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20 books to 50k
1 - 20 of 116 Posts
I think I define the top as the series being made into movies or tv series. But I agree, rabid fans who cant get enough are a definition worth paying attention to.manderle said:
Btw, Kneel or Die is on page 3 of my also-boughts for Hero to the Rescue.
Congratulations on your success. You've clearly got good crampons. Every time I try to buy some, they're all sold out, and I'm left at the bottom of the slope wearing flippers!
Appreciate the post Michael. Good job finding your niche and giving them material that they like to read. When your reviews end with, "can't wait for the next book..." then you've resonated well. It sets you up to win. Excellent work and congratulations on realizing your retirement to Cabo
Thank you EVERYONE for chiming in!
To those who want to get involved in the 20 books to 50k FB Group, message me on Facebook so I can add you to the group. Please understand, the goal is hacking the authoring process and making a livable income. So it will not be so useful if you want a literary agent / New York Times / etc. (at the moment, obviously you could do AWESOME and get those, too!)
If there is a way to shorten the success cycle, I (we) try to figure out a potential solution and we just try it.
Hit me up on Facebook to join the group here: https://www.facebook.com/michael.anderle.16
On Marketing
I have done (and continue) to do Facebook drip campaigns around $12-$15 a day tops. My focus is on how to be successful without Bookbub / spending some of the insane amounts on Facebook I did back in January. I've played with $0.99 and I recently pulled my book back up to $2.99. The money is still very good, but I dropped in ranking. I'll admit that I'm competitive, so I'm focused on both gaining sales and ranking.
What I am testing at the moment is hacking the 30 day 'cliff' issue. After a lot of effort related to Also-boughts, my outlaw testing is to drop a short story between my longer books so that I'm never outside of 30 days. If you read a fair amount of posts, everyone says two things work: 1) Bookbub & 2) Another story. I can't control #1, so I'll work on #2.
Here are my thoughts when deciding to try this strategy:
* The short stories are much faster to produce.
* I'm targeting these short stories into genre's a little different than my core stories. New audience sees my name.
* My fans will guarantee that I'm in the top 20 of most small niche's for a week or so.
* I'm making money on this marketing effort, not spending it (Well, after editing / cover)
* My backlist is growing.
* I noticed after dropping my short story that there are some really big names doing the same thing. [email protected]! ;-)
I spent time thinking about these short stories and how they fit into the bigger Universe. I make sure that the short stories are fulfilling a need for the series fans as well as potentially bringing in new fans.
On hacking a new and successful series
Here are the core steps I will tell everyone joining 20 books:
1) Read this article on emotionally engaging: http://annerallen.com/2016/03/insider-secrets-top-short-story-writers.html
2) Make sure, really sure, that your first few paragraphs make the reader give a [crap] about that character. Rip apart everything out of your story until you do that. Be brutal with yourself. For your favorite stories, go back and read them with an eye to paragraph, action, description and how they delineate characters talking. Beautiful descriptions do not engage me as a reader, a person (character) does. That beautiful mountain becomes incredibly interesting when the characters spaceship just narrowly missed it. It was the action and the characters sudden chance at pancaking into this mountain that gripped me.
3) Hacking the right story idea: Plan your book in 15-20k installments - Why? Because we aren't going to ask your Aunt, Uncle, Brother, Sister, Mother and Friends to answer whether or not your book is any good. In the end, it ONLY matters if the readers enjoy it. So, we are going to put your book out as short stories. If you can't get readers from Book 01 to Book 03? Close the series and try again. It took 200k words for me to write 3 books. It would now take me 45k - 60k words to figure out if I'm on to something (and not alienate those close to me in the process). I'm not looking for a circle of people to pat me on the back and then fail in the marketplace. I can tell you if I like something and will, but if you're a horror writer, I'm not going to be able to answer it all because I won't read your genre. That stuff scares me, so why am I going to read it? I'm not the target market, but providing it to the target market is hella-easy. Scary, but easy.
4) Make sure you have a solid (genre specific) cover. I'd budget to get a pre-built if you don't have someone who can do this. I've done the covers for my mentee's if they want to work with me. Here is a post with the one's I've created to help them: 5) Hacking your blurb: Subscribe to Bookbub for your genre while you are writing. Then copy out every blurb for books in your Genre and get a sense for their style. Find one you like and plug in your own information. Then tweak until it flows.
6) Go KU, the voracious readers in the program are willing (and anxiously looking) for new content.
7) Don't worry about reviews at the moment. If you have something, you will see it within a few days. If not, get advice on your cover / blurb. Otherwise, it's your story - It's not working with the readers.
8.) The goal isn't to market your way to success, it is to write in the genre you like that can support you, and then create the characters and hook that resonates and finding that match as quick as humanly possible.
9) T S Paul (a mentee) put his shorts out at $2.99... He recently asked if I thought he should change his pricing. Since I would have SWORN you couldn't sell a short story at $2.99, I told him he should keep his own counsel as mine would just cost him money. He's forging his own path up his mountain and I'm now learning from him.
Thank You
To Gary, Chris, David, Felicia, Timothy, Scott, Lisa, Craig, CM, Oakwood, Raquel, Evan, Evan Pickering, and Spencer for your replies! They mean the world to me.
To Timothy - Thank writing one of the series that helped me with defining my own path.
Talk to you soon, I've got another 5k words to write before the Smarter Artists Summit (I'm arriving Tuesday for those going. Looking forward to meeting so many of you there!)
Michael Anderle
To those who want to get involved in the 20 books to 50k FB Group, message me on Facebook so I can add you to the group. Please understand, the goal is hacking the authoring process and making a livable income. So it will not be so useful if you want a literary agent / New York Times / etc. (at the moment, obviously you could do AWESOME and get those, too!)
If there is a way to shorten the success cycle, I (we) try to figure out a potential solution and we just try it.
Hit me up on Facebook to join the group here: https://www.facebook.com/michael.anderle.16
On Marketing
I have done (and continue) to do Facebook drip campaigns around $12-$15 a day tops. My focus is on how to be successful without Bookbub / spending some of the insane amounts on Facebook I did back in January. I've played with $0.99 and I recently pulled my book back up to $2.99. The money is still very good, but I dropped in ranking. I'll admit that I'm competitive, so I'm focused on both gaining sales and ranking.
What I am testing at the moment is hacking the 30 day 'cliff' issue. After a lot of effort related to Also-boughts, my outlaw testing is to drop a short story between my longer books so that I'm never outside of 30 days. If you read a fair amount of posts, everyone says two things work: 1) Bookbub & 2) Another story. I can't control #1, so I'll work on #2.
Here are my thoughts when deciding to try this strategy:
* The short stories are much faster to produce.
* I'm targeting these short stories into genre's a little different than my core stories. New audience sees my name.
* My fans will guarantee that I'm in the top 20 of most small niche's for a week or so.
* I'm making money on this marketing effort, not spending it (Well, after editing / cover)
* My backlist is growing.
* I noticed after dropping my short story that there are some really big names doing the same thing. [email protected]! ;-)
I spent time thinking about these short stories and how they fit into the bigger Universe. I make sure that the short stories are fulfilling a need for the series fans as well as potentially bringing in new fans.
On hacking a new and successful series
Here are the core steps I will tell everyone joining 20 books:
1) Read this article on emotionally engaging: http://annerallen.com/2016/03/insider-secrets-top-short-story-writers.html
2) Make sure, really sure, that your first few paragraphs make the reader give a [crap] about that character. Rip apart everything out of your story until you do that. Be brutal with yourself. For your favorite stories, go back and read them with an eye to paragraph, action, description and how they delineate characters talking. Beautiful descriptions do not engage me as a reader, a person (character) does. That beautiful mountain becomes incredibly interesting when the characters spaceship just narrowly missed it. It was the action and the characters sudden chance at pancaking into this mountain that gripped me.
3) Hacking the right story idea: Plan your book in 15-20k installments - Why? Because we aren't going to ask your Aunt, Uncle, Brother, Sister, Mother and Friends to answer whether or not your book is any good. In the end, it ONLY matters if the readers enjoy it. So, we are going to put your book out as short stories. If you can't get readers from Book 01 to Book 03? Close the series and try again. It took 200k words for me to write 3 books. It would now take me 45k - 60k words to figure out if I'm on to something (and not alienate those close to me in the process). I'm not looking for a circle of people to pat me on the back and then fail in the marketplace. I can tell you if I like something and will, but if you're a horror writer, I'm not going to be able to answer it all because I won't read your genre. That stuff scares me, so why am I going to read it?
I'm not the target market, but providing it to the target market is hella-easy. Scary, but easy.4) Make sure you have a solid (genre specific) cover. I'd budget to get a pre-built if you don't have someone who can do this. I've done the covers for my mentee's if they want to work with me. Here is a post with the one's I've created to help them: 5) Hacking your blurb: Subscribe to Bookbub for your genre while you are writing. Then copy out every blurb for books in your Genre and get a sense for their style. Find one you like and plug in your own information. Then tweak until it flows.
6) Go KU, the voracious readers in the program are willing (and anxiously looking) for new content.
7) Don't worry about reviews at the moment. If you have something, you will see it within a few days. If not, get advice on your cover / blurb. Otherwise, it's your story - It's not working with the readers.
8.) The goal isn't to market your way to success, it is to write in the genre you like that can support you, and then create the characters and hook that resonates and finding that match as quick as humanly possible.
9) T S Paul (a mentee) put his shorts out at $2.99... He recently asked if I thought he should change his pricing. Since I would have SWORN you couldn't sell a short story at $2.99, I told him he should keep his own counsel as mine would just cost him money. He's forging his own path up his mountain and I'm now learning from him.
Thank You
To Gary, Chris, David, Felicia, Timothy, Scott, Lisa, Craig, CM, Oakwood, Raquel, Evan, Evan Pickering, and Spencer for your replies! They mean the world to me.
To Timothy - Thank writing one of the series that helped me with defining my own path.
Talk to you soon, I've got another 5k words to write before the Smarter Artists Summit (I'm arriving Tuesday for those going. Looking forward to meeting so many of you there!)
Michael Anderle
Dude, we need to talk! Enough with just passing by on kBoards ;-)TimothyEllis said:I think I define the top as the series being made into movies or tv series. But I agree, rabid fans who cant get enough are a definition worth paying attention to.
Btw, Kneel or Die is on page 3 of my also-boughts for Hero to the Rescue.
Book 8 has some scenes in Australia as it is my second largest market. Australians are simply some of God's best people I think, and we here in the U.S. don't think or hear too much about you guys. How about we exchange your location with something closer? My first fan / editor is an Australian and he was so helpful.
Michael
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