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What Do We Know?

Over the years contributors and many commentators have shared their experiences, observations, and advice on this blog. I thought perhaps it might be a nice idea to bring it all together for the sake of anyone new to self-publishing who might find their way here – useful, practical experiences and advice from writers who’ve been at it for a while, i.e. people who know what they’re doing. Of course we do.

So what have we learned during our self-publishing journey? What would we do differently today if we could roll back the clock and start over? Any major regrets?

And having asked the question, I suppose it’s up to me to get the ball rolling.

I don’t have any major regrets. I made mistakes, but that’s part of learning.

Self-publishing was all I considered in 2015, at the age of 65, and I chose readership over pocket change. No regrets. I’m not a goal oriented fellow, so I’m mostly surprised at the 20 books I’ve written, and with my sales. Still, they’re never enough, are they?

My major mistake was not recognizing how careless I am as a writer and how special being able to proofread reliably is. I learned this the hard way. I am amazed that with half a dozen volunteer beta/proofreaders, how little overlap there is between the lists of typos I receive back from them. Luckily in self-publishing you can upload corrected copies as needed. My first books were re-uploaded a lot.

I’ve also learned that on-line grammar correcting software can’t be fully trusted yet. But it definitely makes the job of my beta readers a whole lot easier. It is now part of my process.

I’ve always written the way words and stories come naturally to me. I’ve read writing advice pieces just to sneer at them. I never use five words where ten will do, if they add personality. I never kill my babies. This seems to work for me.

I’ve tried different covers on most of my books over the years, and never found any difference in sales. I use a uniform cover design for my book covers as my distinctive “brand.”

I’ve learned never to write sequels unless the first one is a runaway best seller, since each subsequent book sells fewer copies than the one before it. Going forward it’s all stand alone books, with open endings. On the off chance.

I’ve learned that visibility, and perhaps visibility alone is the key to sales. I don’t know how to get it. I’ve never spent any money or effort marketing my books, leaving that aspect entirely to the free price of my books. That’s worked well for me. The cool kids are all into social media in order to create the visibility and buzz needed to sell their books. Maybe it works. Anything is possible.

Lots of people read books on their phones. Make sure your books are on platforms that serve books to phones – Apple & Google. Google has been a gold mine for me, I think for that reason.

Ebooks/audiobooks reach a world-wide market on a number of platforms. A lot of people in the world read English. The more affordable your books are, the wider their potential reach outside of the US is.

Audiobooks now account for between one third and one half of my free sales. $3.99 auto-generated audiobooks on Amazon/Audible haven’t sold for me.

Selling ebooks, even free ones, has grown harder every year. The market is consolidating around a relatively few sub-genre and best selling writers who monopolize the hype. If you’ a’re serious about making money, see below. But if you don’t believe me, do your research thoroughly. Write what sells.

Self-publishing is not a viable business, unless you count buying lottery tickets as a viable business. The odds of winning are about the same. Lottery payouts are far bigger. Just say’n.

I’ve learned that being a writer isn’t likely to impress anyone, if only because most people don’t read much. If you want to be famous and respected, get very rich.

I’ve found a nice community here to share my thoughts with and be part of. A definite big plus.

Your turn.

Solo or Ensemble?

Many forms of art can be practiced either solo or in a creative ensemble. A pianist can play piano solo, in a trio, or in an orchestra. Dancers can dance solo, as a couple, or in a group, as can singers. However, some forms of art, like fine art painting, sculpture, and the like, are usually solo efforts. Movies, TV shows, and plays on the other hand are almost always ensemble creations. So where does writing fit in?

Traditionally published books can be said to be ensemble work since traditionally published books go through an extensive development process, which these days, may start with re-writes requested by the agent even before the work is offered to publishers. Once the book is purchased by a publisher, a team of editors, artists, designers, and publicists , go to work to make the work as commercially appealing as possible.

Because all these publishing house contributions are anonymous, it is hard to say how much of the final shape of the story they have contributed, but judging from the praise authors often give to their agents and editors, (which I’m certain is not a symptom of Stockholm Syndrome) as well as a page or two worth of credit to others who have helped them write the work, one has to wonder just how much of the initial form and words of the story end up on the cutting room floor. Indeed, one gets the impression that if publishing was like music, the book cover would read “Author X and the Z Publishing House Book Staff.”

Which brings us around to self-publishing. One would think that the name itself – self-publishing – would tell you what’s going on in this type of publishing. I suspect that once upon a time, it was actually a true description. Those days may be long gone. My impression is that a more accurate term these days would be “self-financed publishing,” since it seems that a traditional publishing mindset is taking hold in the self-publishing world. While I am sure that self-publishing authors have long sought feedback from other people, and the assurance that they wouldn’t be making a fool of themselves if they published their story, these days it seems that self-publishing authors are expected to employ as many professionals as they can afford to publish their work. All of which makes the only difference between traditional publishing and self-publishing being who pays the wages of all the various professionals involved in producing the book, even as traditional publishers are shedding editors and other staff positions.

This trend annoys me in self-publishing. Especially the case for hiring developmental editors in self-published works. But on reflection, I believe that is because of my particular view of art, arising out of both as a painter and from my age. I started writing all of my published works after the age of 60, when I had read close to two thousand books and knew what I wanted in a story. Thinking about it however, I realize that for writers thirty or more years younger and less read than me, a case can be made for using editors to help these writers find their way, and in a lot less time than it took me.

That said, while I have no issues with writing as an ensemble art form, it simply isn’t my ideal of art. I view my stories like I do my paintings, which is to say a unique expression of me. I want to tell my story, my way. I think it works. I know from my experience in painting that all art finds its audience. The only question is how large of an audience it will find. In art, size doesn’t matter. While iIt does matter if we’re talking about creating a product, as art, no.

And by the same token, I embraced the whole process of “publishing.” As a painter, though not an illustrator, I could nevertheless produce some sort of cover. I also worked in the printing business, so I had an understanding of the requirements for print books. Where I lack the ability – I can’t spell and I’m far too careless and blind in proofreading – I found much-need help with volunteer beta readers. In addition, I’ve been exploring other options to help me produce better books, like adding on-line grammar checkers to my process. All of which is to say, I have pursued both my writings and my publishing, as solo art. And for the same reason – I want my art to be mine. And mine alone.

As I said at the top, I’m not against writing as an ensemble art. It may be necessary for commercial products, though with only a 33% success rate, and that 33% due in no small amount to the promotional budget of a book, one has to wonder just how essential certain aspects of it are. So for me, writing as a solo art is the most authentic form of writing. Which is why I love self-publishing.

Still, where do you guys land on this topic? Are you all in on the traditional publishing method, feeling that it produces a superior outcome? Or are you all in the do everything yourself camp? Or somewhere in the wish-y-washy middle? How much input do you need and use from other people to (re)shape your story? How much of the story do you think this input contributes? As someone who has the mindset that “here’s my work, warts and all, like it or lump it,” I’m curious to hear the viewpoint of writers who are perhaps more of a perfectionist than I am, or who are more open to embracing the cooperative approach, readily incorporating into their work the ideas of alpha, beta readers, and editors.

Are ratings/review important in 2024?

I’ve had an unplanned opportunity to test this question and it seems that they may be less important than we realize. When I switched distributing my ebooks to Apple from Smashwords to Draft2Digital at the beginning of the year, all the books lost their ratings and reviews. Since then they’ve had essentially no ratings/reviews. So how did this affect my sales to date?

Not at all. Indeed, in the last 8 months I’ve already sold more ebooks on Apple than I did in 2023. It would seem that having no ratings has had no adverse effect on sales, and perhaps even a positive one. Now my experience may be an outlier in that all my books are free, and my customers might be less persnickety than buyers of books that actually cost money. Those readers might rely more on ratings/reviews in making their selections. Who knows? Another factor is that most of my books are now audiobooks on Apple which might make my books more visible plus there may be some double audio/ebook sales as well.

Nevertheless, my takeaway is that we probably need not lose sleep at night wishing for ratings and reviews, at least for sales’ sake. They’re certainly nice to receive – thank you, Audrey – but these days they may contribute less to sales than we might imagine.

Speaking of audiobooks on Apple, all but three of my books have now been converted and sales have grown each month. Audiobooks now account for more than 46% of my total book sales on Apple. And to follow up on my recent move to unpublish all my books on Smashwords and move them over to D2D’s distribution to the Smashwords store – the move has continued to pay off big time. I’m actually selling more books on Smashwords than Amazon, after selling only 4 books on Smashwords in June. Go figure.

EDIT: In response to Audrey’s comment, I first looked at my books on Smashwords today and discovered that I’d lost all my ratings and reviews for those books there as well, no doubt by switching my books on my own rather than waiting for D2D to get around to it. And the remarkable thing is that they are selling far better than they had been with their ratings. (And they weren’t bad ratings.) I still think that showing up as new books was the key, in that new readers may have pick up one or two, like them, and have gone back to pick up more titles over these last two months. Still, it is interesting to see that blank slate books are selling so well, and have been given a new lease on their shelf life.

Why I’ll Never Be a Great Writer

While Mark was contemplating why he would “never be a good writer” I was thinking along the same lines, but from a different perspective. I was thinking of all the top-level reasons why my books would never make any of the various YouTube booktubers’ “My Ten Favorite Books” list. Or to put it more broadly, why my books will never be considered great.

From all the lists I’ve viewed, I think that it is safe to say that the overarching element in creating the type of books that end up on these lists, is ambition. The author needs to be ambitious, and then write ambitious books. This ambition has several attributes, though not all are necessary to make a book “great,” but at least some of the characteristics I’ve listed below must be present.

One aspect is scope. Favorite books are often praised for their ambitious world building and the sweeping scale of their story. Long, elaborate sagas – often multi-volume ones – set in massive, detailed worlds, with unique societies – impress readers, at least in the fantasy genre.. And even in literary fiction, creating a compelling immersive world is often heralded.

Much more important to writing a classic is tackling big, important, and universal themes. Books that discuss or illustrate important social or political issues like racism, sexism, colonialism, alienation, religion and the human experience are often held up as great books. They may also explore emotional themes like grief, loss, depression, as well as friendship and love. However, on the whole, it seems that the darker the theme, the more impactful and important the story is perceived to be. In short, they address universal themes that transcend the story itself. And in science fiction, an amazing original idea might be enough. One key to greatness is weaving something thoughtful and original to say on an important subject into the story. Indeed, themes and ideas are so important that some books are great despite being “challenging” to read and to understand. Some might even be unpleasant to read. Making the reader think is a hallmark of great books. You know, a “eat your vegetables” sort of thing. It’s good for you.

But perhaps the most important ingredient in a great book seems to be its emotional impact. Many readers read in order to feel. The more a book makes a reader feel like they are actually living inside the story, the more memorable the book. Though ,again, like with themes, it seems like the darker and starker the emotions the story generates, the more people appreciate it. Perhaps experiencing powerful events and their accompanying emotions, at a safe remove from reality, is the ultimate goal of entertainment.

Another ingredient can be characters. Deep, developed, memorable characters make for memorable books. Memorable characters are often mentioned as reasons for people loving certain books, and indeed, sometimes they are the main reason for some readers. Still, I have a feeling that they play only a supporting role in most great books, often for the emotional impact their fates generate. A novel with a cast of memorable characters may be enjoyed and remembered, but I’m not sure characters alone are enough to make anyone’s top ten books.

And finally, we can’t forget the craft of writing itself. There is no one standard of great writing, but readers know it when they read it, though this is probably the most subjective attribute of a great book. However, like characters, I doubt that writing style alone lifts a book to greatness.

Are there more characteristics that make books all time favorites and classics?

As I said, this is a list of some of the reasons why I’m not a great writer. I’m not ambitious. I write pleasant books without tragedies. I write them as cleverly as I can. I write them to take my readers somewhere else; a “You can’t get there from here” sort of place, and in the company of mostly pleasant people. I write books that you’re free to forget – and then maybe read again someday. In short, not a recipe for greatness. But like my books, not a tragedy either.

How about you? How ambitious are you as a writer? What do you aspire to achieve in your work?

Why I’ll Never Be A Good Writer

— Mark Paxson

Audrey Driscoll just posted to her blog about the differences between “writer brain” and “editor brain.” It prompted me to write this post, which I’ve been pondering for a couple of weeks.

Awhile back, somebody tweeted something about writers who don’t think they’re good writers. I replied that has pretty much been my constant mental battle. I’ll never consider myself a good writer.

I’m just a writer. Because I just write.

Here are some things I see other writers talk about that I don’t do, or don’t think about while I’m writing. But first, a reminder. I’m a pantser of the truest sort. I come up with an idea, typically a scene, or a situation for a character, and then start writing. Which leads to a few things.

I don’t outline. I don’t do character sketches or character interviews. I don’t have a board on my wall where I keep track of things, or what some may do in terms of a mood board. I don’t come up with playlists to listen to while I write. I do nothing to create a physical environment to write a specific story. I just write.

While I write, I don’t consciously think about character development. Or plot development. I start with the idea and go from scene to scene. I don’t think about a three act structure or that a precipitating incident must occur by a certain point in the story. (Which is actually concerning me in my current effort because I spend thousands of words getting the main character to the setting at which all of the drama will occur.). I just write.

A co-worker asked me this week to review a draft brochure she had written. She wanted me to help her identify where she could convert passive sentences to active. I had to tell her that I really don’t know the difference between the two. That concept doesn’t even register while I’m writing. To help her, I had to Google ‘active v. passive’ and learn what the difference is. Same too with show, don’t tell. I think I know this a little bit better, but it still is something that I simply don’t think about while I’m writing. I just write.

Nor do I really think of either of those things while editing. Which is another thing I don’t really do. I don’t do any developmental editing on my writing. I don’t do line editing (I’m not even sure what that is, except what it sounds like … reading a story line by painful line.) What I do is edit as I go, but it’s mostly just finding typos, fixing some word choices, and that type of thing. And also, finding inconsistencies that have to be fixed. Beyond that, however, I don’t do much. And after I type ‘The End,’ I do a read through and tweak a few things here and there and that’s it.

The local writers group I belong to is putting on a workshop in a few months. The title is Crafting Compelling Characters. Based on my approach to writing, I can’t imagine how this works. I add details about characters as I go, without any real forethought or planning. Oh, Hannah and Alexander have finally arrived at the lighthouse, 17,000 words into the story. Let’s show a little more about how they are each reacting to arriving on the rock, and let’s reveal a little more about Solomon Thrice, who will be the bad guy. But none of it is really done consciously in my mind as “character development.” It’s just a part of the story and how to get from Point A to Point B to Point C. As I said, I just write.

(Edited to add: Also, I didn’t start writing as I left the womb. Nor did I start writing as a child, a teenager, or a young adult. In fact, I hated writing for much of that time. I only started writing fiction when I was almost 40 years old. I wonder if the lack of writing at an earlier age helped or hindered me now.)

I have absolutely no doubt there are many other things good writers do that I don’t do, or think about. I’m curious … what are the things you do to try to improve your writing to achieve th level of being a good writer? What are the things you don’t do that you think could help?

Debut Again!

Just a quick tip for authors who have their books listed on Smashwords. You can get a second chance at being a debut author. Draft2Digital is slowly migrating Smashwords titles to D2D, but if they haven’t done this already for your books, you can do it yourself. You might consider doing so, as there is an unexpected benefit from doing it – your books, when added to the Smashwords store from D2D, are treated as new releases. As such, they show up on the landing page of Smashwords, where they will likely be seen by a lot more people than wherever they are currently lurking. I discovered this after I unpublished my books on Smashwords and then went over to D2D, where I already had all my books listed, and checked the Smashwords box on their list of stores to get them back into the Smashwords store. Being featured as new releases made a brief, but nice, increase in sales. If you don’t already have your books listed on D2D you’ll need to set them up there, but it’s a very simple process to old Smashwords hands. While your mileage will very, it could result in something like the bump in sales you get upon releasing a new book.

Failure’s Freedom

“If you ain’t got nothing, you’ve got nothing to lose.” Like a Rolling Stone – Bob Dylan

Those two lines from Like a Rolling Stone are an anthem for me. I sing them along with Bob every time the tune comes up in my “Liked Music” playlist. I love the insight into freedom they imply. I think they could, and should, be the anthem of the vast majority of author/indie publishers as well. Them’s that aren’t making money at it. With nothing to lose, we’ve the freedom to write exactly what we want to write, how we want to write it. In short, it allows us to;

“Be yourself, no matter what they say.” An Englishman in New York – Sting

Stories are art. They’re also a consumer product, so it’s understandable that we’re tempted to write the stories we think – or hope – readers will buy and enjoy. But if you’ve been publishing stories for any length of time, you know that discovery – merely giving potential readers the opportunity to choose to read your book – is an almost insurmountable barrier to finding readers, and thus, commercial success. So, given the near virtual certainty of commercial failure, unless you’re a social media celebrity or a well heeled and wily entrepreneur, we author/publishers can safely ignore commercial considerations and simply write stories that appeal to us. We can create pure art, art as a unique expression of our creativity, and then publish it for the rare reader who somehow stumbles upon it and appreciates our vision. Their numbers don’t count, though I should point out that every popular genre, sub-genre, trope, and story beat was once a unique and original expression of some author. We’ve nothing to lose by swinging for the fence.

I should also point out that author/publishers can be in a unique position in the publishing world, in that we can actually publish our undiluted vision. In traditional publishing, authors are not trusted to publish the books they write. Books in traditional publishing, and even in indie-publishing these days, if you listen to the experts, are ensemble creations, co-produced with the help of various editors who work to make it better than the writer’s original version. And since these books are definitely commercial products, “better” probably means more salable. Some, maybe even most authors, appreciate this help – in the various acknowledgments at the end of books, they often give a great deal of credit to their editor. Stockholm syndrome perhaps? But as an author/publisher we can, if we’re brave enough, publish our work in its pure form. We can be ourselves, no matter what – any editor – might say.

Still, you’re likely thinking, we must consider the readers. What readers? Well, to be less snarky, let me rephrase that to say that, we should trust readers. All we owe them is an honest blurb, a sample of our writing, and the best book we can write. We need not concern ourselves with their tastes and expectations. We needn’t worry if they’ll like it or not. If I learned one thing in art, it is that someone somewhere will always appreciate anything. There’ll be readers who will like any story we write. And if we write a book that pleases us, we can at least be certain it pleases someone. A bullet dodged.

Given the steep odds against any commercial success, it seems to me that following our unique vision, without compromise, is actually the wisest course to follow. With nothing to lose, why not?

Of course you all do that already, right?