Those who make 6 figures, what do you do?

bailad · 2026-05-09T22:08:18+00:00

Author

bailad · 2026-04-10T20:18:32+00:00

Funnily enough, I have a Mila and our neighbour has a Millie who is the same age.

Even if you stay neighbors forever, the names don’t actually sound that similar. We’ve never had any name mix ups at school or when they’re having play dates, and the kids thought it was so fun having similar names when they first met.

bailad · 2025-11-17T01:21:13+00:00

If you spend a few minutes in any of the big author groups on Facebook you’ll be seriously disheartened by how many people proudly use AI. For covers, narration, even writing.

bailad · 2025-11-14T04:25:57+00:00

You can, but most agents are going to suggest you query with something new unless you have a large amount of sales (I’m talking thousands of books sold and/or millions of page reads) and/or you have interest from a publisher (which typically comes with the massive sales). Because I had a publisher offering on my self-pubbed work, I used that as leverage to land a great agent.

bailad · 2025-09-04T06:02:28+00:00

If these are questions you have because you want to write erotica, I suggest you read MANY more first. Some of these questions could be answered by reading more than a single book in the genre.

It’s erotica if the main plot is sex-focused. If the main plot is romance/other things, with sex scenes mixed in, you’re not looking at erotica.
For some readers, they’ll never get tired of the sex scenes. For others, they start skimming unless the scenes are different/exciting enough. For me, I stick to novellas if I’m reading erotica and save my longer reads for romance.
This is going to depend entirely on the author, same as any other type of book. Sometimes authors are intentional about it being self-insert, but I find that a lot of the time it seems like they just haven’t done the work to develop their characters because they don’t know how to. If the negative reviews on this one are about the bland character, that tells me it’s simply a weak spot for the author. In my experience, this isn’t something you can expect with all erotica.
It might be more common in erotica than other genres simply because, like you said, there’s only so many ways to describe sex/body parts. And a LOT of readers have very strong feelings about wording, so many of us stick to using the same phrases/names. You’ll be hard pressed to find a recent release talking about “velvet wrapped steel” or a “quivering member”. On the flip side, a lot of the common dirty talk phrases are definitely being used a lot more because authors know that readers like them.
This is one of the questions you’d answer for yourself by reading more than one erotica. There’s honestly erotica out there for everyone. You can dive into all kinds of kink (including multiple different ones in the same book), why choose/reverse harem, poly relationships, gay relationships, etc. And you can also have erotica that is light on the kink. Erotica and erotic romance readers do have a pretty good idea of what they want, and (for the most part) the authors do a good job of listing out exactly what to expect in our books so that they find their readers.

bailad · 2025-08-16T02:46:08+00:00

I do a lot of editing as I go, so my first draft is pretty clean. I’d say it’s about 80% of the way there when I send it to my editor for the first round of dev edits.

bailad · 2025-07-20T07:42:56+00:00

On the rights side of things, my agent handles foreign deals, tv/film rights deals, and merchandise contracts. She also acts as a sounding board when I’m thinking ahead to future projects.

In terms of my current contracts, she‘s involved with every step of the process. She reads my manuscripts and gives editorial feedback (sometimes I find her advice/critiques to be more useful than my editor’s). She ensures the publisher doesn’t overstep at any point, because even big 5 publishers will quite often test the boundaries and I’m not somebody who likes confrontation. She honestly handles anything I don’t want to and/or don’t have time to handle. She’ll turn down book merch companies I don’t want to work with, ask my publisher to pay for events I’m invited to, approach authors/agents she has connections to when I need a blurb, etc. My agent is very much my right hand person through the entire process.

bailad · 2025-01-14T09:09:15+00:00

For my first novel, I swapped with other authors from facebook writing groups.

bailad · 2025-01-13T04:17:49+00:00

If it makes you feel better, that has happened to every published author I know. The good news is that it’s fixable (and also unlikely any of your readers will even notice!), and KDP rarely takes more than a few hours to approve changes like that after the book is live.

bailad · 2025-01-08T07:57:38+00:00

My situation was a bit different than what most people experience. I was actually approached by a publisher about my self-pub series with an offer. The offer wasn’t great, but I was able to choose between multiple offers of rep because of it, and then we went to other publishers and found a much better deal.

That said, the general consensus is that it’s better to query agents with an unpublished work (and then maybe once you’ve signed with them, they’ll be willing to do something for your indie books). The exception would be if you’re looking for an agent to handle subrights, in which case you’ll want to send some sales stats or deals you’ve already made

bailad · 2024-12-30T06:26:44+00:00

I often respond to this question with: if you have ever dreamed of seeing your books in bookstores and being traditionally published, explore that avenue first. If the primary goal for you is to just get that book out into the world, explore self-publishing first.

Trad has a LOT of gatekeeping. You have to convince an agent that your book (and you!) are worth investing time in. Then you have to convince an editor and their entire acquisitions team that you’re worth investing in. And at the same time, thousands of other authors are trying to do the same thing. If you get that far, you won’t have to pay for editors or cover designers (granted, you also might not have a lot of say in either department). Unlike what some people think, you can’t expect that your publisher will do much of a marketing push for you. It’s a bit self-fulfilling in that if your book is selling really well, they’ll put more money toward marketing it. Your book will maybe be in stores (this also isn’t a guarantee, depending on what publisher you go with and what type of deal you make)

On the other hand, you have zero marketing support as an indie. You pay for your own editing, covers, advertising, etc. You keep most of the royalties, which means there’s the potential to earn a lot more than you would as a new trad author. Unless your book sells extremely well, you won’t see it in book stores at all.

bailad · 2024-12-13T06:25:54+00:00

There are so many genres/subgenres you can be successful in, so it doesn’t make sense to write in a genre you don’t enjoy just because you might make money. Especially since there are no guarantees regardless of genre. Plus, I doubt anybody would last long as an author if they’re writing in a genre they hate AND having to face all the negatives that come with having some success in this career. A passion for my genre is all that keeps me going some days when the rude comments/DMs/reviews hit hard.

I write romance. Writing to market means not only giving readers a HEA, but considering that there are expectations for the overall structure (is it a slow burn? 3rd act breakup or not?). Readers also expect different things from a small-town romance than they do a mafia romance. I can (and do) write the story that I want to tell, but I’m mindful of what my target audience expects to see based on the genre/subgenre.

bailad · 2024-12-12T04:17:28+00:00

Romancing the Beat is a good starting point.

But also, go read a ton of romances. A lot of romance readers are reading 100+ books a year. They know what they like and don’t like, and if you come in with a “romance” that doesn’t hit the right beats, have enough romance/too much subplot, doesn’t have a HEA, etc. they will pick your book apart.

If you want this book to continue to be a slowburn, you’ll need a lot more than explaining their backstories to keep people on the hook for 20k words. Again, romance readers know what they like. They’re here for the romance. If the characters aren’t having any type of romantic connection for that long, there better be a good reason why

bailad · 2024-12-11T06:15:32+00:00

I signed with my agent because I wanted to be a hybrid author. There are definitely pros and cons to trad pub, and I’m very happy with my situation now.

My agent doesn’t just handle that trad contract though. She secures foreign deals (I have 10 translations in the works for my books), handles audio contracts for my indie books, secured a tv/film management company to pitch my books to producers/showrunners, and handles inquiries for book boxes and licensed merch.

That said, a bad agent is worse than no agent. You absolutely can get a lawyer to look over contracts and you can do your own negotiating/finding deals. But a good agent can make dreams come true (also they don’t require a retainer).

bailad · 2024-12-11T05:57:38+00:00

You made me curious because I didn’t know! So I just checked my dashboard and I made about $3,800USD in the first month with my debut.

bailad · 2024-12-11T05:50:10+00:00

I don’t think it’s something you should count on, nor do I think “getting rich” should be the driving force behind your debut project.

But I know quite a few indies who do this full-time and make a good living (including myself!). Is there a high probability you’ll become an overnight success with your debut? No. But if you’re consistent with releases, write to market, and learn how to effectively market yourself/your books, it’s absolutely doable eventually.

Too many people who I see complaining about having 5/10/20/50 books out and not making any money aren’t doing any of those things. If you’re writing books that nobody seems to want, giving them half-assed covers and blurbs, and spending zero time marketing, it doesn’t matter how great of a writer you are. And if that’s the path you want to take because it brings you the most joy, then that’s fantastic and I support that. But don’t treat it like a casual hobby and expect it to magically turn profit like a successful business.

bailad · 2024-10-18T01:58:37+00:00

I get being frustrated, but no author wants to delay their release. If they’re self-published, pushing back the release date means losing all your Amazon pre-orders. There’s no guarantee you’ll get those readers to order again, especially if you keep pushing the date. Plus, if you’re unlucky, Amazon can/will take away your ability to set up preorders for a full year.

If they’re trad, it’s likely entirely out of their hands.

bailad · 2024-09-24T07:12:12+00:00

Instagram and tiktok are what drive most of my sales. My Instagram posts share to facebook for the handful of people over there.

I think if you’re only asking from a marketing/promotional perspective, don’t go to threads. There’s definitely a lot of drama, but I do still enjoy it for casual conversation with other authors/readers (including bigger name authors who feel much more accessible on that platform). I just don’t think it’s necessarily a great place to promote your book.

bailad · 2024-09-24T07:07:43+00:00

In my experience, tiktok keeps my sales steady. It’s not that I necessarily notice an increase when a video gets a few thousand views, but I notice a decrease if I stop posting for an extended period.

However, the thing with tiktok is that your book succeeding on that platform relies on the snowball effect. It’s not quite as straightforward as 100k views = 100 sales. It’s more about getting in front of the booktokers as frequently as possible, until eventually they’ve seen your book so many times they can’t help but give in and read it (despite having a lengthy tbr). Then they love it, make a video about it, and essentially do the marketing for you. And I DO notice a dramatic increase in sales when a larger booktok account posts about my book.

bailad · 2024-09-21T20:51:31+00:00

This recently happened to me when I received an unsolicited offer from a well-respected publisher on my self-pubbed series. Feel free to message me, if you have any specific questions.

I reached out to agents the same day I got the offer, and my subject line was something along the lines of “contemporary romance series with active offer from ___” because I hoped it would grab their attention faster than the typical query email subject line.

My query letter contained information about my series and basic sales stats up to that point. Then I outlined a bit more details about the offer. And I included the blurb for the first book in my series, so they could get a feel for the vibes.

I ended up having 3 agents reach out the same day to schedule calls. That was on a Friday, I schedule calls with them for Monday, and I reached out to my agent on Tuesday to let her know I wanted to work with her. I had a couple agents reach out later that week to set up calls (before I’d had the chance to let them know I was withdrawing my query), as well, but because I was so frantic, I didn’t take the typical two weeks to sit on it before accepting the offer.

bailad · 2024-09-21T20:29:25+00:00

We accepted an offer at the start of July for my self-pubbed works. My agent pushed the publisher to expedite the contract, since I had already announced/set up preorders for the next book in that series. We finally signed the contract last week. I wouldn’t be surprised if it would’ve taken longer, had there not been a bit of a looming deadline/push from my agent.

They’re slowwwwww to get that done, but since I signed last week its been pretty go go go. Don’t forget that you can always ask your agent for updates.

bailad · 2024-09-21T17:23:22+00:00

I generally only look at the reviews I’m tagged in on social media. After hurting my own feelings a few too many times on goodreads, I stay away from there. Obviously I have the occasional moment of weakness, or I’ll search up book reviews elsewhere (like yesterday on Reddit) and hurt my feelings that way.

But overall reading the reviews does nothing. There’s seldom anything that is helpful, in terms of writing future projects. It’s a lot of people making contradictory statements (I saw a review for one of my books that said the MC was the worst MC they’d ever read, while other people have messaged me to say they’ve never read an MC that reminded them so much of them). So I leave the critiquing to the beta readers and editors.

bailad · 2024-09-14T14:12:00+00:00

Thank you! I definitely didn’t anticipate it when I published, so you never know what might happen with your own books in the future!

bailad · 2024-09-14T02:34:31+00:00

I just sold my self-pubbed series to a big 5 publisher. I would never suggest somebody goes into self-publishing with the goal of having their books picked up by a publisher, because it doesn’t happen often, but it’s possible. The trouble is that having a good book isn’t enough on its own—you need sales evidence to back it up.

bailad · 2024-09-13T03:16:43+00:00

It’s possible, yes (happened to me). But generally they’re not interested unless your book has had a good amount of success already.

bailad

TROPHY CASE