Writing Tips (Sometimes): The Problem With Advice

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Me and Blueberry on an adventure! (to the dog park, his favorite place in the whole world)

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There’s a problem with advice in the indie author community, and I say this as someone who regularly gives advice.

The problem is this: not all advice is relevant to you.

Just like any industry, you have your normal good advice and bad advice, given by both qualified and unqualified (and medium-qualified) people.

But what I’ve noticed is that often there is a certain amount of nuance lacking, based on where the receiver of the advice is in their career path.

Let me give you an example: one of the areas where authors have a lot of feelings is related to money. And many of the suggestions offered by experienced authors are about where to spend money. But how much money to spend is a really personal decision, and much of it depends on where an author is in their career.

I once listened to an author who recommended publishing all formats of a book on launch day. Each launch, he had an ebook, a paperback, a hardcover, a large print edition, and an audiobook available on day 1. Those of you who have dabbled in audiobooks know that this is no small expense. When the interviewer asked him what his budget was per book, he answered: $25,000.

Even for many experienced authors who are making $100k or more per year on book royalties, $25k for each launch is still quite steep.

Other authors recommend spending $400 on book covers, and I’ve heard literal gasps from newer authors when they hear that number. And when you add up the costs of editing and design, the cost of publishing a book can run up towards two or three thousand dollars pretty quickly. To a newer author facing these costs for the first time, the idea of spending one or two hundred on marketing can seem intimidating. But to an author who has a business plan, a budget, and is generating significant income on their books, a few hundred dollars for marketing is paltry.

Another example is reviews. Many marketing platforms require a minimum number of reviews on a book before allowing an author to promote through them. I may have 500 reviews on a book, but a brand-new author may still be struggling to get to 5. Which means, any advice that requires a book to have more than a few reviews is not applicable.

I bring this up because this applies to all authors and all advice. Some advice is simply not relevant to you.

Figuring out which advice is relevant and which isn’t may take some time, but I think it’s worth remembering and worth repeating that if some advice feels wrong, even if you can’t quite put your finger on why, it’s at least worth noticing the feeling.

As individual business owners, we can’t do all of the things all of the time, so I usually recommend focusing your time and energy on the things you want to be doing, as much as you can. Just because someone says something, doesn’t mean it’s true; and just because someone offers advice, doesn’t mean it’s good advice for you.

The Winter Soldier (aka Buck) in his new favorite napping spot: the sink.

End of March Update

Can you believe March is already almost done? I glanced at the calendar the other day and about fell over.

Busy badger

The last three months have been a whirlwind for me, between publishing, writing, teaching, and going on a trip to Nashville to see my little baby brother (he's 33, don't be fooled haha).

In publishing news, I completely redesigned and republished my first ever series, which was originally called The Sagittan Chronicles and is now called The Zirian Chronicles. Then, I redesigned the entirety of the Rove City series. Combined, both projects equaled 17 novels, novellas, and short stories. But on top of that, I also managed to release three new books:

I have mostly emptied out my publishing queue at this point, and am moving into a writing and revision phase, which I’m very exited about.

First on my list of revisions, is the next book in the Rove City series, titled Silver Skull, a continuation of Maybelle’s story from The Silver Arm. It’s fully drafted and in dire need of revision, but my first readthrough is complete—I just have to do my high level edits and then send it off to beta readers.

In addition, I currently have rough drafts completed for two books in two brand new series. 

The first is a future fantasy book that will likely be the beginning of a reasonably long series (at least 5 books), though I am not usually sure how long a project will end up being until I finish it. It is set in a small, frontier-style town that is plagued by enormous lizard-like creatures called draugi that only come out at night. The main character, Elara, lives with her two brothers, and has noticed that things seem to be changing around town in small but significant ways. When a stranger shows up, having traveled through miles of draugi-infested forest, and begins asking pointed questions, she begins to realize that the changes she noticed were actually small pieces of a much, much bigger puzzle.

The other book, a fantasy novel based on one of the original fairy tales I wrote in The Bald Princess and Other Tales, seems like a trilogy, but again, I won't know until it's done. If you’ve read the original tale, called “Twilight Wood,” you’ll be familiar with the basic premise of the (likely) trilogy—which is basically that a guard is tasked with accompanying a count and his family to the far reaches of the kingdom, where a huge, magical forest looms.

Which brings me to writing news! April is Camp National Novel Writing Month! I plan to write at least one new Rove City novel, if not two, and hopefully push partway through the second book in at least one of the two new series.

So yeah, I have a lot coming up!

The other thing that has kept my busy is teaching. I've had a great year so far, presenting at two conferences—History Quill and Eastern Shore's Bay to Ocean conference; I taught at the Claggett Center Writing Retreat in Maryland; plus I've done several virtual and/or in-person workshops for different groups. Coming up, I'll be doing a talk on AI for the Eastern Shore Writers Association, and a master class on book marketing midsummer for another group.

Last Friday, I was excited to be invited to join John DeDakis's podcast, One-to-One—if you missed it, you can watch the recording on YouTube.

My focus for the moment is on April. I am planning to dive into writing, and immerse my brain in stories for the entire month, and I will worry about what comes in May when we get there!

I hope you're having a great (or at least passable) 2023 so far!

March Cat News

This month, in cat news… it’s mostly about Blueberry!

Blueberry had a huge amount of fun when we visited Nashville earlier this month. He got to go to dog parks in Chapel Hill, NC, Roanoke, VA, Knoxville, TN, and Nashville. He loved my brother's house—lots of open space to roam and interesting shnick shnacks to scavenge from the counter.

He also got to meet a friendly dog named Tank who lived next door to one of our AirBnBs and who was also a Great Pyrenees! They had a lot of fun together. 

The cats survived being home alone together successfully, although they were pretty irritated at us when we got back. Rowan immediately asked to be let outside; Wilfred wouldn't look at us, but then immediately claimed my lap as soon as I sat down; and Buck wouldn't talk to us for at least three days.

One-To-One with John DeDakis

I was fortunate to be interviewed last week on John DeDakis’s podcast, called One-to-One with John DeDakis. John is an award-winning novelist, writing coach, and manuscript editor, as well as a former editor on CNN's "The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer." He is the author of five mystery-suspense-thriller novels. In his most recent novel, FAKE, protagonist Lark Chadwick is a White House correspondent defending against “fake news” in the era of #MeToo.

DeDakis, a former White House correspondent, regularly leads writing workshops at literary centers and writers’ conferences. He is also the host of the video podcast “One-to-One with John DeDakis” on YouTube, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Originally from La Crosse, Wisconsin, DeDakis now lives with his wife Cindy in Baltimore, Maryland. In his spare time, what little he has of it, DeDakis is a jazz and rock-and-roll drummer.

Click here to learn more about him on his website!

We had a great conversation ranging from writing and publishing to dogs to religion, and I enjoyed talking to him a great deal!

You can watch the recording of the video on YouTube if interested (and at 2x speed, if you watch videos the way I do haha).

Thanks for watching!

Writing Tips (Sometimes): One Key Disadvantage of Traditional Publishing

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

Wilfred Potato demanding affection.

I do a lot of workshops, and a few months ago, I gave one titled something along the lines of “Selling Books in a Digital World” where I laid out the two most commonly discussed business models for indie authors: Amazon-Only with books available in Kindle Unlimited, and Wide Distribution with free first in series. I walked through each of the paths, talking about the advantages and disadvantages of each, as well as indicating places where I’d seen authors diverge from the paths, or commenting on the various implementations I’d seen other authors use successfully or unsuccessfully.

The workshop was well-attended and well-received, and at the end, I opened it up for questions. Most were standard—asking for me to repeat the names of platforms or services, to clarify a point I’d made, or to elaborate more on a concept. But one woman asked me something that has stuck with me since.

She said, “Ariele, thanks for all this. It makes sense, and it seems like there are a lot of options for authors. But I noticed that many of the marketing strategies you explained involved either being in Kindle Unlimited or doing price promotions. My own book was just published with a small press, and I don’t know how they manage where the book is distributed or how they decide prices. What advice would you give me?”

If you’re curious, my “thinking on my feet” advice was, “Make a plan, and then talk to your publisher about it and see if they’d be willing to work with you to make it possible.”

But since then, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about this question. Because here’s the thing—when you sign a contract with a traditional publisher or a small press, you’re giving up something important: control over your product. Any size publisher will become responsible for your book covers, prices, and distribution, and while it may sound like a weight off your shoulders, those are also three of the biggest tools in your marketing toolbox.

If you want to get a Bookbub, you have to have control of the pricing.

If you want to be in Kindle Unlimited, you have to have control of your distribution.

If you want to experiment with genre conventions in your book cover, you have to have control over design.

If you want explore the wide range of marketing options available to authors, you have to have full control over your product.

Otherwise, you’re primarily limited to sending newsletters, talking about your book on social media, or doing PR. And while these methods are certainly valuable and can have an impact, they represent only a small fraction of the marketing landscape.

This is not to say that traditional publishing is wrong or bad—there are other reasons authors choose to go that route, and many publishers have other resources that aren’t available to indie authors. But I think it’s important to keep in mind that many publishing companies no longer provide much in the way of marketing for their authors (as demonstrated by the recent DOJ vs PRH trial). So if you are considering seeking out a publisher rather than being indie, make sure you ask about marketing before you sign any contracts.

Blueberry discovering his love of tennis balls for the first time.