writing.
For myself, I’m 63 and retired. I don’t need to replace the dreaded day job. But I would like to supplement my income and get that Rolls Royce I’ve always wanted.
So how does one learn marketing? There are lots of ways:
Business courses at college
Observation of successful indies
Getting personal advice from successful indies
Reading marketing blogs
Reading books on marketing
Taking courses offered by indie writers who are successful or marketers who cater to indie authors
Trial and error
Paying a marketing firm (making sure you observe what they do so you don’t have to hire them ongoing)
I’ve observed successful indies, read a few of the marketing blogs, read a few books on marketing, have tried and erred, and am now taking a course.
What I’ve Learned
What have I learned over the past 20 months of being an indie author that I can pass on to you? Here are a few thoughts:
Write. For indie authors, less is not more. More is more. Readers of indie authors expect a lot of product. All of the experienced indie authors agree on this.
Write in series. Readers of indie works expect a series or at the very least related books in a universe or series characters. All of the experienced indie authors agree on this.
Have at least 3 books written before you start seriously thinking of marketing.
Write in an identifiable genre. This makes it easy for indie readers to identify you. The genre doesn’t have to be large. It could be, for example, romantic space opera. While small, that subgenre is identifiable. Once again, all of the experienced indie authors agree on this.
Write well/Edit well. This should go without saying. Unfortunately it can’t. Pay someone to help you if you have to. Investing in yourself is always worth the money.
Use social media to make connections with your peers. Don’t use it to sell. It’s a poor sales channel—unless you are paying for ads on the channel.
Learn marketing. If you’re going to be an author/publisher, then you’re going to have to know marketing if you want to sell books. I wish someone had told me this 2 or 3 years before I started. This is critical. Marketing sells books. Wishful thinking and magic do not.
Live by Heinlein’s Five Rules. If you are a writer, then you write. You don’t do anything else. Unless you’re an author/publisher and then you are going to have to also do the business end of things, like marketing, as well. But first and foremost, you write. Robert J Sawyer sums up the Five Rules very well. Do read them. Do follow them.
I hope this has been of value. Comments are welcome. Until next time, happy reading!
CW Hawes is a playwright, award-winning poet, and a fictioneer; as well as an armchair philosopher, political theorist, and social commentator. He loves a good cup of tea and agrees that everything’s better with pizza.
