# Let's do this! A challenge for you and me to become FULL time authors...



## LA Ramsey (Feb 4, 2014)

I've read so many threads about earning a real living being an author. Even though I have 15 books out, the bulk I published in 2012 and then it petered out to maybe 1 or 2 titles a year. I can't say I'm a full time author making it on just my Kindle earnings. Right now as of November 2, 2014 I'm a two-figure a month income with it. Not acceptable to me. It is my dream and my passion to be a full time author. After reading through several threads on here with authors making 4 and 5 digit monthly income I know it's doable. I know it takes hard work and dedication.

My plans are to start writing series / serials. I'm inspired by those who write and publish 1 to 2 books a week. I am going to try this. I'm going to give this about 6 months to see how it works (God willing). So starting tomorrow I'm dedicating a big chunk of my day to this and will do this daily. I can easily type 2K to 2.5K words an hour. I figure if I put my mind to it I can do it.

I'll share my experiences here. I plan to write and publish at least 1 to 2 books a week (I'm talking 10K to 15K words per book). These will be serials/ series books. I plan to use different pen names and write in several different genres. I actually have all the stories in my head and several already partially written. I plan to put these in KU and keep it Amazon exclusive for now.

Here's what I do:
I write. 
My husband is my editor.
I'm a cover designer (if you need a "cheap" cover ask me - I have a premade cover site as well!)
I do not plan to build a platform for each pen name (I have a platform for my LA Ramsey author name - this is my real name) 
I do not plan to market these much, if I do it will be minimal.
The experiment will be to see if I write / publish 1 to 2 titles a week to see how long it takes me to earn:
$100
$500
$1000
$2000
and so on.

I've read several threads where authors actually reached this goal within 6 months, more than several have hit over 5 digit income in that time span.

The one thing each has in common is consistency - consistency in writing and publishing 1 to 2 books each week.
Many do not promote or market.
They just write.  

I know that keywords, categories, and covers are as important as the story and editing.

Who's with me in this??
We can do it!

If you want to be an author full time I invite you to join in this challenge with me! I plan to meet this challenge and prove it works!


----------



## DawnLee (Aug 17, 2014)

I just don't seem to have a serial/series mind (or haven't accessed it yet), so I can't jump in and join you, but I'm really excited to follow along and see how it works out for you and whoever does join in. I wish you huge success with it and you're right - you can do it. So get a move on.  

Dawn Lee


----------



## LA Ramsey (Feb 4, 2014)

Kayla. said:


> Oh wow, that's so interesting! Will you be sharing the books with us? Are you going to write some non-fiction as well?
> I can't wait!
> *jumps around like a crazed Pikachu*
> This is so exciting.


Thank you!

I will share some of them I'm sure.
I have a sci-fi series partially written.
I have a family drama in my head (not sure how to categorize it)
I have a weird - sort of speculative fiction - bordering on fantasy/supernatural - again not sure how to categorize it.
I'm not sure I'll do any non-fiction. I have about 13 non-fiction titles out now. I'm more into fiction and telling stories.

I'm considering converting some of the longer books I have written (not published yet) into the series / serials before I publish. I have to see if I can break them apart with a good solid plot/ closure / cliffhanger per book.


----------



## kirtkinkly (Oct 30, 2014)

LA Ramsey said:


> I can easily type 2K to 2.5K words an hour. I figure if I put my mind to it I can do it.
> ...
> The experiment will be to see if I write / publish 1 to 2 titles a week to see how long it takes me to earn:
> $100
> ...


Alright, I am definitely in. I want to see how long till the day that I would be earning $3000. That being said, I can not type 2,500 words in an hour. I don't have another person to help with editing nor cover. And I have only been writing, well, for 2 months. So I am guessing that it would take me way longer than you.


----------



## LA Ramsey (Feb 4, 2014)

kirtkinkly said:


> Alright, I am definitely in. I want to see how long till the day that I would be earning $3000. That being said, I can not type 2,500 words in an hour. I don't have another person to help with editing nor cover. And I have only been writing, well, for 2 months. So I am guessing that it would take me way longer than you.


Yay! Welcome aboard! It's not a race to see who gets there first, but to just DO it and complete the race! I'm sure others are like you and starting out. I should have tried this years ago, but hey, I'm doing it now, so here we go!!!


----------



## Deke (May 18, 2013)

I'm aiming toward this goal in the new year. I plan on taking some time to break stories of 15K words or so in a series and let'er rip. I think I'll be forgetting about print and just get really adept at the mechanics of  uploading digital titles on a regular basis.


----------



## kirtkinkly (Oct 30, 2014)

LA Ramsey said:


> Yay! Welcome aboard! It's not a race to see who gets there first, but to just DO it and complete the race! I'm sure others are like you and starting out. I should have tried this years ago, but hey, I'm doing it now, so here we go!!!


Well, I have only moved 2 paid units for today. Hopefully it will pick up soon.


----------



## Guest (Nov 2, 2014)

great idea! I'm in also.


----------



## kirtkinkly (Oct 30, 2014)

Since we are only on the second day of November, let's count November as the first month ok? I am so excited about this.


----------



## SB James (May 21, 2014)

I'm interested in this as well. I can start another series with another pen name, but I will not give up on my Steampunk series. And right now I'm doing NaNoWriMo for my Book 3 in that series. That being said, I can do a short story of about 5k in a couple of days, maybe doing them at night, and the NaNoWriMo in the am when my mind is fresher. 
Also, if I do short stories, I'm going to put them in KU and Select.
You can't really do too much marketing with short stories. Maybe an ad on bknights when you are using a free day. So there's little pressure for that.
I'll bookmark this thread and check on it.


----------



## LA Ramsey (Feb 4, 2014)

kirtkinkly said:


> Since we are only on the second day of November, let's count November as the first month ok? I am so excited about this.


YES! I just started my first hour - typed 1,767 words on my first book! This is exciting!



SB James said:


> I'm interested in this as well. I can start another series with another pen name, but I will not give up on my Steampunk series. And right now I'm doing NaNoWriMo for my Book 3 in that series. That being said, I can do a short story of about 5k in a couple of days, maybe doing them at night, and the NaNoWriMo in the am when my mind is fresher.
> Also, if I do short stories, I'm going to put them in KU and Select.
> You can't really do too much marketing with short stories. Maybe an ad on bknights when you are using a free day. So there's little pressure for that.
> I'll bookmark this thread and check on it.


Yes! Glad to have you in the challenge!

I do a lot of stuff too aside from this, so hence the challenge.
I'm doing NANOWRIMO too -for a novel - 
I also homeschool 3 kids.
I have clients I design websites, ghostwrite, and create book covers. So I'll be doing this stuff EARLY in the mornings - devoting as much time in between all the other stuff.

I'm hoping this challenge will propel me to being a full time author - for me! 
The more the merrier - I hope others will jump in too!


----------



## Cege Smith (Dec 11, 2011)

I can't control my sales, but I can control my output. But I do think that there is a direct correlation between what you have on the shelf for readers to buy and how much money you can make. I'm not afraid of hard work, so if it takes me 100 titles or more to make what others achieve with 10 titles- so be it. (It's not a competition, right?  )

I also believe that having a group help to hold you accountable for your goals is how it gets done. (I've done monthly running challenges the last two months with my brother, and I know that's the ONLY reason I've laced up my shoes several days.) So having a bunch of like-minded folks help cheer (and prod) me on is a good thing for me.

Therefore, I'm in.


----------



## CDForness (Nov 25, 2013)

Ok, I'm in.  It would take a LOT of money to get me to leave my job though. I support a family of five on it, including paying everyone's insurance, which is stupid expensive in NYS.  

But, without quantifying at this time, I'd like to see if I can go from zero to a median living wage.

Starting a new pen name.  Not sure of genre yet, but will likely have a mystery component and a romance component.  Looking at doing a series, installments of 25k or so.  That's the prelim plan without thinking it through much.  

Am I allowed multiple pen names?  Was going to give erotica a shot, too.  Possibly some other things.

I made $11.87 in sales over the last 30 days, not including KU borrows, which probably wouldn't take me over $20.  I have a handful of erotica tales out now and three non-fiction books, all written between 12 and 24 months ago.  I've never cracked more that $25 in a given month.

So while not exactly at ground zero, I may as well be.  

I have no clue how to make covers, either...but I'll figure it out.

Good look, peoples!


----------



## Cherise (May 13, 2012)

Genre has a lot to do with it, too. I won't make decent money writing children's books. I have accepted that. Word to the wise.


----------



## NoCat (Aug 5, 2010)

Quantity by itself won't work.  Have a plan for how you will be pricing, what genres you want to write in, how you will brand each series so it is easily found, etc. Just writing whatever and putting it up will result in not much.


----------



## Elizabeth Ann West (Jul 11, 2011)

A few suggestions from someone who stumbled upon full-time writing earnings this summer, and I say stumbled upon because I did not expect the books to take off. I was lucky that MY addiction to the genre and frustrations there wasn't enough to read in it translated to other readers feeling the same way. That doesn't always happen if you write say, contemporary romance.

1- Study the market for what you're trying to write.

There's two ways to do this. If you have a book already, at the very bottom you can see the categories your book is in. Click on one. This will take you to what is called the Popular List. It's NOT that same as the bestseller list. Click one of the books at the top of that list and hopefully, it's on the bestseller list for that category. This is listed under the overall Kindle Sales Ranking. You can also get to the bestseller rankings through Kindle Ebooks and the drill down on the left hand side.

There are a few things you need to look at. First, click on #20 of the bestseller ranking and look at that Paid in Kindle Store ranking. That's what you have to hit to be on the front page of THAT list. You can also check #100 on that list, see what that Paid Kindle Ranking is. The other area, and easier area, to target is at the top right on the best seller list page for any category called Hot New Release. Again, check the #20 spot and #100 spot. To know how many sales a particular Paid In Kindle Store ranking takes, check out http://kdpcalculator.com/ It's not 100% accurate, it's a range, but it will ballpark for you.

If you don't have a book already, start these exercises in the categories you WANT to target. Get to know your genre!

2 - Set up your Amazon Author Central account for your books.

Looking at some of the books in the signatures of this post, some of your blurbs are all smushed together. This is from KDP, but if you claim the book in Author Central (just google author central on amazon), you can space it out. You can add bold, etc. This makes a huge difference to readers considering your books.

3- Go back to that best seller and hot new release page. Look at the covers.

Browse through each page (there's only 5) and identify the book covers YOU as a reader of your genre, would click on immediately. Buy, trade, or learn to make a cover similar in design to that. I had to do this too, I realized in my genre, most of the book covers were not anything I'd click on. But a girl HAS to have her Mr. Darcy, so I've bought most of the books in my genre even when I hated the cover. I worked hard to make sure my covers would appeal to readers on their own merits, branded, with a nice big Elizabeth Ann West so everyone remembers the name!  That's so important, your name IS your brand. Don't hide it, don't minimalize it on a cover.

There are a couple of ways to use this information. One way is to forget how competitive a category is and just write what you want to write. This is akin in my opinion to running full speed at a brick wall and wondering why it didn't budge. Another is to write what you want to write and find a category cousin that's less competitive. What does that look like? Well let's take steampunk for example... there's a number of steampunk titles that also cross promote in historical fiction for the Victorian time period.

If you're writing erotica, look at some of the subgenres where #100 bestseller is #150,000 in the paid kindle store, like Victorian erotica. If your question is "Yeah, but if #100 is highly ranked, no one else must BUY Victorian erotica" No, they do. #2 in the genre is #12,000 in the Paid Kindle Store, and that's a handful of sales a day on just that one title.

Taking a little bit of time to CONSIDER your market for your genre will go a long way to helping you make the most out of the books you publish. The Amazon recommendation machine is strong, so keywords (like 19th century on your steampunk if you're also cross listing it in Historical>British Fiction will help people KNOW it's Victorian time period). Even the ever complained about oversaturated "romance" category has room in Gothic Romance. You need to be #69,000 something in the Paid Kindle store to rank top 100 on the Gothic Romance bestseller list, which is selling about 1 copy every day or so.

Balancing what you're passionate about, or becoming passionate about a new, less competitive category, can be the difference.


----------



## LA Ramsey (Feb 4, 2014)

cegesmith said:


> I can't control my sales, but I can control my output. But I do think that there is a direct correlation between what you have on the shelf for readers to buy and how much money you can make. I'm not afraid of hard work, so if it takes me 100 titles or more to make what others achieve with 10 titles- so be it. (It's not a competition, right? )
> 
> I also believe that having a group help to hold you accountable for your goals is how it gets done. (I've done monthly running challenges the last two months with my brother, and I know that's the ONLY reason I've laced up my shoes several days.) So having a bunch of like-minded folks help cheer (and prod) me on is a good thing for me.
> 
> Therefore, I'm in.


YES! The accountability will help me so I'm glad I posted this! I have a special place in my heart for my fellow author and if this challenge can help you to "make" it then it is definitely worth the effort!



CDF said:


> Ok, I'm in. It would take a LOT of money to get me to leave my job though. I support a family of five on it, including paying everyone's insurance, which is stupid expensive in NYS.
> 
> But, without quantifying at this time, I'd like to see if I can go from zero to a median living wage.
> 
> ...


There are no hardened rules here except to give it your best shot. We are here to root each other on to the goal (whatever your goal is) of being a full time author. Don't quit your day job until you hit that mark (I'm assuming around 5 figures or whatever you decide.) - Same with me, I'm not quitting my J-O-B-S until I hit that mark - upper 4 digits for me.  And have as many pen names as you want. I plan to do that as well! (and I design covers so if you need help - just holler!)


Kayla. said:


> Yes, I believe it's quantity as much as quality, if not more. Both would be great, and I'm aiming for both (that's why I can't publish every day), but I'll try to lean more towards quantity in the future.
> I'm doing my own mini non-fiction NaNoWriMo, 25k words this month.
> I know I won't be cracking 3 figures, but I hope you guys will!


Jump in any time Kayla! We'll be here - good luck with your NANO project!


Cherise Kelley said:


> Genre has a lot to do with it, too. I won't make decent money writing children's books. I have accepted that. Word to the wise.


yeah, I imagine it does. I'm going to be trying out several. I also spend time researching the Kindle series / singles / serials top 100 to see what sells well. It's fun! I will have fun writing in different genres. I have ADD so my mind is all over the place. I use it to my benefit! 


ㅈㅈ said:


> Quantity by itself won't work. Have a plan for how you will be pricing, what genres you want to write in, how you will brand each series so it is easily found, etc. Just writing whatever and putting it up will result in not much.


Exactly! I am planning mine as I go - but yeah, researching the top 100 in the genre will help with that. Good advice!

Great advice Elizabeth Ann West! thank you!


----------



## Drake (Apr 30, 2014)

Elizabeth Ann West said:


> 1- Study the market for what you're trying to write.


I think this is the best advice from all these posts. You have to know that you're writing in a genre that sells!


----------



## Rae Scott Studio (Jan 26, 2014)

For me I would like to make 1000.00 a month but would be happy with 650.00 per month. I am going to be leaving my job the end of april to go back to school so I am going to try and see if I cant maybe manage a book a month or 2 books a month through various pen names.. does this count me in as I have it already planned out?


----------



## kirtkinkly (Oct 30, 2014)

Rae Scott Studio said:


> For me I would like to make 1000.00 a month but would be happy with 650.00 per month. I am going to be leaving my job the end of april to go back to school so I am going to try and see if I cant maybe manage a book a month or 2 books a month through various pen names.. does this count me in as I have it already planned out?


How many books do you have out at the moment Rae? If your book's price is $0.99 you would need to sell 100 books everyday to reach $1000, assuming if you are not in KU.


----------



## Rae Scott Studio (Jan 26, 2014)

I have 2 books. one is in KU the other isnt and they are both 99 cents. I am currently working on 2 novels, 1 more in each series (so 2 more books there), I have another novel ready to go to editing and one I am doing revisions on and I am not sure what all else. LOL


----------



## kirtkinkly (Oct 30, 2014)

Rae Scott Studio said:


> I have 2 books. one is in KU the other isnt and they are both 99 cents. I am currently working on 2 novels, 1 more in each series (so 2 more books there), I have another novel ready to go to editing and one I am doing revisions on and I am not sure what all else. LOL


Are the books doing alright? Should you invest more time and energy in something that is not selling?


----------



## P.A. Woodburn (May 22, 2010)

I don't want to write really short books or large numbers of books, but I would like to really increase my personal output and income. I've already left my job. I'm retired but could sure use more money. So I'm in, in that I'd like to have other writers to communicate with daily on improvements. 
I'm having gallbladder surgery on Fri, so that may knock me out for a few days. Otherwise I'm in. I'd love to see a big personal improvement in the next twelve months.


----------



## allazar (Apr 2, 2014)

This is a great challenge and I'm in. Currently I'm finishing rewrites on the first of a Action/Adventure Fantasy series (6 novels @ 60k each) and a series of shorter stories in the same universe (5 @ 25k each). I was going to start during NaNoWriMo, but a book adaptation fell in my lap that I could not resist, so that's burning a lot of that time.

I'm a much slower typist (maybe 1500 an hour), but I'm hoping that constant writing will improve that.

Good luck to you!


----------



## Rae Scott Studio (Jan 26, 2014)

kirtkinkly said:


> Are the books doing alright? Should you invest more time and energy in something that is not selling?


Its only the FIRST book in each series that is out, 2 different series 2 different genres. One is PNR and the other is Horror. PNR is slow but its there, Horror is MUCH MUCH harder to break into. Especially for shorts that are serials. You also cant really judge the success of the serial until you get to like book 3 I believe. I do believe in the stories and I think as a whole they will be a very compelling read but only time will tell. I am starting from complete scratch with an almost ZERO budget. I dont have any built in fan base to work with per se so I am trying to work around that as well. I am anticipating more sales once subsequent books are released.


----------



## Scottish Lass (Oct 10, 2013)

Elizabeth Ann West said:


> 1- Study the market for what you're trying to write.
> ...Taking a little bit of time to CONSIDER your market for your genre will go a long way to helping you make the most out of the books you publish...Balancing what you're passionate about, or becoming passionate about a new, less competitive category, can be the difference.





ㅈㅈ said:


> Quantity by itself won't work. Have a plan for how you will be pricing, what genres you want to write in, how you will brand each series so it is easily found, etc. Just writing whatever and putting it up will result in not much.


I'd sortof like to be in - but I have to wonder if most of us here aren't aiming to be full-time some day? 

Having done this for nearly a year, won competitions and released 10 novellas and short stories, I have realised *the truth of the comments above* - you can write the best stuff, but if nobody wants to read it, or nobody hears about it, your sales will be pitiful.

Oh yes, and - covers that match your genre (I need to re-vamp all of mine). I am thinking that is super-important too.

It pains me not to write the series in my heart, but I need to start making some money at this. I'm hoping sci-fi romance will work, and have just started Part 3 of a short/novella Trilogy based on the competition winner. I'm already behind on the word count for Nanowrimo but I'm hoping that will act as a spur, as I want to release parts 2 & 3 by the beginning of December.

Someone on another thread was talking about Google Hangouts, and saying they were good for motivation. I've not done one before, but some sort of a group might be a good thing? Or a FB group?


----------



## gswright (Aug 7, 2013)

I want to play too! I dropped from making decent money to double digits also. Two books a week is a challenge, but I think I can pull it off. If I can juggle it, I'm going to write two books a week between two different pen names. I've hit 5k words today, so I'm going to consider that my start.


----------



## Carradee (Aug 21, 2010)

I'm going to see what happens with NaNoWriMo first. If I manage to hit even 30k words this month, with everything else going on, then that's going to be kick-in-the-pants proof that I can get more done than I usually do. I _know_ I could get 60k done per month regularly, but I struggle with believing it, which means I don't do it. So I'll start there and see if I can't work my way up.

If I do hit 30k words this month, I should be able to start on some serial ideas I have no later than May 2015.  (I have a few series to get "done" or in better stopping points, first.)

So by the time you're hitting at least some of your goals, I should be ready to join the party-late, per usual.


----------



## Sharlow (Dec 20, 2009)

LA Ramsey said:


> Who's with me in this??
> We can do it!


I hear you. I've been effectively out of the game for a couple of years now. I made a similar decision about a week or two ago. Being disabled and having nerve damage in my hands and fingers makes it hard to write so I'm not that fast, but I'm still writing at least a 1000 words a day.

Thanks to Nanowrimo I've managed to push my output up to 1700. My current plan is to put out a bunch of Novellas, maybe shorts, and catch up on the serials I started. Anyways I'll be reading this thread, and I hope to see you succeed. Good luck!


----------



## unkownwriter (Jun 22, 2011)

Well, technically I'm already a full-time writer, as this is what I do to make money. It's not really taking off yet, but I'm hopeful. I've had a bad couple of years, and only just really got into pushing production and trying to write what will sell.

I think those of us writing shorter works have a harder road, as most readers are looking for novels. But that doesn't mean you can sell them, just that it's harder and will take longer to get the reader base built up. 

Kindle Unlimited is helping with this, especially in erotica. All my shorter works are going into KU. Whether they stay there depends on how the program does over the next few months. I plan on making collections/bundles and selling them outside of KU (only on Amazon for those), and also working on some novels and collections to have out on all platforms.

How well this plan will work, I have no idea. I'm encouraged by my October sales/borrows, being my best month ever -- and still only in the very low double-digits, but I'll take it. I have zero money to put into this right now, so I'm at a disadvantage. But determination and persistence can help with that.

I'm working on getting my word count up, writing daily, making the best covers I can, and publishing as much as I can, at least one thing a week. I'm a follower of Dean Wesley Smith's advice to stock my "magic bakery" with as many products as possible, as soon as possible.

So make your covers the best they can be, whether you do your own or buy. Get those blurbs polished. Make the story as perfect as you can, whether you edit yourself, or pay. Choose categories and keywords that get your book in front of the right audience. If the wrong people are seeing your book, it won't sell, or at least not as well as it could. 

Don't be afraid to experiment with genres, but don't try to mash more than two together (and only if they will appeal to the reader). Learn the tropes of your chosen genre, and how and if "rules" can be bent or broken.

There you have my two cents. I hope you have correct change.  Now I need to go write 4400 words to catch up to my unoffical NaNo count. I'm way behind.


----------



## RachelMeyers (Apr 17, 2014)

I'm in.  Need to take a day or two to nail down my own goals.  I only have one (not-really-selling) book out under a pen name, lots of half-finished bits and pieces.  I need to get my butt in gear and stop procrastinating.

Some really good ideas here already, I am furiously making notes.  Thankyou to all who've shared! And good luck everyone  I'm hoping to be on track by the end of the week, so, a couple of days late but eh, who's counting?


----------



## Guest (Nov 3, 2014)

I'm in! I am already a full time writer, but I want to replace the romance book money with this pen name's books. I've been playing around with whether I want to start another pen name in addition to this one for a couple different non-romance genres. Today, I'm sticking with Audrey. Who knows about tomorrow. But I know I want to make my current income come from Audrey's work. I hope it's doable.

I have to complete a long piece this week, and then I have a couple shorter works planned, and then I'm going to go back to book three of this current series. Maybe. If my romance money falls, I'll have to break for that. One of my sons moved away to attend school, and the other one is moving soon. I have to keep making money to help them. Ugh.

Either way, I'm in to make Audrey full time! Exciting!


----------



## bohemianedu (Jul 24, 2014)

I'd love to participate in this challenge as well. I homeschool too. I have two kids. How do you get so much work done while homeschooling?


----------



## LA Ramsey (Feb 4, 2014)

So thrilled to see more of you joining in on this challenge.

You don't "have" to write 2 books a week, you can set your own pace. I'm pushing myself with trying for 1 to 2 a week. The way I see it the more is out (if it's edited, polished, good cover, good story) the more opportunity to earn bigger $$'s.

bohemianedu -  I get up extra early to accomplish my writing. We school from 8 am until 2 pm - the older 2 are in SOS so they work on the computer. I have to teach my kindergartener. He does 1 phonics and 5 math lessons a day as well as printing. It's not easy, but I literally work from 5 am until 7 pm - I also take care of the house, meals, etc too. Good thing I'm full of energy and the ADD helps with all of this - I just run from the moment I wake up.  Haha!

So today I was up at 5 am. So far I've written about 1500 words - I'm about to work some more on it.
I have to do my NANOWRIMO time too.

I'm proud of you all for doing this with me - I would love it if at the end of the challenge we emerge a bunch of "full time" authors - and those who are already full time - earning even more! 

MOST IMPORTANT - have fun with it!! If this is your passion, you should be doing it with a smile on your face!


----------



## cblewgolf (Jan 3, 2011)

I'm in.  Been wanting this for some time now.  Made some decent money in 2012 and early 2013 but it has ceased and so has my productivity.  Have a new series starting 11/15 and also trying something in a pen name.  Will see...


----------



## MyraScott (Jul 18, 2014)

I'm in.  I have 5 WIP- need to finish one at least and get it published.  

No chance of leaving the full-time job soon, but I have to stop planning and start writing.


----------



## Jason Anspach (Sep 17, 2014)

MyraScott said:


> I'm in. I have 5 WIP- need to finish one at least and get it published.
> 
> No chance of leaving the full-time job soon, but I have to stop planning and start writing.


I'm in a similar situation, and I'm with you all as well! For now, it's still nice to have that day job just in case people advise me not to quit it.


----------



## Sharlow (Dec 20, 2009)

I assume part of the plan here is to let each other know if and when we reach some of the financial goals you mentioned in your first post? It would be good to know how many books it took each of us to get to those goals. My first goal is to start bringing in $100 a month then I guess. I haven't done that in quite some time. But I look forward to this journey.


----------



## egcamby (Aug 20, 2014)

I'm in.  Planning on a novel each quarter (all I can manage with a FT day job) and a novella length story every other month.  

Last month I released my first book thinking I wouldn't sell anything or get any reviews.  Ended up making around $125 and got some nice reviews.  As a "nobody" in the self-publishing world, that shocked me and encouraged me to produce more.  I don't need to sell 3000 of one book every month if I can sell 100 or 200 of many different books.


----------



## o.gasim (Oct 5, 2014)

I'm in. I'll be continuing hte pace of 1 release a week under this pen name but would like to also publish a serial I have had in mind for a few weeks but haven't had the time to write due to getting this pen name off the ground.


----------



## Guest (Nov 3, 2014)

I'm in! I made the transition to full time writer in late-August when I was laid off. I have 7 serials released in Contemporary Romance but I know my output could be better. I don't think I can do 2 titles a week but I'm aiming for 3 serials a month.


----------



## Adrian P (Aug 5, 2014)

I don't have as much experience as you, but I want to be in.


----------



## Kenzi (Jul 28, 2014)

I'm in. I need to launch a new pen name, and I'd like to publish one book per month.


----------



## terri w/a ella (Oct 26, 2014)

I think I am game for this.  I have no idea how fast I type, but I do have a few stories that are in pre-production right now and I was aiming to do this on my own.  It will be good to have companionship on the journey.
T


----------



## Rachel E. Rice (Jan 4, 2014)

I'm all in. I love a challenge.


----------



## SomethingClever (Mar 9, 2014)

I'm signed up for NaNoWriMo but I need to write more than that. I need to do this because I really want to write full time.

I'm in.


----------



## SB James (May 21, 2014)

Sharlow said:


> I assume part of the plan here is to let each other know if and when we reach some of the financial goals you mentioned in your first post? It would be good to know how many books it took each of us to get to those goals. My first goal is to start bringing in $100 a month then I guess. I haven't done that in quite some time. But I look forward to this journey.


My goal is to be able to afford a new Apple computer, paid in cash.
After that... the sky's the limit I think!


----------



## 75814 (Mar 12, 2014)

Since we can go at our own pace, I'm in. I've got a plan that's slightly different, but with the same basic idea in mind.

Right now I'm shooting for 1K a day. It sometimes takes me less than an hour to do that, sometimes more, but it helps me get into a daily habit. I hope to increase it in the future, but for now having 1K as the daily goal is what works for me.

My plan is to release a monthly superhero serial beginning in January. The first season will be five episodes, each one at 15K, and I'll have a special prequel episode that mailing list sign-ups will get for free. I'm currently halfway into writing the fourth episode, which I should finish by next week. 

After the first season of the superhero serial is finished, I plan to release the next 30K novella in my Myth Hunter series in the summer, then from there begin the first season of a supernatural western series I've got in mind.

Basically, what I want to do is do a season of a serial, then a novella, rinse and repeat. I've also got a series of 10K shorts I'm doing for a small press publisher, and those come out quarterly.


----------



## LA Ramsey (Feb 4, 2014)

Nice to meet you all! No matter what our "goals" our main one is to be full-time authors - eventually. I'm thrilled.
So how are we doing?
I wrote to over 6200 words yesterday and finished the first "series" this morning. I plan to edit and hand it to my husband to edit. 
I'm having a LOT of fun with this!!

Thank you for taking the journey with me!



Sharlow said:


> I assume part of the plan here is to let each other know if and when we reach some of the financial goals you mentioned in your first post? It would be good to know how many books it took each of us to get to those goals. My first goal is to start bringing in $100 a month then I guess. I haven't done that in quite some time. But I look forward to this journey.


Yes, just a sort of accountability to help us reach these goals, whatever you decide. Like you I'm starting small since I'm just a double-digit Amazon earner right now.



Summer Aarons said:


> I need to do this. I'm doing pretty well with my other books, but I need to get a serialization going under this name (or maybe another?). I've already started it, but I have so much going on that I haven't had time to keep it up. I think I have about 17k, and I was going back and forth between serialization and series. I think I'm going to go with serialization. It's sweet romance, so I think the parts have to be longer than the steamier stuff. I am right on that?


I'm not sure on that, I'm trying to figure that out myself. I think really it's up to us and how we want to go with it. One thing, if you categorize it wrong you can always go back and adjust it. It's a learning experience for a lot of us. We learn together, right?



SB James said:


> My goal is to be able to afford a new Apple computer, paid in cash.
> After that... the sky's the limit I think!


I want a MacBook Pro as well - paid with my cash of course!  - Great minds...


----------



## Sheluvspink (May 14, 2014)

I'm in! I've been hitting the lower four figures combined on all platforms but I'd need to consistently bring in about 3500 a month for it to replace my full time job after taxes. I'm putting out the next book in my series next week and hoping that will be the increase I need.

I plan to write a prequel so that I can take the first book off permafree and then finish the last in the series and start a new one. Permafree helps ALOT.

My goal as of now is to write atleast 1000 words a day. In December I'd like to write 3000 words a day one thousand for three different books.


----------



## LA Ramsey (Feb 4, 2014)

Question for you all - Do you wait until a series is complete to publish?
I'm thinking I'll write out each book in the series - publish the first - put the others in a "pre-release" form - over the next couple of weeks. Eventually I'll have 2 a week (at least that's my goal) being published.

I guess I'm hoping to actually write more than 2 a week. I want to be strategic about publishing in a way that will garner interest and look as if I'm working it (well I am really, haha).

And Permafree - does that mean I'll have to pull it from Select to do that? I'm going to start each one in Select to take advantage of KU and see how that works.

This is a lot of testing and seeing what works.

My first book is complete - I'm editing it and trying to add a few more words to get it right to 10K words. I plan to start the 2nd book tomorrow.


----------



## Rae Scott Studio (Jan 26, 2014)

I published the first 2 without having the series complete, I honestly think I shot myself in the foot on that one. SO the next series is going to be DONE before I release book 1.


----------



## Guest (Nov 4, 2014)

Sharlow said:


> I assume part of the plan here is to let each other know if and when we reach some of the financial goals you mentioned in your first post? It would be good to know how many books it took each of us to get to those goals. My first goal is to start bringing in $100 a month then I guess. I haven't done that in quite some time. But I look forward to this journey.


My ultimate goal is 5k a month. I know it's ambitious (I'm at $300/mo now) and I don't expect it to happen overnight, but I'm willing to work my butt off for it.



LA Ramsey said:


> Question for you all - Do you wait until a series is complete to publish?


I don't, but if I was starting a new pen name I would publish a completed series plus book one of a new series all at once. Then I would aggressively promote book one of the completed series. I receive a lot of emails from readers and a considerable amount refuse to pick up a serial until all the parts are complete. This way, you could hook those readers, as well as the ones who don't care and have another series ready for them to sink their teeth into.


----------



## jillb (Oct 4, 2014)

I'm in. I'm not sure how quickly I can finish writing a book - probably about a book in a 10 days since I have 2 toddlers and other business commitments. I would like my books to be another income and if it becomes my main stream, all the better since I'm actually enjoying myself a lot writing books! 
I'm almost done with my 4th book. I will now be doing my own edits. Hubby does the covers for me. My chicken book goes free tomorrow with a bknight promo so we'll see how well it does!


----------



## 75814 (Mar 12, 2014)

LA Ramsey said:


> Question for you all - Do you wait until a series is complete to publish?
> I'm thinking I'll write out each book in the series - publish the first - put the others in a "pre-release" form - over the next couple of weeks. Eventually I'll have 2 a week (at least that's my goal) being published.
> 
> I guess I'm hoping to actually write more than 2 a week. I want to be strategic about publishing in a way that will garner interest and look as if I'm working it (well I am really, haha).
> ...


I'm waiting until each episode in the first season is finished. Even with my 1K a day goal, I am still working full-time, so other things do get in the way. Plus, waiting until they're all done and then releasing them once a month gives me a lot of time to build up a backlog of future releases.

For permafree, you would have to pull at least the first one out of Select. I think what I'm going to do is first try using Select, then release it wide and make the first episode permafree.


----------



## jillb (Oct 4, 2014)

No, I'm not waiting for the series to be complete before publishing. However, that might be just my genre (NF). I initially planning to just write one how-to ebay book. However, after some research, after learning so much on this board, I  decided to make a "serial". Each book can be read as a stand-alone or as a set. I wrote book 2 first, then book 3. I plan on starting on book 1 in the next couple of days. Book 1 will be a beginner's guide which I had not initially planned on writing. Book 3 is Live on Amazon. Book 2 was put on pre-order. It's ready to go live but Amazon has a 4 day lag on it. 
I'm finishing up a foraging book. Again, I plan to serialize it but I won't be working on book 2 anytime soon.


----------



## SA_Archer (Dec 20, 2013)

LA Ramsey said:


> I've read so many threads about earning a real living being an author. Even though I have 15 books out, the bulk I published in 2012 and then it petered out to maybe 1 or 2 titles a year. I can't say I'm a full time author making it on just my Kindle earnings. Right now as of November 2, 2014 I'm a two-figure a month income with it. Not acceptable to me. It is my dream and my passion to be a full time author. After reading through several threads on here with authors making 4 and 5 digit monthly income I know it's doable. I know it takes hard work and dedication.
> 
> My plans are to start writing series / serials. I'm inspired by those who write and publish 1 to 2 books a week. I am going to try this. I'm going to give this about 6 months to see how it works (God willing). So starting tomorrow I'm dedicating a big chunk of my day to this and will do this daily. I can easily type 2K to 2.5K words an hour. I figure if I put my mind to it I can do it.
> 
> ...


I am totally in! I've managed to hold with sales ranging from $100-$250 a month with an Urban Fantasy serial I've been working on since 2011. I've wrapped up that series, which I've kept going long after I knew it wasn't going to perform.

Now I am preparing to do romance serials, too. Mostly PNR and fantasy romance. I've got a few pen names and a few series worked out that I want to start working with. I am managing about 2000 words a day (on the days I don't have the 12-hour day job), and need to improve on that. In order to release the new series on the right time table, I want to have a bit of a backlog before I start releasing. So I am giving myself to the beginning of the year to have (hopefully) several series with 3 books (20K each). I hope that at least something will show promise, and then build on those.

I am tempted to publish as I have them done, but I know the timing will be erratic if I do. So while I am all for the writing challenge now, I probably won't be joining the publishing side until the start of the year.

I very much want to hit, or exceed the $3000 a month mark.


----------



## Sharlow (Dec 20, 2009)

LA Ramsey said:


> Question for you all - Do you wait until a series is complete to publish?
> 
> And Permafree - does that mean I'll have to pull it from Select to do that? I'm going to start each one in Select to take advantage of KU and see how that works.


I don't. None of my series are complete. In fat I was making 4 figures a month on one of my series and it only had two titles in it at the time. So I don't think it's necessary. Many authors here I knew who made it quite big had ongoing series.

If you want to go perma free your going to need to go through Smashwords or what's the new one? D2d or something. That's the only way I know of to get a perma free title going. But your still going to have to wait for Amazon to price match. I haven't been successful at doing that. They price matched one of my books once for a month, and then stopped price matching on it. Sad days.


----------



## Sharlow (Dec 20, 2009)

I think I'm going to necro one of my old threads I had going. There's a lot of useful info in from authors who are no longer on this board, who started out like this and some went on to make quite a bit of money.


----------



## von19 (Feb 20, 2013)

Sharlow said:


> I think I'm going to necro one of my old threads I had going. There's a lot of useful info in from authors who are no longer on this board, who started out like this and some went on to make quite a bit of money.


Ha! Necro ... and nice profile pic.


----------



## Elizabeth Ann West (Jul 11, 2011)

Just popping in to cheer ya'll on! I have to write today! The kids are in school! Just sent off a manuscript to my final copyeditor.. I love that "Ahhh, my work is done" moment. Especially since that particular manuscript, I don't have to format since it's part of a bundle and the other author is handling all of that. 

::Raising my coffee cup:: Go get today!


----------



## Kassidia (Sep 14, 2012)

Like so many of us, my goal is also to become a full-time writer.  My question to you is, what would have to happen before you would be able to quit a paycheck job?

My current job includes great insurance and other benefits, so I've set my goal at 6000+ a month, plus savings.


----------



## a_g (Aug 9, 2013)

Elizabeth Ann West said:


> A few suggestions from someone who stumbled upon full-time writing earnings this summer, and I say stumbled upon because I did not expect the books to take off. I was lucky that MY addiction to the genre and frustrations there wasn't enough to read in it translated to other readers feeling the same way. That doesn't always happen if you write say, contemporary romance.
> 
> <snipped for space, not because it's not good content>
> 
> ...


Elizabeth, thank you so much for this post. This has to be the best, most informative, _specific_ comment I've read in a while. Nothing was more frustrating to me than to have someone wave their hands and talk generally about how to do what you just spelled out.

This was helpful beyond helpful for me.


----------



## LA Ramsey (Feb 4, 2014)

Kassidia said:


> Like so many of us, my goal is also to become a full-time writer. My question to you is, what would have to happen before you would be able to quit a paycheck job?
> 
> My current job includes great insurance and other benefits, so I've set my goal at 6000+ a month, plus savings.


For me to quit "ghost writing" I will need to bring in at least $2,000 a month. I would want to see this occur for a couple of months with my Kindle earnings. My husband provides our insurance, etc with his job so I don't have to deal with that (until he quits and joins me in the writing!) For that to happen our combined income needs to be around $6000.


----------



## LJ (Feb 14, 2014)

I'm in. I'm not going to start until 2015, though -- I have a full-length novel I'm finishing before that. Then pen names, serials, bring it on!!!
VERY excited you started this thread, LA. It's stuff I've been mulling over for a while...it's nice to have company!
Now I have to get off here and write! xxoo


----------



## Elizabeth Ann West (Jul 11, 2011)

Here is some hope  It can happen at any time if you hit something hot...

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1i9tCrzZctNnucllTkxyRtTRrvN1_yu6Rb2xfmbr_RPY/edit?usp=sharing


----------



## LA Ramsey (Feb 4, 2014)

Elizabeth Ann West said:


> Here is some hope  It can happen at any time if you hit something hot...
> 
> https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1i9tCrzZctNnucllTkxyRtTRrvN1_yu6Rb2xfmbr_RPY/edit?usp=sharing


WOW! Thank you for sharing! This is inspiring!

I may keep a similar record -

I've completed the first (of many!) - it's being edited.
Cover done.
Writing book two!
All in 2 1/2 days.
Weeeeeeeee - this is fun!


----------



## nico (Jan 17, 2013)

Elizabeth Ann West said:


> Here is some hope  It can happen at any time if you hit something hot...


Thanks, Elizabeth. This is very generous.


----------



## Elizabeth Ann West (Jul 11, 2011)

I don't share that spreadsheet to brag... please everyone know that. I am just as stunned by the results as any. I think it's a cool representation of what can happen... you can see where I only made $5 or so a month on my book, but I did nothing more FOR that $5. Those two years there where my book earnings are low, I was running an author ad business and websites and writing nonfiction articles again. I also had a full time handful with a toddler who was diagnosed as special needs (she's doing fantastic now, in full day Kindergarten, hence I have time to write). 

I know it look like my stuff is on a downward trend too, but that's just a bump from where I didn't keep up production. Going into the New Year, I have goals and aspirations to be doubling and tripling those later monthly totals.  We'll see if the market holds etc. but regardless, I going to do what I have promised myself to do. That's finish the novella series (17 to go) and write that 3 novel trilogy, and do another stand alone novella.  That's what's on the To-Do list, one writing session at a time.


----------



## LA Ramsey (Feb 4, 2014)

Elizabeth Ann West said:


> I don't share that spreadsheet to brag... please everyone know that. I am just as stunned by the results as any. I think it's a cool representation of what can happen... you can see where I only made $5 or so a month on my book, but I did nothing more FOR that $5. Those two years there where my book earnings are low, I was running an author ad business and websites and writing nonfiction articles again. I also had a full time handful with a toddler who was diagnosed as special needs (she's doing fantastic now, in full day Kindergarten, hence I have time to write).
> 
> I know it look like my stuff is on a downward trend too, but that's just a bump from where I didn't keep up production. Going into the New Year, I have goals and aspirations to be doubling and tripling those later monthly totals.  We'll see if the market holds etc. but regardless, I going to do what I have promised myself to do. That's finish the novella series (17 to go) and write that 3 novel trilogy, and do another stand alone novella.  That's what's on the To-Do list, one writing session at a time.


Oh no, I never thought you were bragging. I sincerely appreciate you sharing - I feel you are encouraging and willing to show what has worked for you. So thank you again!!
With my 15 or so books I'm at double digit earnings - I published only 2 titles this year (or 3 - I forget) - and that's why I feel it's not working for me. I have a couple of pen names picked and and I'm just now jumping in - head first with the short books - and going for it. 
For the first time since I've been writing and publishing I honestly feel that I can make it!


----------



## SomethingClever (Mar 9, 2014)

Kassidia said:


> Like so many of us, my goal is also to become a full-time writer. My question to you is, what would have to happen before you would be able to quit a paycheck job?
> 
> My current job includes great insurance and other benefits, so I've set my goal at 6000+ a month, plus savings.


My job pays really well and we get a bonus once a year. My husband's job pays almost as well as mine. If I want to bring in enough so myself and my husband don't have to have day jobs, while still having the bills we have (including credit cards) I'd have to make at least 10,000 a month. If all credit cards are paid off it would be around 7,000 a month. Those figures are based on having a decent sized "Misc" money for emergencies a month. That's also taking into account money I'd have to set aside for taxes. Being in Canada, we don't have to worry about health insurance unless we want something to cover our prescriptions and dental.

I want to pay off the mortgage and credit cards and save a year's worth of expenses before actually quitting the day job. I'm being ambitious and aiming for June 2016 to be able to do that. Of course that will depend on how hard I work and how well all the books do. I'm still working through my NaNo novel's plot so I can blast through that the rest of this month. I have some erotic shorts I want to write under my pen name. And I have a book that I still need to key revisions for then send it out for editing. I have a few more stories lined up to work on next.

My plan is to have all the books in my trilogy (NaNo book) released by September or October next year. I have a marketing and promo plan for it already. I want to have the first two written before I put the first up for sale. Then put the second up as a pre-order. Work on the third and get the third up for pre-order as well by the time the second one releases. If I can have two and three ready sooner and have them both up for pre-order when the first one goes live that would be better.

This thread has really energized me and I can't wait to sign off from the day job (I'm working from home this week) and get started on the job I *want* to have.


----------



## LA Ramsey (Feb 4, 2014)

I have my 2nd book of the week partially written. I got hung up on creating the cover for the first book today. I want each series to be well branded so I spent most of my allotted time on that.

This first series is in the paranormal genre. I'm already itching to move on and try others.

I can't wait to put this to the test!!


----------



## allazar (Apr 2, 2014)

The book adaptation is done and writing will begin tomorrow!! The goal is 2000 words a day... the rewrites on my WIP first, then the first of the shorter series while the WIP is being edited!! Congrats on your progress, LA!!


----------



## SA_Archer (Dec 20, 2013)

I am so excited right now!

I went on a hunt through my laptop for old stories I'd written. Several years ago I wrote quite a bit for Ellora's Cave, but after making the changes the editors wanted I wasn't happy with most of them. When sales dropped off to nothing a few years ago I got the rights back to everything, planning to republish them myself. Only I was still not happy with the final stories, so I just stuck them in a folder on the desktop and moved on with the Urban Fantasy serial I had going.

I also had some partially written stories in the romance/ erotic genre that I never finished because my will to write them was murdered by the editors I worked with.

Now that I am gearing up to hit the romance serials I got to thinking that I can re-work these stories into what I wanted them to be. I even still had the initial submissions, prior to them gutting them. With some minor reworking and new covers, I am sitting on 22 titles almost ready to go! And with some work on the partials that would bring me up to 27! Since I am planning my big launch in January, this gives me a really solid foundation to start.

I still have my current work in progress that I started this month, which is at 6000 words. For me, I have writing energy in the morning, but I slow to a crawl after lunch. If I dedicate the morning to the new story and switch to edits and covers in the afternoon, I think I can get a massive amount done.

All this has excited me to look back at my currently finished Urban Fantasy serial. I was learning as I wrote it, and I know now that I made some mistakes early on that gets me a lot of reviews that say, "The writing is great, but the way she did the serial didn't motivate me enough to get the next book." I did it in about the most confusing way possible, with three 5-book serials going at the same time, with crisscrossing storylines. It made it necessary to repeat scenes from different POVs and the whole thing got confusing, especially if you read one of the collections. I figured out how to fix the collections (by 'editing for content' and stripping out the repeats and reorganizing the chapters into a more 'novel like' format) I also have a lot of covers that just aren't up to par. I want to rebrand the whole thing (something others here have suggested but I didn't have the will to do at the time.) Maybe doing that will give that series some legs. The few people who got past the early books have been extremely loyal about picking up the rest of the series. I just lose too many readers early on. I've seen a couple other writers on here say the same thing, that rebranding and re-editing took an under performing series and made it fly. So it is worth the chance.

So with all this, if I can pull it off, I will be able to release 2-3 books a week for a few months in early 2015. I am planning to go all in on KDP select with the new stuff for at least one go-round and see if that does anything. As long as it works, I'll keep at it. As series fall off, they will pop out and go to other markets, and the first book will go perma-free. I will probably do some BKnights and other small promos, but mostly just try and focus on writing. The urban fantasy will get fixed as I have time, in and around the romance work.

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS THREAD! It has pulled me out of a long depression and reignited my fire! Bless you all!


Does anyone else have a bunch of old stories lurking in the back of the laptop that might be worth dusting off?


----------



## LA Ramsey (Feb 4, 2014)

SA_Archer said:


> I am so excited right now!
> 
> I went on a hunt through my laptop for old stories I'd written. Several years ago I wrote quite a bit for Ellora's Cave, but after making the changes the editors wanted I wasn't happy with most of them. When sales dropped off to nothing a few years ago I got the rights back to everything, planning to republish them myself. Only I was still not happy with the final stories, so I just stuck them in a folder on the desktop and moved on with the Urban Fantasy serial I had going.
> 
> ...


It's quite a learning experience huh? I'm interested to see how you do if you go back through your earlier books.

I realize that doing these isn't "easy" but if you enjoy it then it's worth the time. 
I'm a morning person too. I feel like if I don't get my steam going early it's a lost cause. I get up at 5 am to have a good hour before the kids get up. I'm managing 2 to 3 hours a day on this. I'm looking forward to publishing under a new pen name.

I'm glad to have all the accountability! I'm cheering all of you on - and thank you for taking the time to post and share and cheer each other on this journey!!

Let's hear it for becoming full-time authors!!


----------



## A.C. Nixon (Apr 21, 2011)

I'm in. I've been writing, but haven't published anything but an erotic short since the end of 2013. Luckily my employer is offering a buyout so I'll be unemployed soon. The hubster and I are planning to move to a country with a lower cost of living, so that absolutely helps, but I want to pull my own weight.

By the end of this year, I'll have three novels written and in varying stages of editing, so I'll be able to hit the new year running.

I have to tell you, writing that short smutty story was fun.  I'm not making a ton of sales, but the borrows are adding up. So, I'm going to write and publish at least four a month while continuing to work on novels.



SA_Archer said:


> Does anyone else have a bunch of old stories lurking in the back of the laptop that might be worth dusting off?


I do! I have two trunk novels. One would be perfect for a novella series or serialization, and the other is a stand alone.

Currently I make about $100 a month on all channels, but ideally something with three zeros behind it sounds better. Since the only thing I can control is my output, I guess I have to focus on that. Good luck everyone.


----------



## LA Ramsey (Feb 4, 2014)

Well, I've started the third book in my first series set. My issue - book 2 and 3 are too short so I'm thinking of combining them.
I know there are ultra short books out there - like the "Read in 15 minutes" - but I just don't feel right publishing and charging for a book that is much less than 10K words.
I'm thinking of throwing caution to the wind and doing something totally different than what I normally write and trying a new-to-me genre. I'm also getting my hubs interested in writing these series WITH me - under a pen name. If one can produce 1 to 2 titles a week - then 2 can double that - right?


----------



## Shiriluna Nott (Aug 26, 2014)

Okay, I'm in (a bit late, but hey, better late than never, right?)

I've been plugging away at the next book in my YA fantasy series, and while the first book has been a lovely success so far, I know I need to be pumping out more material (and quicker) if I want to do this for a living, soooooo..... I am thinking of starting an erom serial series under a brand new pen name and seeing how it goes. I am jobless right now (even more motivation, right? savings will only last so long!) so I pretty much have all the time in the world to dedicate to writing. I'm a fairly slow writer, but I think writing a 10k serial installment per week should be doable. Maybe. We'll see. Ha!


----------



## CherieMarks (Oct 10, 2011)

Kenzi said:


> I'm in. I need to launch a new pen name, and I'd like to publish one book per month.


This is more my pace too, but I like the idea of a group for motivation and maybe a little accountability.


----------



## Avril Sabine (Jun 18, 2014)

Good luck everyone. I'm sure all of you will meet your production goals if you put the time into it. But do make sure you also set aside time to relax and recharge so none of you burn out. I'm looking forward to hearing the results.


----------



## SanMarine (Nov 27, 2013)

I'm in. I've been lurking far too long and it's time to join in. I have a couple of WIPs sitting unfinished. A 4-book series I would like to complete.


----------



## Kassidia (Sep 14, 2012)

Okay, everyone.  What did you do TODAY to get you closer to your goal?


----------



## LA Ramsey (Feb 4, 2014)

Kassidia said:


> Okay, everyone. What did you do TODAY to get you closer to your goal?


I love it! Let's get motivated.
Today I have done squat - BUT I plan to snap out 2 hours of writing.
My husband joined with me last night and wrote about 3/4 of his first installment.

Everyone is welcome to join - and you are welcome to set your own pace. The challenge is becoming a full time author. How you do it is up to you. I'm going to try writing / publishing 2 small books a week.

GOOD LUCK everyone! I'm excited to hear about the first week!


----------



## 75814 (Mar 12, 2014)

Kassidia said:


> Okay, everyone. What did you do TODAY to get you closer to your goal?


Wrote about 1400 words in episode #4 of my five-episode serial that will be premiering in January.


----------



## rachelmedhurst (Jun 25, 2014)

I'm in too! I work 32 hours a week in a day job at the moment and my dream is to give that up to write full time.

I'm releasing a book each month at the moment. I started back in May and the only month I didn't have a release was June. 

I'm releasing a 25k an episode fantasy romance serial and a trilogy. I've also just released a novella with a small British publishers. 

I'm only in double digits at the moment too. I'm debating whether to re-edit the first book in Avoidables as I've had over 3000 downloads (it's perma-free) but not that much sell through compared.

I get up an hour before I have to get ready for work on the four days I work and work on writing etc all day Monday's and most weekends. Today I was doing the last edit of the second in my novel trilogy, which is due out on the 28th. I'm hoping to get that finished and formatted tomorrow. 

Good luck, everyone!


----------



## RachelMeyers (Apr 17, 2014)

I'm just coming back to actually write out my goal.  Because, y'know, accountability.
So: I'm going to write and publish one novella/short novel every month, starting in December.  This week I've been doing lots of research around my target genre and looking through old half-finished projects I have that could be re-worked to suit.  Tomorrow I'm starting on what will be my first release with this pen-name.  I'm going to focus solely on the one for now, because this year I have been rubbish at dabbling in a hundred different things and progressing nowhere.  I figure I might as well go all-in for this pen-name until I get it established (5-10 titles) and then maybe diversify.
Good luck everyone!  I hope you are making good progress on your goals.  I'm feeling pretty excited about mine, now I know where I'm headed and what I need to do to get there.  Hoping to start work on writing my first release this weekend, I'm just wrapping up my outline at the moment.


----------



## Guest (Nov 7, 2014)

Kassidia said:


> Okay, everyone. What did you do TODAY to get you closer to your goal?


I have 1000 words until I reach my goal (20k) but I'm going to keep writing until my last two scenes are complete. I should be finished in a few hours.


----------



## Guest (Nov 7, 2014)

Kassidia said:


> Okay, everyone. What did you do TODAY to get you closer to your goal?


I finished my full length yesterday. Today, I've started a short piece. I hope it's short. 2k in, and I'm hoping I stop wasting time and get a lot in. Not sure. I'm shlumpy today.


----------



## gswright (Aug 7, 2013)

I've written 2000 words today so far toward a 10,000 word serial. I published another book a few days ago, but odds are I'm only going to get out 1 book out this week.


----------



## jillb (Oct 4, 2014)

Update: Book #4 is almost done. Just needs a recipe more + a conclusion but I need to take a break from it. Current word count 15054. Cover and edit not done yet.

Book #5 started yesterday 11/6:
Slight over 3000 words done yesterday.
Total words completed between today and yesterday for book 4: 6350.

My aim is to have 10 NF books done by the end of the year. They have an average range of 15K words which means I will need to write about 1500 words per day including research time. I will also need to factor in Thanksgiving and Xmas. Can I do it? We'll see!!


----------



## LA Ramsey (Feb 4, 2014)

jillb said:


> Update: Book #4 is almost done. Just needs a recipe more + a conclusion but I need to take a break from it. Current word count 15054. Cover and edit not done yet.
> 
> Book #5 started yesterday 11/6:
> Slight over 3000 words done yesterday.
> ...


I'm interested to see how your NF books do in this! I have more NF than F but my true love is definitely fiction. That's my focus right now.


----------



## SA_Archer (Dec 20, 2013)

Some of you are rocking it with the word count! Awesome!

I am far from it, but the opportunity to have two weeks off from work has given me an opportunity to feel what it is like to write full time. It will be divine! 

Sent from my Zio using Tapatalk 2


----------



## LA Ramsey (Feb 4, 2014)

I have to laugh. Since doing this challenge my husband has jumped in head first. I've spent all my time designing his covers - and formatting and published TWO short novels for his this week. I figure it's as good as me doing it, right? The man is on fire burning up the keyboard - he's chopping out number 3 right now. I just SAVED his second in drafts - waiting for his first to hit publish. So he's doing this in a pen name, brand new. We are hopeful because he's following my advice here! 

I will jump in and finish my short novels this next week - and will keep on writing them.


----------



## Sharlow (Dec 20, 2009)

Kassidia said:


> Okay, everyone. What did you do TODAY to get you closer to your goal?


I'm working on book three of one of my series. I'm expecting to have it done around the end of the month. I've also put out a short on a different pen name and a book 2 novella on one of my series, and I'm working on a bundle of one of my series. I've already got next month's writing planned out as well.


----------



## Fast Typist (May 9, 2013)

I'm in.  

I need to finish book 3 in a series this month, a stand alone by Christmas, and book 4 by January.

I think I need to limit my kboards time to twenty minutes a day......

Beverly


----------



## DanaG (Feb 13, 2011)

A few thoughts, and I am not trying to be a Debbie Downer here. I work from home full time and I absolutely hope everyone here can quit their day job, if that is their goal.

1.) Writing a couple of titles a week may be what works for you. I think you are more likely to have a big breakout hit if you spend just a little more time on your writing.  A week, two weeks...I am a fast writer, but what I end up with is more like a book every two to four weeks. Once I started doing that, I wrote longer, better stories, with more plot and more supporting characters, and my sales went up dramatically.

2.) Sales go up and down drastically. Just keep that in mind when you consider quitting. I had a job that paid terribly a few years ago, and in my fourth month of publishing, I made five figures. Hooray! I could quit! But...the fifth month, Amazon started cracking down on erotica and also books stopped being as "sticky" and staying high in their categories for as long.  I made about eight grand. Still miraculous! Next month, about six grand. Uh oh. I don't like where this trend is going. Good thing I didn't quit and give up my health insurance.

Six month...even less money.

It dropped down to about three grand a month, and keep in mind, that's gross, not net.  That wasn't enough for me to support myself and my two kids. REALLY glad I hadn't quit.

Then, after experimenting with other pen names, other sub genres of romance, for months and months, FINALLY I found what worked for me, and had a hit, and my earnings shot up amazingly.  They were great for about six months straight.

Then...they started dropping AGAIN.  More titles, newsletter list and Facebook page are growing, books coming out every month...sales still dropping.

Then, yet again, I debuted a new series and turned it all around.

What is the lesson from this? For me, it's - when I have a freakishly huge month, I tend to think of it as winning a mini lottery and I don't assume it will continue month after month.  I wouldn't quit my day job for writing based on even a few good months unless they're crazy good, like a year's worth of salary good. 

I'd wait until I had enough money saved up until I had about a year's worth of bills saved up.  Which we all should have set aside anyway, in this crazy and uncertain economy.


----------



## Kenzi (Jul 28, 2014)

DanaG said:


> A few thoughts, and I am not trying to be a Debbie Downer here. I work from home full time and I absolutely hope everyone here can quit their day job, if that is their goal...


Thank you for this amazing post, DanaG.


----------



## DanaG (Feb 13, 2011)

My pleasure!

I am making a very comfortable six figure income at the moment, and have paid off most of by debts, but I don't assume it will last. I am actually giving serious thought as to what type of job I could do if sales dried up again.  I've had to completely reinvent myself, writing wise, twice already. I've learned my lesson about being complacent.  I'm debating what job I could do that would pay health insurance, be reasonably enjoyable,  not be too mentally taxing, and would allow me to have mental energy left over to write.


----------



## Guest (Nov 9, 2014)

Approximately 165 more short erotica books and 10 more non-erotica books by December 2015.  If I can't give up the ghostwriting by then, I quit.

(Not really.  Type A personalities don't quit.  However, I'll feel like quitting.)

~~~

Also, if you have a husband, or some other financial partner, you have much more freedom with this.  I'm not a single parent trying to make it.  I'm married, and my kids are in college and almost out of the house.


----------



## I&#039;m a Little Teapot (Apr 10, 2014)

DanaG said:


> A few thoughts, and I am not trying to be a Debbie Downer here. I work from home full time and I absolutely hope everyone here can quit their day job, if that is their goal.


Thanks for all of that! Your posts (including this one) are always steeped in reality and super-useful.


----------



## DanaG (Feb 13, 2011)

Thank you, Sevendays! Your avatar makes me want to go out and buy more chihuahuas. But my kids would kill me.


----------



## dragontucker (Jul 18, 2014)

So you are writing these for Kindle Unlimited right? This is what I am doing right now....actually releasing a 5k fantasy. It's just a small part of a longer serial though. I figure since it's free nobody will really care it's short. I plan to release a new one at least every week.


----------



## DanaG (Feb 13, 2011)

Eclectic Authoress said:


> Approximately 165 more short erotica books and 10 more non-erotica books by December 2015. If I can't give up the ghostwriting by then, I quit.
> 
> (Not really. Type A personalities don't quit. However, I'll feel like quitting.)
> 
> ...


Oh, totally. I'm talking about if you depend on your day job for health insurance, rent or mortgage, etc. It's just very tempting to think that it is safe to quit, if you have a few months of steadily rising sales. My first few months of publishing went like 400-something, $2800, $4000-something, $12,000...I expected that my sales would keep going up and up. I almost quit my day job. I was like, whee! I'll be a millionaire next year at this rate!

But then they started dying, and nothing I did, for months and months and months, brought them back up.

And I know a lot of other super successful authors who have also had crazy highs and dreadful lows. Basically, I am only as good as my most recent hit, and that only boosts me for a couple of months.


----------



## D. Zollicoffer (May 14, 2014)

DanaG said:


> A few thoughts, and I am not trying to be a Debbie Downer here. I work from home full time and I absolutely hope everyone here can quit their day job, if that is their goal.
> 
> 1.) Writing a couple of titles a week may be what works for you. I think you are more likely to have a big breakout hit if you spend just a little more time on your writing. A week, two weeks...I am a fast writer, but what I end up with is more like a book every two to four weeks. Once I started doing that, I wrote longer, better stories, with more plot and more supporting characters, and my sales went up dramatically.
> 
> ...


Excellent post! I'm learning this the hard way right now. I quit my crappy job (making 28k a year) at the beginning of August, after being a self published author for two months. I was making 3-4k a month basically out the gate. Now that doesn't sound like a lot, but it's more than enough for a single person living in Northeast Ohio, and it was more than I made answering phones.

Fast forward to now, some changes were made and now I'll be lucky if I make a $1,000 this month! 

I'm not even mad, though. Now I know to save more and to never let my guard down. This Business can change literally overnight. Two weeks ago I was selling 40 books a day, now I'm lucky to hit 10!


----------



## DanaG (Feb 13, 2011)

D, are you going to go find another job while you build things back up writing wise?

Were you writing erotica? Have you put new titles out recently?


----------



## Amanda M. Lee (Jun 3, 2014)

I've been making more than 10K a month since March. I haven't dropped below it. In October, I made more than 19K. I still haven't quit my day job, lol. I really want to be laid off - but I just haven't pulled the trigger to actually quit. I have more than enough to live off for two years out away - and yet I'm  still there. I have no idea when I will have the guts to do it. It would just be so much simpler if the company would take the decision out of my hands.


----------



## LA Ramsey (Feb 4, 2014)

Wow - some good advice here and some inspiration. YodaRead you really inspire me.

I'm a realist. I want to be a full time author and to quit all my other J-0-B-S but I won't until I have saved at least 18 months worth of living expenses. 
Things are looking up here though. I'm going from double digits so anything is better right?

Keep on writing!


----------



## D. Zollicoffer (May 14, 2014)

DanaG said:


> D, are you going to go find another job while you build things back up writing wise?
> 
> Were you writing erotica? Have you put new titles out recently?


I'm writing new stuff, just published a new novella today, and no it wasn't erotica. It was a series of books for kids 9-12.

I have enough money to live off for a few months so I'm not going back to work just yet. I'll keep writing and hope that something else takes off. Like I said, my cost of living is really low. Altogether my bills are only around $1,400 a month.


----------



## alex mars (Sep 13, 2013)

This is kind of genius. And I think it can work. I'm playing around with doing something similar. Working on serial of books around 15k words long. I'm not sure if I can get a book out every week due to my daily job. But I think every self published writer should give this strategy a shot and see what kind of success they can have with it.


----------



## dragontucker (Jul 18, 2014)

Do you guys think this strategy is best for Kindle Unlimited?


----------



## TabooReads (Nov 10, 2014)

Great challenge. Good luck to all of you. I'd join in but there isn't time for the remainder of the quarter with the current get-er-done list.


----------



## 75814 (Mar 12, 2014)

Even if I do get up to a full-time wage from writing, I still won't quit my day job, or at least not my main teaching job. If I do that, the Japanese government will kick me out of the country.


----------



## Guest (Nov 10, 2014)

dragontucker said:


> Do you guys think this strategy is best for Kindle Unlimited?


I'm keeping my short erotica books in Select (and therefore, Kindle Unlimited.) My current non-erotica series is in Select. However, I'm going wide with my next non-erotica series, just to test it. If the experience turns out to be horrible, I'm running back to Select, and I'm never leaving it.


----------



## VictoriaScribens (Sep 11, 2014)

Okay, I've been reading through this over the past while, and considering my situation, and ... I'm ready to jump in with specific goals. 

First off: my motivation.

I'm currently living in my parents' house and have a part-time job at a bookstore. I've not sold much of anything in the past month, apart from a few print copies of my novel. Nor have I published anything new. I've got a small amount of saving and have been hoarding them in the hopes I can buy land for a small holding in the spring--and of course have been looking this fall, just to see. My parents are willing to act as the bank and loan me the down payment, but either I need to find a property that is under their available cash amount or be able to cover the mortgage. (They're willing to let me take a year or two before I start paying back the down payment portion.)

I really, really, really want to buy this property that I just found. It is my ideal house--five acres, view of the sea, walking distance to a beach down a lane, four bedrooms (actually a little big, but after ten years of bachelor/1 bedroom apartments I desperately want to be able to have guests), a barn and some outbuildings, a wood stove, twenty minutes from town in a rural community ... Only problems with it (short of anything a home inspection shows) are that the driveway's on an unpleasant corner and at $175,000 it's very much on the top end of the budget. Also, I don't have a car and really need one to live in rural PEI.

So ... my current writing situation: I've been trying to use the gift of free accommodation to write, but have been muddling rather than focussed. I am partway through the draft of the second novel in a new series. I plan to release the first three books of the series, which form an arc, either all together or 2 + 1, hopefully just after Christmas. That has been my plan. 

However ... this property is really calling out to me. I've got enough savings to cover the move/set-up and a car and about three months' worth of living expenses. The bookstore job is seasonal but may turn into a part-time continuing position if I'm lucky. I have put up some signs for editing/tutoring work but haven't had any results yet, but also haven't been pursuing that very aggressively. I reckon I need at least $1500/month to live on--preferably rather more than that ($2500/month net would be lovely, and actually the most I've made so far--and that was as a full-time academic with a PhD! Anyhow.)  Other jobs in PEI are difficult to come by and largely seasonal to the tourist season--meaning that I think I would be able to get work starting in May if necessary, and probably another part-time job if I try hard before then, but it would likely be minimum wage unless I can get some tutoring/editing work. 

Thus we come to this challenge and my plans. I am sitting on four completed short stories that I have been sending out on submission. Three are more in the novelette range (10,000-15,000 words), so there are limited markets, and as it happens they're all back with me at the moment. I have one novel fully drafted that needs editing, the sequel to that partially drafted, and the third taking shape in my head. I have one 3/4 completed novel in a different series that needs substantial reworking but has good potential, and I've got half a dozen partially completed short stories of varying lengths, mostly connected to my novels one way or another, and also several novels currently in the percolating and research stage. 

So, I've been thinking that instead of continuing to send my long short stories off on submission, I will use them to build audience and momentum, and aim to publish one title per week for the next six months. That gets me to April, the end of my savings if nothing more has come in (but it will by then, because I'll look for more part-time work after Christmas if the bookstore job doesn't continue), and the shift to the gardening season--my other marketable skill besides teaching the humanities. These titles will be a mixture of short stories, novels, collections, and omnibuses (e.g., once the first three of the new series are out, I'll bundle them together--I'm planning on putting the first one to permafree so that will be a good deal for readers and me).

I have a months' leeway, basically, of already-completed stories that just need formatting and covers. I've been doing my own with both of these--my covers are probably my weakest element, along with the blurbs, but I'm working on both skills and intend to commission proper cover art once I get enough of a financial buffer. I've also been trading editing with a writer friend, but I'm not sure if she'll be up to quite this quantity and turnaround so I'll have to investigate other options there, I expect. 

Sorry this is long-winded, but I'm trying to figure out a manageable plan. I know I can seriously focus for a period of time from when I finished my dissertation while also working a quite demanding job full-time--and I also know that led to serious burnout. However, I like my fiction much better than I liked my dissertation (much as I love Dante), and having my own garden to play with in the spring should provide a splendid antidote to a winter of frugality and focus. 

If I can have one or two non-new items--an already-written short story or an omnibus--per month, then I think I could do one new short story and one longer work every two weeks for four to six months, and then I'll probably need a real break. However, I hope that having 26 titles out would mean some financial success ... 

So there we go. I can't do anything about the property this week because of family commitments, and of course it might sell out from under me ... but then again it might be the One Day House awaiting me, right? And this is a good plan to work with regardless.


----------



## komura 420 (Aug 25, 2013)

So good to see lots of people moving in the same direction.

While I can't join your efforts just yet, my grand design starts January 1st 2015.  Pay all the bills for 1 year and head down to write.

Gonna resign a 6 figure corporate job on December 1st (yeah a couple of weeks from now)...then move back to the US and get ready for a year doing the only thing I've ever liked (except growing cannabis several decades ago when I was young, stupid and bulletproof). 

I am astounded at those who are going to write a book every 1-2 weeks. My production schedule has 1 book, every 2 months...and that is with 2 weeks of plot design and Scrivener.

Am hoping that we all succeed. 
I don't need a lot, as I have myself in a very low expense structure and have a decent nest egg.

The goal? To be successful and earn a living. It doesn't need to be blockbuster sales, as in all honesty, I'd rather be a best-telling author than a best-selling one (if forced to choose).

Good luck to all....but we know its not about luck....it's about sweat and smarts, always has been, always will be.


----------



## LA Ramsey (Feb 4, 2014)

alex mars said:


> This is kind of genius. And I think it can work. I'm playing around with doing something similar. Working on serial of books around 15k words long. I'm not sure if I can get a book out every week due to my daily job. But I think every self published writer should give this strategy a shot and see what kind of success they can have with it.


Thank you! 
I believe this will work as well. Just have to write, write, and then write some more!! Just write every day and it will build momentum!


----------



## Ann Brian (Nov 10, 2014)

I want to jump in!
Or WE went to. My husband and I.
We started writing in earnest this weekend.
I bought that book about how to write erotica in 6 weeks. I read it in one sitting. 
Over the weekend my husband wrote 4 books.
I'm writing one (my aim is at least 1 a week).
I want to try different genres, but starting with erotica.
I have other books published that are just sitting there. Books I went the "build a platform, have a FB page, Twitter, buy ads, promo, hold gun to people's head to buy my darn books (J/K!), etc etc etc"
That route worked okay for a while - when I was publishing 2 to 4 titles a month. That fizzled because I started writing epic lengths and publishing one title a year and well, it just doesn't work. So I'm still working that - I'm testing this other with pen names. So far - the pen names are outselling the others 5 to 1!


----------



## LA Ramsey (Feb 4, 2014)

How are we doing? I'm still working on the first 3 now - I've finished and I'm hoping to have my husband edit them for me. If he can't find the time I'll just do it.  Haha!


----------



## rachelmedhurst (Jun 25, 2014)

LA Ramsey said:


> How are we doing? I'm still working on the first 3 now - I've finished and I'm hoping to have my husband edit them for me. If he can't find the time I'll just do it. Haha!


I'm only doing one book a month, not a week, but I just started book 5 in the Avoidables serial yesterday. Waiting for my editor to edit book 4, hopefully this week. That will be released in December. Finished formatting novel 2 in The Deadliners trilogy over the weekend so that's ready to be released on the 28th. Tempted to bring release date forward a little bit though. 

Book 5 will be released on the 29th December, a day after my Midlist listing for the 1-3 bundle.


----------



## Mike_Author (Oct 19, 2013)

One question - how does everyone feel about the impact on time/output pressure on the quality of their work?  Do you respond to this kind of pressure with better or worse writing?

My writing falls to pieces when I put deadlines or pressure on myself.  For me, I can't force the process.

My only piece of advice here would be to focus on the output, not the result, as the output is the only part you have control over.  So, if the pressure doesn't adversely impact you, set word count or actual book targets (like x number of books per year) but don't set income targets.  I have always found that setting goals you have no control over can cause problems.

I vaguely remember seeing a book on Amazon by a guy with a system for creating large numbers of books so maybe worth checking out if this is a goal...

Looking forward to hearing how everyone goes with their goals


----------



## 75814 (Mar 12, 2014)

Mike_Author said:


> One question - how does everyone feel about the impact on time/output pressure on the quality of their work? Do you respond to this kind of pressure with better or worse writing?
> 
> My writing falls to pieces when I put deadlines or pressure on myself. For me, I can't force the process.


The only thing it really impacts is my bad habit of procrastination (and that really is something I could do without). The quality of my writing is the same whether I'm on a deadline or not. If anything, I think it actually improves because it forces me to stick with the story until it's done, whereas without a deadline, I'll put it off and quite possibly just lose all interest in the story (which has happened more times than I'd care to admit).

But I also write pulp fiction, so keeping up the intensity of my writing helps me match the intensity of the story. If I were writing more literary stuff, it might be a different story. So your mileage may vary.


----------



## Lehane (Apr 7, 2014)

Gaah. I might be in!

Maybe not immediately, but SOON. I work for a school, so I get a week off for Thanksgiving, and two for Christmas/New Years. The perfect time to jump start a mad writing process. I've been wanting to do the self-publishing route since I discovered KBoards in April, but I've been making enough excuses -- writing a little of a lot of things -- to slow me down. Time to change that.

This thread is right up my alley. I have gobs of erom serials in progress, aiming for 15k-20k for each installment. If put to task, I can easily write a book a week. I'd like to release two per month; more, if possible.

My goal is that by the time I move to LA (looking like summer 2016), I'm making enough money that I don't have to worry about getting a job ASAP. I'm not moving until then in an effort to have savings for 3-5 months, anyway, but this would be even better. It would allow me to spend a little time focusing entirely on writing, both books and screenplays. In between, I'm shooting for KDP to double my income. 3k per month before taxes would be perfect. Any more would be bananas, though entirely welcome.


----------



## jillb (Oct 4, 2014)

Update:

Book #5 (eBay Beginner's Guide) completed 11/10. It's in the publishing process on Amazon.
Book #6 (Guide to chicken breeds) started today. The going is slow but I've broken 1000 words. It's very cold and snowy today and I'm not feeling very motivated. 
Book #4 (Foraging) still not complete. I might work on finishing that up and starting edits on it this evening instead.

Book #2 (Maximize profits on ebay) was published on 11/8 with no promo but has 5 borrows and 1 sale so far ($4.99 price). I think the higher price is driving more borrows but that's OK I want to just drive my ranking up for now. Being contrarian is my selling point for this book.

The 14th will be my 1 month publishing anniversary and I will post the results so far at that time. I started writing my 1st book in early Sept without any plan so the 1st book took 1.5 months to be published. Then I found kboards and have a plan (maybe) developed. I'm planning on following KMatthew's methods with some tweaks. I can't write my books that quickly and I'm writing NF which is a different niche. I will use Select when I first release, and do some BKnights promos for each book.


----------



## LA Ramsey (Feb 4, 2014)

Mike_Author said:


> One question - how does everyone feel about the impact on time/output pressure on the quality of their work? Do you respond to this kind of pressure with better or worse writing?
> 
> My writing falls to pieces when I put deadlines or pressure on myself. For me, I can't force the process.
> 
> ...


For me I'm trying out a new pen name and I'm going for output. I want to see if the volume thing works and if it doesn't, no biggie, I can always scrap the pen name. What's going to be funny is if I start earning well on these "quickie" books and the books I poured my blood, sweat, and tears into just sits there with a measly 1 to 2 sales a month.
I'll let you know how it goes!


----------



## kirtkinkly (Oct 30, 2014)

LA Ramsey said:


> The experiment will be to see if I write / publish 1 to 2 titles a week to see how long it takes me to earn:
> $100
> $500
> $1000
> ...


Hi Ramsey,
Since you are the OP, where are you on the earning scale at the moment?


----------



## LA Ramsey (Feb 4, 2014)

kirtkinkly said:


> Hi Ramsey,
> Since you are the OP, where are you on the earning scale at the moment?


Is there a "pathetic" category?
I'm a whopping double digit girl right now.
BUT I've drug my feet and published only 1 to 2 titles a year for the past three years (might be why).

Since starting this challenge I'm on my 4th "short story" - so that's 4 books. Have yet to publish them because I'm waiting on my husband to finish the edits.
I'm hopeful though.
My husband jumped in and he's published 4 so far this month and yes, he's out earned me the first week. But it's okay, he sleeps with me so I have access to his banking account. 

I will keep you posted!


----------



## kirtkinkly (Oct 30, 2014)

What genre are you doing? I have just finished the first draft of my YA and no time for erotica at all.


----------



## LA Ramsey (Feb 4, 2014)

kirtkinkly said:


> What genre are you doing? I have just finished the first draft of my YA and no time for erotica at all.


I'm not sure how to classify it really. It's different - speculative fiction? It's just my wild imagination and thinking "Wonder what if...."
Does Kindle even have a "speculative fiction" category?
It's not dirty or anything...just weird haha


----------



## SB James (May 21, 2014)

Kassidia said:


> Okay, everyone. What did you do TODAY to get you closer to your goal?


Today I finished a second book that can be published as a part of a series, but could also be stand-alone books, and I've started the third one!
I'm curious as to whether, if I put them in KDP select, that I should wait to put any of the books free until I have the links to other books in the first one? I would think that would be a better strategy than to just waste my free days with any of the books until I've got a few to link together...


LA Ramsey said:


> For me I'm trying out a new pen name and I'm going for output. I want to see if the volume thing works and if it doesn't, no biggie, I can always scrap the pen name. What's going to be funny is if I start earning well on these "quickie" books and the books I poured my blood, sweat, and tears into just sits there with a measly 1 to 2 sales a month.
> I'll let you know how it goes!


Yes, this is my plan as well. And yes, there have been threads here in the past where authors have complained about how the stuff they are the least proud of sometimes outsells the stuff they thought was their best output.


----------



## kirtkinkly (Oct 30, 2014)

Yeah, that is exactly what make me so worry. I am afraid that my Fantasy book, the one that I work really hard for, will not be able to sell like my short dumb smut at all.


----------



## HappyToHelp (Sep 27, 2014)

Count me in!  As it stands, I have 2 paranormal romances and 2 non-fiction books out.  I have four books of various lengths with an editor, and about another 10 in various stages of completion.  Currently, my sales are all over the place.  One moth I made $400, and then next I made $40. I think I'm holding closer to $40 in sales and perhaps closer to $150 or so in KU.  My goal by December 31st is to have 10+ books out. (Sounds more impressive than it is, seeing how most of them just need a polish and then sent to the editor.)  I'd love to be able to quit my job in the next year if I wanted to, and just write full time.  

When I started writing, I didn't think to write serials, however, all my books take place in the same world with the same cast of characters.  I'm not sure if that will be of any benefit to sales or not--regardless, I'll keep you guys posted.


----------



## 75814 (Mar 12, 2014)

kirtkinkly said:


> What genre are you doing? I have just finished the first draft of my YA and no time for erotica at all.


This is a good question for everyone. What genres are you writing in, what was your output like, and how have your sales been up to this point?

For me, I'm writing action, which encompasses a whole lot more-horror, sci-fi, fantasy, crime, espionage, westerns, adventure, etc. I started publishing in 2007 with one novel, published a novella in 2008, skipped 2009, and began my first series, Infernum, in 2010 with the second book in 2012. My second series, The Myth Hunter, launched in 2011 and the second book also came in 2012. I then published a stand-alone novel in 2013. 2014 saw the release of a new short story series, Luther Cross.

So basically, I've only been doing about one book a year and the sales haven't been great. The Myth Hunter is the series that does the best, but still hasn't really taken off. I hope that will change next year when I release book three. I've hired an artist to come up with some artwork that I'm going to use for new covers on the first two books and will also do the third book.


----------



## DanaG (Feb 13, 2011)

Re; the book you love selling terribly, vs. the short rushed books selling like hotcakes (to use a terrible cliche): here is what I have found has sold the best for me. It's studying the bestselling genres, then studying the bestsellers that fit within those genres, observing how they tell their stories and what readers are looking for,  and writing books that fit within the conventions of those genres.

Some genres - romance, mystery, thriller - sell better than other genres.

It's not to say that a weird, quirky story that either doesn't fit into any category, or fits into a less popular genre, won't be a surprise breakout hit...but it's much less likely.  You don't have a huge, hungry audience out there that is already looking for your book.  Just like if you were making a movie, you're unlikely to have a blockbuster with a weird, beautiful, quirky art film.  

So if you are specifically hoping to earn money, you greatly increase your chances if you write within a popular genre.


----------



## LA Ramsey (Feb 4, 2014)

DanaG said:


> Re; the book you love selling terribly, vs. the short rushed books selling like hotcakes (to use a terrible cliche): here is what I have found has sold the best for me. It's studying the bestselling genres, then studying the bestsellers that fit within those genres, observing how they tell their stories and what readers are looking for, and writing books that fit within the conventions of those genres.
> 
> Some genres - romance, mystery, thriller - sell better than other genres.
> 
> ...


Golden advice here! 
I study the top 100 a lot. I don't know if what I'm about to do will work or not, but I certainly hope so. I just know that my tame Christian romances are selling. (thus the pen name now) It doesn't matter to me if the series stuff sells better - it will enable me to be a full time author. 
Whatever works, right?


----------



## Guest (Nov 12, 2014)

kirtkinkly said:


> Yeah, that is exactly what make me so worry. I am afraid that my Fantasy book, the one that I work really hard for, will not be able to sell like my short dumb smut at all.


And that's why I don't plan on giving up the "short dumb smut." Don't knock money. Besides, the short dumb smut gives me the freedom to write the other stuff without worrying so much about sales and chasing trends.


----------



## LA Ramsey (Feb 4, 2014)

Summer Aarons said:


> I'm going to dig into the story I started a while ago and work it into a serial today. I started out unsure if I was going to serialize or not, and I really think it could work well either way. Since I'm starting with a new name, why not go with the serialization?
> 
> The one thing is that I recently found a series where the same exact names were used! (At least I found it now.) It's going to be a romance series of serials following brothers. I don't know how the other author ended up with very same name (last and first) but that's how it goes. Now I'm also thinking of following couples in the town rather than brothers. That's probably been overdone anyway.
> 
> Time to figure all this out. Glad for this thread!


I have an entire epic family story in my head that follows through 3 generations. I may put this into a serial too after I'm finished with my current one.


----------



## Kassidia (Sep 14, 2012)

What am I doing to meet my goals TODAY?

Will have my second book uploaded with cover by midnight tonight.  I am excited to be moving forward (even if it isn't as fast as I would wish), toward my goal of 50 books.  Two books  = a whopping 4%!  

I love this thread.  You all inspire me so much!


----------



## Kassidia (Sep 14, 2012)

What are you doing TODAY to get you closer to your goals?


----------



## 75814 (Mar 12, 2014)

Kassidia said:


> What are you doing TODAY to get you closer to your goals?


I've got about 2000 words left in the fourth episode of my serial, so I'll hopefully finish that either today or tomorrow. After that, going to jump right into nailing down the finer plot points of the fifth and final episode of the first season and start writing that.


----------



## VictoriaScribens (Sep 11, 2014)

I published the first story of my new schedule! To KDP, but not the other vendors (yet). I also still need to email my mailing list (all 15 of them) to let them know it's out, and that I will be publishing a lot more in the next few months. 

I also worked on outlining my current WIP, though I haven't written very much today. Getting up early tomorrow to do so, I think.


----------



## SB James (May 21, 2014)

Eclectic Authoress said:


> And that's why I don't plan on giving up the "short dumb smut." Don't knock money. Besides, the short dumb smut gives me the freedom to write the other stuff without worrying so much about sales and chasing trends.


^this^
No matter what, I will not give up on my Inventor's Son series. Actually, they sell if I promote them, but I would need to really step it up (like book bub proportions), and I don't think I'd get the results from book bub that others get precisely because of the genre.
But if I can write quick and dirty stuff to pay the bills, (for the book bub ad  ) so be it.
Another thing too. Unless the KU payouts get to be 50 cents a book (God forbid), publishing a quick book a week doesn't seem to be any big gamble.


----------



## Kassidia (Sep 14, 2012)

Perry Constantine said:


> I've got about 2000 words left in the fourth episode of my serial, so I'll hopefully finish that either today or tomorrow. After that, going to jump right into nailing down the finer plot points of the fifth and final episode of the first season and start writing that.


WOW--exciting stuff! Do you enjoy the detail of working out those plot points, or it is tedious for you?


----------



## 75814 (Mar 12, 2014)

Kassidia said:


> WOW--exciting stuff! Do you enjoy the detail of working out those plot points, or it is tedious for you?


Thanks! I didn't used to enjoy it, but I think it's because I was trying to do it all at one point. Now I spend more time in advance jotting down notes, so when it comes time to do the hardcore plotting, I've got some momentum going and it's a lot more enjoyable.


----------



## 75814 (Mar 12, 2014)

Finished episode four in my serial! One more to go!


----------



## Revolution (Sep 17, 2012)

Interested to see how you go on this plan. The universe in one of my series lends itself to serials, and I had thought about going that route, but paying for a cover each time is what worries me.


----------



## rachelmedhurst (Jun 25, 2014)

Revolution said:


> Interested to see how you go on this plan. The universe in one of my series lends itself to serials, and I had thought about going that route, but paying for a cover each time is what worries me.


I use fiverr.com for my serial covers. Make sure to keep searching for a good cover designer on there though. Don't settle for just anyone. I did some research and managed to find a really good designer. The only problem with that is that he's now gone. But I'm lucky enough to have found another good one.


----------



## AbbyBabble (Mar 16, 2013)

Perry Constantine said:


> This is a good question for everyone. What genres are you writing in, what was your output like, and how have your sales been up to this point?


 I'd like to compare the results of sheer quantity vs. an enthusiastic fan base / dedicated readership.

It seems the most successful indie authors have both, but I'm not sure which is more important. Maybe it depends on the genre.

There are full-time authors with a vast fan base but only a few novels, like Patrick Rothfuss or Justin Cronin. Are there any indie equivalents? Daniel Suarez doesn't seem to have a ton of output.

I know at least one talented indie author with 12+ novels out, yet only a small group of readers and zero growth in sales. He doesn't advertise/market. So I'm not convinced that sheer quantity is the most important key to earning a living as an author. Dedicated readers seems to be the most important key, from where I'm sitting. But it would be nice to see more data points to confirm or deny that.


----------



## SA_Archer (Dec 20, 2013)

kirtkinkly said:


> Yeah, that is exactly what make me so worry. I am afraid that my Fantasy book, the one that I work really hard for, will not be able to sell like my short dumb smut at all.


Maybe you could try and blend your preferred genre and your money genre?

Like, if you go with erotic romance in a fantasy setting? I'm big into Urban Fantasy, so I am working on erotic paranormal romance as a blend. There is real story and real action, and not every chapter has sex. My approach is to make sex the 'solution' or the need to bond through sex the 'problem'. (Like, "I must bond with my mate or face horrible consequence", or "I am bound to my vampire sire and the only way to get free is to bond with another vampire", where 'bonding' is done with loads of boinking.) Then when the characters are trying to deal with the issues of the story, they are brought together to have the sex. I really go full out in the description of the sex scene, making it as sensual as possible. Using this approach keeps me from burning out on the straight smut of "I'm horny and I'm doing you 'cause I want to."

I could see fantasy being a great approach to erotic romance. There could be any number of magic issues that can only be solved with sex magic. I would probably use a different pen name from the non-erotic fantasy pen name, but you might find the blend kind of fun and motivating.

Plus, I've seen a number of the folks who make money talk about using erotic romance. I'm not launching mine until I have more titles ready to go, but that is the approach I am banking on right now.


----------



## SA_Archer (Dec 20, 2013)

Summer Aarons said:


> How long do non-erotic serials tend to be? The piece that I wrote earlier this year that I thought was 17k is actually 24k with notes for things to add in. Obviously I'm going to have to cut it somewhere. A novella is too long for a serial.


I've heard of serial episodes as long as 30k. For myself, I am aiming for 15-20K. Which usually ends up being 18K-25K. Probably though, you don't want to mix episode lengths too much within one serial. Like keep them somewhat in the ballpark of each other. So maybe not 30K and 10K in the same serial.

But if you don't want a 30K episode, then can it be broken into episode #1 and #2, at 15k each? Got a good spot for a cliffhanger in the middle of it?


----------



## 75814 (Mar 12, 2014)

Summer Aarons said:


> How long do non-erotic serials tend to be? The piece that I wrote earlier this year that I thought was 17k is actually 24k with notes for things to add in. Obviously I'm going to have to cut it somewhere. A novella is too long for a serial.


It varies from writer to writer. Most I've seen seem to fall in the range of 10-25K. I'm personally shooting for 15K myself.



Revolution said:


> Interested to see how you go on this plan. The universe in one of my series lends itself to serials, and I had thought about going that route, but paying for a cover each time is what worries me.


I'm using the same cover for the whole season, just changing the text to differentiate them. I've seen a lot of serials do it this way.


----------



## jillb (Oct 4, 2014)

1 month update (10/14-11/14). 

I published my 1st (chicken) book on 10/14: 
Cost: $30 for edit, $5 for fiverr format, $10 BK free day promo, $5 another fiverr promo (nothing came of it), $45 self-made author site using weebly, $1 godaddy domain registration

Results: Sold - US$5.48 + 78p + 4 [email protected]$1.33 ~ $11.80
Gave away 1005 on first free promo (with BKnights),  206 free on 2nd day (no promo at all)

eBay book #3 published 11/3: 1 sale but I'm not sure why the royalty amount is not showing
cost: $5 for fiverr formatting. Self-edited

eBay book #2 published 11/8: Sold $6.82 + 5 borrows @$1.33 = $13.47
Edit cost: $85, self-formatted

ebay book #3 published 11/9: Sold - 26p

I'm hoping to be able to hit "publish" on book #5 tonight.

Startup costs: $185
Royalties = $25.57 (I'm rich!)


----------



## Chrysta Euria (Aug 26, 2014)

Yeah, one might not think that the start up cost is going to be expensive for indie publishers, but little things add up! 
Speaking of which, it seems like November isn't going to be as good as I thought. All of a sudden, my borrows and sales drop like crazy.


----------



## MikeDavidson (Oct 5, 2013)

Chrysta Euria said:


> Yeah, one might not think that the start up cost is going to be expensive for indie publishers, but little things add up!
> Speaking of which, it seems like November isn't going to be as good as I thought. All of a sudden, my borrows and sales drop like crazy.


your telling me... I can easily spend $300-$1000 per title before I even click 'publish'. Now that I'm almost on title number 70 I've spent well over $100,000 in edits, book covers, layouts, audio production, ads, publicity, and other promotions. Uhg...

Um.. But I'm already a full time author, so i don't know if I'm allowed to post here... 

***sneaks over to the door, ashamed for coming in without an invitation, then exits like a pretty eyed puppy with his tail between his legs***


----------



## Sharlow (Dec 20, 2009)

So how's everyone doing on this challenge? It's been a little quiet here. My number's are still around the same. But I've released Three books and two more under a pen name. I'm halfway through another WIP of one of my popular series which I hope will boost sales, and another short under my pen name.

So I'm hoping to see increases in sales as I continue to add books to my table.


----------



## Kassidia (Sep 14, 2012)

Rough draft of short #3 will be completed today.  Will polish and edit over the weekend, and probably pub on Monday.

What are you up to today?


----------



## jillb (Oct 4, 2014)

Book 5 published. $0.99
1 sold 1 borrow. Book 6 has been stuck at 2/3 done for a few days. It has been a rough week for me and I haven't been able to get much done.


----------



## rachelmedhurst (Jun 25, 2014)

I'm wondering if I should try and speed up my releases. I'm writing 25,000 episodes but not really labeling them as a serial. I have one basically ready but was waiting until Dec to release it but wondering whether to just release it now.

I actually found out yesterday that I'm probably going to lose my day job so I have no idea what to do as I'm nowhere near earning enough to support myself.

Any tips? x


----------



## DanaG (Feb 13, 2011)

I can never see any point in waiting. I know some people claim that some months are better than others for sales - I have never found that. I've had great months while other people are having terrible months, and vice versa.

What earns me a living wage writing is, writing and publishing as quickly as I am able. (Without sacrificing quality, mind you.)  I try to have a new book out every few weeks.


----------



## 75814 (Mar 12, 2014)

After I finished the fourth episode, I was going to give myself permission to take a day off (especially since I had nine consecutive days of work lined up at the day job). That one day unfortunately turned into three as the very next day I was hit with a nasty cold. Got back into it Thursday with 1200 words. Last night I wrote just under 600, but I had a 2700-word scene that I wrote ages ago that I finally have a place for, so I'm counting that as well.


----------



## kirtkinkly (Oct 30, 2014)

Sharlow said:


> So how's everyone doing on this challenge? It's been a little quiet here. My number's are still around the same. But I've released Three books and two more under a pen name. I'm halfway through another WIP of one of my popular series which I hope will boost sales, and another short under my pen name.
> 
> So I'm hoping to see increases in sales as I continue to add books to my table.


Yeah, I wonder how the OP is doing as well.


----------



## HappyToHelp (Sep 27, 2014)

Here's my update:  I started out with 2 non fiction books already published.  These books fluctuate wildly.  Some months I make $5 some I make $500.  Since the beginning of October, I have put out a total of 5 paranormal romances.  Well, let me back up--I put out a total of 7 contemporary romances, and then decided that I love to write about shifters lol.  After I got a bad review pointing out that I needed an editor, I tore all my fiction books down and sent them to a copy editor.  I have since rewritten my contemporary romance to be paranormal as well as sent most all of them to the copy editor.  I have also finished up two other novellas that have been sent to her as well.  So as of today, I have 7 books up, and my sales are awful.  I think my keywords are decent, as well as my covers (waiting to get updated covers with wolves--so the old ones are still up).  I lack reviews.  That's really where I'm stuck.  I'm averaging around $150/month right now. Any ideas as to ways I can improve or things I can do?  I'm all ears.


----------



## SA_Archer (Dec 20, 2013)

I'm in high gear preparing for my launch on January. I've got a pretty big backlog I am getting prepared, something like 22 titles (not counting collections). I've done some changes to break a few novels into serials and to link up a few related short stories/ novellas. I've got the rough of all the covers, which I've passed off to my graphic designer husband to finish up. I need to get the front and back matter for everything, and have the descriptions and keywords sorted out, then those will be ready to go.

I have decided to try and hit the '100 books in a year' goal. I am going to do this by having 1 quickie and 1 episode/novella a week. (which should actually give me 104 if I don't miss a week.) All but 1 of my titles is already the longer length (15K-30K), so I have a schedule of release for those that are already extending almost half a year. I will need to write a bunch of quickies, but I think that will not be too hard, since I am going to aim for maybe 5K-ish on those. I am also going to experiment with having quickies that point to the longer books, as a way to bolster them. 

I know I could just upload all the ready-to -go books into KDP sooner, but from what I've seen consistency in a release schedule is a powerful momentum builder, and with life and work, if I throw everything up at once I won't be able to produce new work in a consistent manner. We are planning to move in Feb/Mar, and I am probably going to need carpel tunnel surgery next year. The backlog is my buffer against that.

Because of the trunk books I am pulling out I am actually going to have quite a range of titles. I am dividing them by genre/heat level and making pen names to go with them. All the pen names will have a single 'publishing' website, facebook and mailing list. It will be an interesting experiment to see if the low-heat-romantic-suspense-serial-with-cliffhangers will compare to the hot-paranormal-romance-novella-series-with-no-cliffhangers, ect. I figure whatever does the best I will continue, and what doesn't sell I'll wrap up and try something new. 

Everything will go into Select at first. I've got a strategy that, after the first few weeks, will ensure that I have at least 1 free title going every single day, and some days 2 titles, for the entire year. If things do well in Select, I will keep them in... which will increase my number of daily free titles every 3 months. If Select doesn't do well for a series, I will pop it out and then start sending them out to other markets. Other than free days and some BKNights promos, I am not planning to do too many paid promos, mostly because the books are short. I might promo the collections, though. ENT and Freebooksy has always been kind to me. 

With the holidays coming, and the quickies I need to write, I think I am on schedule to hit this plan on time by the first week of January.  The best part of having all this in place before I start is the buffer against a slow start. I can get impatient and bummed out easily. Having everything ready to go, instead of trying to write and publish immediately, will prevent the blues from choking my energy and causing me to miss deadlines.


----------



## DanaG (Feb 13, 2011)

LolaWilder said:


> Here's my update: I started out with 2 non fiction books already published. These books fluctuate wildly. Some months I make $5 some I make $500. Since the beginning of October, I have put out a total of 5 paranormal romances. Well, let me back up--I put out a total of 7 contemporary romances, and then decided that I love to write about shifters lol. After I got a bad review pointing out that I needed an editor, I tore all my fiction books down and sent them to a copy editor. I have since rewritten my contemporary romance to be paranormal as well as sent most all of them to the copy editor. I have also finished up two other novellas that have been sent to her as well. So as of today, I have 7 books up, and my sales are awful. I think my keywords are decent, as well as my covers (waiting to get updated covers with wolves--so the old ones are still up). I lack reviews. That's really where I'm stuck. I'm averaging around $150/month right now. Any ideas as to ways I can improve or things I can do? I'm all ears.


I would just suggest reading the bestsellers in that genre, studying them, and learning how they do what they do. If money is tight, a lot of times they will have sales of their books for 99 cents, and some of them have freebies. There is a group on Facebook called Howling Good Romance Authors Group - you could message them, see if you could join, post on there, etc. They do a lot of group promo.


----------



## HappyToHelp (Sep 27, 2014)

DanaG said:


> There is a group on Facebook called Howling Good Romance Authors Group - you could message them, see if you could join, post on there, etc. They do a lot of group promo.


I searched for them on Facebook, but nothing comes up. ?

I have been taking all the advice I've been getting on this forum, and I have been reading the top sellers in my genre. I've been paying attention to the pace in their stories as well as characters, POV, length and "world". I have rewritten many of my stories to spice them up, and I think they are better for it.


----------



## D. Zollicoffer (May 14, 2014)

My writing has slipped this week, too many AAA video games came out. Luckily my sales are picking up again (17 sales/15 borrows yesterday). They should return back to normal in December. I plan on giving away half of my books on Black Friday just to get on some also bought lists. Sounds crazy, but it's only a day


----------



## kirtkinkly (Oct 30, 2014)

D. Zollicoffer said:


> My writing has slipped this week, too many AAA video games came out. Luckily my sales are picking up again (17 sales/15 borrows yesterday). They should return back to normal in December. I plan on giving away half of my books on Black Friday just to get on some also bought lists. Sounds crazy, but it's only a day


Wow nice! What is the price range of your books? I want to up my sales as well, but it is not going as good as I hope.


----------



## DanaG (Feb 13, 2011)

LolaWilder said:


> I searched for them on Facebook, but nothing comes up. ?
> 
> I have been taking all the advice I've been getting on this forum, and I have been reading the top sellers in my genre. I've been paying attention to the pace in their stories as well as characters, POV, length and "world". I have rewritten many of my stories to spice them up, and I think they are better for it.


It seems they're a private group, I hadn't realized that. I can email the person who started the group, if you like.


----------



## SB James (May 21, 2014)

D. Zollicoffer said:


> My writing has slipped this week, too many AAA video games came out. Luckily my sales are picking up again (17 sales/15 borrows yesterday). They should return back to normal in December. I plan on giving away half of my books on Black Friday just to get on some also bought lists. Sounds crazy, but it's only a day


I'm running one more promo on Thanksgiving day! A few months ago, I heard people talking about doing promos on Thanksgiving day and Black Friday, and at the time I thought that it was crazy, but then again, last year while waiting to eat dinner, I did download a book from Kindle Buffet... 
This month's been really crazy for me. I need to release some of these new shorter works ASAP, and I've been busy with NaNoWriMo. However, I do have to say that so far, November has been my best month since I published The Inventor's Son, and that's with me marking that book down to 99 cents for the month of November so I could run a few promos for it. 
As for final numbers for November, I don't have them yet, but I will keep posting about my progress.


----------



## HappyToHelp (Sep 27, 2014)

DanaG said:


> It seems they're a private group, I hadn't realized that. I can email the person who started the group, if you like.


That would be fantastic, and much appreciated! <3


----------



## jillb (Oct 4, 2014)

2nd month update:
So far so good. I doubled my revenue and cut my costs down to BK promo costs.
Total revenue $50.06 including sales and borrows.
6 books published but I only have had 1 sale on my 6th book which is terrible. Is the Chicken Breed book cover not working?
Ran 2 Bk promos:
1st book set free on black friday with no promo (122 free downloads),  399 free downloads with $5 BK upgrade deal the day after black friday.
2nd book set free on cyber Monday, no promo (91 free downloads), 231 free downloads the day after with $5 BK upgrade deal.
Getting closer to covering my costs!! My next book is going very slowly. It looks like it might become a series so that's good. Hopefully I can get them all published before the year ends to cash in on that post expected Xmas wave.


----------



## RyanAndrewKinder (Dec 14, 2014)

I'm totally going for this in the new year. I first published my book of Writing Prompts in April of this year. It's my only real book. I have been lucky to have started off with two figures in my first month. Low three figures the next few months. September I released a physical copy of the book. November saw about $250 for the print copy, $200 for the ebook. This month (December, so far) has seen sales for the print book surpass the combined royalties of the print and ebook for November (currently over $550) and the ebook is on the same pace as last month (about $120 so far.) If the print sales keep the pace they're going at I should clear four figures - all within my first year and all from my first book. Exciting times.

Plans for Jan. - Mar.:
Aggressively promote the current book with a two or three day free promotion. (When KDP Select contract ends in February, not going to renew I think.)
Write write write! Working on a satirical how to guide under a pseudonym, an erotica novel under another pseudonym, a teen paranormal romance novel, a comedy science fiction novel. First focus will be on the satirical how to guide because I can knock that out / edit it / get a cover made / release it - all in a speedy manner. Then I will likely build up a social media type profile for the pseudonym to help promote the book. While I am promoting that book, I may work on the comedy sci-fi novel but I think I might want to persue an agent/publisher traditional type thing.

My wishful trajectory is to be making $6,000/month by the end of 2015. Will I do it? I hope so.


----------



## Carradee (Aug 21, 2010)

jillb said:


> Is the Chicken Breed book cover not working?


Is this really the season when people are looking to breed chickens?


----------



## 75814 (Mar 12, 2014)

Just put up the first episode of my serial for pre-order on Amazon! Publication date is set as January 19th, really looking forward to seeing how it goes!


----------



## RyanAndrewKinder (Dec 14, 2014)

Kayla. said:


> Ryan Andrew, all the best for your selling plans


Thanks. 

I started the year with no digits. Published mid april and made two digits. Same for May through July. August through November I made mid three digits for each month. December I am just about to hit four digits in a month. (Eleven days left to do it.)

Progress in the past three days: Each day was double digits for sales of the print. Single digits for ebook. Single digits for KU. Promotion on Facebook has increased, using some prompts from my book to engage users. Currently working on a funny how to book that I will be releasing under a pseudonym. I will be testing different promotional ideas to promote that book. I want to have it published by January 15th. After that I will be focusing on either an erotica novel (under another pseudonym) or my comedy scifi novel under my actual name.


----------



## timothymckean (Dec 20, 2014)

Love the commitment.  I recently made the transition to being a full-time audiobook narrator and voice artist. There's nothing better than really dedicating your full attention to what you want to succeed in, rather than treating it like a hobby.

If you haven't already, read Stephen King's _On Writing_. There he talks about some of the processes he went through in becoming a full time writer, as well as the idea of setting very specific daily goals. He says start with 1,000 words written per day, and then expand from there. I've adapted that same approach to my narration as well. I don't sleep until I've produced at least 30 min of finished deliverable audio, which is a good 2 - 3 hours of work when you consider research, recording, editing, and mastering. The goal is to get the point that I can produce 2 finished hours a day.

Set your goals, and keep the cursor moving to the right.


----------



## RyanAndrewKinder (Dec 14, 2014)

I'm going to start cataloguing my tactics and attempts at becoming a full time author in my blog. Here is the first introductory entry about my 2014 which went from zero digits monthly to four digits this month:

http://rykinder.blogspot.com/2014/12/from-zero-income-to-five-figure-income.html


----------



## CherieMarks (Oct 10, 2011)

I've officially pubbed two paranormal romances in a new series. The Fae Next Door: Paranormal Romance (Love Next Door Series Book 1) and The Vampire Next Door: Paranormal Romance (Love Next Door Series Book 2)

And now I'm back to working on the third in my YA Dystopian series. Want to get it done before the new year. I'm determined to do this.


----------



## RyanAndrewKinder (Dec 14, 2014)

Got accepted to do a bookbub. It will run me $205. I will be doing a free promotion from Jan 2nd to Jan 4th. Will I make my money back on print orders, day after promotion ebook orders and reviews? Only time will tell.

The objective: Get to #50 or higher overall free. Sustain for as long as possible.


----------



## TFHinton (Jan 8, 2015)

RyanAndrewKinder said:


> Got accepted to do a bookbub. It will run me $205. I will be doing a free promotion from Jan 2nd to Jan 4th. Will I make my money back on print orders, day after promotion ebook orders and reviews? Only time will tell.
> 
> The objective: Get to #50 or higher overall free. Sustain for as long as possible.


I saw you on the Bookbub email and picked up a free copy - how did everything go for you after that?

I'm writing a trilogy of full length Fantasy novels at the moment. The plan is to get them finished in six months and then send them off to be edited and have covers designed, writing more books in the meantime. When I get everything back, I'm going to release them at the same time, drop the first book to $0.99 and do a MASSIVE promo with $400-500 spent on advertizing (Bookbub, ENT, etc.). I'll notify my mailing list and social media at the same time, hopefully bringing close to 1000 sales in the first week.

The idea of this is to drive traffic from the first book through to the second and third, all the while building my mailing list. Then I'll have a half-decent platform built to launch any future books from.

On a side note, I feel like everyone in this thread isn't investing enough in their books. There's no point taking any money out of your publishing business until you're actually doing it full-time; you might as well invest any profits back into good covers, editing and Bookbub promos to help you reach the full time author status more quickly.

That's just my $0.02 - you can take it or leave it. Good luck to everyone doing this!
- Tom


----------



## JR. (Dec 10, 2014)

Check Ryan's profile for the thread he started. His BookBub did awesome, even by BB standards.


----------



## RyanAndrewKinder (Dec 14, 2014)

JR. said:


> Check Ryan's profile for the thread he started. His BookBub did awesome, even by BB standards.


Sorry for the delay in updating this thread. I was waiting for a full week post promo to do an update on this thread.

Bookbub promo went phenomenally well. My book was free on Jan 2nd, 3rd and 4th. The bookbub was on Jan 2nd. I tiered my promotions in the following manner:

Jan 2nd -- before the bookbub mail went out, I posted on a few FB groups, a few subreddits on reddit, twitter, etc., this amounted to a couple hundred downloads in a short timespan and I got into the top thousand. Can't remember the exact number. Then around 11AM EST the bookbub email went out. By 2PM I was at well over 20,000 downloads and I hit #2 overall free. Many other sites picked up on my book being free. The entirety of the day amounted to 35,780 free downloads total.
Jan 3rd -- I had scheduled an ENT mention, a mention on Aerogramme Writers (a writer centric blog -- I always recommend people find blogs that are centered around the genre they post in and see if that blog will mention you) and I promoted a little more on a few sites. I stayed at #2 for most of the day, even though the newer bookbub blasted books gave me competition. I ended the day at #4 overall free. The day ended at 13,623 free downloads.
Jan 4th -- I had scheduled a bknights promo, posted on a few more boards... and Pixel of Ink randomly decided to include me in their sunday morning newsletter. (Anyone who doesn't know -- getting on POI is usually random and difficult.) I stayed in the top 4 for the morning at 4, but then I slipped to 9, bounced back up to 7 and stayed there until the end of the promo. The day ended at 7,540 free downloads.

During the course of those free days I earned the $205 cost of the bookbub, the $20 for the ENT, and the $5 for the bknights promo back in softcover sales and, oddly enough, Kindle Unlimited borrows. Seriously, on day one 50 people decided to borrow the book rather than download it for free. Fine by me! Day one free also saw about 25 softcover sales.

So how was Jan 5th? Jan 5th was about 120 ebook sales good. Jan 5th was about 30 softcover sales good. Jan 5th was about 34 KU/KOLL borrows good.

Then the numbers about halved the next day, then halved the next. Since then I've been averaging about 15 ebook sales a day and at least three softcover sales a day. And 15 KU lends a day.

Other positives:

About fourteen more reviews.
I was #1 in Writing Skills for the longest time (and am still in the top 5)
and...
go to amazon.com and search for the word writing. just the word writing. I show up on page one! Wooooo! This was my primary goal and I achieved it. I felt this would be the key to long term sales.

That's the update for now. Definitely on pace to making over the $1,100 I made in December. In fact, I may already have -- I just need to crunch the numbers.


----------



## Dobby the House Elf (Aug 16, 2014)

RyanAndrewKinder said:


> Sorry for the delay in updating this thread. I was waiting for a full week post promo to do an update on this thread.
> 
> Bookbub promo went phenomenally well. My book was free on Jan 2nd, 3rd and 4th. The bookbub was on Jan 2nd. I tiered my promotions in the following manner:
> 
> ...


Just read some of your reviews. Kudos!


----------



## jillb (Oct 4, 2014)

What happened to the OP??

My update is a little late but here it is.

Month #3

I'm behind on what I hoped to publish but it is what it is. Book #7 is almost done and books #8 & 9 are about 1/3-1/2 complete.

My first book has fallen off Select so I'm going wide with it. I've uploaded it onto Kobo and Scribd. I'm working on Google Play but I can't for the life of me figure out how to publish on Nook?? I haven't messed with Apple yet. 
I used D2D to covert my doc to epub but does anyone know how I can preview my epub file?

I'm also formatting all my books for print right now. 

Since my last post on this thread, I ran 2 free days on my poorest selling book on chicken breeds. I did a $5 BK w/upgrade promo.  This resulted in 1500+ DLs and 1 review (YAY!) 4 subsequent sales + 8 borrows. 

I also ran a few other promos with similar results. The most recent promo (2 days free) ended yesterday with over 3300 DLs with no promo. Result so far is 6 buys + 1 borrow at the full $3.99. 2 reviews (YAY!)


My royalties have gone from $3 to $18 to $50+ to about $180 (depending on the borrow rate). It's pawny compared to be big guys but I'm pretty stoked. It sure is quite a lot of work to make this money though!!


----------



## katrina46 (May 23, 2014)

I published three this week. It does help. Sales picked up on the backlist. I didn't even have a chance to promote yet and started getting a few sales on the new stories right away. However, I already had nine books out, so I think my readership is slowly growing, too. Also, one of the books was BDSM(I write erotica) and Fifty Shades is getting released in the theaters soon, so I think that might have helped.


----------



## Cheyanne (Jan 9, 2013)

Hey guys, can I jump in here? 

I've been publishing since 2012 and have recently become so freaking fed up with my day job that I've decided 2015 will be the year I go full time with writing. I currently write under 2 names and have 6 YA books, 8 YA novellas that are part of a series, 1 NA book releasing this week and another YA Novella which is part of the series releasing in 2 weeks. Last week I released book 5 in my series and it's done PHENOMENALLY in sales. I am seriously psyched. This is my biggest earning month yet. 

My monthly income averages about half of what I take home from my day job, after taxes. I'd like my books ales to be the same thing (after taxes) as my day job--that's the only way I'll feel comfortable quitting. In the mean time, I'm saving money like crazy so i'll have a good savings for when I do take the plunge and quit my awful (seriously awful) day job.

What next for me? Well, my novellas are my bread and butter, so I'll be putting out 1 novella a month for the next 3 months to finish up a series. Then my other YA novella series has readers begging me for more, so I'll probably work on those. I'd like to get more novels out, but I only have about an hour a day to write so I'm focusing on what earns the most money right now.


----------



## 75814 (Mar 12, 2014)

Here's an update from my side.

I finished all the episodes of my serial and I'm publishing one a month until the first season is complete. Five episodes in Select with a special prequel episode available to subscribers. The first episode was released on Monday and has so far gotten about twenty sales. Nothing to set the world on fire with, but it's better than most launches have gone in the past. I've got a free run and some ads scheduled to drop at the same time as the second episode's release next month, so I think that's when I'll get a big boost. No reviews yet, but I've signed up for a giveaway on LibraryThing and when those start coming in, I hope there will be some borrows to go along with it.

I've also just completed my next novella, which I've got scheduled to go out in June. Working on updating some covers and trying to figure out what I'm going to write next.


----------



## rachelmedhurst (Jun 25, 2014)

Perry Constantine said:


> Here's an update from my side.
> 
> I finished all the episodes of my serial and I'm publishing one a month until the first season is complete. Five episodes in Select with a special prequel episode available to subscribers. The first episode was released on Monday and has so far gotten about twenty sales. Nothing to set the world on fire with, but it's better than most launches have gone in the past. I've got a free run and some ads scheduled to drop at the same time as the second episode's release next month, so I think that's when I'll get a big boost. No reviews yet, but I've signed up for a giveaway on LibraryThing and when those start coming in, I hope there will be some borrows to go along with it.
> 
> I've also just completed my next novella, which I've got scheduled to go out in June. Working on updating some covers and trying to figure out what I'm going to write next.


Hey, can I just ask a question about LibraryThing giveaways? I've done two and not got any reviews from it at all. Is that normal?

Here's an update from me:

This is my first week as a full time author. The company I work for went down on Friday and I'm hoping to get some redundancy/severance money soon. With savings and redundancy money I'm going to write full time for 3 months and then re-evaluate where I'm at and how it's working. My plan is as follows:

I'm releasing episode 6 and the last episode for a while of Avoidables next week.

I'm hoping to finish book 3 in my Deadliners trilogy next week.

Hoping Audio book 1 and 2 of Avoidables will be released in Feb.

I'm releasing Deadliners 3 in February.

I'm then going to have a Madness March!

I'm going to have a promo on my Avoidables permafree and a countdown on books 2-6 at the same time.

I'm going to write the first two 50,000 word novels in my new 12 book series in Feb (well, I'm going to try!) and release them both in March. I will also have book 3 on pre-order.

I'm going to promo Deadliners 1 which is at 99c already but not getting any sales because I've done nothing with it while I finish the trilogy.

I will then write and release one book a month in my 12 book series until the end of the year.

Hoping to fit in some more Avoidables episodes and a spin off serial, but will just have to wait and see about that.

Phew! Here's to my new (maybe temp) career!


----------



## AYClaudy (Oct 2, 2014)

Oh gosh! I saw this thread and was all... yeah, I wanna join, this is my goal.... and then I realized I was a bit premature, I need more books first. 

But, hopefully I will be able to do this. I hope to have at least 7 books up by the end of the year (three already written) and by the end of 2015 I'll start 2016 as a full time author :fingers crossed: 

So, to start: January- published my first book and so far have sold 103 ebooks, 128 ku reads and 24 soft cover sales.  My second book in the series is up for presale and has sold 54 ebooks.  It's a start and I've gotten a taste of my goal!) Haven't done promoting besides handing out eArcs to some blogs (but that only resulted in 2 reviews. Having a platform on Wattpad first did help in getting many reviews on goodreads- but those readers do not have a presence on goodreads so the splash was small) 

Next steps: polish book 2 for release in march, and manage my time better! I've been getting sucked into a lot of marketing research lately when I KNOW I need to be writing. 

Good luck everyone!


----------



## 75814 (Mar 12, 2014)

rachelmedhurst said:


> Hey, can I just ask a question about LibraryThing giveaways? I've done two and not got any reviews from it at all. Is that normal?


God, I hope it's not! I just signed up for it and it still shows up as "pending," not sure how long it takes for LT to make it live. But I've stated in the giveaway description that I'm giving away copies for reviews.


----------

