Last week was quite interesting. Wild Ride, a NY Times bestseller in hardcover, co-written with Jennifer Crusie, was released in mass market paperback by St. Martins Press. And Who Dares Wins Publishing was selling as many ebooks in a day as we were selling in a month at the end of last year. We have reached the ‘tipping point’ where eight of my titles are ranked in the top 100 in their categories on Amazon with Atlantis hitting the top 20 in science fiction.
I’ve been in traditional publishing for 20 years. My first book came out in 1991. I hit my first bestseller list in 1997 with my third Area 51 book. I first started self-publishing my backlist in January of 2010. I didn’t really focus on it as I was still focused on my traditional publishing. It was only this year that I really decided to focus on self-publishing with my backlist, and my frontlist of Chasing the Ghost and Duty, Honor, Country a Novel of West Point & the Civil War.
So speaking from that background, what does it take to succeed in self-publishing? I was asked that question this morning by a reporter from Germany interviewing me about self-publishing as Amazon Kindle has now opened for business in Germany (coincidentally a copy of Duty, Honor, Country sold on Kindle DE during the interview). The answer: The same as it does in traditional publishing. Good books. A lot of hard work. Focus. Consistency. Accepting that marketing is an integral part of being a writer.
I see writers on Kindle Forums complaining about their sales within days of uploading their first manuscript. I see them speculating on what they should be selling, what price point to choose, etc. etc. And I just shake my head. Perhaps one good thing coming out of traditional publishing is that you lose any sense of immediate gratification. That simply isn’t the way it works. The fact you can check sales every day on Kindle, PubIt, LSI, etc. feeds into this ‘success now’ syndrome. Frankly, I’m okay with it because it will cause many of the wanna-be’s to quit sooner rather than later.
I think we really started to click at Who Dares Wins when we made a commitment to several things:
- Be consistent. It’s easy to get discourage doing all those things need to build community and attract readers. But we made a commitment to doing those things every single day.
- Be positive. It’s easy to get discouraged. To get snarky especially when people take shots at you. We took the attitude that we would never do anything that didn’t have a positive side to it, no matter what we felt.
- Slow down and do things right. Honestly, we rushed our first titles out in 2010 not completely understanding all that was involved. We had some bad covers, some lousy formatting, no marketing plan, etc. We’re getting ready to redo our web site and make it automated for direct sales in all formats, accept credit cards, etc. and we know we have to do it right, even it means shutting the site down for as long as it takes.
- Change when needed. We learned from our mistakes. We didn’t try to hide or ignore when we screwed up. We admitted it and fixed problems. When we tried something and it didn’t work, we examined why and made the hard decision whether to redo it a different way or drop it. As an aside, I think we will eventually revive the Cool Gus/Sassy Becca greeting card line. Heck, tourists take pictures of them sitting in my Jeep when it’s parked in town while I go to the store.
- Be disciplined. Self-publishing is not an excuse to have no deadlines as a writer. In traditional publishing, your contract specifies a due date for the manuscript. For 20 years, I always beat or, at worst, met those deadlines on my own. This year, I sat down and scheduled publication dates. From that date we back up, factoring in all the steps needed to publish: beta readers, rewrites, edit, copy edit, cover, formatting, uploading, etc. etc. This gives us our production schedule. On the positive side for self-publishing, it’s much leaner and quicker than traditional publishing. We’ve got a 4th of July pub date for The Jefferson Allegiance and we’re definitely on track for that. And even before then we’ll have our Guide to Writers’ Conference, Critique Group Guide and Apocalypse Tomorrow: The Green Beret Guide to Surviving the Collapse of Civilization (and other lesser disasters) out. I’m growing tired just writing all this. But also excited. And that leads me to:
- Look forward and focus on the long term. In Warrior Writer I talk about a thing called Grit. I’ll blog more on this later, but in essence the The key to success is to set a specific long-term goal and to do whatever it takes until the goal has been achieved. That’s called Grit (defined as courage and resolve; strength of character).
In essence, all of the above are the same traits needed to succeed in any form of publishing. The difference indie publishing is that we have more control and, accordingly, more responsibility. In fact, as I teach in my Who Dares Wins consulting, these are also the traits that help anyone succeed in any field. Your thoughts?
Pingback: More Cowbell Mash-up #5: Writing and Blogging It Forward | Jenny Hansen's Blog
Although I know I shouldn’t, I do check my sales figures too often. There’s no ‘magic formula’ for overnight success. Thanks for the advice.
Terry
Terry’s Place
Romance with a Twist–of Mystery
I’ve had to discipline myself not to become too obsessed with sales figures and to focus on steady, consistence performance both as a writer and in promotion. Thank you for the words of wisdom.
Great advice, as always. It’s most definitely a marathon, not a sprint. And I love creating “backwards” schedules, as I call them. Helps keep me honest. Congrats on all of your success, Bob, and for so willingly sharing your experience with us.
These are great guidelines for a newcomer like me to keep in mind. Self-publishing has been an exciting, at times exasperating challenge. It is indeed a slow, long road. Inch by inch, step by step. Thanks for your insights!
Your blog is important to everyone with an interest in publishing. I love JAK, and he’s a great cheerleader, but you’re an honest coach. Good stuff.
The pups are unfailingly photogenic and would make excellent models for greeting cards.
Please talk more about Apocalypse and Jefferson as we slog into summer. We’ve been looking forward to those.
Good stuff… I think your “slow down” advice is most pertinent, given how quickly people can ‘publish’ things on Amazon etc. now. The poor formatting and proof reading [quickly scans post for typos...!] of a small fraction of self-published books risks making everyone look bad…
James
Funnily enough I blogged today about Proactivity. In the end you have to do stuff in order to get stuff done. It sounds simple and of course it is, but people seem to forget that you have to keep</em doing stuff in order for it to get done. Nothing happens by itself and the more you do, the more you achieve.
When I first started my blog I checked the stats constantly – I was beyond obsessed. Now I have a look once or twice a day, usually after I've received a comment. And yes, the numbers are going up. Because I kept at it (I post almost daily), there's more for people to look at. And I'll keep doing that because it's working, for me and for the readers. Not a perfect metaphor, but not bad.
Wow. I really need to learn about html tags. *headdesk*
I think those who are in it for the long haul and are willing to work hard at both the craft of writing and the business will succeed.
I had to laugh and shake me head in recognition. Traditional publishing DOES teach patience, among other things. This is all great advice. Better to take it slow and do it right than to rush rush rush.
One thing we folk going indie have to recognize in scheduling our books is the huge surge self-publishing is now experiencing. This means that those wonderful cover artists and book designers, etc. are getting busy and backed up, and may not even get to our project for months. Planning is key!
Thank you Bob Mayer, for a much needed jolt of reality. I have just started semi-inde publishing my work as eBooks and I was floundering trying to figure out time scales and a long-term view of the possible. The social medium’s such as twitter and my blog seemed to be grinding really slow and I was unprepared to go chasing figures in ‘the I’ll follow you if you follow me’, tit-for-tat way that seems to get people thousands of followers and tweets and blogs they could never read. The sharp dose of un-common sense and the long term strategic view contained in your advice has revitalised me. I was sliding into the despondency and negativity you warn against.
Salute sir!
David Rory O’Neill
What a great post
. Thank you for this realistic view on what it takes. Patience and planning are definitely huge!
Bob, After several years of going through the submission and query stage I finally settled on Self Publishing. I have had published, “Many Lands Many Hearts”-more than a memoir and two travel mysteries, “Sentimental Me” and “Canyons of the Soul” and sometimes questioned taking this route. Your comments on self publishing have restored faith in my decision and inspired me to finish the final draft in the series. Thank you.
Charles L. Fields
I believe you need a platform and to recruit a team to build that platform. You had the benefit of being a known-name when you decided to self-publish, whereas most of us are starting from Ground Zero. We aren’t self-publishing titles that were on the NY Times best-seller list.
Many of us are nobody and it takes a lot of work on social media and a great team of people who consistently plug us, recommend our blogs, link to us and praise us openly to earn the respect and reputation we need to be successful. Without the help of others and consistently posting good content to build our platform, we have little hope of breaking that top 100.
Bob Mayer has some good advice, but I also think Kristen has a great point. I’d like to hear more from someone who began with self-publishing to find out what he or she did to make reasonable inroads (hearing from a superstar self-publisher is fine, but I need to know what to realistically expect.)
Building a team seems like the most sensible way to get started. Anyone else have some advice.
I’m not yet published. Still laying the groundword for everything. I used to think I’d only try for traditional publishing, but I’ve been leaning more and more towards the self-publishing option. Still, I want to approach the whole process with “grit” as you say. I’ve learned so much from you, Bob and also from Kristen. Thank you!!!
Pingback: More on self-publishing « Random Thoughts
There is a lot of grunt work that goes into this process. Some of it is the same grunt work you would have to do if you were being published traditionally or with a small press. You would have to build YOUR platform and build YOUR readership. All the marketing, promotion, social media, etc, every author, no matter who publishes them, has to market both themselves and their books.
Amanda Hocking is a great example of someone who started in self-publishing. There are many others, but she has seen the success that many traditionally published authors have yet to be able to obtain. She worked very hard to get where she is.
We have been doing this for a year and a half and we are seeing some great success. But we must remember the early days. Yes, Bob had an extensive backlist to work with and an incredible writing career…but we sat and stared at the sales numbers as they trickled in one book at a time… Having traditional publishing success doesn’t guarantee an author self-publishing success. We have worked very hard over the last year and a half and its paying off.
We must remember that our shopping experience has changed and with that, so has the way our books are found. While it’s easier to publish, it is very hard to get a book in front of the reading public. But it can be done. Persistence. Patience. Grit. And perhaps a little more Grit with a dash of luck.
The exciting part is there is a lot of opportunity for authors to do all this and do it successfully.
“I see them speculating on what they ‘should be’ selling….”
Rarely do I check my sales stats. I DO need to put a better effort into promoting, something I honestly detest.
Great points. 2 Thumbs Up
Great information. I plan on going the traditional route for publishing, but I know many writers are going the self publishing route. With the advent of Pub-It!, it’s so easy to be self-published. It’s good to have someone holding their hand.
Great post as always Bob.
And you’re right, it’s a marathon not a sprint. I have to keep reminding myself that as well. I have set out short term goals and long range ones. I think that’s the key is to focus on those.
Great advice! I’ve been published by indie press for years, and recently published several titles for 99 cents each on Kindle. My sales numbers keep improving, so I’m happy that I decided to try the 99-cent Kindle experiment. I’m also glad that I already knew how important it is to be patient in the world of publishing and book sales. I’m currently in the process of arranging book reviews, interviews, and book giveaways on blogs. I’m hoping this will further increase my sales, and I’m enjoying the experience.
“Perhaps one good thing coming out of traditional publishing is that you lose any sense of immediate gratification.”
Haha, probably helpful! I do check my ebook sales every day, but I’ve been through this before, in a manner of speaking, as professional blogger, so I’m used to things not happening over night. I made something like 93 cents the first six months I tried to make any money from my sites, but two years later I was earning a fulltime income.
It was definitely a gradual road, especially the first year, but I do agree there tends to be a tipping point in these things where you have enough work out there and you’ve done enough promotion that people start finding you even when you’re not doing anything.
Congrats on your success and good luck to all us up-and-coming indies!
I’m in total agreement with this excellent and useful essay, except for the position on checking sales figures. I check my sales figures every day because it’s fun and motivating. After 50+ years going the traditional route and wondering if anyone was actually reading my stuff, I now start every day’s writing with the marvelous feeling that there are readers out there waiting for today’s words.
In my career, I’ve sold over 4 million books made of paper, which, though rather nice, never gave me the feeling I now get starting a day’s writing with the news that 4 copies of one title sold since yesterday.
Good points. Kristen is on target– a lot of our sales come from my backlist which is being republished. What she’s doing with We Are Not Alone and her blog is a great route for someone who doesn’t have backlist. The big thing is she’s building a community and a large web presence and that’s the key to success.
Thanks! I always appreciate your calm voice and common sense approach. You’re right on target about patience too. I believe it’s about delivering a quality product to the reader, no matter what publishing avenue you take. Setting goals and deadlines for the things we can control is vital to long term success.
Great column! Interesting insight on the troubles you had when you first started. Thanks for sharing this. For all of us out here trying to get some books sold on our own, your story should give us the fortitude to keep it going and not stop.
I think many come into self-publishing with certain delusions of how things should be. Which makes sense considering many people also start writing with a similar set of delusions. It’s all supposed to be easy, correct? We learned how to write by age 5 or so, why can’t we just scribble something down and become famous?
Since the day I found this site, Bob, my life has changed and for the better! The delusions melt away under the heat of knowledge and I’m so glad to be able to read the great advice and counsel that is provided through and your colleagues in such wonderful fashion.
Keep up the fantastic work and thanks so much
Ditto what Gene said. Thanks to Bob for sharing his insight and to all of you who add so much with your comments and experience.
Found you thru a link on Seekerville.
My middle grade adventure debuts this summer with our own publishing company, RushJoy Press. Yes, we’re crazy but honestly? I love the marketing part of it. We’ll see how we do. It’s a business like anything else and your words of wisdom ring true.
Thanks!
I look forward to reading more now that I’ve found you.
PS – May the K9 Spy just tole me she would LOVE to play with Cool Gus and Sassy Becca. She’ll bring the toys! PAWSOME!!!
Pingback: Blogs for Self-Publishers for May 1 – 7, 2011 — The Book Designer
Pingback: Untitled #ROW80 Update « Come Out and Play
Pingback: Marketing and the Writer | Bob Mayer's Blog
As you said, the necessary qualities will stand you in any profession, career or endeavour.
I have just begun writing and singing after a life of horses, vet practice, solo motherhood, driving, and dancing… It definitely follows. A bit challenging to start new careers while carrying on previous one, but with commitment to the items above, anything can be achieved.
I’m so new to this that I’ve not even THOUGHT about self-publishing, so most of you are WAY ahead! It’s a whole new world with new jargon and novel ideas for me. I’m a work marathoner who has been known to sprint at the beginning (to the shock horror of my previous XC coaches), but am finally learning to sprint more towards the end. Great to see so much positivity amongst writing people. I have just joined RWNZ and am looking forward to Conference. Looking forward to meeting you at conference. Thank you for sharing your ideas.
Regards,
Lizzi
Let me put this as nicely as I can. Your list of six items reminds me of newspaper horoscopes: such generalized nonsense that it’s impossible to disagree; but really, just nonsense. What it really takes to succeed in self-publishing is:
1. writing, and writing it well, about something readers are interest in reading enough to purchase your book
2. having a real substantive editor–not an amateur “critiquing group”–look over your book to make sure it all hangs together for sense, continuity, and that things follow from what came before; perhaps this editor, or a separate copy editor, to check for consistent spelling, punctuation, and grammar
3. hiring a book designer/layout artist to design a cover that encourages potential buying readers to pick up your book and look inside; this cover should “promise” certain things about what readers will find inside, both stylistically and substantively; the interior should employ fonts and layout, as well as typography, that are all attractive and that make it easy on readers’ eyes to just flow from word to word, line to line, and page to page throughout the book–the printed book can be an art object, and should be, when attractive and the design effort is transparent
4. using a printer that you’ve investigated for price and the kind of book you’re making
5. having a marketing plan from step 1 on that is geared toward finding your natural audience beyond the family members, friends, and acquaintances that lead to the 100 or so copies sold most every self-published book achieves
There’s simply no one way to succeed–there are 10,000 unique ways. Just as there are 10,000 definitions of success.
An excellent read for all those involved in creating and publishing great writing. Indeed it is primarily about getting your work into the hands of the people who will love it. Thanks for the post!
Your advice and guidance is powerful. Thanks for sharing. I agree you must write good books. That is really the key. It’s just like any product or service, if people buy it and it doesn’t cause them to have a reaction, in a good way, it’s not going to have legs and grow.
I’m a first-time traditionally published author of non-fiction in the biz/marketing space. My first book was released by a publisher in 2010. But I found the process too slow, and frankly, unneeded. Since that book has come out, I’ve written and marketed 4 more, with 5 more to be done within the next 6 months or so.
I’ve started a new blog on the topic of self-publishing over at http://www.nopublisherneeded.com and I’d invite anyone to come on over to continue this discussion. Times are changing, for the better, and we all need to keep the discussion going.
Pingback: I'm Published - Now What? | Romance University