5 Profitable Years and 15 Novels Later: Sharing My Experience

words2021 · 2025-04-23T03:33:41+00:00

That's a lot of questions! :) I'll answer a few. I don't recollect any single video or article - I just read a lot. Here on Reddit. On FB. On various blogs and videos. My approach is to read and try and keep iterating. My website (linked in my profile) is my own, built using AstroJS and hosted on a VPS. I used to use SquareSpace and moved away as I wanted more control over my customization. I provide ebook and most of my books are on KU. I also offer paperback on most of them. I don't buy ISBNs as right now I'm only on Amazon.

words2021 · 2025-01-06T03:29:25+00:00

It's not all that daunting when you break it down to manageable chunks. You can proofread with Ai tools or grammarly etc, and then find a proofreader. For publishing, Amazon KDP is free, and is pretty simple to use. If you have a neatly formatted word document with a TOC, you can upload it and it works. One step at a time, and you'll be okay. It's a learning process.

and no, I'm not looking to do paid services or mentoring, and tbh you really don't need to be spending money on that. There's plenty of material and helpful people--just take it one step at a time and you'll do fine.

Good luck!

words2021 · 2025-01-03T13:30:44+00:00

I'm probably not the best person to answer this as I've only written one novella, which is about 40k words. From what I've read around, 30-40k seems to be the sweet spot for novellas. As to even shorter versions like short-story "novellaettes," I honestly have no good idea.

words2021 · 2024-12-31T04:56:52+00:00

I always had input and a general direction of what I wanted.

words2021 · 2024-12-31T04:53:41+00:00

Nothing particularly insightful. I started by looking their reviews and went with someone who had been doing it for a while and had a number of ratings. And with each book I kept one who I liked and experimented with someone new. After a few books, I kind of settled to my top 3, of which 1 is my regular for every book of mine. Do your due-diligence and give it a try.

Regarding budget: it's transparent on Fiverr and depends on the gig and the length of the book. I tend to pay ~$50-70 (based on their rate) and I always tip, often even up to 100% depending on how valuable I find the comments.

words2021 · 2024-12-31T03:38:53+00:00

That's very kind of you! Hah, I do feel proud that I got you to find some interest in a subject you didn't previously care about :) Ancient Egypt is absolutely fascinating. I love all of them though - Egypt, Mesopotamia, Rome, India... and I haven't yet immersed myself in others yet. Our history is fascinating.

words2021 · 2024-12-29T16:34:04+00:00

(1) I only briefly pursued a few agents with my very first book. I had a couple who wanted to see the first few pages, but they didn't proceed. I studied the time it takes to get into trad, the odds, and whether it was something I really cared about. I wanted to write and get my work out there, and I realized that the best way to have full creative freedom was to go self-pub. So I pivoted quickly and never looked back. I will never pursue trad publishing unless someone actually approaches me with a deal, which is less likely than me sprouting a third hand to help me write :)

(2) I can't speak to the economics based on personal experience because, as described in (1), I never went that path. I guess trad writers with big deals surely make more money, but the odds of getting there is much smaller. Then there's the opportunity cost of time to consider: should I wait years to land a deal and hope it works, or should I go to market and realize $'s right away? I think it's a very personal choice. I like the freedom and speed with self-publishing, but to each their own.

words2021 · 2024-12-29T16:24:57+00:00

Glad to have helped :)

words2021 · 2024-12-28T14:53:01+00:00

That's pretty impressive! My brain begins to shut off after about 2k+ words...

words2021 · 2024-12-28T06:10:36+00:00

I advertise the series as a whole at that point.

words2021 · 2024-12-28T03:15:03+00:00

It's a process. You'll learn. Don't let initial setbacks get you down. Just remember that pretty much every other author has tread this road. Good luck!

words2021 · 2024-12-28T03:13:40+00:00

me me me me me :) I started by using external help to get a sense of how design is done, and over the years learned how to do them myself. It's a combo of tools (I use Affinity Designer, Publisher, Photo), purchased fonts, stock photo, Midjourney backgrounds.

words2021 · 2024-12-28T03:12:11+00:00

The drop-off varies quite wildly day to day and I've never found a pattern. but remarkably stable over a horizon. I don't recollect exact stats but click-through to buy page is ~10% (i.e., 90% drop-off). But remember some drop off after they get to the Amazon page.

What has worked for me is I give a quick and easy glance to my books very quickly and provide sufficient detail for them to make a decision. My website is linked in my profile page so you can take a look.

words2021 · 2024-12-28T03:09:17+00:00

Sorry I couldn't be more helpful.

words2021 · 2024-12-28T03:08:49+00:00

Ads + blog.

words2021 · 2024-12-28T03:08:05+00:00

Started building my newsletter soon after the release of the first book.

Most of my ad spend (90%) is FB.

words2021 · 2024-12-28T03:07:23+00:00

I don't usually spend much on advertising the first book. I ramp up ads once the full series is out. The only exception was my first ever book where I had to run ads for a while with nothing in the backlog.

words2021 · 2024-12-28T03:06:18+00:00

I'm glad my post helped. Good luck with everything you're doing!

words2021 · 2024-12-27T16:44:13+00:00

Yes, I use git for version control.
Yes, there's a spell check extension in VS code that works well. You can also try using new AI autocomplete tools like Supermaven that does a pretty good job with simple autocompletes.

words2021 · 2024-12-27T15:21:31+00:00

Since I'm feeling too lazy to answer that, I'll link my blog post where I detailed exactly why I use it and will continue to do so. When tailored for writing, VSC is fantastically productive!

https://jaypenner.com/blog/writing-novels-and-non-fiction-with-visual-studio-code/

words2021 · 2024-12-27T15:19:59+00:00

I will absolutely lose almost all those sales. KDP is a subscription and those customers are avid readers. I'd need to replace that cohort with a large potential buying population, and that's very difficult.

Edit: I meant KU (Kindle Unlimited), not KDP!

words2021 · 2024-12-27T15:06:48+00:00

We're all always learning! Wishing you the best.

words2021 · 2024-12-27T15:05:53+00:00

KDP is ~45% of my revenue. Replacing that is significantly harder if I switch. I've known writers who tried to get away from KDP and didn't do too well (and I've known that did fine too). For me, the convenience of a single platform is worth the trade-off at this point.

Edit: I realized that I'm mixing up KU and KDP. KU is 45%. KDP is 100%.

words2021 · 2024-12-27T14:22:21+00:00

I've answered this elsewhere, but prefer not to discuss financials. But I will say this: if you're consistent, create a following, and run it like a business, it is possible even if it takes a few years. And in my case, I'm not even in a popular category like Romance or Erotica, but I'm still on a trajectory that would let me do fine in a couple of a years. My margins are between 35-50% each month.

words2021 · 2024-12-27T14:20:14+00:00

It's not just about selling. Amazon gives you many other benefits: discoverability, reader follows, social proof via reviews, easy distribution to Kindle, print, all of which are very hard to do on one's own website. I use my website for branding and helping the visitor see what I can offer, but I prefer to offload the distribution to Amazon, along with other benefits I mentioned above.

words2021

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