I’m doing something a little different with my Wednesday blog posts in April. Together, this four-part series is a deeply personal investigation of the career I’ve created so far. First I wrote about why I do this, and then about what I do, and finally how I do it. This week we’ll finish up!
An Honest Audit, Part Four: What Next?
Well, let me start with the easy things. Book five of The Alchemical Tales is on my calendar to release in June, and shortly after that will come book two in the Pomegranate Café Romance series. I also already have vague plans for Alchemical Tales book six, and a few couples in mind for further romantic novellas . . .
. . . So, the obvious answer to what comes next is “more writing!” 😉 And of course that means more publishing, too, and more marketing, and so on–all the things we’ve been talking about this month. I will say that after a year of working very hard at this, it does feel like the wind is shifting. (On a personal level; on an industry level, it seems that the wind is always shifting, because it takes so very long to shift at all–but we can talk about things like publishing trends and Kindle Unlimited outrages another time!) What I mean is, instead of feeling like I am running uphill in the dark, I feel more like I’m running uphill in daylight. Or dawnlight, maybe?
To put it another way: last year, there was a whole forest’s worth of things I didn’t know. This year, I can at least see the trees within that forest. I’ve been down a few paths that went nowhere, and now I know better where to focus my energy. I’ve also noticed new opportunities opening up. And most encouraging of all, I’m not at the bottom of the hill any more. I’ve made it partway up.
That’s not to say that I know exactly what I’m doing, of course. 😉 There is still a lot left to learn. However, I have come far enough to make an informed decision about whether or not this is a hill I want to keep climbing.
“So, is it?” you ask. Well, after hearing all my plans for future books, do you really have any doubt? Of course I will keep running up this hill. However–for as much as I’d like to write an inspiring, ‘climb every mountain’ sort of post–I have to stress that this isn’t necessarily a rational decision. It has a lot to do with passion, too, and with promises made to myself. And most of all, I’d like to emphasize that I’m not going about things the same way I did last year.
We talked about that last week–that for as much as I’ve learned about how to market/publish/what have you, I’ve also had to learn a lot about how to work, and how not to work. Let’s add to that some practical considerations. In terms of making money, selling books is a volume game. An indie author makes about $1, or maybe as much as $3, per book sold (on average, mind you!). Unless you have a wide audience, we’re not talking about making rent payments here. 😉 As you climb up the hill, it gets easier–the more books you publish, the more you have to sell and the more people you might reach–but there are also a few shortcuts. For example, many indie authors offer higher-paid services on the side: helping others with marketing consultations, for example, or doing paid editing work, or developing workshops.
Now, with that in mind–I have been thinking about what else to do on the side. This is partly practical, and partly because I just enjoy new challenges. 🙂 It’s also because I’ve learned a lot and have a genuine interest in sharing my experiences with other authors. This appeals to me because it shifts that business meter from a need for “quantity” back to a connective “quality,” which is what we hope stories are all about, right?
Overall–well, overall, I’d love to be able to wrap up this “audit” series with something incredibly pithy and worthwhile. Honest and inspiring, do you think we can manage that? That’s usually my goal! But the truth is, because this post series–and this career!–is so personal, there’s not necessarily a nice clean summary. What next? Well, more. More writing and more business, just hopefully a little smarter and wiser about both. And as for exploring some of those parallel paths through the forest–offering consultations, or guiding other authors–shall we say it’s on the horizon? I don’t have any definite plans yet, but rest assured that whatever I decide will be something I’m excited to share down the line.
And rest assured, too, that no matter what, our adventures in Belville will continue. 😉
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