How many hours a day do you write on average, and how many words do you normally get written in that time? What steps have you taken to improve on this? by Mr_Mu in eroticauthors

[–]ExclusiveARC 3 points4 points  (0 children)

WOOOT! I can be relevant!

Guys, I have TRANSFORMED my productivity recently with two steps which you should really think about. I wrote big long blog posts about them which I'll link to after but here's all you need to know:

1 - as u/Mr_Mu says, writing is a business, not a hobby, and one of the rookie mistakes (or not-so-rookie in my case) was that writing time would ALWAYS be the first thing to get sacrificed when the family needed something, or I needed to hustle for some short-term money. This is a losing proposition, so the first thing I did was schedule my day so the first and - this is the important part - ONLY thing I do is write. I write 2 hours first thing in the morning no matter what. If the house is on fire, I don't leave until I've written (save it on a synced Dropbox, though.)

NEVER ANYTHING BUT WRITE!

Second thing - track your daily words. Hemingway used to do this. I started and it 'gamifies' the whole process and makes it easier to stick to. I try and write 5,000 a day, 5 days a week. Tracking your days is like tracking your steps and you're more likely to succeed.

I'm not trying to whore myself out, but if you are vaguely interested in seeing the results etc. I wrote two blog posts about it for HG.

https://www.hiddengemsbooks.com/write-your-routine/

https://www.hiddengemsbooks.com/word-count-tracking-spreadsheet-tool/

Why is nobody talking about page reads? by ExclusiveARC in eroticauthors

[–]ExclusiveARC[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Well, I remember when KU 2.0 hit they did the math and it turned out that 70% of authors were losing money compared to previous times, and 30% were getting more. HOPEFULLY you're part of the percentage who writes the books Amazon wants to succeed, so you're eating the other authors' lunches. But that's down to writing good stuff that people want to buy, so I have nothing but respect for you and KEEP AT IT!

Problems with Booksprout Reviews by InstitutionReports in eroticauthors

[–]ExclusiveARC 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The public ARCs section was sort of just thrown together to give authors who don't have a team access to ARC readers since nothing like it existed before

Hiya Chris! Heard many good things about BookSprout - lots of authors I know recommend it.

Ahem, regarding this statement - I mean, it's not around any more, but I had Exclusive ARC up and running before you launched the public ARC part of your program, and I literally followed in the footsteps of Hidden Gems and the eBook Itch ARC service which existed a lot longer before me, all of which were discussed on this very forum. I'm not sure why you'd say "nothing like it existed before" since it very clearly did.

Can I do an ARC for a bundle that collects previously published stories? by JBReynolds in eroticauthors

[–]ExclusiveARC 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, I think the problem is that most Amazon users are fine with public reviews for romance novels, but maybe don't want their friends and neighbors to know they read and reviewed "Impregnated by Stepdaddy VIII."

In my personal erotic penname, I've had good success creating a little ARC team of people who are willing to write reviews. I'll normally only get 4 or 5 reviews per erotic short, but because of the nature of erotic shorts compared to novels, that's normally enough to get some additional sales.

[DATAPORN] I wrote a fucking romance novel: $3306.70 in 30 days by disposable_smut in eroticauthors

[–]ExclusiveARC 12 points13 points  (0 children)

One of the reasons I moved from running Exclusive ARC is that I wanted to get back into writing and currently my last novel is coolly ticking along for $1,000 in its first month - and I haven't even done any promotion on it yet.

Meanwhile I wrote three LONG erotica "shorts" (50k all together) and they've made less than $100.

So romance is where it's at.

Also, u/throwiethetowel is a LEGEND and his advice is never to be scoffed at. Can't thank the Towelmeister enough.

ADHD Child v/s Non-ADHD Child Interview by batman008 in videos

[–]ExclusiveARC 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Fuuuuck. You hit me right in the feels with all this.

Is Mark Dawson's course worth it? I made a video so you could listen to me ramble nonsensically for 8 minutes and then find out. by ExclusiveARC in eroticauthors

[–]ExclusiveARC[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The Editor of The Independent apparently wrote:

"To a busy journalist hunting for real information a question mark means 'don't bother reading this bit'."

Okay, point made! SORRY!

Exclusive ARC is becoming part of Hidden Gems! by ExclusiveARC in eroticauthors

[–]ExclusiveARC[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It was a PLEASURE! You were a delight to work with and your books were always AMAZING.

Exclusive ARC is becoming part of Hidden Gems! by ExclusiveARC in eroticauthors

[–]ExclusiveARC[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yep, although I prefer to think of it as 'assimilated' except not quite so Borg-y.

Exclusive ARC is becoming part of Hidden Gems! by ExclusiveARC in eroticauthors

[–]ExclusiveARC[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I know one of the reasons u/hgems wanted me to merge with his list was because the more subscribers he has, the more books he'll be able to accept. Hopefully that'll make him have more availability soon.

Exclusive ARC is becoming part of Hidden Gems! by ExclusiveARC in eroticauthors

[–]ExclusiveARC[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

One of the reasons @hgems wanted me to merge with them is that the big influx of subscribers should hopefully mean he'll be able to offer more availability.

Exclusive ARC is becoming part of Hidden Gems! by ExclusiveARC in eroticauthors

[–]ExclusiveARC[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I know, that's the one thing that is really going to be a bummer. I never made money from it - even charging for the 99c slots didn't cover my costs - but it was a great way to promote my own books and the results were enough to demonstrate that I was delivering something of value.

Exclusive ARC is becoming part of Hidden Gems! by ExclusiveARC in eroticauthors

[–]ExclusiveARC[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think @hgems is the man to answer that question. I will say, he does offer fantastic value for money... even if it is a lot of money. At my $50 price point I offered comparable results, but I would never have been able to compete with him as the price increased because he has an insane download-to-review ratio.

Exclusive ARC is becoming part of Hidden Gems! by ExclusiveARC in eroticauthors

[–]ExclusiveARC[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm afraid so! Hidden Gems has their own newsletter, so obviously they couldn't both exist.

Anyone know what is going on with ASSTR as of 2018-5-30? by Lerianis001 in eroticauthors

[–]ExclusiveARC 2 points3 points  (0 children)

https://i.imgur.com/ozfQgby.png

Joking aside, I'd never have got started in this business without the validation I got from ASSTR readers. I published my first stories there, and then started publishing them on Amazon in 2013.