- Joined
- Aug 25, 2011
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Five good years at self-publishing? Surely not.
But it's true. I have been in this for five years. (I was trade published before that for 25 years, but I made ridiculously little money at it via that route, and several years I spent more in postage stamps than I earned! Ahh, the old days.) I’ve done well, and I've been earning the top wages of my work life for over four years now.
Last year when I posted an anniversary post, having reached my limit of writing several books per year, and not willing to "pay to play" as Amazon's AMS system demands, I was feeling certain that my sales would tail off badly this past year. Still, at that point I was satisfied with having had my moment in the sun and being aware of the sunset approaching. A lot of writers never experience what I have for a few years, and I'm well aware of that, and I am appropriately grateful.
But then this year I got another dose of good luck. (I of course worked for it, but such efforts often come to nothing.) Occasionally, your career ship goes where you steer it. Mine did this past year. Next year? Not counting on it. The landscape has shifted, and it’s harder to succeed these days than it was in 2014.
My avatar shows something of my sales at Amazon midway through the year. (My novels cost 2.99 to 5.99 USD, and I don't give away free books, not even for promotions.) I also have paper and audio sales, the former earning me about $100/month, and the latter doubling my income in the best months. I only run newsletter ads two or three times per year. After a brief try, I do no social media. If fans write me, I of course write them back.
I began this journey five years back with good writing skills (and enough sales, editorial feedback, and awards that I knew this assessment wasn't merely a Dunning-Kruger delusion), but I had few skills in running a business. I have since learned to be better than competent as a publisher and businessperson. Still, I never did and never will love the management end of the job. I run promos and fill out tax forms and study contracts with slightly less enthusiasm than with which I clean my toilet.
I accomplished all the career goals I'd been carrying around for 30 years. (I never once thought I'd be at the Stephen King level of successful, with a mansion on the ocean/lake and slow boozy lunches with famous people, as I'm a hard-headed realist who knew several midlist writers before I became one myself and understood such a movieland writer’s life is a fiction.) Achieving my sales/ranking/income/fan-letter goals was nothing like I thought it would be, and the dream-come-true of FT writing had many bad-dream moments. Many people think of "writing success" as a steady climb and once you "make it," life gets easier…but that's not so. It gets harder, with many tedious jobs piling onto the basic job of writing. Writing has to be done every day no matter how busy you are otherwise, and if you don't like doing it before you have success, by the way, or if you do everything you can to avoid getting your words this week, you certainly will not like the job any more when you need to do it fulltime to pay your mortgage!
Furthermore, and again this applies both to the self-published and trade-published author, wherever go you on the road of writing success, you meet yourself there, so it really doesn't change much but your bank account. Even the income inevitably fades, and a smart person saves most of his extra earnings during the golden years for that inevitable day. Success will fade for me too, and probably next year or the year after that.
And then it will be someone else's turn to have a half-dozen FT years. Maybe yours, if you work hard and persevere long enough for luck to smile on you. I very much hope it does.
But it's true. I have been in this for five years. (I was trade published before that for 25 years, but I made ridiculously little money at it via that route, and several years I spent more in postage stamps than I earned! Ahh, the old days.) I’ve done well, and I've been earning the top wages of my work life for over four years now.
Last year when I posted an anniversary post, having reached my limit of writing several books per year, and not willing to "pay to play" as Amazon's AMS system demands, I was feeling certain that my sales would tail off badly this past year. Still, at that point I was satisfied with having had my moment in the sun and being aware of the sunset approaching. A lot of writers never experience what I have for a few years, and I'm well aware of that, and I am appropriately grateful.
But then this year I got another dose of good luck. (I of course worked for it, but such efforts often come to nothing.) Occasionally, your career ship goes where you steer it. Mine did this past year. Next year? Not counting on it. The landscape has shifted, and it’s harder to succeed these days than it was in 2014.
My avatar shows something of my sales at Amazon midway through the year. (My novels cost 2.99 to 5.99 USD, and I don't give away free books, not even for promotions.) I also have paper and audio sales, the former earning me about $100/month, and the latter doubling my income in the best months. I only run newsletter ads two or three times per year. After a brief try, I do no social media. If fans write me, I of course write them back.
I began this journey five years back with good writing skills (and enough sales, editorial feedback, and awards that I knew this assessment wasn't merely a Dunning-Kruger delusion), but I had few skills in running a business. I have since learned to be better than competent as a publisher and businessperson. Still, I never did and never will love the management end of the job. I run promos and fill out tax forms and study contracts with slightly less enthusiasm than with which I clean my toilet.
I accomplished all the career goals I'd been carrying around for 30 years. (I never once thought I'd be at the Stephen King level of successful, with a mansion on the ocean/lake and slow boozy lunches with famous people, as I'm a hard-headed realist who knew several midlist writers before I became one myself and understood such a movieland writer’s life is a fiction.) Achieving my sales/ranking/income/fan-letter goals was nothing like I thought it would be, and the dream-come-true of FT writing had many bad-dream moments. Many people think of "writing success" as a steady climb and once you "make it," life gets easier…but that's not so. It gets harder, with many tedious jobs piling onto the basic job of writing. Writing has to be done every day no matter how busy you are otherwise, and if you don't like doing it before you have success, by the way, or if you do everything you can to avoid getting your words this week, you certainly will not like the job any more when you need to do it fulltime to pay your mortgage!
Furthermore, and again this applies both to the self-published and trade-published author, wherever go you on the road of writing success, you meet yourself there, so it really doesn't change much but your bank account. Even the income inevitably fades, and a smart person saves most of his extra earnings during the golden years for that inevitable day. Success will fade for me too, and probably next year or the year after that.
And then it will be someone else's turn to have a half-dozen FT years. Maybe yours, if you work hard and persevere long enough for luck to smile on you. I very much hope it does.
