Selling Books In A Digital World: Video!

I have presented this workshop a few times, most recently for the Maryland Writers Association back in February. I recorded and posted it on YouTube, so anyone could watch it. Of course, my real life presentation was better, but I did my best with this one.

It’s long, lecture length, and was a good practice session for me.

One of the things I’ve noticed giving workshops on marketing over the years, is a lot of people want a “quick fix” to how to market their books. But there really isn’t any such thing. Sure, you might get lucky with something you try. But most of us need a plan that aligns with our business, goals, and personality, and so it’s best to start thinking about the way we spend our hours and dollars strategically.

My main goal of this workshop is to help writers start thinking strategically about selling books. We can’t do everything all the time, so we should focus on doing the things that are going to have the most impact for us and be the most enjoyable over time.

Writing Tips (Sometimes): To Publish or Not To Publish, That Is The Question

There’s a lot of pressure in the writing industry to publish. Have you noticed? Especially now that self-publishing is so easy. 

If you go to a conference, a common question is, “Are you published?” and “How many books do you have out?”

The more books I publish, the more awkward this conversation becomes for me. “How many?” usually follows. More and more, I’ve begun saying, “a few,” and trying to change the topic quickly. 

Because the number of books an author has published, while certainly an achievement regardless of the number, is not the only way to measure the success, experience, or skill of a writer. Nor is income. Or awards.

So if publishing doesn’t guarantee you success, nor function as an indicator of your skill, should you publish at all? Why?

There are lots of reasons to publish, of course, first and foremost being, “I want to.” But you might also want to try to make money from your work. Maybe you want a larger audience. Maybe you enjoy the publishing process or get a sense of satisfaction from putting a book out. Maybe you like the idea of calling yourself a published author. Maybe it’s a dream you’ve always had.

But publishing isn’t all it’s cracked up to be either. There are a lot of people and companies out there trying to make money on writers who just want a published book. There are scam artists and publishers who will charge you an obscene amount of money and provide you with a poor-quality product. There are issues around copyright and reviews, criticism and critique, money and rules. So many rules for every distributor, marketing company, and designer.

That, and it's a lot of work. Whether you publish traditionally or indie, it is a labor-intensive process. And not a process that always brings a writer any particular amount of joy.

So let me just say this.

You don’t have to publish.

Personally, I think “I want to,” is a good enough reason to do so. But if you don’t want to, why are you doing it? What do you hope to get out of it?

And if the reason is, “Because I’m supposed to,” or "Someone told me I should," I’d invite you to take another look at that. Question it. Dissect it.

What else in life do you do “because you’re supposed to”? Why? What have you stopped doing because you realized it was dumb?

You don’t have to publish. If you want to, great! I’m all about it. I like publishing. I do it all the time.

But you don’t have to. If someone says you do, they’re wrong.

Publish if you want. Publish because it helps you pursue your goals.

Don’t publish if you don’t want to. You can always write for the love of it without all the extra crap.

You do you. And don’t let anyone else tell you otherwise.

Ariele's Vlog: Thoughts On Indie Publishing

Ever wondered how indie publishing works? Well, this isn’t exactly a how-to manual, but it is a nice ramble on what its like to exist within a system designed to exploit creators to feed the corporate overlords. I have a lot of opinions about this stuff to be honest.

Hot tip: you can change the speed of a YouTube video! Whenever I rewatch my own videos, I do it at 2x speed. I can hear things a lot faster than I can say them lol

Writing Tips (Sometimes): Royalties Aren't All That

Most writers want to make money off their writing. If not enough to pay their bills, then enough to pay for the writing itself—new notebooks, conferences, workshops, publishing expenses, the like. Maybe you want to start or grow a retirement fund, pay for your annual vacation, or send your kid to college.

However, the unfortunate truth about royalties is that very few authors make enough money from them to live. I could point you to dozens of surveys that show the actual numbers shared by authors (Check out Jane Friedman’s HotSheet, the Author’s Guild, and Written Word Media), but the one that sticks with me the most is that in Alli’s survey last year, they found that the median revenue for self-published authors who spend more than half their time writing and publishing was $12,749 per year, and for traditionally published authors, it was $8,600 per year. And the average income? Over $80k. For those of you who aren’t great at math, this means that the average is extremely skewed by people making a lot of money. While over half of authors sit under $15k annually.

Regardless, $8k - $15k is not even close to enough to live on, at least not in the United States.

Of course, with enough hustle, hard work, financial and time investment, and luck, you may absolutely be able to achieve those financial goals.

But if you are unable to achieve those financial targets, it doesn’t mean your work is bad or not worth publishing. Rather, it simply means that publishing is a difficult business.

Royalties, in my opinion, are actually a pretty terrible way to measure the quality of a book. There are so many other metrics. Like:

• Did you enjoy writing it?

• Did it impact a single reader’s life in a positive way?

• Did you learn anything from the process?

• Did you achieve other goals during the process of writing?

• Did it make your life better in some way?

Think of all the books on the bestseller list that you hated but seemed like everyone else loved them. See? Money doesn’t mean a book is good. There is so much subjectivity and luck that goes into entertainment and the enjoyment of literature.

But money is important. We do live under capitalism, whether we like it or not.

And if you would like to make some income to at least enable you to continue to publish, I have a tip for you. It’s called: alternative revenue streams.

Alternative revenue streams are simply other ways of making money. Having multiple ways of income generation can offer a more stable income, as well as allow you to adjust and adapt as the market and your life changes.

Here is a (incomplete) list of alternative revenue streams other authors use, that might also work for you.

1. Have a full- or part-time job. Tons of authors write evenings, weekends, and vacation days. It’s okay. It doesn’t mean you are a failure as a writer if you can’t immediately quit your job. It just means that publishing is a difficult business.

2. Have a partner with a full- or part-time job. Many writers (including myself) have a partner who pays most or all of the bills while they pursue their career. This also doesn’t mean you are a failure as a writer. It just means that publishing is a difficult business.

3. Do freelance work. This is also quite a common method of earning money. I do editing, teaching, and consulting and teaching to help pay for my business costs when royalties are low. Freelance can look like a lot of different things. Maybe it means babysitting your neighbor’s kids. Or drafting content for online companies. Or ghostwriting. You get to choose. And if you do these things to help supplement your business income, it doesn’t mean you’re a failure as a writer. It just means this is a difficult business.

4. Find passive income streams. Passive income streams are great, though, a bit of a misnomer. A passive income stream is something that you (supposedly) set up once, and then do minimal maintenance on, but it keeps generating income. Rental income is often passive. Or getting paid out dividends on an investment. Setting up Google ads on your website might be considered passive, though if you want to make more money on them, you have to drive more website traffic, which is not really all that passive, imo. I make about $5/month in Google ads, in case you were wondering, with about 2k visits to my website per month. There are lots of potentially passive income streams. And if these options help? It doesn’t mean you’re a failure as a writer. It just means this is a difficult business.

5. Create online courses. What would you teach about? Great question. Whatever you want. Writing, maybe. Marketing, I guess. What are you good at? What do you know a lot about? Many writers get stuck on teaching about writing, but I bet you know other stuff too. Parenting? Whatever you do/did for a day job? What your degree is in? Your hobbies? Time management? Gardening? Contracting? Throwing birthday parties? And if teaching helps pay the bills, that's great! It doesn’t mean you’re a failure as a writer. It just means this is a difficult business.

There are a lot of other ways to get money. Honestly, I could probably make more money working a part-time hourly job in retail or fast food than I make writing books, and I’ve seriously considered it on occasion, just to make our lives a little bit easier. I might still opt to do that at some point. We shall see.

Royalties aren’t all that. They’re nice, sure. But if you’re not making bank, it’s not necessarily you. It’s not necessarily your books. It doesn’t mean you’re a failure as a writer.

It just means this is a difficult business.

And you’re not alone in that.

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Writing Tips (Sometimes): On Being A Feral Author

This is part of my series of essays for writers. Get them delivered to your inbox by signing up here!

Sometimes, when the weather is nice, I grab my grandpa’s old reading chair out into the lawn and sit in it and… you guessed it, read. It’s Rowan’s favorite thing. She’s the only cat allowed outdoors without supervision, so she gets all her favorite things at once: outdoors, grandpa’s chair, and me!

I consider myself a mostly feral author. I like to do things my own way, no matter what the experts and gurus say.

The more time you spend in the indie author world, the more opinions you’ll come across. There are a million things we all “should” be doing—writing to market, having our books in Kindle Unlimited (or not, depending who you talk to), running Amazon ads, running Facebook ads, posting regularly on TikTok and Twitter, getting Bookbubs, writing every day, not using adverbs, releasing a book a month, having free books (also not having free books), hiring professional editors and designers, doing huge launches, having all of our books up for preorder, sending out regular newsletters, doing newsletter swaps, having a website, going to conferences, getting an MFA… I could go on, possibly forever lol.

At a certain point, the realization hits that we can’t do everything. And at least in my experience, once you have this realization, the next step for most authors is to focus on what you think will have the most impact. The right answer to this question depends on the author—some focus in on rapid release, others invest in CPC and CPM advertising, others start (or stop) doing in-person events. A lot of experimenting goes on, followed by a lot of frustration that their efforts aren’t working, or at least aren’t working as well as they’d like.

Some authors stay in this phase for a long time. Others, such as myself, go feral.

In other words, we disregard all the advice. All of it.

We instead focus our energies on being who we want, writing what we want, and building our business (or lack thereof) however we want.

I once met a lovely feral author who wrote and published books and refused to do a lick of marketing. I knew another feral author who was retired and sold paperback copies of his books at local festivals—didn’t even have ebook options available and didn’t care. I knew another feral author who forwent all suggestions to write to market or write what readers want, and instead wrote for their own pleasure only.

I personally have mostly ditched social media, write what I feel like, and have started designing most of my own covers. I write the books I want to write, publish them when I feel like, and only do marketing when and how it suits me.

At a certain point, I think we have to decide what it is about writing we love. Is it the writing itself? Is the connection with other people? Is it the storytelling? Is it the prestige? Is it the networking? Is it business development? Is it the challenge of trying to succeed in a highly volatile, constantly changing industry?

But what about making money? you might ask.

What about it?

We all find ways to make our lives work, and sometimes that means struggling to make our own businesses profitable, and sometimes that means working for a company, and sometimes that means cobbling together an eclectic combination of income and lifestyle that gives us the freedom to do what we want with our time.

Sometimes my business makes money and sometimes it doesn’t.

Sometimes I work for other people and sometimes I don’t. And I’ve figured out ways to make that work for me.

I’ve become truly and fully feral.

Only one of these cats is feral (Rowan, the gray one) the other one is spoiled af and would probably perish if his food wasn’t delivered at promptly 7:30 every morning and 5:30 every evening.