-
Why Am I So Negative About Traditional Book Publishing?
I Got That Question in an Email… It wasn’t from anyone who had taken a class with us, and I laughed and almost just deleted it as I do most spam emails. Then I looked at it and googled the website that came with it and realized the person was a writer, or in the early stages, and someone had pointed this person to some of my really negative posts about traditional publishing. And this person was honestly having an issue with me blowing up the dreams of having a major publisher sprinkle fairy dust on a book and proclaim they are a REAL WRITER! So being the real ass…
-
Questions About the 40K Seminar
Got a Bunch of Good Questions This Weekend… So figured I would answer them here as well. 1… Can I still get in the seminar? Are there places open? Answer: Yes, spots still open. Just follow the instructions I have added in below. 2… Is the early-bird discount still available? Answer: Yes, the price is $400 until the first of August, then goes up to $500. 3… Signing up now includes the updates each year? Answer: Yes, if you are in now, you get access to the yearly updates and new videos and webinars each year. 4… Are the videos and webinars going to be available to anyone signed up…
-
Still Taking Sign-Ups for 40K Seminar…
This Seminar Will Be Great Fun! What is this all about? Basically showing writers and indie publishers how to make at least $40,000 per year and even more if you are already making that much. The more we talked about doing this and talked with others, the more we knew it would be fun for us to lay all this out. And help our own business in the process. So many writers are getting discouraged by not making much money, and yet they don’t even realize how the cash streams are built. In essence, this will be an awareness seminar on all the fifty or seventy or more major and…
-
GOT A QUESTION ON LAST NIGHT’S POST…
An Honest Question… So figured I would try to answer it here. The question was how much of an advance would a writer need to get to make around 40K per year in traditional publishing when a $50,000 three book deal gets a writer between $4,700 and $9,000 plus per year. Again, the comparison from last night was nothing but bookstore sales, no major licensing, which traditional publishers would keep most of it anyway, unlike indie writers who get to keep it all. Well, the easy answer is just divide all that yearly amount from last night into $40,000 and then multiply it by $50,000 to get around a $350,000…
-
Interesting Questions…
BESIDES REGULAR STORE SALES… WHAT TO DO? How to make $40,000 a year regularly with just your writing. But if you are only depending on retail sales like Amazon and D2D and Kobo and such, even if you have far more than 20 books, you won’t make it in 2026. Just the truth. But lots and lots of writers make far past $40,000 per year with just their writing. Actually, far past $100,000 per year. They are not doing ads, not writing that fast or using AI crap, and are not in the cesspool of Amazon Select. They are just building fans, working on their writing craft, and getting their…
-
Making 40K With Only Your Writing…
My 20 Books to 50K Post Got Me Some Questions… I tend to use $40,000 instead of $50,000 in any math. Just easier and I know of few writers who would not settle for making $40,000 on their fiction every year. And it is a number that can be grown from. Also a number that will cause you to change your business structure unless you are doing something really stupid like spending 35K to make 40K. The problem is that most of the questions I get about this boils down to: “How?” And that I can’t even begin to answer in five or six emails. Maybe in a three month…
-
TWENTY BOOKS… The Reality…
Got A Letter From A Writer with Twenty-One Novels… This writer was making almost nothing and was angry that they had been conned by the twenty books myth. Clearly they thought when they finished and published twenty novels, they would be making $50,000 magically. You remember, the old 20 to 50 conference? And there is truth to the twenty major books exploding the discoverability exponentially. If… And there is truth if you reach that magic twenty number and are doing a bunch of things right, you can make from $40,000 to $80,000 on book sales per year. If you are doing a bunch of things right. Oh, boy… are there…
-
Doing the Math…
Deadlines Drive Math… I was working on my challenge on my calendar for deadlines and realized it felt very familiar to me. Very. Took me a little bit to remember that with almost every novel I wrote for traditional publishing under contract, I did the same thing. I would set up when the book had to be turned in under contract. (Never missed a traditional publishing deadline in 106 books.) Then I would circle that date on the calendar and count backwards, doing a rough estimate on how long it would take me to write it. That would get me a start date and then I would mark page count…
-
Discoverability is Worthless if You Block Your Sale…
Make Sure Buyers Buy Your Books When They See Them… In other words, don’t do things that will stop readers from buying your book or books when they discover them. I watch writer after writer go to all the work to build discoverability for their work, but then don’t give the reader a clear path to buying their books. The writer literally stops the buyer without even knowing they are doing it. And then they blame their writing or not being able to get discovered, when in reality they are creating roadblocks to anyone trying to buy their book. And just considering what I see on Kickstarters, most writers will…
-
I Have Room in My Sales Mentorship…
Make Sure Buyers Buy Your Books… In other words, don’t do things that will stop readers from buying your book or books when they discover them. You go to all the work to build discoverability for your work, but then don’t give the reader a clear path to buying your books. You literally stop them without even knowing you are doing it. That is what my half-year mentorship will make sure you are not doing. I will help you make your covers attractive and branded, I will train you how to write sales copy that will not bore the reader or give the plot away, but make them interested in…