writing success | 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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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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Talent’s Not Enough

Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. … Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.

—Attributed to Calvin Coolidge

Last week I wrote about creativity and the joy of being a creator.

This week I want to riff on that idea with a dose of reality. Talent is not enough to succeed.

In my years of actively writing for publication, I’ve seen many poets and fiction writers — far more talented than myself — give up.

They may have given up because of too many rejection slips. Or thrown in the towel because of a bad review or two or three. Or they may have called it quits due to lack of sales. Or they were not up to the hard work of promoting their writing. They had the misconception that just because they had talent they would not have to work. Success would instantly be theirs. As Nick Stephenson has noted, if no one knows you exist — all you are doing is writing into a black hole. And I’ll add: even if you have talent. Success comes from work. You have to work hard to get people to find you and notice you.

I could easily name a half dozen authors or more whose books are on my iPad who have disappeared. Apparently they’ve given up. They lacked persistence and determination.

It’s common knowledge that most new business ventures fail within the first three years. And writing is no different. It is a business venture, whether the author is traditionally published or self-published.

My late friend, John J. (“Jack”) Koblas, whose books were published by a regional publisher in Minnesota, used to drive his van — loaded with cases of his books — all over the country. He gave talks and went to conferences, and sold autographed copies of his books. That was hard, hard work. But he was able to earn a living from his writing by doing so. He found many, many readers because he did the work of finding them.

Jack was persistent and determined. When I first met him in the early 1970s, he was gathering rejection slips for his fiction. He eventually gave up trying to sell his fiction, and instead wrote biographies of famous writers who lived in Minnesota. He found publishers for those books. Then he wrote a fabulous book on Jesse James’s raid on the Northfield, Minnesota bank — and he found his audience in history writing.

Then, because his non-fiction was selling, his publisher brought out his fiction and poetry.

Work. Hard, hard work. But it eventually paid off.

We indie writers are in the same boat. The easy money, the easy route to readers, is gone. It ended in 2014. Now, due to tremendous competition, we have to work. We have to get creative, in order to find our readers.

Persistence and determination. That’s what we need. That has to become our mantra. Because talent is not enough. Many talented writers were and are business failures. They gave up and disappeared. Their dreams crashed and burned — because they gave up. They didn’t have the determination to push on. They didn’t persist. They didn’t get creative and find their unique path to success.

And I find that to be very sobering and very sad. I urge you, my fellow writers, not to be one of them.

The joy they could have brought to scores, hundreds, maybe thousands of readers — is gone, forever.

Talent isn’t enough to succeed. And that is repeatedly demonstrated by the mediocre writer, who is persistent and determined, and thereby succeeds. That, too, is very sobering and very sad.

Persist! Be creative! And you can hold your dream in your hands.

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

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