1) It's hard to make a living by writing. Then again, it all revolves around your definition of 'making a living'. If you want to live in NYC in a penthouse, then no, you probably won't make a living. But if you live in a cabin in the woods, well, your needs are probably minimal and yes, you can make a decent living.
--personally, I'd love to pay off my cover artists costs and have some money for a vacation, but THAT's not going to happen anytime soon!
2) Don't spend your money before you get it.
--Amazon pays quarterly. For example: The first quarter ran from Jan. 1-March 31. The books are closed around April 25. And I actually received a check four weeks after that on May 26. BUT if you don't make the minimum profit required, well, there's no check/deposit.
--so if you plan to quit your job and write, you need to have 3-4 publishable novels ready and available, THEN WAIT 2 OR 3 YEARS until you are generating an appropriate amount of income to support your household needs, including paying rent, utilities, food, AND insurance.
3) This is a long-term deal. Be patient. Very few people will do well right out of the gate. There are a few writers who are young and they've managed to score very good deals, post-self-publishing--Amanda Hocking is one. But for the rest of us, well, only time and word-of-mouth will help us. Even then, we still might not do as well as we would wish.
4) A writer need to have a business plan . . . AND about 4 or 5 books to publish that first year. The more you get out there, the better the odds of gaining readers. Trust me, it doesn't always happen, but it's better to load the dice in your favor.
5) There is still the stigma attached to self-published writers
--some of the stigma is well-deserved, but not by all self-published authors. Of course, I like to think I belong in this 'other' category
--I will reiterate here: Do NOT publish your first book--it usually isn't good enough. And your mom, spouse, brother, co-worker, etc. won't have the guts enough to tell you the truth. Remember the Jack Nicholson's line in A FEW GOOD MEN? "You CAN'T handle the truth!" Yeah, it's like that.
--Read and learn about the craft of writing, through classes, books and organizations.
6) Subjectivity. Once published (traditionally or self), no matter how clean your story is, someone will always find mistakes . . . and will tell you about them.
--not everyone will love your story.
7) YOU have to be agent, editor, formatter, cover artist and publicity expert. If you are unable to do something, you should PAY to have someone take care of it for you.
REMEMBER -- Cover, title, blurb. All three must be good enough to entice the potential reader to open to the first page. Then you have to reel them in with excellent writing.
--I can't draw worth a darn. I wouldn't even know where to begin to look for appropriate cover images for my story, therefore, I hired a cover artist.
--formatting isn't hard, just tedious
--copy editing (finding all those stupid mistakes, missing words, weird punctuation, etc) isn't hard, just tedious
--you have to
8) Many reviewers won't touch you because you're a) self-published, 2) electronic, not paper.
--reality check here--I don't read reviews of books, but many people do follow reviewers, which results in exposure.
--many reviewers are bogged down with books from big name publishers that they don't have time to read everything they've been given.
9) Learning the business from the ground up. I've learned so much about the business of publishing a book that I feel confident continuing to get my stories out there.
And the best of all:
10) READER'S EMAILS/REVIEWS.
--There is nothing better than reading about a reader's excitement when he/she is reading your story
--I have a special file on my Outlook where I save those emails.
--they make me happy and the reason I keep working to get the next story ready to publish.
That's just a few of my random blathering thoughts in a nutshell.
Later, Peeps!
