“My First Rule of Writing” by John Abramowitz

Posted on November 18, 2011 by Lindsay

Today, for your reading entertainment, we’ve got a guest post from indie fantasy author John Abramowitz. I met him on Twitter (I thought I was a night owl, but he’s really a night owl) and have read his fun short story, The Antlerbury Tales. He’s here today to talk about the importance of loving what you write. Thanks, John!

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“Love. You can learn all the math in the ‘versse, but take a boat in the air you don’t love, and she’ll shake you up just as sure as a turn in the world. Love keeps her in the air when she oughta fall down. Tells you she’s hurtin’ before she keens. Makes her a home.”

That, according to Captain Mal Reynolds, of Firefly fame, is the first rule of flying. But for me, it’s the first rule of writing, too. It never fails — I can have the most detailed world imaginable, and characters with histories that I spent hours creating, but if I don’t love my story and my characters (even the ones I hate), none of that will be worth anything. My writing experience will be very short, and very frustrating.

Recently, someone asked me what advice I had for aspiring authors. My first response to that question was to laugh, since it’s still very much an open question whether I know what I’m doing as an author. But the answer I ultimately gave was: love the story you’re telling. I think sci-fi/fantasy fiction gives you a unique opportunity to do just that.

To explain what I mean, we’ll need to spend a moment discussing John’s Cardinal Rules of Fantasy Fiction. (Now, pay close attention — there’ll be a quiz at the end of the class.) The rules are:

  1. Wish fulfillment; and
  2. When in doubt, turn a trope on its head.

In my experience, wish fulfillment is the best way to hook an audience on a story. Do not confuse this with the creation of Mary Sue (or Marty Stu) characters, which is among the quickest ways to turn an audience off on a story. What’s the difference? Whether a character is a Mary Sue or not depends on the nature of the character, wish fulfillment depends on the nature of the action the character is performing. Wish fulfillment involves giving the protagonist a task that the reader or viewer has always dreamed of doing, thus allowing the reader to slip into the person’s shoes and share in the thrill. Thus, for instance, surely everyone who has ever dreamed of firing a rocket launcher at an unkillable demon (surely every fantasy fan that ever lived) can long to be in Buffy’s shoes as she does that very thing, even though Buffy proves throughout the series that she’s far from an ideal character. (Season 6, anyone?) The Death Star trench run at the end of Star Wars: A New Hope is similar. No genre provides more opportunities for wish fulfillment than fantasy fiction, simply because it’s the only genre where literally anything is possible.

Which brings us to my forthcoming novel, Atticus for the Undead (available November 21st on Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com). The novel started out of a long-held desire to write a John Grisham style legal thriller. After all, I’m a lawyer in my day job — sewing together my lawyer hat and my author hat into one mega-hat made sense. Plus, then I could make a protagonist who actually knew something about practicing law, as opposed to my own approach to the legal practice, which usually involves large amounts of confusion and many bottles of Excedrin. (Okay, so sometimes wish fulfillment is about the character. So sue me. Or something.)

In any event, there was a problem: Grisham has written approximately 7,181,924 novels, and television is also cluttered with legal procedurals. I had no interest in (and no love for) the idea of writing one more to add to the crowded shelves. If I was going to do this, I wanted mine to be special. And then it hit me.

There have been lots of legal stories, and just as many zombie stories — but how many times has a zombie been put on trial?

The idea of zombies with constitutional rights tickled me, and I was pretty sure it would appeal to my readership, too. Both parts of my premise (zombies and trials) were fun — combining them seemed like a winning formula. But I’d written a novel before (that’s Weaver, folks, available now for 99 cents!), and I knew that a strong overarching premise wouldn’t be enough to overcome the hard work, many headaches, and (very, very) little sleep involved in writing a book. I had a good start, but there wasn’t enough love yet to keep that ship in the air.

So I turned to my other Cardinal Rule: when in doubt, turn a trope on its head. Lots of zombie movies have involved a horde of zombies chasing a hapless human through a shopping mall. Ho. Hum. So I wrote a prologue in which a horde of humans chased my zombie protagonist through a mall, instead. After all, I had a brain-eating supernatural creature to humanize, a world to introduce, and an audience to keep awake while I was doing it.

I added extra helpings of fun to the mix throughout the novel. For instance, my first chapter featured a girl suspected of witchcraft — because she was seen rehearsing for a production of Macbeth. And not just any girl, but a teenage girl named Sabrina. I also decided that my law firm’s slogan was “We Get Results — Like Magic!” And so on.

Even with all of that, writing Atticus was still one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. I lost more sleep (and pulled out more hair) than I care to talk about. But love kept the project in the air when it should have fallen down.

It kept me writing, and hopefully, soon, it will keep you reading. (And I promise, I don’t use this many parentheses in the book.)

Posted in Guest Posts | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Can Publishing a Podiobook Help You Sell More Books?

Posted on November 15, 2011 by Lindsay

When this blog was only about three months old (and my self-publishing career was even younger), I interviewed science-fiction author Nathan Lowell, a man now making a living off of his ebook income, and a man who got his start releasing his novels as podiobooks. (For those new to the term, podiobooks are audiobooks that come out in installments and are available as free downloads for people’s mp3 players.)

After three years of releasing his novels that way, all entirely for free, Nathan jumped into e-publishing and became an instant bestseller. Why? Thanks to his podiobooks, he’d built up a huge fan base over the years, people who eagerly awaited each new installment in his audio stories. His fans accounted for those initial sales that sent him to the top of the science-fiction bestseller lists on Amazon and elsewhere, and at that point others who had never heard of him before saw his books and gave them a try. He’s been selling dozens (maybe hundreds) of copies a day ever since.

But, if you’ve read the interview, you already know about his story. You’re wondering if it can work for someone else. Someone who starts today, someone who might have done things in the opposite order (ebook releases first and then podiobooks). So, let me tell you how things are going for me.

How my first podiobook is doing

After that interview, I thought the podiobook thing sounded like a great idea, and decided to try it myself. It took me a while to get all the ducks lined up to make it happen. The first few episodes of The Emperor’s Edge Podiobook went live at the end of August. Now, in November, we’re up to Chapter 16 (out of 21 or so).

So far, there have been 25,000+ combined downloads of episodes (that’s a far cry from Nathan’s millions, but remember he got his start years ago and has an entire series of podiobooks out there). For the first month, mine was the #1 podiobook (as far as new subscribers go) in the Podiobooks.com directory, and it still pops into the Top 10 now and then.

About 1,500 people are following along faithfully, downloading the new episodes each week, and more people are finding Chapter 1 each week and just getting started with the book (about 500 new subscribers so far in November). The episodes have been downloaded in more than 60 countries so far (I don’t know about you, but I find it pretty cool to think of people listening to my story in India, Turkey, Japan, Finland, and other places that I’ve never been).

I’ve done a little to promote my podiobook (occasional posts on Twitter and Facebook), but not much. I imagine most of these folks simply came across it because they were surfing around, looking for some new fantasy to listen to.

When I did do my promotional blurbs, I was originally sending people to the Podiobooks page, so they could subscribe any way they wished, but I’m trying to promote its iTunes page now, since the Apple Store gets a lot more daily visitors than Podiobooks.com itself (I’ve had an iPod since the beginning, and I hadn’t even heard of Podiobooks.com before I interviewed Nathan). From what I’ve read, if I can get more subscribers through iTunes and more reviews there, the book will start showing up closer to the top in the Literature section of the podcast directory. (So, if you enjoy listening to fantasy, and want to help a gal out, please subscribe in iTunes and leave a review if you like what you hear!)

Has my podiobook helped me sell books?

I can’t say that my books have made any great leaps up the bestseller charts, but I have had folks let me know that they found me on Podiobooks.com or iTunes and went on to buy the books, not just The Emperor’s Edge but the following novels in the series as well. That’s good enough for me. I’m in this for the long haul, and I know the podiobooks (I’m planning to do my whole series) will be out there for years, inviting new listeners into my characters’ world.

I imagine that for everyone who sends me a note, there are more people who buy the book and don’t say anything about it. But even if people don’t go on to purchase any of the books, there are still benefits to having these folks as fans of the free stuff.

If someone with a couple hundred followers on Twitter posts, “Oh, yay, new chapter of Emperor’s Edge is out,” there’s a chance that one of their followers will say, “Huh, what’s that?” and check it out. That someone might be a kindle addict and go on to buy the ebooks.

And, as I mentioned, just by being subscribers, people help you out in iTunes, because the number of subscribers and reviews both play a role in visibility there. The easier your podiobook is to find over there, the more people will stumble upon it, and since there is a big crossover between book buyers and audiobook listeners, there’s a good chance that some of those people will want to buy copies to have forever.

Why a podiobook can be effective for book promotion and author branding

There are more things to think about than immediate sales. As you guys know, I’m a fan of giving things away for free. You can’t give everything away for free if you want to make a living as an author (or at least recoup your production costs!), but having free stories out there lets people try you out at no risk.

A podiobook, in particular, has some extra perks:

  • The serialization aspect lets you create a long-term relationship with listeners – If you read a book in a couple of days or even listen to a book-on-tape over the course of a couple of weeks, it’s not the same as having something new from the author every week. If the story is good, you start to look forward to those new installments, and the book sticks in your head because you’re exposed to it again and again over time. Imagine if an author puts out a whole series with the same characters. You could be listening for years, and those characters could become like real people that you like to hang out with.
  • iTunes – I don’t know if you’ve looked lately, but the iTunes store is a pretty popular place, particularly for people who want audio versions of things. Anyone who has sold anything online will tell you that it’s a heck of a lot easier to sell where the people are (eBay, Etsy, Amazon, etc.) than trying to build up your own marketplace (i.e. your site). Day and night, people are browsing iTunes, looking for new things to listen to. And once all the chapters have been published, your podiobook can remain online and in the iTunes store indefinitely; people could stumble across it four years from now and find out about you and your books for the first time.
  • Less competition – A lot of work goes into creating an audio version of a book, and there’s a learning curve that many (most?) people aren’t interested in tackling. If you outsource the creation to professionals, you save yourself some of the time and hassle, but the trade-off is that you must pay a significant chunk of money, and that’s a barrier in its own right. These obstacles mean that fewer authors create audiobooks, so there’s less competition out there than there is for ebooks in the Kindle store. Ultimately this means that, if you have a good story and good production quality, it’ll take less marketing effort to get people to find your podiobook.

Cost of producing a podiobook

As those of you who have been following this blog for a while know, I decided to let the folks over at Darkfire Productions handle the creation of my podiobooks because I knew it’d take a lot of time to do it myself, and the quality of the end product wouldn’t likely be as good.

I believe Nathan did it all himself (from what I’ve heard, you can get respectable recording equipment for your computer for a couple hundred dollars). That’s definitely a cheaper way to go, but not everybody is interested in learning the ropes and spending hours recording and editing an entire novel.

If you want to go the route I did and hire someone else, expect to pay $1,000 and up for a novel. If you write 150,000-word epic fantasy novels, it might be more like $2,000-$3,000.

I’m planning to write six books in my Emperor’s Edge series, and I’d like to go on to turn all of them into podiobooks. If costs remain the same, that’ll end up being about $9,000 for me. That’s not an insignificant sum by any measure, but it’ll be stretched out over about three years, and, as I mentioned above, once the audio recordings are done, they can stay out there in iTunes and on Podiobooks.com for years and years. In addition, they will belong to me, so there’s nothing to keep me from creating special CD editions (maybe with some bonus extras) and selling them on my site eventually. I haven’t looked at Audible.com yet to see if it’s possible for an independent author to get one’s audiobooks listed in their marketplace, but that is definitely something I’ll be checking out in the future.

Who should consider creating a podiobook?

Well, are you getting excited at the idea of creating a podiobook? Or are you thinking, “Enh, I’m not sure… It sounds like a lot of work…”

Either way, it’s okay. This isn’t necessarily for everybody, and if you’re already selling lots of books, maybe you don’t need to look into time-consuming (or money-consuming) extras like this.

It’s still early for me, so it’s hard to say for certain, “Yes, I’ll definitely earn back my investment and then some.” I do believe it’ll happen though. I’d be less certain if I was creating one podiobook and didn’t have plans to do any more.

I think the real power here lies in doing a series where people can get more and more connected to your characters (and you!) over time. You’ve also got more work out there for people to stumble across in iTunes or on Podiobooks.com (at Podiobooks.com, they post on the front page whenever new chapters are added, so every time your book is mentioned there, it’s a chance for someone new to see it and decide to check it out).

I also suspect some genres may lend themselves to podiobook fandom more than others. You tend to find a lot of science fiction and fantasy fans geeking out on their computers and knowing where to look for things like podiobooks. If you do westerns or cozy mysteries, your target audience may be less likely to spend time perusing the iTunes store. I’m sure you’d still get some followers, but maybe not as many.

You’ll need to run the numbers for yourself, but, in the end, if this sounds like a fun way to promote your books and your name, I say, go for it.

Posted in Book Marketing, Videos & Podcasts | Tagged , , , , | 14 Comments

What Is Epic Fantasy? (Guest Post by Ty Johnston)

Posted on November 14, 2011 by Lindsay

ty-johnston-ebook-coverSince I’m off traveling for a couple of weeks (with very limited internet connectivity), I’ve called in some guest posters to entertain you. Or educate you. I’m hoping it’s one of the two.

Today, indie fantasy author Ty Johnston is here to talk about epic fantasy as a part of his book blog tour.

Fantasy author Ty Johnston’s blog tour 2011 is running from November 1 through November 30. His novels include City of Rogues, Bayne’s Climb and More than Kin, all of which are available for the Kindle, the Nook, and online at Smashwords. His latest novel, Ghosts of the Asylum, will be available for e-books on November 21. To find out more, follow him at his blog.

What Is Epic Fantasy?

As a writer, for the most part I work in epic fantasy literature. I dabble in horror here and there, and I’ve been known to pen some literary material from time to time, but as a writer and reader my heart keeps pulling me back to epic fantasy.

Why this is so depends much upon my own expectations of the epic fantasy genre. And to define those expectations is to define epic fantasy itself.

So, what is epic fantasy?

It is a sub-genre of the much larger fantasy genre, usually with a setting based in another world, one that is similar to our own in some ways but often enough quite different. Fantastical elements are a necessity, such as the existence of magic and sometimes non-human creatures. The stories themselves are often epic in scope and in the span of physical ground covered within the tale; generally events happen across continents, sometimes with characters traveling long distances.

That is my basic definition of epic fantasy. No such definition will be approved by all fans, readers or authors, nor do I mean my own personal definition to be all encompassing. Despite what outsiders often seem to believe, there is a lot of latitude within epic fantasy, allowing for expansion of the genre.

It is not even uncommon for the mere name of this sub-genre to go questioned. I call it epic fantasy. Others prefer the term high fantasy. Still others use the term heroic fantasy. Then there is the relation of epic fantasy to Sword and Sorcery literature, which can mix things even further. It does not help such classifications that the general reading public sees little difference between these titles for fantasy sub genres, and often enough labels all these sub genres under the single title of “fantasy.”

The truth is, there is no definitive source for giving titles to genres of literature and their lesser-known equivalents. Readers and writers and fans come up with their own labels. Sometimes the stick and sometimes they do not. Afterward, fandom and the blogosphere use millions of words to discuss and even argue for or against these names of sub genres.

Most readers don’t care. They just want what they want, and they know it when they see it.

Which is fine with me. I’ve given what is my basic definition of epic fantasy, and anyone is free to argue for or against that definition and even my use of the term “epic fantasy.”

Now back to my love of epic fantasy.

I suppose I am drawn to this genre for the very things I find in my personal definition of it. Epic? Yes, I love epic themes. I enjoy studying the ins and outs of matters that make us most human, of philosophy, personal and beyond. As far as the physicality of the tales, I also enjoy the epic breadth, of traveling to new lands and meeting new, at-first unusual peoples and characters.

But the definition I’ve given so far could cover other forms of fantasy literature. I’d like to add one more detail to my defining of epic fantasy, a detail that in my mind sets it apart from many other forms of fantasy, and literature at large.

What is it? In my mind, the protagonist of epic fantasy is willing to stride forward against great odds in an attempt to not only face down an outside evil, but in an effort to correct a major flaw within ourselves.

Admittedly, overly simplistic, and other forms of literature could argue they also do this. But to me, there is a difference, one I see lacking in other genres.

Yes, the epic fantasy hero has an outside force with which to reckon, usually a great villain. But that villain represents not only his or her or its individual evil, but a greater evil within the world, an evil of a civilization or of a culture. Or an evil of the human race entire. That villain can be as human as the hero, sometimes even more so.

It is that combination of the epic hero and the epic villain which can make fantasy epic, in my opinion. Other genres have heroes and villains, true, but rarely in the other genres do these characters reach the heights of representing the eternal battle between not only good and evil in the outer world, but good and evil within ourselves.

The best epic fantasy does so, from Tolkien to Steven Erikson. Frodo faced great odds against Mordor, but ultimately it was his own inner self with whom he was battling. Even Harry Potter was facing another version of his own potential evil in Voldemort. Such should be obvious in the characters of Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader (Star Wars being basically epic fantasy among the stars).

Is my own definition of epic fantasy perfect? By no means. And if you ask me about it in a week, my thoughts might be slightly different. But for now, I’ll stand by it. To me, the inner struggles are most important within epic fantasy, the outside wars against evil being but a window into our personal contests.

Posted in Guest Posts | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Deadly Games, The Emperor’s Edge Book 3, Is out!

Posted on November 11, 2011 by Lindsay

I’m staying at a hostel in Hawaii this week, and it’s been an adventure getting the ebook formatting and the final edits of Deadly Games done while sharing wifi with scads of people (not to mention sharing a room with seven other girls!), but everything is done now, and the ebook is online (I’ll work on getting a paperback version done after the holidays).

As of today, the book is up at Amazon and Smashwords (Smashwords has all e-reader formats available). Update: It’s up at Barnes & Noble now too.

You can also read the first chapter on my site right here.

I’ll be at sea and without a lot of internet access for the next two and a half weeks (I’m on my way to Australia in case anyone in Sydney, Perth, or Melbourne wants to say hi this winter — er, summer there — when I’m passing through), but I’ll be doing lots of writing out there. I’m working on the third Flash Gold story now, and I’m getting excited to start the fourth Emperor’s Edge novel too.

As always, thanks for checking out the books and sharing my characters’ adventures. If you’re stumbling onto this blog for the first time, you can check out Ice Cracker II and Flash Gold for free right now.

Posted in My Ebooks | Tagged , , , , | 33 Comments

Setting up a Blog Tour for Your Book

Posted on November 11, 2011 by Lindsay

When I first released Encrypted and The Emperor’s Edge at the end of last winter (yes, I’ve been doing this almost a year now!), I signed up for a couple of blog tours. This is where you guest post or answer interview questions on other people’s sites. It can help with promotion if the sites have a decent amount of traffic. I ended up paying a little bit for someone else to organize things, but if I were to do it again, I’d probably save myself some money and set up the blog tour myself.

That’s exactly what up-and-coming fantasy author, Darke Conteur, has done. She’s here to talk about how she set things up (and to plug her new ebook–The Watchtower–of course).

Setting up Your Own Book Blog Tour

WatchtowerI want to thank Lindsay for allowing me to take over her blog for a day. I’ve been a fan of hers for a while now, and yeah, I’m the one that did the video reading of her first novella FLASH GOLD (sorry about the cleavage shot, it was just so hot that day!).

When I first heard of a blog tour, I literally thought it was someone driving around blogging while they visited holiday destinations. I know, stupid, right? I couldn’t understand why someone would do that. Wasn’t there better things to do than blog while on vacation? That was then, this is now, and I so totally get it!

If you’re a regular follower of Lindsay’s site, you know there are a pile of new authors coming out of the woodwork on a daily basis; all clawing and scratching to get your attention. Some of their self-promotion is good, and some, well, let’s just say it isn’t and leave it at that. Granted, what works for one person doesn’t always work for another, and if you don’t feel comfortable doing something others say worked for them, then fine! That’s them, not you. For instance, when I posted the video of FLASH GOLD, I had a few people state there was no way they could do something like that. One woman said I was brave for doing it. Brave — no. Crazy — maybe.

I saw videos as a unique way to promote myself. Sure, it took a while to get comfortable in front of the camera, and I must have sent a dozen emails to Lindsay fretting over one thing or another, but I didn’t give up on the idea because I thought, and still do, think it’s a good idea.

Another good idea to promote oneself, is what I’m doing right now — a blog tour. When I first started talking about it, I had a lot of people ask me what it was. Seems it’s a new thing, but I’m seeing more and more authors doing it. Think of it as a virtual book tour, and I think they’re great. If you’re planning on a tour of your own, here are a few things to keep in mind.

  1. What kind of tour do you want to do: There are a number of ways you can go about this; author interviews, character interviews, post about what your book is about, or the genre, or a mixture of all three. I’m doing a character interview tour, but because Lindsay’s site is about marketing, she asked me to do a post along that line. Being prepared for sudden changes in the lineup. Not everyone may want an in-depth analysis of your genre.
  2. How many ‘stops’ should you do: I’ve seen some authors talk about doing thirty to fifty posts on one tour. That’s a lot! Might I suggest a number a little more manageable, say ten to twenty? Especially if this is your first tour. My only concern with doing high numbers tours, is that after a while you may run out of things to talk about. It’s always good to have a fresh post for each blog. It entices the reader to keep an eye out for your next post, and in the end, isn’t that what the tour is about? Gathering interest in our work?
  3. Who should I ask? This is completely up to you. Right now, there aren’t that many people other than  authors/writers who would host a blog tour. This is still a new marketing tool, but I’m sure as it gains more in popularity, more options will become available.
  4. Offer to return the favour. Karma, my friends, is a good thing. With each blog tour stop you make, you’re exposing your work to new and potential followers, but this isn’t just a one way street. Offering to host blog tours will bring in more potential followers, and if they like what they see, they may stick around.
  5. If you’re hosting a blog tour, might I suggest that you inform the guest blogger of any comments on their post. This will allow the guest blogger to reply in a timely fashion.

Alas, my time has come to an end. It has been a privileged to be here today, and an honour to have Lindsay’s blog as a stop on the Paranormal Pit-Stop Blog Tour. So remember, just because it’s dead, doesn’t mean it’s not alive!

* * *

You can read more about Darke Conteur’s ebook, The Watchtower, on her site, or you might want to download it from Amazon.

Posted in Book Marketing | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

How Many People Can *Really* Make a Living Self-Publishing?

Posted on November 7, 2011 by Lindsay

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts (3 Reasons I’m Glad I Chose Self-Publishing, Why Self-Publishing Is So Popular Right Now), e-publishing and the growing popularity of ebook readers has made it attractive to stay independent and self-publish instead of pursuing an agent and a traditional deal. To add fuel to the fire, there have been cases of authors doing well, extremely well on their own.

When you read about John Locke or Amanda Hocking (who signed a 2-million-dollar print deal after becoming a Kindle bestseller), it gets you pretty excited about the idea of making a killing (or maybe just a decent living) self-publishing.

But then you get started, and you realize how much work is involved in book promotion and just how many books the successful people have out. Inevitably, some of the shine wears off. For all the Lockes and Hockings, there are thousands of other folks who are struggling to sell a book a day.

One of my Twitter buddies, Reena Jacobs, recently shared her sales information on her blog, and, while she has a short story that’s selling a respectable number of copies (possibly because it spent time as a freebie and got scads of downloads that way first), she has, a year into this, yet to break even on her two novels.

My sales stats

For myself, I’ve had more luck than some, less than others. I got started last December, and I’ve worked quite a bit at promotion. Some of you guys have seen my free podiobook, my free short stories (Ice Cracker II and Flash Gold are currently free), my goofy videos on YouTube, my various interviews and guest blog posts, and of course my daily chatter on Twitter (yes, some people have told me they actually found my work that way). Oh, and don’t forget my Facebook fan page (if nothing else, I have some fun steampunk pictures up there).

The last month I made less than $1,000 was in May. In August, I broke $3,000. Alas, earnings have dropped off a lot since then with October barely hitting $1,500. Nothing to scoff about, but I’m glad I still have income from other sources!

In August, my best-selling book (not counting freebies) was the 99-cent Emperor’s Edge (I make 70% on that one since I have it listed for $2.99 and Amazon is discounting it to price match other stores), and it sold about 900 copies and hovered around a 3,000-2,000 sales ranking in Amazon. Given that I’ve seen sales rankings of 400,000+, a sub-5,000 sales ranking is pretty darned good (though it’d be a lot more meaningful, from a financial standpoint, on a book priced at $5 instead of $1). More of that income came from Encrypted and Dark Currents, ebooks priced at $2.99 and $3.99 respectively. The earnings from my novellas weren’t substantial, since they’re priced less than $1.50 and on the 35% royalty plan.

In October, Emperor’s Edge was still my bestseller, but everything sold fewer copies across the board. I didn’t have any new books out (Hunted, the novella sequel to Flash Gold, came out in August), and I didn’t pay for any advertising (in September, which wasn’t as good as August but was still decent, I had a mention at EreaderNews that briefly propelled Emperor’s Edge up to a 400 sales ranking and a slot in the Top 10 of its genre bestseller list — I sold something like 100 copies of that book that day).

These ups and downs seem to be common amongst self-publishers. Derek J. Canyon, a SF and young adult author who started a couple of months before me, had a similar experience. He had a couple of great months right after he lowered his novel to 99 cents, but sales eventually slowed back down.

It makes sense that no one book is going to stay at a great sales ranking forever, and there are more and more people getting into the game all the time (I’d argue that authors starting today have a lot more competition than Amanda Hocking who, in early 2010, was still something of an early adopter — others started in 2009, but I’ve heard she was among the first to price an introductory book at 99 cents). And that brings me back to the title of this post.

How many people can really make a living self-publishing?

Even if you do well for a month or a couple of months, can you depend on that income?

For most of us, is each book limited in sales potential?

This whole e-publishing industry is so new that it’s hard to make predictions. I do think it’s possible, and will continue to be possible, for some authors to make a living this way, and not necessarily just the outliers. If you’re a good and prolific writer, I’d say, yes, you’ve got a good chance (if you don’t mind learning the online marketing side of things).

I do think being prolific is key. I only have three (soon to be four) novels out (yes, I have a couple of novellas and short stories out there, too, but as long as I’m pricing those at $1.49 or $0.99, they lack the income potential of the novels). If I had double the body of work, maybe I’d make $6,000 in a high month and $3,000 in a low month. In all except pricy metropolitan cities, that’d be enough for a decent lifestyle.

But what if you just don’t write that quickly? What if you’ve got a day job, a commute, school, kids, etc. and you can only write one novel a year and maybe a short story or two?

It’s always possible that that one novel will take off and become a bestseller, but it doesn’t happen that way for most of us. Odds are you’ll be looking at maybe earning back your initial expenses (editing, cover art, etc.) and making a little extra income each month. You have to decide if that’s enough for you.

And if it’s not (hey, lots of people have 9-5 jobs they want to escape), is there any hope? Is there any chance of quitting in the foreseeable future?

Of course. If you want something badly enough, there’s no stopping you. But you may have to get creative and embrace an entrepreneurial spirit.

Increasing your income by becoming an entrepreneuer

If you’re marketing your work, you’re probably already thinking like a business person, so this might be less daunting than you think.

We’ve talked about how much work goes into book promotion. For most authors, part of that work is going to go into building up a blog and social media platform (i.e. Twitter followers and Facebook Fans). As long as you’re building a brand anyway, why not start a side business?

A lot of indie authors are making some of their income from their novels and short stories and some of it from other sources related to self-publishing/e-publishing.

  • After learning the ropes himself, Paul Salvette wrote an ebook teaching people how to format their ebooks.
  • In a similar vein, Jacquelyn Smith formats ebooks for those who aren’t interested in DIY.
  • David Wisehart took his author blog and turned it into an ebook promotion blog, and he sells daily sponsorships there for indies looking for a place to promote.
  • After designing the covers for his own ebooks, Ronnell D. Porter started offering his cover-design services to others.
  • I’ve seen numerous authors (some professional, traditionally published authors) offering editing and critique services on the side.

As for myself, I started my self-publishing tips site, in part because I like to teach what I’m learning but also because I’d like another source of income. I’ve made money from affiliate programs there already, and I’ll likely add advertising at some point.

Why bother, when I seem to be on track to be able to make an income solely from my ebooks eventually? Right now, most of that income comes from Amazon, and I’ve learned not to depend too much on one income source. You never know when that source will change the rules. I also like to have lots of projects to work on at once! I’m not sure I could ever see myself shut up in an office, writing on the same novel for six to eight hours a day (though some folks on Twitter have threatened to chain me to a desk for just that purpose…).

So, just to sum things up, the answer to my original question is: not everybody and probably not even most people, but if you’re really hoping to quit the day job some day, you can make it happen, one way or another.

 

 

Posted in E-publishing | Tagged , , , | 15 Comments

Excerpt from Deadly Games (Emperor’s Edge 3)

Posted on November 5, 2011 by Lindsay

As many of you know, the third Emperor’s Edge book is off with the editor, and I’m patiently (okay, impatiently) waiting to get it back so it can go live this month.

The novel came in at 110,000 words (so no reading it in one night!), making it a little longer than the first two stories, and will be priced at $3.99 for the ebook. For those who don’t mind getting their ebooks through Smashwords, I’m planning to send a 50%-off coupon out to my newsletter peeps, so you might want to sign up for that if you’re a fan of the series — the subscription form is in the menu bar on the right).

I’ll put out a paperback version for Deadly Games and Encrypted after the holidays.

I’m working on the “blurb” this weekend, but, in the meantime, here’s a look at the first chapter for those who are wondering where the story will pick up again.

Posted in Ebook News | Tagged , , , | 9 Comments

Encrypted Q & A

Posted on November 2, 2011 by Lindsay

There were a couple of questions about Encrypted in last month’s question-asking post, so I’ll answer those today. For those who haven’t read the novel, you can try out the first couple of chapters here.

Lauren asks:

I also really enjoyed Encrypted. I seem to remember hearing you had a chapter or so partly written on a sequel. Are you still planning to write that book, and if so, any idea when?

I am still planning on a sequel to Encrypted, and do have it plotted out (and the first couple of chapters written), but, since it stands alone fairly well, I might wait until I finish The Emperor’s Edge series. But we’ll see. If I need a break from Amaranthe and crew, maybe I’ll switch back to the Encrypted storyline.

I’m glad there’s interest in a sequel, though, because I have plenty of trouble planned on Kyatt for Tikaya and Rias. A little Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner mixed with Big Fat Greek Wedding along with a nice conspiracy theory, some underwater archaeology, and an attempted murder or two. (That sounds a little crazy, but it all makes sense in my head. Really.)

Jennifer asks:

I really enjoyed seeing young Sicarius at the end of Encrypted. Will any Encrypted characters make a cameo appearance in the EE series?

I’ve thought about this, but the two sets of characters are twenty years and 3,000 miles apart right now, so I’m not sure how I’d handle that. If I write the sequel to Encrypted (so I’m sure about where Tikaya and Rias end up) before I end up closing out the EE series, I might be more inclined to have everyone meet up in the last book.

Thanks for the questions!

More book-related Q & A posts:

 

Posted in Cut Scenes and Fun Extras | 3 Comments