# Have you hit a $100.00 a month?



## Douglas E Wright (Mar 11, 2011)

Last month I finally hit seven dollars after the withholding 30%. So, I guess I likely hit ten dollars last month. I decided to put this thread up after reading the $5000.00 a month thread. That thread and many others on KB are quite helpful and I love reading them, however it can be disheartening to always change your covers, blurbs and see nothing changes in sales or borrows.

I know this type of thread has been on KB before but couldn't find any, so this is to let others know that they are not the only ones not making money for whatever reason.

I realize I need to write more full length novels, released as part of a series and maybe write erotica. (Actually I've tried erotica and all I could manage to do was give away copies. And it took me 6 months to write a short story. Apperently, just not my cup of tea.)  

So, what am I doing that's not working? I'm terrible with blurbs, still trying to learn to better those. (Yes I've watched the video from a KBer) The artwork? I've bought a few and made a few, neither seems to work. Keywords, I'm kind of lost on, but learning.

I've been writing for years and disheartened by how little I've achieved in the indie world. I don't want to chase rainbows. I know quiet horror fairly well. I also like literary books whether they be straight literary, horror or suspense. (Justin Cronin and Dennis Lehane)

Anyway, thought this might be a good thread to call for others in my predicament and ask for help. Thanks all for whatever advice you may be able to give.  

Doug


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## meh (Apr 18, 2013)

Yes! I finally did!  But now maintaining that will probably take more effort. 

I'm a slow writer, at least in my fantasy and science fiction genres. I have two fantasy novels out along with about six short stories. I have two more short stories that will be coming out next year and I'm slowly writing the next book in the fantasy series, but I doubt that will be done in a year. So earnings basically trickle in on that pen name. 

Now on my other pen name (erotica and LGBT romance), for some reason I'm a lot faster. The books are easier to write and I'm starting to build up some projects that are likely to pay well. My first short gay romance is the reason I hit money this month. I have another novella ready to publish but it's actually being considered by a publisher, so I'll see what happens there. I also am about a month away from finishing a BDSM novella, and that I'll be self-publishing in early December. Plus I have a novel that will be finished in November. I'll probably try to get that out to a more traditional publisher as well. But then I'll write the next novel to be self published. My goal is to be a hybrid author, because I see a lot of benefit to that in terms of marketing. 

I agree that series are very important in terms of building your career and your earnings potential. I won't have a real series going for some time, and I know that holds me back. But I'm happy with what I'm producing. 

Your covers look decent, so I don't think that's an issue for you. The blurbs you can post here and people can work wonders with them. Other than that, just keep writing. Hold an occasional free or 99 cent promotion, but just keep writing.


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## Douglas E Wright (Mar 11, 2011)

Thanks Judy for your advice. I've started a new novel yesterday and hopefully I can move that into the right market when that time comes.  Right now I'm hoping to get more eyes on what I have already. I wonder if writing a novella will help any?


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## Douglas E Wright (Mar 11, 2011)

Thank you Micki. I'll take a look at the keywords right now. Thank you for putting my mind at rest with the covers. I like them, but does anyone else? That's what was in my head.


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## Steve Vernon (Feb 18, 2011)

The covers look fine to me, Douglas.

I'm in the same boat with Kindle - but I've been having a bit of success this month thanks to a couple of fortunate freebie giveaways that seemed to help raise my visibility a bit. Prior to September I had nothing ten or twenty dollar monthly paydays on Kindle - but September I sold a book or two on Kindle nearly every day of the month and I'm starting into October with several books a day. Putting a few of my books into the Kindle Unlimited has paid off as well - in that I've got a few borrows everyday.

I'd definitely look at writing something more along the lines of a novel - although you could always package some of those shorter works into a collection or a boxed set. I don't know if your books are in Kindle Select or if, like me, you prefer to play the field with Kobo and Nook and Apple and the like. 

If you do prefer to keep your options open rather than hitting Kindle Select I would suggest you reconsider and put maybe four or five or six of them into Select and put that freebie mechanism to work. Set up a few freebie giveaways - but make sure you promote them through bknights, Kindle Book Review, ENT and other reputable e-book promoters.

Like I said, that seems to be working for me.


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## rashad.freeman001 (Feb 23, 2012)

Yay finally a club I can join


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## Chinese Writer (Mar 25, 2014)

Your covers and titles says horror to me. When you looked at your amazon product pages, it seems like you're in quite a few categories. There appears to be some keywords in your blurb, so that might be okay. I think the problem is the length. When you get entire novels for $0.99, paying that price for 13 pages seems expensive by comparison. When I read some of your short story descriptions, there are a few ideas I thought would make a good novel. Have you consider expanding one or two to novella length as an experiment?


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## Douglas E Wright (Mar 11, 2011)

Hi Steve, great to see you here. I've already packaged some of my stories in small collections. One collection I have (Remains) is almost three hundred pages and probably has sold more than 5 in the last couple years, but single stories sometimes go.

Yes, Rashad, a page for all of us in the same sinking boat, or so it seems. 

Artan, there are more than a few of my short stories that I thought were enough to build novels or novellas from, great to hear from someone else that thinks the same! 

Thanks to everyone for the suggestions.


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## LanceGreencastle (Nov 25, 2011)

If the KU payout remains at $1.50 then I will have made $102 in September - my first ever triple digit month! Yea!!
About two years ago I put up a handful of short stories, erotica, but I didn't publish anything new for 18 months and my sales were about 10 a month. which at $0.99 was making me $3-4.
In march I published a erotica novella ("Face Splash") and while it sold a bunch at first, sales rapidly dropped off and I was back down to $5-6 per month.
On the 25th of August I released "Caribbean Threesome" and for the first time went into KDP Select, and hence Kindle Unlimited, and got 7 borrows and 4 sales in the first week(doubling my monthly sales). That went to 46 borrows and 17 sales in September, plus a handful of sales of my short stories.
"Caribbean Threesome" is the first part of a 4(or more?) part serial so I am hoping to build on this.

So I guess my advice would be to go into Select and write serials. And also billionaire/were Wolf/Navy SEALs erotic romance serials


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## beccaprice (Oct 1, 2011)

July (paid in September) was good. August will be wretched. September was saved by attending a few festivals. October will be great, thanks to BookBub. after that, who knows?


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## Guest (Oct 3, 2014)

Hey. 

Fairly new at this myself. I think August may be close to £100 and if the KU payout is the same, then the payment for september will be over a £100 so I am really happy at the moment. It helps that I have just had an old school friend who heard about my books, ask when the fourth in the series is out so she can find out what happens. 

Its the unsolicited questions like that, that keep me going sometimes.


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## VEwoodlake (Jul 11, 2014)

I have been over $100 for the past two months but I don't see a lot of growth potential for me.


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## Maddie_K (Sep 13, 2014)

Douglas E Wright said:


> So, what am I doing that's not working? I'm terrible with blurbs, still trying to learn to better those. (Yes I've watched the video from a KBer) The artwork? I've bought a few and made a few, neither seems to work. Keywords, I'm kind of lost on, but learning.
> 
> I've been writing for years and disheartened by how little I've achieved in the indie world. I don't want to chase rainbows. I know quiet horror fairly well. I also like literary books whether they be straight literary, horror or suspense. (Justin Cronin and Dennis Lehane)


Doug,
I think you need to write a few novels. I don't buy short stories unless they are written by an author I am familiar with, and I think a lot of other people feel the same. For me, it is because I read very very fast, so short stories take me less than an hour to read, whereas a novel lasts me for a couple of days. For that reason, I won't pay for shorts unless I'm already invested in the series.

Just my two cents (although, I could be wrong. I've given away several hundred copies of my short story on smashwords, but not had a single sale of my novel on that channel).

Madison


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## Carol (was Dara) (Feb 19, 2011)

My best advice for your situation is to write works of at least 30K words, make sure they're all linked in a series, and do some low-cost advertising to give them a bump in visibility. I'd even think of repackaging some existing stories that don't directly tie in to one another but are very close in theme/tone as "collections" - but I'm not talking about bundling. I mean treating them exactly like a series. I use the word "collection", because they don't feature the same characters. But they might be set in the same town, contain background characters introduced in previous books, or have some other unifying thread that strings them together. I'd look over your books and see if there's any that can reasonably be linked in that way. Then I'd repackage, so the covers make the connection impossible to miss, add front and back matter emphasizing that this is book 1 in a collection, linking through to book 2, setting book 1 at a special price and promoting it as your entry point. It's way easier to funnel readers through one book than to scatter your efforts over all titles.


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## danielsolomonkaplan (Aug 8, 2014)

Only a week and half here, but unless sales fall of the cliff I will hit $100 this month. Now what sales are like next month is a whole other matter...


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## EllisaBarr (Apr 22, 2014)

I'm baffled as to why some books sell and others don't!  But after looking through your stories, I would probably do something like this - I'd probably bundle all of the Halloween short stories into a collection, set them to $2.99.  Then I'd get the first one on permafree, or if you're in Select do a free promo and advertise it on as many (free or cheap) sites as possible, and include in the blurb where people can get more of your Halloween stories.  It seems like those Halloween ones are doing the best, and if you can take advantage of this month being Halloween, maybe you can get a little more visibility.  Last, I noticed a typo in one of your About the Authors:  "Also, each of the collection of short stories have some antidotes at the beginning of each tale about my recollections of writing them." -- Antidote should probably be anecdote.  

Good luck!


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## RipleyKing (Mar 5, 2013)

All those books, and I just bought my first ad, but not my last. I priced all my horror at 99 cents for this month, and I might leave it that way for the rest of the year. Don't know yet. I'm trying to jump start my last few years.


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## Desmond X. Torres (Mar 16, 2013)

FlowersFang said:


> Doug,
> I think you need to write a few novels. I don't buy short stories unless they are written by an author I am familiar with, and I think a lot of other people feel the same. For me, it is because I read very very fast, so short stories take me less than an hour to read, whereas a novel lasts me for a couple of days. For that reason, I won't pay for shorts unless I'm already invested in the series.
> 
> Just my two cents (although, I could be wrong. I've given away several hundred copies of my short story on smashwords, but not had a single sale of my novel on that channel).
> ...


*THIS*
And
*This from Dara* She knows what she's talking about; I'm not familiar w/ Madison by rep, but her advice is also sound:


Carol (was Dara) said:


> My best advice for your situation is to write works of at least 30K words, make sure they're all linked in a series, and do some low-cost advertising to give them a bump in visibility. I'd even think of repackaging some existing stories that don't directly tie in to one another but are very close in theme/tone as "collections" - but I'm not talking about bundling. I mean treating them exactly like a series. I use the word "collection", because they don't feature the same characters. But they might be set in the same town, contain background characters introduced in previous books, or have some other unifying thread that strings them together. I'd look over your books and see if there's any that can reasonably be linked in that way. Then I'd repackage, so the covers make the connection impossible to miss, add front and back matter emphasizing that this is book 1 in a collection, linking through to book 2, setting book 1 at a special price and promoting it as your entry point. It's way easier to funnel readers through one book than to scatter your efforts over all titles.


These two members covered most of what I would want to say. The only thing I'd add is that things didn't gel for me until I had 20+ titles up. Most 20K words, three or four episodes in a series, coming out to about a 70 K book on average.

I looked at your stuff before reading the rest of the comments. 
What Madison said about not buying short stories is my reader habits as well. I don't read a lot of short stories. As a reader, especially if I like the MC, for it to end too quickly is primarily a disappointment. IMHO, I think that's a really hard market to crack. For example, look at your genre's top 100 and compare novels to shorts or collections therof. Not so much, I'd guess.

Sorry for bouncing around on this post, but back to what I said about 20 titles. For me, that's when things began to go. I don't FB, blog, tweet etc and I'm very happy with my numbers. The question I ask is what Kris Rusch put up this year on her blog when it comes to marketing: Would I Be Better Off Writng? For me, that's been what has proven to be the case.

Your covers are good, as others have pointed out. The only problem (if you're going to continue to market your short stories) is I wouldn't say that's what it is in the title at all. At All. Put that as the last line of your blurb, sure, but hook a potential reader with the Cover, Title, then blurb.

As a reader, I didn't get past your title telling me it was a short story, so I didn't look at your blurb.

As mentioned, if you're not crazy about them, workshop them: here or on other sites. There are GREAT resources online for blurb writing; try Google. I used to detest writing them, and now I'm done w/ one in 2 hrs or so.

Keep at it, Sluggo. A year ago, my Sept royalties was less than 10 bucks. It gets better if you try to learn a thing or two here and there!
HTH
Des


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## Douglas E Wright (Mar 11, 2011)

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for all the advice. Dara, if you noticed, two of those covers are yours and I have been writing longer works. I just have to finish them. That seems to be a bit of an issue for me, so I actually plotted one yesterday. Hopefully, I can get one out really soon. I have linked the books, especially the Halloween ones.

Madison, I'm a slow reader (every word, lol) so I didn't even think of others reading so fast, so it makes sense to lengthen the stories.

Ellisa, thanks for pointing out the misspellings, that alone can kill my stories. And I do have the stories in mini-collections, but I'll give putting all of them in one book as well and see what happens.

Ripley - sounds like an idea - I did that today and we'll see if the collections sell at all. I have sold single stories, but it's beyond me why they were selling and not the collections - there wasn't much difference in price!

And Des - great to hear from somebody from home. I left Brockville about 17 years ago after living there for 17. That's where my career at Canada Post started.The reason I'm up front about them being short stories is because I don't want to be seen as trying to pull a fast one. If buyers don't want short stories, I don't want them coming back after buying them to complain.

I have been looking at learning blurbs for some time now. I think the best thing is to write it before I write the story, kind of like plotting. Thanks for all of your thoughts. 

I really appreciate the time it took for everyone to look at my dilemma and write their thoughts. It means a lot to me. I've never liked asking for help, but this sure shows me, ask and they will come and they will help.


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## vlmain (Aug 10, 2011)

My first book averages about $70/mo without promotion. I know I need to get out there and start promoting it. My second is too new to tell. I'm hoping this will be the month I break that $100 barrier.

Thanks for this thread, Doug. It's really inspiring to see the big number threads, but it's also nice to connect with others who are in the same place as me. Together we can do it!

You have received some great advice on your books. Wishing you the best of success! And everyone else, too.


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## Douglas E Wright (Mar 11, 2011)

vlmain said:


> My first book averages about $70/mo without promotion. I know I need to get out there and start promoting it. My second is too new to tell. I'm hoping this will be the month I break that $100 barrier.
> 
> Thanks for this thread, Doug. It's really inspiring to see the big number threads, but it's also nice to connect with others who are in the same place as me. Together we can do it!
> 
> You have received some great advice on your books. Wishing you the best of success! And everyone else, too.


Vicki, I agree, I do like reading the threads about everyone who is doing well, but I also wanted to get an idea of where people like me were in the scheme of things. There are many times I feel like I'm the only one who is not making any money, though I know better.


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## Carol (was Dara) (Feb 19, 2011)

Douglas E Wright said:


> Thanks for all the advice. Dara, if you noticed, two of those covers are yours and I have been writing longer works. I just have to finish them.


I did notice. Good to see their familiar "faces" around.  And I hear you on writing long. I always have to push myself to finish my novel-length works, because writing novelettes and novellas comes so much more naturally to me. Whenever I hit that length, it feels like I'm supposed to be done already.


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## UnicornEmily (Jul 2, 2011)

I've done it once, shortly after my first book was released!  It was sweet.

I'm not there regularly yet.  I average maybe $20 a month, and sometimes lower.  September is gonna stink.

And those are almost all my first book.  My second book, the short story anthology?  It sells almost nothing.  I knew it wouldn't sell as well, but MAN, it's lower than I thought it'd be.


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## Melody Simmons (Jul 8, 2012)

I think you have several short stories.  Generally they just do not sell as well as full-length novels - with the exception of erotica novellas.


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## Abalone (Jan 31, 2014)

I've been making anywhere from $700-1200 a month for four months on two short stories. One is around 15K in length and the other is near novella territory. Such a shame my car manages to guzzle up the income in fuel.


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## Miss Tarheel (Jul 18, 2014)

I think I may hit it this month if things remain the same. One of my erotica shorts has had a slow take off, but I think that just means I need to finish up the second one and get it out ASAP. I'll admit it's a nice change from my fantasy romance books, because they've sold peanuts.


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## going going gone (Jun 4, 2013)

As I have two pen names, I'm both a "yes" and a "no," which leads me to believe that some of it must be luck.

And the other part is genre. If you find a good underpopulated subgenre, where just a couple thousand people with e-readers are longing for more books, that'd be ideal.


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## Guest (Oct 4, 2014)

I love that cover Remains, the green one. It is very well done and professional. If that were one long story with a great blurb, I bet it would fly off the shelf. I don't know that people are buying micro story collections.

Also, I believe readers like to identify with the character, basically put themselves in the seat and have the adventure, or in this case the scare. A blurb that say "A woman..." or "A girl..." feels vague and like something a reader couldn't identify with. You get the impression you will never really learn what this woman and girl are like, so you can't really put yourself in their shoes.

I think it's crucial you write longer works that can each be in a book by itself. It's tough. It's work, but it's got to be done. Try plotting. I plot each scene in my books and decide generally how many words I can make each scene be. That way I can estimate the length when I'm finished. I know that's weird for some, but it works for me.


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## Douglas E Wright (Mar 11, 2011)

I'm glad to see others posting where they are on the spectrum. Audrey, I think you're right. I have to write longer works or at least finish a couple. I did plot a novel by using index cards the other night. We'll see how that goes. Hopefully, it comes out as a full novel at 90,000 words. I'm looking at one that I started three years ago and never finished, I think that will be in the 30,000 range. Again, thanks for your input.


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## Marilyn Peake (Aug 8, 2011)

Last month, I made around $50. This month, if things keep going the way they are, I'm on schedule to make $100 for the month. Crossing my fingers.  Congratulations to everyone who's already making $100 or more each month!


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## DanaG (Feb 13, 2011)

Douglas, the other thing is, if you're writing in multiple genres, it's hard to build a following.

If you want to make money at this, it makes sense to look at what genres sell the best. Go where the customers are.

Romance is no. 1, but if you don't enjoy writing that, I wouldn't force it.

Mystery would be next after that.

If you really enjoy horror - and I just clicked on the link to one of your books and I can see that you do have talent as a writer, and you're good at evoking creepy atmosphere - then I would at least try to write a full length book, given that your short stories haven't worked for you.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/digital-text/7130636011/ref=pd_zg_hrsr_kstore_1_5_last

There's the list of top 100 bestselling horror books in the kindle store. Pick some authors that you would like to emulate, and study them. I know I give out that advice ad nauseum, but following that advice is absolutely the reason I make six figures a year now. I am writing genre fiction; it makes sense to study the people who are success at my genre, and study them.


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## Douglas E Wright (Mar 11, 2011)

Thanks for your advice and the link, Dana. I was also glad to hear you read a little bit of a story and thought it was done well. That's one of those things people in my position figure is wrong, the writing. I agree I better put out some longer stories. I've spent much of the last couple of years studying all the 'how to' books I could find and reading in and out of the horror genre. Years ago, I was told that I should do romance because I was good at it. I find it's starting to creep into my stories here and there. So, I'm reading some of Barbara Michaels right now. Thanks again for your positive remarks; I greatly appreciate them.


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## DanaG (Feb 13, 2011)

Hey, if you've been told that you are good at romance, if I were you I would absolutely create a female pen name, and give it a shot.

As for the problem being your writing, that's not it. Seriously, there are some genres that are just easier to make money in. Horror short story is not one of them.

So when you ask: what is it that you are not doing? The answer is: you're writing in the wrong genre if you want to make a lot of money. Horror short stories apparently don't have a huge audience. Yes, there are very rare breakout hits like Stephen King, but you've tried and it didn't work for you.

If you write a romance and properly follow the conventions of the genre, I feel very, very strongly that you will easily earn more than that $10 a month. I'm happy to answer any questions that you have or give any suggestions. My first month writing erotica, several years ago, I made about $450 bucks. I was making a living wage within a few months. I'm not saying that to brag, I'm just saying - I know it can be done.

This is an extremely helpful book for romance writers:
http://www.amazon.com/Writing-Love-Screenwriting-Tricks-Authors-ebook/dp/B005DB81F2/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1412476402&sr=1-1&keywords=alexandra+sokoloff+writing+romance

OK, link to the top 100 bestselling romance novels: 
http://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-Kindle-Store-Romance/zgbs/digital-text/158566011

There are many subgenres of romance. Which one do you think you would prefer to write? Sounds like you don't like erotica, and I totally understand. There's tons of other kinds. Contemporary. Romantic thriller. Cozy mystery with romance. Christian romance. Paranormal romance. I'd steer clear of New Adult, it's hard to do well unless you really can get in that angsty 20-something college student head space.


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## Douglas E Wright (Mar 11, 2011)

Hey Dana ~ Thank you for the links. I was surprised to see you recommending Alex's book. I have it and all of her others too. I met her in Toronto a few years back. She's terrific! 

There's nothing to lose and everything to gain. I started another book today and it's not very far because I haven't plotted it out. I usually write from the top of my head, but the main character is new to me, so once I have her down, then I'll try some romance. 

I've always felt my novella, Boogaloos, though horror, is also a suspense with romantic elements. I just noticed it is no longer on perm-free, no idea why because it's still on Smashwords and Apple as free.

When I was told many years ago about romance writing, I was given a Harlequin writing guide but, I never embarked on the journey. I know I write suspense and family dysfunctions well. I just never thought about romance that often or it as a genre that I would like to write; however mixing paranormal (supernatural) elements into it, maybe I could do something with it. That's how I finally finished the erotica story. And I'm liking the romantic suspense books from the 70s I'm reading at the moment.

Thank you for the advice, the links and the offer if helping. You are wonderful. 

This thread has been a wealth of information for me. I thank everyone and I do feel a whole lot better than when I started this morning.

BTW~ if someone can contact Amazon about my novella Boogaloos not being free anymore, I'd greatly appreciate it.   I see it's in Apple, Kobo, Chapters and B&N for free still.


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## vlmain (Aug 10, 2011)

Douglas E Wright said:


> BTW~ if someone can contact Amazon about my novella Boogaloos not being free anymore, I'd greatly appreciate it.  I see it's in Apple, Kobo, Chapters and B&N for free still.


Well, that was fast! It's free now.


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## Douglas E Wright (Mar 11, 2011)

vlmain said:


> Well, that was fast! It's free now.


Holy! I wasn't expecting anything to happen until morning! Thanks.


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## Douglas E Wright (Mar 11, 2011)

Douglas E Wright said:


> Holy! I wasn't expecting anything to happen until morning! Thanks.


Nope, it's still showing .99 cents here, in the US & Canada. Probably by tomorrow.


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## vlmain (Aug 10, 2011)

Douglas E Wright said:


> Nope, it's still showing .99 cents here, in the US & Canada. Probably by tomorrow.


That's odd. I just checked again and it shows free. There must be a glitch, somewhere.


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## Douglas E Wright (Mar 11, 2011)

That's weird. I cleaned out my cache and cookies and so forth and it's still showing .99 cents. And you're only across the water from me.


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## vlmain (Aug 10, 2011)

Douglas E Wright said:


> That's weird. I cleaned out my cache and cookies and so forth and it's still showing .99 cents. And you're only across the water from me.


Yeah, that is odd. Hopefully it will be free for you by morning.


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## Douglas E Wright (Mar 11, 2011)

vlmain said:


> Yeah, that is odd. Hopefully it will be free for you by morning.


 Thanks a lot, Viki. Talk to you later.


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## ChrisWard (Mar 10, 2012)

Hang in there, Doug. Didn't see a $100 for a year or so, and only a couple in my first two years. Just gotta keep plugging away.


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## Douglas E Wright (Mar 11, 2011)

I actually quit putting my work on Kindle for a year, Chris. But I've been back for about six months. I am making more than in 2011! lol


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## Steve Vernon (Feb 18, 2011)

I checked out BOOGALOOS and it still came up .99cents. I downloaded a freebie on Kobo and passed the word on to Amazon that it's free elsewhere. Hope they fix that soon for you, Douglas.


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## DanaG (Feb 13, 2011)

If you write suspense well, you could always do a romantic thriller.


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## Sheluvspink (May 14, 2014)

Yay! I can join this club. Well in August I didn't, that was a terrible month but maybe, because I just figured out the koll credits don't show in my little money chart thingy. Since I've came out of kdp select I've made almost 700 at itunes in less than a month, but I also made the first book in my series free. I"m selling better at itunes than Amazon at the moment still though. Barnes and Noble has just started making traction on the free book this weekend so hopefully that'll turnover sales soon.


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## sportourer1s (Oct 2, 2010)

I should wish! Aiming for $10 is about my limit


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## Douglas E Wright (Mar 11, 2011)

Thanks Steve. It still shows .99 here too, but on amazon.com it shows I've had a free give away somewhere this morning. Also, my new cover for Skeleton Kisses hasn't changed though I uploaded it twice yesterday. Oh well, they must be slow for Canada at the moment. 

Thanks again to everyone for their help.


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## ctbrown (Jun 23, 2014)

$100 a month? I haven't hit $100 in the last year! I just launched a new serial and got a total of 7 sales in 2 days . . . and that is my most successful launch yet. I can get free downloads - just put a novella and a novel up free and got 905 and 950 downloads total but sales I cannot get.


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## Indecisive (Jun 17, 2013)

I got to just over $100 in December last year, with a countdown deal on a newish book. Since then I think I've gotten just over $50 a couple of times, but most months are in the single to low double digits. I'll be interested to see what happens with my next (totally unrelated) release.


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## egcamby (Aug 20, 2014)

This is my first month and, by some miracle, I think I might hit $100.00, which far exceeds my expectations.


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## davidsal28 (Jun 30, 2014)

I did hit the $100 mark in the first month of my first book. This month sales are in the dirt.


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## Miss Tarheel (Jul 18, 2014)

I searched the boards for this thread again after looking at my KDP dashboard. After 3 months of no sales with my fantasy books and 2 weeks of writing short erotica under my pen name, I'm happy to announce that I hit $100 for the month. And that includes if KU borrows for October are only $1.00 a piece. Woohoo!


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## MissingAlaska (Apr 28, 2014)

Yay.  I've reached that milestone.  It took a while... but it was worth it.  Now for the jump to ... $200!


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## Nigel Mitchell (Jan 21, 2013)

This is the thread for me. The answer is "no." I made $30 in August thanks to a freebie promo, and I felt like doing cartwheels. But September I made only $10, which is per usual. But I'm not complaining, because I write in the mega popular genre of scifi/comedy, so I'm just happy anyone buys them at all. For those about to give advice, yes, I am working on more popular genres. I'm editing a scifi/romance serial, and I have a mystery novel I'm plotting with the main character from my thriller novel to make it a series in a more popular genre. But I'm also writing followups to some of my other comedy novels. Bottom line: scifi/comedy is my favorite thing to write, and I'd rather be happy than rich at this point.


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## joyceharmon (May 21, 2012)

I can finally claim to be in the $100 a month club! (Yay, me!) A couple years ago, I published two cozy mysteries, and they just didn't take off. I probably made less than $10 a month on them. (Well, except for that one spectacular month when Died On The Vine was a high-level also bought to a major best-seller over at Barnes and Noble.) This year, I published my first Regency and it took off. Well, relatively speaking. It only spent a few days on the Regency best-seller list, but brought in over $500 a month for a few months. It's been tailing off ever since because I haven't published any new works yet - but still running at least $100 a month. I hope to have a Regency novella ready to publish next month and a novel a few months after that. 

As for horror shorts, I think you already have to have a Name and a readership in order to sell them - and the Name and readership comes from novels. To get me to read a horror short, right up front on page one there needs to be "by Stephen King".


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## Douglas E Wright (Mar 11, 2011)

Hi everyone, I'm trying out a couple other genres, only in novel categories. Reading the 2-10,000 word book, but I'm not getting very far in it; it's a slow going process, probably because I've read most of this stuff before. I sometimes have borrows, mainly my single short stories, but I'm still a tad less than $10.00 for the month. For all those that are getting to the $100.00 mark, congratulations! Hope to meet you all there someday soon.


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## ruecole (Jun 13, 2012)

Are you in KU? I was making $5 a month before KU rolled out. Then I published some new shorts, enrolled them in KU and watched my earning increas by 60%!

Hope that helps!

Rue


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## Douglas E Wright (Mar 11, 2011)

ruecole said:


> Are you in KU? I was making $5 a month before KU rolled out. Then I published some new shorts, enrolled them in KU and watched my earning increased by 60%!
> 
> Hope that helps!
> 
> Rue


Yeah Rue, I took everything out of Smashwords and put them in KU. Last night I sold Remains, today it was Halloween Snow (+plus borrow) and a borrow on a Christmas story, Two Left Feet. But the last 4 days nothing anywhere! I am writing the challenge, but it's slow going and I think it will be more sizzling than erotic.


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## ruecole (Jun 13, 2012)

(Sorry, didn't read all three pages!)

How long ago did you put them in? It seems to me it took a few days to a week for the borrows to start. And I should clarify: I get borrows pretty well every day on three titles, but the others, maybe 5 per month total. Don't forget to submit to the various KU promo places. KU short reads, KUreads.com, and the KU Spotlight on Twitter.

Hope that helps!

Rue


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## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

If not for the awful November of 2013, I would be celebrating a full year above $100 as well as six months over $400 and 16 months above $50.

Publishing the Complete Saga, Joining the Pan and Cape Society, the Kobo first in series listing, plus two very successful ENT ads in December and May seem to have given me significant momentum.


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## CesarAnthony (Jul 10, 2014)

I managed to rake in $75.00 on the first month. I think I may break $100.00 the next month.

Yes, you may have to write longer stories. That may bump up your sales.


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## Evenstar (Jan 26, 2013)

Yes, quite a while ago now, but it took me almost a year (and four novellas) to get to that point. I answer this simply to say I didn't actually think it was an easy point to get to.

I freely admit I don't have a huge amount of time to write, but I gave up an awful lot just to manage to get those books out (no tv, no social life etc), I got professional covers and editors etc, I wrote in a reasonable genre, and I did sensible marketing. I think I basically did everything right and it still took a long time to reach that amount. But once you do manage to take off then it climbs more steadily (as long as you keep producing). My point being that I believe (and have said many times before) that you need to have at least three books out, in the same series, before you can start to see a real return. But that's just me. The time scale could have been much shorter for someone who could do it full time.


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## joyceharmon (May 21, 2012)

Does it seem to anyone else that tastes in reading have changed in regard to story length? Fifty years ago, short story reading was a lot more common, and there were a lot more places that printed short stories. All the women's magazines published several short stories a month, and the general interest magazines as well - none of them seem to print fiction of any sort anymore. There were also magazines, a LOT of different magazines, that were nothing but short fiction. There are a few hanging on, but most of them are gone. There's just almost no place in print to publish short fiction anymore. If you were a big name in novels, you could sell books of collected novellas and short stories, but I don't think anyone can break in that way anymore. Maybe that's changing with the advent of e-readers and ebooks. Let's hope so - there are some stories that just don't take novel length to tell.


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## JRHolmes (Mar 6, 2014)

You are absolutely correct that the magazine short story market has disappeared for just about everything (mystery and science fiction are the notable exceptions). The magazine market in general has just about collapsed. Take a look at Time magazine these days and it is a shadow of what it once was.

Most of that can be attributed to the change in the advertising market with the introduction of the Internet. The "highly targeted" advertising that magazines once allowed has become hopelessly unfocused and is unable to deliver provable results compared to the "cost-per-click" results of web advertising.

But making a living off short stories in the ebook era is certainly possible, but it requires generating a lot of stories. See Dean Wesley Smith's article about how to make a living with short fiction http://www.deanwesleysmith.com/the-new-world-of-publishing-making-a-living-with-your-short-fiction-updated-2013/. The key is to be productive and to get those stories into multiple locations.


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## Scott Zavoda - Author (Feb 23, 2014)

I can finally say I'm in the $100 club two months in a row!   . But I agree with the common theme here that shorter works don't sell nearly as collections do. I can't speak for novels as I'm writing the 2nd draft of mine as we speak. With three short stories I had out for almost a a year I was earning maybe $10 a month or less. Then I released Alone at Midnight, my short horror collection and things slowly began happening. I spent about $300 during launch week and have a FB page. Also I try and participate on GR quite often. 

The short singles were all $.99 and the collection has been $3.99 since release which I feared was too high but I would say it wasn't. At least all of Sept I maintained a sales rank of about 18k on Amazon. To me there was no better feeling in the world. For me that felt pretty darn great.

But now ... what to do? Sales have softened....


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## ruecole (Jun 13, 2012)

I have a collection. It sells two copies a year. Is it the genre? Am I an outlier? I don't know. But I definitely sell more individual stories than my collection.

Rue


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## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

joyceharmon said:


> Does it seem to anyone else that tastes in reading have changed in regard to story length? Fifty years ago, short story reading was a lot more common, and there were a lot more places that printed short stories. All the women's magazines published several short stories a month, and the general interest magazines as well - none of them seem to print fiction of any sort anymore. There were also magazines, a LOT of different magazines, that were nothing but short fiction. There are a few hanging on, but most of them are gone. There's just almost no place in print to publish short fiction anymore. If you were a big name in novels, you could sell books of collected novellas and short stories, but I don't think anyone can break in that way anymore. Maybe that's changing with the advent of e-readers and ebooks. Let's hope so - there are some stories that just don't take novel length to tell.


Self-pubbers generally aren't offering up their shorts in the fomr they were consumed in in the past.

Back in the day, you didn't get short stories in standalone pamphlets, you got them in es, the magazines, or in newspapers, or part of larger, more diverse publications that included not only shorts, but poetry, art and comics.

My theory about the decline of shorts in the modern age is because people are trying to sell them as standalone works for exorbitant prices. I bought my share of those magazines and anthologies, but I don't buy shorts now because I never sought out any specific short _and_ because now people want me to pay the same for a sub-10K story that I used to pay for ten stories and that I can now pay for 20 stories in an anthology.

It isn't helped by how the self-serve sales channels rarely have an easy and transparent method of selling anthologies and splitting the cash.


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## P.C. (Peter) Anders (Feb 6, 2013)

Hit well above, for 3 years, until KU came along, and I have largely stayed away. Now, actually dipping below that for Amazon.


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## Abalone (Jan 31, 2014)

I made about $1,600 in short stories for September 10th until now. Not enrolled in KU.


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## Carradee (Aug 21, 2010)

AA2014 said:


> I made about $1,600 in short stories for September 10th until now. Not enrolled in KU.


Nice! May I ask your genre(s)?


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## Drake (Apr 30, 2014)

My first royalty check was less than $3., but starting when I finally had three titles to sell they have been in the $1,000. plus range.  Then I went three months without publishing anything new due to various family issues, and surprise, surprise, they dropped below that.  In Sept. I published two new titles that have been selling well, and hope to break the $2K mark again for October.  Bottom line?  Keep writing!  Also, read work by other writers in your genre.  Don't copy things, but learn what they are doing right.  Good luck!


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## vlmain (Aug 10, 2011)

Drew Smith said:


> Really, the only problem right now is advertising for short stories. Very few of the major players accept them. I'm wondering if that will change in the near future. I know that I set up a couple of Twitter feeds that promote only short stories. I've done virtually no promotion to get followers yet new people are signing up to them every day because they want to be made aware of the short stories out there. It's a promising sign I think for short story writers.


This is how I feel, too. I'm not sure if we'll see the big players accepting shorts in the future, or not. I don't believe it was ever a question about the market for them, but rather because they don't make enough money off a $.99 sale.

I've been working on a site for shorts, too, because I believe (know) there _is_ a large market for them. It's encouraging to hear your list for shorts is growing!


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## vlmain (Aug 10, 2011)

Drew Smith said:


> I think a website for shorts would do well once it was up and running. When you're ready, shoot me a dm and I'll promo it for you. I now have three general short story lists and one "sexy shorts" list which is brand new this week and has had literally no promotion. Guess which one is growing fastest?


Thanks, I'll definitely do that. And I can't even imagine which list is growing fastest.


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## Douglas E Wright (Mar 11, 2011)

It's been almost a month since I started this thread, now, has anything changed for anyone?

Over October, I tried the erotica market again, and again no sales or borrows. However, some of my short stories have sold and borrowed. I figure for October I doubled my income to $20.00. 

I am working on a series right now and hopefully I'll have the next installment out by the end of November.


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## kyokominamino (Jan 23, 2014)

Siiiiiiiiiiiiigh. In June, I managed to make it to that holy land of over $100 and the trend continued in July and August. 

Then September hit and I made half that.

Ditto with October.

Looks like I plummeted off the 60 day new release cliff. 

Anyone got a parachute?


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## Guest (Nov 6, 2014)

I hit $100+ in my second month (September) thanks to the magic of KU and some intense promo on my end. Here's to hoping I can sustain begging bloggers to review my new releases, although some of them have started coming to me.


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## Alain Gomez (Nov 12, 2010)

So far for 2014 I'm on track to average a little over $100 a month.  I write nothing but short stories that barely sell.


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## JenEllision (Jan 13, 2014)

I write YA fantasy and only have 1 novel/1 novelette in the series out, but since release (May) I've averaged about $200/month. Near as I can tell, it's the reviews/blog tour that did the most for me, but I also invested in a great cover. I think my keywords are all right... but I'll be honest and tell you that I don't REALLY know enough about them to know for sure!


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## katiemeyer (Oct 23, 2014)

After the 30K a month thread, this one is a good reality check. Thanks for starting it, I think you are helping a lot of people feel better.


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## Douglas E Wright (Mar 11, 2011)

I would think there are a ton of people making 10 bucks or less a month. I have no idea why though. Probably not enough books to be visible. Right now I'm working on one that I wrote and never finished last year. It will be a novella, but it is longer than most of what I've put out on Kindle.


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## SB James (May 21, 2014)

I'm on track this month to possibly make this milestone. I had a new book release and I did a promo for the preceding book. We shall see...


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## jillb (Oct 4, 2014)

I followed this thread when I first joined KB. I was lucky to have found this place just as I was starting out. I started writing my 1st book in early Sept'14 and published on Oct 14'14. I got a lot of ideas and inspiration from this forum and I thank everyone for that. Since then, I have completed and published 3 more books. 5th book is almost finished and I'm 1/3 way through my 6th book. All my books are NF so I'm slow compared to other writers since I have to do research for many of them. Tomorrow will be my 1st month. Royalties so far will be $13.34 + 10 borrows (assuming @$1.50/borrow) = $28


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## SunshineOnMe (Jan 11, 2014)

Is it weird that I'm jealous you've already have 6 books? Great job Jill!


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## jillb (Oct 4, 2014)

Sunshine. Thanks  Don't be jealous. I wish I could jump on the erotica bandwagon but I can't. I am only able to write what I know and like. I'm just lucky that there are decent niches for the books I write. My books aren't long about 10K-15K so they aren't big books but I do write quite slowly + I have a lot of other commitments/distractions. I hope to break $50/month by the end of the year


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## o.gasim (Oct 5, 2014)

jillb said:


> Sunshine. Thanks  Don't be jealous. I wish I could jump on the erotica bandwagon but I can't. I am only able to write what I know and like. I'm just lucky that there are decent niches for the books I write. My books aren't long about 10K-15K so they aren't big books but I do write quite slowly + I have a lot of other commitments/distractions. I hope to break $50/month by the end of the year


Who doesn't like sex?

Just checked into this thread to commiserate with some of my fellow low listers and damn if there's not a shot at erotica  Oh well, to each their own.

If borrows hold at 1.50 like they have been then this will be my first 100+ month. Currently at $149 MTD.


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## Evenstar (Jan 26, 2013)

o.gasim said:


> Who doesn't like sex?
> 
> Just checked into this thread to commiserate with some of my fellow low listers and damn if there's not a shot at erotica  Oh well, to each their own.


Me! I can't stand it, so messy and smelly...

On no, wait, that's the nappies I'm thinking of... Awful by product 

I love writing in sexy scenes, but then I have to go back into the book and tone it right down or I get blasted by reader's moms. (I've used the American spelling for Mom because the British mothers don't seem to mind it one bit, in fact they read it after their daughters are done.) But I digress... What was my point again? I think being pregnant is messing with my mental faculties.

Oh yes, I was going to say that I was thinking there probably weren't many erotica authors in this thread because it is much quicker to get to the $100 with erotica than with full length novels, because they take so much longer to write and the readers of other genres are not quite so vociferous.


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## Chris Fox (Oct 3, 2014)

My first month ends on the 26th, but as of today I hit $102 and that doesn't count borrows. Yay!


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## ETS PRESS (Nov 4, 2011)

I have steadily made $100 a month for the past couple of years. I need to get some new titles published. I have a new one I'm about to upload.


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## Douglas E Wright (Mar 11, 2011)

Here we are near Christmas. I just read what I was making when I started this thread in October. At that point I was below seven bucks. Today I checked my bank account and Amazon has dropped in $36.40 total. I'd say most of that is from borrows, which have steadily dropped off over the last two months. I'm still a long way from a hundred dollars a month, but the numbers are inching up.

I've started developing a new website. I hope to announce it New Year's eve. This time I've set it up so readers will be able to sign up on a mailing list if they want. I'm also re-uploading my books and short stories with a link to the newsletter and website as back matter.

Anyway, how have the rest of you done?

Talk later!

Doug


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## Douglas E Wright (Mar 11, 2011)

BTW~ The 3 erotica stories I wrote did not sell or even get a borrow. This money came from my horror line.


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## Amanda Hough (Feb 17, 2014)

I average about 400 dollars a month. But I rather think my genre makes it a bit easier to sell. I'm doing my first promotion in January. If I have the time. Either way, I love to write and it's not my day job... thank goodness.


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## ruecole (Jun 13, 2012)

Hahaha! OMG, I was just rereading this thread and saw that I'd said my earnings had increased 60% from $5 after KU rolled out. Obviously math is NOT my strong suit as that SHOULD have been 6000%! Hahaha

Since August, I've been earning about $300 per month. Hoping that is going to go up significantly this month, though, as I finally landed a BookBub ad! 

Rue


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## Alain Gomez (Nov 12, 2010)

Douglas E Wright said:


> Here we are near Christmas. I just read what I was making when I started this thread in October. At that point I was below seven bucks. Today I checked my bank account and Amazon has dropped in $36.40 total. I'd say most of that is from borrows, which have steadily dropped off over the last two months. I'm still a long way from a hundred dollars a month, but the numbers are inching up.
> 
> I've started developing a new website. I hope to announce it New Year's eve. This time I've set it up so readers will be able to sign up on a mailing list if they want. I'm also re-uploading my books and short stories with a link to the newsletter and website as back matter.
> 
> ...


That's good! I have finally come to terms with the fact that this is a grind session line of work. I was in denial about this for about two years. Even though I knew better I kept thinking that if I could just do that magic SOMETHING it would make all my book sell.

It's a lie.

Aim for the small goals. That's really what will keep you sane. The small goals are attainable. $36 is great! Aim for trying to average $10 every month.


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## Marcella (Mar 22, 2013)

Rue - Good luck with your Bookbub ad!

No, I've never hit $100.00 a month.  Would be nice though.  I can't help but write what I'd like to read.  Not too mention, that I do little promo.  I paid for a total of 3 ads this year!


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## Douglas E Wright (Mar 11, 2011)

I haven't done this for a long time. I've tried a couple pen names and erotica. Nothing stuck. I'm still nowhere near a hundred bucks. I've removed the single stories and working on a novella. I have two other novellas that need to be edited again. They're in first draft yet. Or, half done, but can't afford an editor right now. How many have hit the 100 since we last spoke?


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## Guest (Sep 11, 2015)

My last royalty payment was about $160.  My goal is to get back up to four figures.  I hope to do that by February 2016 after my novellas come out.


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## Douglas E Wright (Mar 11, 2011)

I'm below ten dollars right now. I hit a little above thirty some time back. I hardly get any reads at all. Once in awhile it will spike to 70 pages or so, but that's it. Glad to see you're making over the 100, congratulations Jolie!


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## Guest (Sep 11, 2015)

Boyd said:


> You'll hit your goals, I'm confident!!!!


Thanks, Boyd!


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## Guest (Sep 11, 2015)

Douglas E Wright said:


> I'm below ten dollars right now. I hit a little above thirty some time back. I hardly get any reads at all. Once in awhile it will spike to 70 pages or so, but that's it. Glad to see you're making over the 100, congratulations Jolie!


Thanks! Writing in a series is how I got to four figures last year. Not getting my books out on time is how I lost it. So I've made mistakes, but hopefully I learn from my mistakes. 

Douglas, I hope you reach at least $100 a month sometime soon. Hopefully, you've received some useful tips here at Kboards.


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## Douglas E Wright (Mar 11, 2011)

Thank you, Jolie. I think I will. I stopped planning and went back to pantsing yesterday. We'll see if that helps.  BTW~ I hit 2000 words yesterday and will try to do the same tonight.


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## Marina Finlayson (May 2, 2014)

I launched at Christmas time last year. For the first six months I only had one novel and one short story out, and I made less than $100 a month. (And no one was buying the short story.) In June I put out my second novel, which is part of the same series as the first, and things improved significantly. People had told me before about the difference the second book makes, particularly if it's part of the same series, but I hadn't quite believed it would make much difference until I saw it for myself.

So don't give up hope, Douglas. When you get those novellas out, particularly if they're related, I think you'll see a difference. (And promote them if you can. I had my best month ever after a big free promo on the first book at the end of June.)


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## Douglas E Wright (Mar 11, 2011)

I have a short story that I pulled over the past couple of days, and the novella I'm working on now will be linked to the short story.


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## Kessie Carroll (Jan 15, 2014)

Hooray, a thread for us underachievers! After that 5k a month thread, I was kind of ... overwhelmed? But 100, I can shoot for that. I just had my first $15 month in August, but I've been writing so furiously, I haven't had a chance to do much September promoting. I have a baby due in November, so I'm working like crazy to get a last book/novella out before that deadline hits. 

I have a theory that once my three series are finished, my promos will have much longer tails. But I also have to write stuff folks want to read, so I'm dialing that in at the moment.


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## geronl (May 7, 2015)

$100 a month

I wish


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## unkownwriter (Jun 22, 2011)

I haven't yet, thought I came close earlier this year, but I'm hopeful for this month. I've already made what I did last month, and I have some more stuff to release while I work on the longer things.

Personally, I prefer writing short stories. They just seem to be a natural thing for me to write (I love reading them as well). But, they are a hard sell, except for the steamy ones. It was okay in KUv1, people would take a chance on you, but now I'm getting pennies for a read, so the logical thing to do is to go long. I plan on novellas and novels from now on, though I may still do a couple of serials just because I want to experiment with the style. I like to grow as an author, so it's a challenge for me to write things I didn't think I could do (it worked for flash fiction as well, talk about short!).

Anyway, here's to the lowly prawn who may one day be a kraken. Write on, people!


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## Guest (Sep 11, 2015)

she-la-ti-da said:


> I haven't yet, thought I came close earlier this year, but I'm hopeful for this month. I've already made what I did last month, and I have some more stuff to release while I work on the longer things.
> 
> Personally, I prefer writing short stories. They just seem to be a natural thing for me to write (I love reading them as well). But, they are a hard sell, except for the steamy ones. It was okay in KUv1, people would take a chance on you, but now I'm getting pennies for a read, so the logical thing to do is to go long. I plan on novellas and novels from now on, though I may still do a couple of serials just because I want to experiment with the style. I like to grow as an author, so it's a challenge for me to write things I didn't think I could do (it worked for flash fiction as well, talk about short!).
> 
> Anyway, here's to the lowly prawn who may one day be a kraken. Write on, people!


When I was writing erotica under a secret pen name, my erotica short stories (all well under 5K) sold 25 to 50 books a day at $2.99. I never had to lower them to 99 cents, but I did have to publish very frequently. (I stopped writing those because I'm no longer interested. The money doesn't matter.)

So that's the only time I've ever had luck with short stories. Some others, however, have had luck with 5K or under shorts that aren't erotica. They're a hard sell, but not for everyone.

That said, I'm looking forward to returning to novellas. I've always had luck with novellas


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## Talbot (Jul 14, 2015)

Not a biscuit! I have an excuse, though. Every day I'm learning new things so I'm constantly republishing as I apply them. I also have no internet at home so I haven't done much promotion. I've poured blood, sweat, and tears into my Magnum Opus and then I marooned it on a deserted island. Heavy sigh. 

Well, sneaking around at work and sucking up public wifi will just have to do until I can afford DECENT internet at home.


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## Doglover (Sep 19, 2013)

Douglas E Wright said:


> Thanks Judy for your advice. I've started a new novel yesterday and hopefully I can move that into the right market when that time comes.  Right now I'm hoping to get more eyes on what I have already. I wonder if writing a novella will help any?


Do you have a mailing list? You should watch Mark Dawson's free video course about facebook ads and Nick Stephenson's course about mailing lists. How much promotion are you doing?


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## anniejocoby (Aug 11, 2013)

Okay, I noticed that at least one of these posters, who posted not even a year ago about finally making it to $100 a month, now regularly makes five figures a month, and I'm sure probably makes around $200,000 a year now. Or more. So...hey, don't give up. If you're making little money now, you might be absolutely rolling in it this time next year, with a little luck and a lot of hard work and shrewd publishing decisions.


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## jillb (Oct 4, 2014)

I forgot about this thread! My sales kept going up as long as I kept publishing. It went up to $500 before dropping to an avg of $250/month with a now 7-month hiatus from publishing (but not writing). My sales stem from one of my titles that has had a consistently long tail. (20 year old books in this genre are still topping category lists). 
Anyway, a big move got in the way of publishing but I have 2 more books that are waiting on covers from DH. I'm halfway done with another 2 titles. I'm hoping to hit more long-tail titles with my upcoming books!!


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## Guest (Sep 12, 2015)

Yes, regularly. However, I promote my permafree regularly which is the reason why. Visibility is the key and very hard to maintain. So many books out there.


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## Doglover (Sep 19, 2013)

I've just noticed this thread was started a year ago. Are you still not making more than $100 per month, OP?


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## geronl (May 7, 2015)

I might reach $100 for the year.

Keep hope alive!


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## Douglas E Wright (Mar 11, 2011)

Yes, I still haven't made a hundred a month. I just dropped almost all of my short stories and only concentrate now with what's left. I am working on a new story, hopefully something close to a novella.


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## Evenstar (Jan 26, 2013)

geronl said:


> I might reach $100 for the year.
> 
> Keep hope alive!


Geronl, we are discouraged from giving unsolicited advice on here, but I'm longing to give you some, can I send you a pm with a couple of points?


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## TT Kove (Aug 20, 2015)

I hit $100 in July, when I put out my first self-published m/m romance. It was a novella. Also hit $100 so far this month, after the release of another m/m romance novella. I'm hoping it'll maybe end up at $200 by the end of the month.  The more releases I get out there, the more I earn, and I've already got another two novellas done (one already in editing), as well as a short story. Now it's time to write another book, this time a m/m YA novella.


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## jrwilson (Apr 7, 2015)

I hit > $100/month for the first time in January of 2015.  I've been able to stay in the three figure a month club all year.  It's definitely an achievement worth being proud of - even if sometimes it feels like it's small potatoes compared to some of the accomplishments of the bigger players on this board.


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## geronl (May 7, 2015)

Evenstar said:


> Geronl, we are discouraged from giving unsolicited advice on here, but I'm longing to give you some, can I send you a pm with a couple of points?


Sure. Just know that I am learning as I go. I don't really mind a slow start.


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## JRHolmes (Mar 6, 2014)

jillb said:


> I forgot about this thread! My sales kept going up as long as I kept publishing. It went up to $500 before dropping to an avg of $250/month with a now 7-month hiatus from publishing (but not writing). My sales stem from one of my titles that has had a consistently long tail. (20 year old books in this genre are still topping category lists).


That's actually a good thing to know about what of your books are able to generate that long tail of income. And the $250 as a baseline bit of longer term income is certainly not a bad thing. It gives you something that you can rely on.

And that you are competing with top sellers that have held that place for 20 years is also a strong indication that once you find success there, you can continue to expect a steady income from those books over a similar time period.


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## Chinmoy Mukherjee (Apr 26, 2014)

Hoping to get into that club in few months.


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## AlexaGrave (Jun 11, 2015)

I haven't even made $10 total on my one short - lol.  

I know shorts are a hard sell, but I still want to push forward with my Baker's Dozen Experiment. That starts on October 13 - less than a month away! Eek, guess I better get working on the blurb and cover. And honestly, using the my shorts in an experiment coincide wonderfully with the stories themselves because I usually write stories to experiment with things.

Hopefully one day I'll hit $100 a month, but I'm guessing it'll be when I start putting out novels.


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## geronl (May 7, 2015)

I have a grand total of about $30 since May or whatever.


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## Mxz (Jan 17, 2015)

No, and just when I was much closer KU changed.  Hopefully that will change in the months to come.


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## Douglas E Wright (Mar 11, 2011)

Well, it's been awhile so here I am again. I still haven't made it, but haven't been really trying either. Ran out of steam a long time ago.


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## T S Paul (Jan 6, 2016)

You all are making me feel guilty.   I put my first book up 10 days ago and topped $100 yesterday. It's even a shorty. It's been on the #1 list for Sci fi (short reads) for over a week. Even my mentor says that MY sales are highly unusual. Book 2 will go up on Wed of this week.


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## RBradyFrost (Mar 20, 2015)

I only have a few short stories and a novelette available right now. I did manage to get two unsolicited sales of my novelette for February, which felt like a huge win for me. I'm doing my best to keep working on my novel and I try to stay away from the sales pages. Still, it's fun to take a quick look every now and again. I'm really just trying to stick with advice from the likes of Patty and Hugh and shoot for that horizon goal, but I'm always super thankful of each individual sale.


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## Steve Vernon (Feb 18, 2011)

I've hit the $100 mark a few times over the last 3 years - most notably October and November of 2015. Two months in a row - I was super-stoked - but I seem to hit the $50 to $70 a month more often as not. That is a step up from the $10 to $20 a month I used to get but I am NOT ready to accept those numbers for very long.

I've got one book that's in the running for Kindle Scout and I am working on another and I know deep down that the REAL answer is that I need to build me a few dedicated series-type novels. Say, the STARVING ARTIST TRILOGY followed by the GET ME OFF THE WELFARE LINE TRILOGY and the WILL WRITE FOR BEER, COLD OR NOT TRILOGY - and then perma-free the #1 book in each of those trilogies and flog the devil out of them on promo sites. Maybe sell some of my warm beer for a Book Bub promo.

Douglas - a dude like you who seems stuck on short horror fiction ought to think about going the Bentley Little route. I've read an awful lot of Little's novels and short fiction and in my opinion his short fiction was ALWAYS a whole lot better than his long stuff. Besides that, a lot of his long stuff read like a collection of short stories. For instance Chapter 1 would be the hero getting into some type of trouble and Chapter 2 would be some odd nonsequitor scene with a towns person getting himself eradicated in a weird twitchy kind of way and then Chapter 3 would be a few more paragraphs of the hero trying to figure out what to do next and then Chapter 4 would be another odball nonsequitor eradication scene. I always had the feeling that old Bentley was recycling short story drafts - but I could be wrong. I do know the fellow sold a whole more than I do and he makes a living at it to boot - so he is doing something right.

Whatever you figure - don't give up. I'm rooting for you, man.


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## Squirmypants (Jan 11, 2015)

February was my second $100 month in a row. 

I finally feel like I'm making progress.


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## Talbot (Jul 14, 2015)

Still not there. Still learning! But I'm releasing a YA Urban Fantasy novella this Saturday and another one has been outlined for release in July so we'll see how that goes. 

Give up? NEVAH!


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## blancheking (Oct 15, 2015)

Try getting an audiobook going? I tried changing a few things a month to see how they affect profit.

Nov: (launch) ~$60 royalties
December: (changed the cover and blurb, sorted the book into its proper category) ~$350
January: (submitted for magazine review, offered a free short story) ~$580
Feb: (audiobook launch) ~$950


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## 555aaa (Jan 28, 2014)

I make over $100/month but the bulk of that is on audiobooks. ebooks pretty much crickets there. So I kinda lost my motivation on ebooks. Used to sell a lot better. That play I have in my signature is available as an ebook, print book, and audiobook - it's not like there's any change in readership over time, but the ebook readership has pretty much dwindled away. People still buy it on paperback occasionally and fairly regularly on audio (as it is full cast performance). I have a number of other ebook titles under a pen name so it's not just what's in my sig.


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## M.W. Griffith (Oct 13, 2015)

Kessie Carroll said:


> Hooray, a thread for us underachievers! After that 5k a month thread, I was kind of ... overwhelmed? But 100, I can shoot for that. I just had my first $15 month in August, but I've been writing so furiously, I haven't had a chance to do much September promoting. I have a baby due in November, so I'm working like crazy to get a last book/novella out before that deadline hits.
> 
> I have a theory that once my three series are finished, my promos will have much longer tails. But I also have to write stuff folks want to read, so I'm dialing that in at the moment.


Congrats on the upcoming baby!


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## M.W. Griffith (Oct 13, 2015)

A hundred dollars is a good goal to work toward.  I started publishing in 2015, and don't make anywhere near that a month.  Wish me luck for this year, guys!


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## vlmain (Aug 10, 2011)

M.W. Griffith said:


> A hundred dollars is a good goal to work toward. I started publishing in 2015, and don't make anywhere near that a month. Wish me luck for this year, guys!


I don't think you'll need luck. Your books sound fantastic. I just read their blurbs and purchased The Truth About Alex. Reading it this evening will be a great way to finish off my weekend.


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## SakuraMazaki (Oct 20, 2015)

M.W. Griffith said:


> A hundred dollars is a good goal to work toward. I started publishing in 2015, and don't make anywhere near that a month. Wish me luck for this year, guys!


I'm in the same boat. Started last year, and haven't made even a total of that yet.
Good luck!


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## suzieq (Mar 19, 2011)

When the third book in my series came out, I made $700 and $800 the first two months (this was 2 years ago), but it dropped off rapidly. I think the main reason it did so well in those first few months is that I'd had a short freebie prequel for that book out for quite a while and there were folks eager for the story. If I was good at short stories, I'd do that for all of them, but that was a combination of writing a story about a couple who had a history and being broadsided with inspiration for the prequel. Most months, I don't break $100, but I'm getting the rights back soon on my first two books, so that will change my promotion strategies, and *fingers crossed* increase my income.


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