4 ms·

I read some reddit's post regarding to this topic. The main takeaway was that living, or higher profits came only if you were being aggressive with ads. Somet

by taopai 3y ago

I read some reddit's post regarding to this topic. The main takeaway was that living, or higher profits came only if you were being aggressive with ads. Something like reinvesting 50% of the profits in digital ads (google, amazon). If your book reaches near top #1, you've done it. Now I realized that most of the books I read published on XXI century had been very popular, top of the chart books in some genre, during some years and I found them trough reddit/forums recommendations. Books that you would still find regarded as best in Amazon. Internet it's pushing Pareto principle to an extreme. The same goes for music, digital art, cinema, teaching, etc. Small artists are sheltering themselves in services like Patreon because they beat the giants in terms of selling. Also I think people are reading less. My friends don't read. They pay +15/30 USD a month to Netflix and other services. That's money and time "taken away" from reading, books.

drakonka 3y ago
I know quite a few authors making a living without paying for any ads, but it's definitely a different type of effort. You have to really hone in on social media, getting large review teams, etc to get visibility for your books without ads. IMO someone starting out is probably best off not spending money on ads. They have too many other things to perfect as they learn, which can only be done by publishing over and over. At least with fiction, you're looking at building a backlist - it's not a "write one breakout book and live off of it forever" kind of thing. After a few books published it can make sense to start setting an ad budget, and using ads successfully is a whole other learning curve to dive into.
- taopai 3y ago
  It makes sense. Do you have any advice to someone who would start writing fiction books? I write a lot but only for myself. I don't care about money but I would like to persevere to some day be able to produce quality works in my own language.
  - drakonka 3y ago
    I suggest starting by deciding what you do care about, since it's not the money. What does "producing quality works" mean to you? How do you measure it? If you write only for yourself you can be your own judge of quality. Or do you intend to measure your success in readership, or reviews? If you decide you care about getting people to actually read your work, the next step would likely be narrowing down your genre and checking out what is doing well in that genre and niche. Look at Amazon top 100 lists for your categories, for example. What's selling? What's getting good or bad reviews? Open the Look Inside previews of the books. What POV are the stories written in, are there any patterns you notice in successful covers or blurbs, etc? If you don't already read in your chosen genre, you probably want to start. At the same time, you can start writing. I'd personally suggest starting with short stories or novellas. Something you can finish and put out there asap to get the feedback loop going. Self-publishing is low barrier to entry, but there are a lot of balls to juggle. Each thing you put out will provide more information for your next book. Before publishing your first book, decide if you want to go into Kindle Unlimited (Amazon exclusivity) or "wide" (publishing to all retailers). There are huge pros and cons of each, and some genres are better suited for one or the other. KU can be easier to get traction and start seeing page reads with, but it has its cons as well. Also, decide if you want to use a pen name. Try not to get too attached to the first stories you publish. They will probably suck. Personally I would not bother spending money on an editor or cover designer when you start out, but it depends on the genre and your own budget/priorities. From there it's basically about iterating on what you have with every new book. There's way too much to cover in one comment and more specific genre-based strategies depending on what you're writing, so this is more like a dump of my general thoughts for someone starting out.
    - taopai 3y ago
      Thank you a lot.
    - dlx 3y ago
      This is great advice! As someone who also is starting out writing fiction and does care about making money in the long run (let's say I have about a year of runway) would you add anything else to the above advice?
bodantogat 3y ago
Also, its very difficult to make money on just one book. Most indie authors start seeing better sales after 5-10 books, having built up a loyal reader base.
x0x0 3y ago
I will say that I think succeeding as an author requires business skills that most of them appear to lack. Amazon has started getting better at notifying me that there are new books available by an author from whom I've previously purchased books, but for a long time, and even now, I'd say most authors that I read aren't even getting me on an email list to eg tell me there's more stuff of theirs that I can buy. That's really business 101 and they're just not doing it. It's weird.
boznz 3y ago
Not just higher profits, but if you are self-published or have no reviews yet then your book is usually on the 400th page on anyone's search. I have still told nobody I know about my book, it's kind of an experiment, because it would be easy for me to email blast everyone I know to like it, but I really want people to read it without pre-conception and so far no sales, even though it is free! (or 0.99 cents on Amazon as that's Amazon)
- drakonka 3y ago
  Not telling anyone you know is probably smart. _If_ you write outside of the genre your friends group usually reads and a bunch of them visit and buy your book out of curiosity on Amazon, it can negatively impact the categorization of your books. "oh these people who usually read historical fiction are buying this new medical thriller. We will show this medical thriller to other people with the same buying habits!" Only readers of historical fiction who aren't your friends probably won't bother picking up a medical thriller. Regarding reviews, this is why many authors build ARC teams. Reviews are really important, so they send out advance review copies.

by taopai 3y ago

drakonka 3y ago

I know quite a few authors making a living without paying for any ads, but it's definitely a different type of effort. You have to really hone in on social media, getting large review teams, etc to get visibility for your books without ads. IMO someone starting out is probably best off not spending money on ads. They have too many other things to perfect as they learn, which can only be done by publishing over and over. At least with fiction, you're looking at building a backlist - it's not a "write one breakout book and live off of it forever" kind of thing. After a few books published it can make sense to start setting an ad budget, and using ads successfully is a whole other learning curve to dive into.

taopai 3y ago
It makes sense. Do you have any advice to someone who would start writing fiction books? I write a lot but only for myself. I don't care about money but I would like to persevere to some day be able to produce quality works in my own language.
- drakonka 3y ago
  I suggest starting by deciding what you do care about, since it's not the money. What does "producing quality works" mean to you? How do you measure it? If you write only for yourself you can be your own judge of quality. Or do you intend to measure your success in readership, or reviews? If you decide you care about getting people to actually read your work, the next step would likely be narrowing down your genre and checking out what is doing well in that genre and niche. Look at Amazon top 100 lists for your categories, for example. What's selling? What's getting good or bad reviews? Open the Look Inside previews of the books. What POV are the stories written in, are there any patterns you notice in successful covers or blurbs, etc? If you don't already read in your chosen genre, you probably want to start. At the same time, you can start writing. I'd personally suggest starting with short stories or novellas. Something you can finish and put out there asap to get the feedback loop going. Self-publishing is low barrier to entry, but there are a lot of balls to juggle. Each thing you put out will provide more information for your next book. Before publishing your first book, decide if you want to go into Kindle Unlimited (Amazon exclusivity) or "wide" (publishing to all retailers). There are huge pros and cons of each, and some genres are better suited for one or the other. KU can be easier to get traction and start seeing page reads with, but it has its cons as well. Also, decide if you want to use a pen name. Try not to get too attached to the first stories you publish. They will probably suck. Personally I would not bother spending money on an editor or cover designer when you start out, but it depends on the genre and your own budget/priorities. From there it's basically about iterating on what you have with every new book. There's way too much to cover in one comment and more specific genre-based strategies depending on what you're writing, so this is more like a dump of my general thoughts for someone starting out.
  - taopai 3y ago
    Thank you a lot.
  - dlx 3y ago
    This is great advice! As someone who also is starting out writing fiction and does care about making money in the long run (let's say I have about a year of runway) would you add anything else to the above advice?

bodantogat 3y ago

Also, its very difficult to make money on just one book. Most indie authors start seeing better sales after 5-10 books, having built up a loyal reader base.

x0x0 3y ago

I will say that I think succeeding as an author requires business skills that most of them appear to lack. Amazon has started getting better at notifying me that there are new books available by an author from whom I've previously purchased books, but for a long time, and even now, I'd say most authors that I read aren't even getting me on an email list to eg tell me there's more stuff of theirs that I can buy. That's really business 101 and they're just not doing it. It's weird.

boznz 3y ago

Not just higher profits, but if you are self-published or have no reviews yet then your book is usually on the 400th page on anyone's search. I have still told nobody I know about my book, it's kind of an experiment, because it would be easy for me to email blast everyone I know to like it, but I really want people to read it without pre-conception and so far no sales, even though it is free! (or 0.99 cents on Amazon as that's Amazon)

drakonka 3y ago
Not telling anyone you know is probably smart. _If_ you write outside of the genre your friends group usually reads and a bunch of them visit and buy your book out of curiosity on Amazon, it can negatively impact the categorization of your books. "oh these people who usually read historical fiction are buying this new medical thriller. We will show this medical thriller to other people with the same buying habits!" Only readers of historical fiction who aren't your friends probably won't bother picking up a medical thriller. Regarding reviews, this is why many authors build ARC teams. Reviews are really important, so they send out advance review copies.