Updated information (2021) in post 10: https://absolutewrite.com/forums/in...the-journey-begin-again.331142/#post-10711537
Apologies if this reads like I’m writing a book. I wrote it in Word. Ha! My other updates won’t read nearly this well. This is also my first self-publishing thread.
First things first, a quick “about me”: (I'll be publishing M/M fantasy romance)
I am not at all new to this self publishing thing. In 2016, I was still a hybrid author. Today, that pen name is retired. In 2011, I self published my first title, then decided I wanted to try digital-only imprints, and hybridized myself. I had a blast self publishing my first series between 2011 and 2012, simply because I loved to write and didn’t give a damn about money or recognition. But then a light went off. A voice said, “Holy hell, I can make money from this if I do it right”.
That’s where I screwed up. Through 2013 to 2016, I worked more with presses than self publishing anything. I changed things up and wrote in genres I hated. Why? Because it was pretty much about the money at that point.
However, I wasn’t having fun. At all. I was working too hard at quantity than quality, trying to speed up my wpm, beating word count records for year’s past, all to get as many books written as I can. Nope, no fun at all, especially with two teenagers, one with special needs, and a part-time job to tend to. Oh, and a stint of depression in 2014 didn’t help at all!
In early 2017, I retired my old pen name’s (I was working with two at the time) and took all my self published titles off the shelves.
I haven’t worried at all about writing since and it’s been a wonderful two year reprieve. I can finally breath again!
I still love to write, though. I still love to share my stuff with the public. So here’s my new project, to self publish with no qualms and just enjoy myself. I’ve chosen to work in a genre I know – M/M romance. I’ll be writing mainly fantasy romance, mixing in some paranormal. I also have ideas for a western. But I will not touch contemporary! I find it pretty boring.
Yeah, basically I’m doing what I believe I should have done with my old pen name. Gosh, I hope this works out for me.
Note: it's time to hit "publish"!
I have $0 start-up capital. No funds for websites or advertising. All I have left is the experience and some left over image packs from DepositPhotos to design my own cover art. Wait, I take that back. I was commissioning this guy for cover art, but ran out of cash. Another hobby kind of got in the way. Since I have a six-book series to brand, I figured I’ll just use stock art for now.
On to the books:
A six + book M/M fantasy romance series, released one every three months while I get back into the writing game.
For right now, there are six books with a seventh written and 2 more planned. I also have several other in-progress story ideas I may write. So I have been busy!
My Overall Goals:
Simply, to write and have fun while selling my books online. Kind of like the point I was at in 2011 with my first book, but the market is a completely different atmosphere than it was back then, and I know that. I have a decently thick skin and I’m ready for the challenges this new era may bring.
Any money made from sales will be put back into the business, i.e. marketing, website, cover art, etc, but I’ll worry about that later.
I’ve also set up a separate business Paypal and a separate email away from personal or my old pen name stuff. It’s something I didn’t do last time.
I’m also working on properly branding my covers and coming up with a tagline. Anything I didn’t do back then, I’m trying to doing now. Basically, I want to look like I know what I’m doing. Haha!
And yeah, I like doing all this stuff. It’s kind of weird to be worrying about branding when I just want to write, but it’s fun.
My Three Month Goals:
Continue working on preparing these six books for publication. Three of them are mostly complete, they just need a re-read. One needs a serious editing session. And the other two need edits completed.
I’m also going to finalize my pen name, at last. It will probably be Nanette Stark or Nanette Starr – but “Starr” doesn’t sound fantasy-ish to me.
I’ll be preparing a release schedule and hope my next update will include that.
Plan edited as of August 2019!
Apologies if this reads like I’m writing a book. I wrote it in Word. Ha! My other updates won’t read nearly this well. This is also my first self-publishing thread.
First things first, a quick “about me”: (I'll be publishing M/M fantasy romance)
I am not at all new to this self publishing thing. In 2016, I was still a hybrid author. Today, that pen name is retired. In 2011, I self published my first title, then decided I wanted to try digital-only imprints, and hybridized myself. I had a blast self publishing my first series between 2011 and 2012, simply because I loved to write and didn’t give a damn about money or recognition. But then a light went off. A voice said, “Holy hell, I can make money from this if I do it right”.
That’s where I screwed up. Through 2013 to 2016, I worked more with presses than self publishing anything. I changed things up and wrote in genres I hated. Why? Because it was pretty much about the money at that point.
However, I wasn’t having fun. At all. I was working too hard at quantity than quality, trying to speed up my wpm, beating word count records for year’s past, all to get as many books written as I can. Nope, no fun at all, especially with two teenagers, one with special needs, and a part-time job to tend to. Oh, and a stint of depression in 2014 didn’t help at all!
In early 2017, I retired my old pen name’s (I was working with two at the time) and took all my self published titles off the shelves.
I haven’t worried at all about writing since and it’s been a wonderful two year reprieve. I can finally breath again!
I still love to write, though. I still love to share my stuff with the public. So here’s my new project, to self publish with no qualms and just enjoy myself. I’ve chosen to work in a genre I know – M/M romance. I’ll be writing mainly fantasy romance, mixing in some paranormal. I also have ideas for a western. But I will not touch contemporary! I find it pretty boring.
Yeah, basically I’m doing what I believe I should have done with my old pen name. Gosh, I hope this works out for me.
Note: it's time to hit "publish"!
I have $0 start-up capital. No funds for websites or advertising. All I have left is the experience and some left over image packs from DepositPhotos to design my own cover art. Wait, I take that back. I was commissioning this guy for cover art, but ran out of cash. Another hobby kind of got in the way. Since I have a six-book series to brand, I figured I’ll just use stock art for now.
On to the books:
A six + book M/M fantasy romance series, released one every three months while I get back into the writing game.
For right now, there are six books with a seventh written and 2 more planned. I also have several other in-progress story ideas I may write. So I have been busy!
My Overall Goals:
Simply, to write and have fun while selling my books online. Kind of like the point I was at in 2011 with my first book, but the market is a completely different atmosphere than it was back then, and I know that. I have a decently thick skin and I’m ready for the challenges this new era may bring.
Any money made from sales will be put back into the business, i.e. marketing, website, cover art, etc, but I’ll worry about that later.
I’ve also set up a separate business Paypal and a separate email away from personal or my old pen name stuff. It’s something I didn’t do last time.
I’m also working on properly branding my covers and coming up with a tagline. Anything I didn’t do back then, I’m trying to doing now. Basically, I want to look like I know what I’m doing. Haha!
And yeah, I like doing all this stuff. It’s kind of weird to be worrying about branding when I just want to write, but it’s fun.
My Three Month Goals:
Continue working on preparing these six books for publication. Three of them are mostly complete, they just need a re-read. One needs a serious editing session. And the other two need edits completed.
I’m also going to finalize my pen name, at last. It will probably be Nanette Stark or Nanette Starr – but “Starr” doesn’t sound fantasy-ish to me.
I’ll be preparing a release schedule and hope my next update will include that.
Plan edited as of August 2019!
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