writing for a living

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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Defining Success

In any endeavor, we consciously or unconsciously define what success looks like.

When I was writing poetry, the writing of which is not financially lucrative by any measure, I defined success by such things as name recognition, the ability to get into certain magazines, the ability to write and get published, what was for me, a difficult form to write, and to be considered by my peers as the first amongst equals.

None of those measures of success involved receiving payment for what I’d written. Yet they were all determiners, for me (and most, if not all, of my fellow poets), of being a successful poet.

So how do we define success for ourselves in general and in writing fiction in particular? That question is no different than asking what is the meaning of life?

The answers are personal, and only you can provide the answer for yourself.

Writers, especially fiction writers, seem to think their work only has value if they get paid for it, and such payment that will enable them to quit the day job.

Is money, though, the only measure of fiction writing success? Can we define success some other way?

Of course we can. We can define success anyway we so desire.

Ask yourself this: if I were to never get a dime for any story or novel that I wrote, would I keep on writing? Or ask yourself this: Do I love writing? Or do I love the dream of getting rich from writing?

If most aspiring novelists were honest with themselves, they’d admit that they see writing fiction as being like the gold rush, or the lottery. They just want to get rich in what they think is a very easy way to do so.

What they soon discover is that writing, especially indie writing, is a job — not a get rich quick scheme. Writing is work. Rewarding work, in my opinion. But work, nevertheless. And as with the gold rush and the lottery, the middleman is the one who makes the most coin.

Here’s another question: What do you love to do, even though you get no money for doing it? In fact, you have to pay money to do it. What is that activity? Whatever it is, that’s how you should view writing. You love doing it, even if you have to pay money to get your books into other people’s hands. And in the process, if you’re good enough, or lucky enough, you might make some money at the writing gig.

I’m going to let you in on a secret. Writing fiction — if you want to make serious coin by writing — is a business. And if you aren’t good at business, you won’t be good at making money from your pen.

But if you’re willing to put in the time to educate yourself on the business part of the writing gig, then, like any other self-employed person, you might make a living at writing. Probably won’t get rich, but you might make a decent living. Might. Just keep in mind that most businesses don’t succeed. They fail.

Which brings us back to defining success in writing fiction some other way than monetarily. It might be helpful to see ourselves as entertainers. Entertainers who make people laugh and cry just for the pleasure of giving them a brief respite from their lives.

In the nearly 7 years that I’ve been doing this writing gig, I’ve sold 929 books. It’s not a million, but it is more than none. And to my mind, that is something.

If I add in the 61,291 Kindle Unlimited page reads, and figure them to be equal to at least 300 books, then I’ve had people pay me to read over 1200 copies of my books. Incredible. That is, simply incredible.

I’ve also given away over 3300 books as lead magnets, ARCs, and gifts. Which means even more people have at least one of my books in their hand, and hopefully found the read a pleasurable and entertaining experience.

You see, on July 1st of this year, 2021, I had an epiphany. And it was simply this: focusing on trying to make money was destroying what I love. The pursuit of riches was making me hate writing.

And I truly love writing. I love the very act of holding a pencil or pen in my hand, and putting words on paper. I love the experience of the mystery of the creative process and seeing the results appear on paper. That, in and of itself, defines success for me: getting the story out of my head and onto paper.

Marcus Aurelius, the last of the Five Good Emperors, wrote, Life is opinion; or, Life is what you decide it is. One can define success the same way: success is what you think it is.

If you define success as being the second James Patterson, good luck. You might have a better chance of winning the lottery. Why set yourself up for what is surely to be failure? Then, again, who am I to say you won’t be successful? Because you very well may be.

You see, I’ve never had much interest in being a bestselling author. I simply want to sell books, have people read them, and like them enough to buy more of my books. To me, that is plenty of success. But it might not be for you. On the other hand, I encourage you not to define success in such a way that if you don’t achieve it that lack of achievement destroys your love of writing. Or your love of anything, for that matter.

Nor have I ever had an interest in being an award winning author. That’s just someone’s opinion, and most people’s opinions aren’t worth a tinker’s damn because they are subjective and not based on evidence. Which is certainly true about art, and fiction writing is art. But if awards float your boat, go for them. Just don’t be disappointed if you don’t get one, and quit something you love.

In my own eyes, and I’ve come to realize at the age of 68 years and 9 months that those are the only eyes that matter, I’m a successful writer of fiction.

Have I climbed the highest mountain that’s out there? No, I haven’t. But you don’t have to climb Mount Everest to be a mountain climber.

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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