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Maybe This Will Help Someone

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#1 ·
My name is Robert J. Crane and I'm an indie author who's still working at filling up his own bookshelf. Have been since I published my first book in the summer of 2011, felt it in my hands, flipped through the pages. Is there any better feeling after laboring for months on a work than finally having it right there, where you can wave it at others and say, "This is something I wrote!" It comes with a glee that doesn't diminish with subsequent volumes, at least it hasn't for me, though I suppose I am a little more jaded now than I was then.

Some of you know me, most of you probably don't, and honestly I would have kept it that way but for some lovely notes from such Kboard luminaries as Joe Nobody and LT Ryan suggesting I could possibly benefit new authors by virtue of my experience (AKA that period of bitter struggle that most of us go through at some point) have dragged me back. I joined Kboards in June of 2012, only a year and a half ago, and at the time I'd sold a cumulative 172 books. Now, a brief eighteen months later, I've sold over 100,000 books, pretty much all the last twelve months, almost all of them at $4.99 or higher. So, I'm no Russell Blake or SM Reine, but I do all right.

So why do I breeze through the door and throw down my street cred like that (I'm sure you can come up with a less flattering analogy if you were of a mind to, but don't. The cattle prod HURTS.) after a pretty, flowery introduction? Because I originally started posting on Kboards after months of just lurking in order to help people (well, that and to be a snarky smart@$$). I stopped posting for a variety of reasons, but the biggest was because I honestly didn't feel like I was helping anymore. Russell Blake has got some really good, blunt, in-your-face advice (I like the "Why Your Book's Not Selling" thread, that is golden), Elle Casey has posted some really solid notes about being a prolific writer in order to build a fanbase faster, my good friend SM Reine has the undead mailing list thread that just won't die. Next to them and others, I got nothin'.

The secret to my (admittedly limited) success was to write books that hooked the reader and pulled them through every page to the ending, which resolved the problem of that book but had an added hook that would pull them on into the next book. Then I set the first book in each series permafree, and did everything I could to get that book in front of as many eyeballs as I possibly could. Rinse, repeat, etc. Since then it's just been writing the next book, collecting a bigger mailing list, running an occasional ad, and running the same old play again. Still, I like bullet points, so while I'm here and have your attention anyway:

1) Like my buddy Ed Robertson (I'm name dropping like mad here) said in his 100,000 books post, the more painful a promotion is to an author, the more appealing it is to a reader. I remember a year and a half ago releasing my third novel, probably the one I was most proud of at the time, and it sold 43 copies between its April release and September. I worked hard on that book, honed my skills leading up to it, and thought I'd crafted a masterpiece. Yet still, still! It didn't sell. So I set it to permafree. Since then, that series alone has sold over 90,000 books. I want to emphasize this point, because honestly, that book, which has been downloaded some 250,000 times since, has made me far more money at $0.00 than it ever was going to if I hadn't gotten it in front of as many eyeballs as possible. I didn't know that was going to happen; I merely hoped it would happen. I worked toward it happening, doing everything I could to throw that book in front of people short of holding their head above a Kindle and forcing them to read with a gun to their heads. (I tried that, too, and a brief stay at the Penitentiary later I'm here to save you time by telling you it doesn't work.)

2) Give them a reason to read on. Really. I know this sounds simple, but I've seen almost everyone acknowledge that we are competing (in a polite, non-vicious way) for the consumer's attention. If that's the case, once you have their attention, you should really do everything in your power to keep it for as long as possible. What does this mean? Cliffhangers. Not the kind where they're facing the big villain of the book you're writing, and you give them no resolution before cutting the book off. That's cheap. No, I'm talking multi-book character arcs and plot threads, things that are more epic and take more time to lay the ground work of, interspersed between your self-contained stories. The highest rated TV series do this, and frankly, so do a lot of really amazing bestselling books. I doubt I'm the only one that go to the end of Wool 3 and nearly ripped the Kindle in half trying to turn the page to Wool 4.

3) If you don't have a mailing list and say you want to have a serious career where you can eventually write full-time, you are fooling yourself. If you're going to spend a ton of time and effort corraling readers into your works but you don't bother to find a way to inform them that you have a new release, you're wasting so much of your time and effort it's ludicrous. It's like hunting through the pasture to herd the cattle into the barnyard, then not bothering to close the gate before you go hunting another batch. (Sorry, readers, you're more than cattle to me, but it's a fitting analogy in this case.) It's the simplest thing, even for the technologically challenged, and it grows your visibility with subsequent launches by leaps and bounds. People have busy lives; make it easy on them by helping to apprise them of new opportunities for them to hand you their hard-earned dollars in exchange for your exciting, engaging stories.

4) You really need to work on your craft. Yes, you, the person sitting in your chair. Unless you're totally, completely happy with your sales, in which case you really don't need any part of this post (but thanks for boosting my "Views" count). I still take classes on writing regularly and read books on craft. The writers I know who are selling well still try and think about how they can improve. Seriously. Don't believe me? Ask SM Reine sometime about how many books on craft she's read. Make a list of your weaknesses and try to find a way to practice through them in your next book/story.

5) This is going to be an obscene amount of work, this idea of filling your bookshelf. If you want to make a career out of this, it's going to be long hours and late nights, especially if you've got a job. Even if you don't, almost every indie who's making a living that I know of is still putting out several books per year. If that's not for you, there's no shame in it. For me, I loved my stories so much that putting in the hours wasn't a big deal, it was totally natural. It was a game to me, and one I loved to play. Still do. I only wish I had more hours in the day to devote to it.

Okay, that's the end of the tactics portion of this post. I figure I'll add a little inspiration or motivation or something to the end here. A year and a half ago, my royalty checks between all outlets was barely double digits after a launch month. For every month of the last year, even the lowest one, I've made more per month than I used to make per year. That's not really a brag, because there are a ton of indies whose royalties CRUSH mine between their massive fingers. So long as there are still people reading books, you've got a shot to make a good living here. All it's going to take is a sick amount of work.

The rewards aren't all about the money, although it's nice to get to a place where you can just do the things you want without thinking about it constantly. Like when my wife's car had a massive transmission failure earlier this year, hey, no worries, we can afford a new one, not a problem. Taking the kids to Disney and doing whatever we wanted? Done. I remember not that long ago balancing my checkbook by the skin of my teeth, holding bills until one day before the thirty-day late period before mailing them. Now that's gone, and hopefully it won't ever be a problem again.

But like I said, it's not just about the money; tt's about the friends - the writing friends I've made since I started this. I've been lucky enough to team up with some AMAZING writers, and even meet a few in person to do things I wouldn't have been able to do before. Like a couple weeks ago, I met up with SM Reine in Las Vegas and we shot machine guns and rode on a helicopter. (Not at the same time; it's Vegas, not 'Nam.) Then we drank a lot of booze, ate a lot of fancy food and talked about writing. It was a dream vacation - the kind of vacation I used to dream about all the time when my last company did trips (which I never won).

It's about looking at your bookshelf after a couple years of just keeping your head down writing, and looking at how many you've got sitting there, and feeling that sense of satisfaction that - if nothing else - you're proud of your work, of what you've poured your days and hours into. Knowing that there are fans out there just waiting for the next one is a pretty sweet feeling too.

I guess what I want you to take away from this is that in the midst of all the doom and the gloom that can settle in after being in the trenches for a while just churning out books and seeing little in the way of results is that there is hope. I wrote for over a year before I saw a month where I made $100 in royalties. Striking matches in the rain, trying to light a fire. I know it's a lot of work. I know sometimes it feels desperate, that it will never happen. I don't know what will push you over the edge, but I know that even in this constantly changing publishing environment, new authors are still breaking out and seeing their dreams come true ALL THE TIME. Is it tougher now than it was a year ago when things took off for me? Maybe. I'm on the other side of it, now, so it's difficult for me to say. What worked for me might not work for you. My strengths might be your weaknesses, and vice versa. But I will say I know quite a few full time writers making six-figures (or near to it) at this point, and the common denominator with all of them is that they didn't give up, even when it got bad, even when their latest book launch bombed, even when they had a month of returns so great that they ended up owing Amazon money, even when they only sold two books. That last one was me about 24 months ago; the other two were people I know, and much more recently. They're doing just fine now, by the way. Because they kept working, even when they didn't want to. They kept filling their shelf, putting their stories on the page.

Just don't give up. Keep working. If five years from now all you have to show for your efforts is a bookshelf (real or virtual) that's filled with your books, will that be enough for you?

It was for me. But I'm damned happy for all the other stuff I found while I was filling it up.
 
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#2 ·
Thank you.  My kindle was getting hungry.  You just got a download of your freebie.  Catch me say March 2015 and I will let you know what I think of your book.
 
#10 ·
Congratulations, Robert, and thanks for the fabulous post.

RobertJCrane said:
5) This is going to be an obscene amount of work, this idea of filling your bookshelf. If you want to make a career out of this, it's going to be long hours and late nights, especially if you've got a job.
It's comments like this that make me consider my insomnia a blessing, rather than a curse.
 
#15 ·
Mimi said:
Wait ... write well and work hard? Aw, shucks. Where are the shortcuts and clever schemes!?! I hear if you put a red circle on your cover, it increases sales by 2.05%
Nope. It's prawns in the signature line, or the name Hugh Howey...
 
#16 ·
Glad you're back on here, Robert. :) See you at the MN indie meeting next Sunday!
 
#20 ·
Another classic. Well done, Sir, and much obliged.

Maybe KB could publish (with permission of the authors, of course) these inspiring and useful posts in an ebook. Even at 99¢ it would bring in some cash for the site, and so many beginning authors could profit from these posts.
 
#21 ·
Monique said:
Terrific post, Robert. Nothing beats hard work.
This! Thank you, Robert. I love these success stories--and the advice? Priceless.

(But I really wish everyone would stop telling me to work so darn hard!) ...hand to forehead... ...sigh...
 
#22 ·
Andrew Ashling said:
Maybe KB could publish (with permission of the authors, of course) these inspiring and useful posts in an ebook. Even at 99¢ it would bring in some cash for the site, and so many beginning authors could profit from these posts.
But what you write belongs to you so unless the authors donate their postings to KB, don't the authors own the words they post to KB?
 
#24 ·
It's rare I stammer to click a post as fast as I can but when I saw Roberts name on it I did. Glad to see you back here, Robert. Newbies like me look up to the people paving the way and passing down their knowledge to us. I only hope I can pay it forward someday as well.

Oh and Mimi, it's not a red circle it's a blue dot(obscure reference).
 
#26 ·
JanThompson said:
But what you write belongs to you so unless the authors donate their postings to KB, don't the authors own the words they post to KB?
Andrew Ashling said:
Maybe KB could publish (with permission of the authors, of course) these inspiring and useful posts in an ebook. Even at 99¢ it would bring in some cash for the site, and so many beginning authors could profit from these posts.
 
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