4 Things I’ve Learned Publishing My 4th Book

18 Feb 4 Things I’ve Learned Publishing My 4th Book

Publishing my stories has been a fun ride. With my latest work, I now have four book babies out in the ether.

Valentine’s Day has come and gone and I love the story I have just published on the very theme. It’s my favorite to date and so far it’s done the best out of all my books. I suppose that has a lot to do with my teeny-tiny, growing following. This time I took a real stab at preselling. I tried with The Bluest Christmas, but didn’t quite realize how short of a timeline 30 days is.

I tried it again this time around with V Day and I can’t tell if it had a good effect or if I would’ve gotten the same results had I just hurled it out there. Regardless, I’ll do it again. I learned a lot with book four, and here are just four of those lessons.

1.PRESELLING IS LIKE HAVING A PUBLISHER

This was my first attempt at writing multiple POVs. It wasn’t as intimidating as I thought it would be, but with that, it turned what was supposed to be a novelette into a short full novel. This increased my writing time by a lot. I needed this book done at least by the 14th. Doing the presale allowed me to put it out and start getting interest, but more importantly, it made sure that I managed my time wisely. Preselling bound me to a contract so to speak, acted as my publisher.

Writing for yourself means you’ve got to have self-accountability which I have never had much of. I know for sure if I didn’t presell, I wouldn’t have made the deadline, which I barely did. There were still more errors than I’d like even after several rounds of edits. I probably would have abandoned the project once I saw how tight things got and focused on other projects in the works.

I had to push myself to get it done, but I did. Many readers do give us indie writers some leeway with those things. A good story is a good story, so long as the errors don’t detract from it, but the goal is to put out a quality product the first time. This requires better time management. Setting writing goals will be a good start.

2. I GUESS I AM A ROMANCE WRITER??

I’ve been struggling with this quite a bit, but after this last book, I’ve had to come to some realizations. The first one being that I am writing romance. I started this thing saying, ‘I just want to write about people in situationships and since our lives are made up of relationships, I’m just writing about life. Don’t box me into the Romance category, because I don’t do HEA for the sake of HEA. I like a little messy, I like the unresolved because that is life, bla bla, bla.’

But my readers find me in the romance categories and they’re not reading for true to life. They’re reading to escape.

I tend to have a bit more eroticism in my books than other romance books as well. I have to click that 18 and over button which precludes me from advertising as I would like to. This is a huge hindrance for visibility, although I’ve seen many other authors with much more salacious content get by on this. I’ll have to figure that out.

Regardless, if I embrace romance fully, I’ll have to follow the rules. HEAs are a must, and I’ve gotta wrap those babies up into nice little bows or else I should be refocusing into dark romance, which from what I understand still requires some version of a happy ending. Currently, I’m straddling the line, but playing Switzerland never really makes a splash.

My brain loves shiny new objects and it is a struggle every day not just to switch gears and start something else completely.

Regardless, I’m all in on the romance train. You want your happy endings, you’ll get your happy endings…at least under this pen name.

3. I NEED TO UP MY PEN GAME

The other day on TikTok (my current sole obsession) I stumbled upon a writer who was showing off her sales. The caption read something like:

“When they say you can’t make a living writing…”

And she showed off $500 here, $2500 there, $1400 here for her different books.

When I looked her up, she had about 14 books. I followed her and learned she could write a 300 paged book in a week. Say what?!! If I get a chapter done in a day, I think I’ve done something.

She wrote 14 books in a year. Now I’m no mafamatician, but that’s more than a book a month…and they’re fat. Fantasy is a popular genre and those books have a lot pages which definitely contributes to page reads and pricing. So the math adds up to a decent monthly income.

I do get that she might have had a back catalog at the time of execution, but still, a lot of writing time goes into getting those books out. I’m currently self-employed, but I work on other people’s projects. Once they pay me, they own my ass. Still, you’d think since I can make my own schedule, I could get in more writing time. But after work, I have responsibilities to my own tribe and they want some attention too.

I want to be able to write full time so this means writing more words whether or not I have the time. More words create more books and more opportunities to be seen and found.

Can I write a quality book in a month? I’d say yes, but I have to be organized and tame that distraction monster. I’ll be setting some goals and see what I can accomplish.

4. I NEED TO INVEST IN MY BABIES

Besides needing to hire an editor eventually, I’m going to have to work at branding myself. Interestingly, I brand other people’s businesses, but when it comes to my personal projects, I get a little lazy. 

Nothing is as sharp or as thought out. Not that I don’t care. After working on other projects and writing, thinking up new ideas and trying to squeeze in some reading, I’m creatively pooped. 

So I’ve just been haphazardly putting things together just to get it done. Eventually, I’m going to have to get myself together. Really plan out my branding overall from the covers to the interior to my website.

I follow a fellow author Ava Freeman and currently working through her latest book Love’s Divine. The interiors of that book are so beautiful and I was reminded of how all of that plays into the reading experience. As a sucker for all things pretty, this elevates her work in my eyes. Not too many indie writers invest in this part of the process and when they do, it stands out. I certainly notice. It all matters. 

I’ve started list building as well. Turns out, it’s a smart move to remind people that you exist before throwing out another book. Go figure!

It’s easy to get caught up in the creative side of things and forget publishing your books is its own little business. Some of these things I’d like to get my books to pay for. Branding will simply require time and patience from myself. I need to be my own client so to speak. I can literally do anything so I end up doing nothing. A little attention to detail goes a long way. It just requires a lot of planning and organizing which is soooo hard for this scattered brain of mine. She thrives on chaos!! Eventually, I’ll get it all together…I hope.

I’m still in the early phase of this process and I know there’s still a lot to learn, but I’m having fun doing it. So I’m off to work on Book 5 ‘At the Deep End: Deeper‘ and my upcoming freebie When Nola Smiles. Sign up here to join my little club in the Lickher Room. I hope everyone thinks the name is as clever as I do.