April 2020 Update

With the ideal of keeping honest and transparent, here is a breakdown of April.

COVID-19

With still being locked down in my house, and everywhere closed or operation in a take-out only function, I have yet to get out to write much. My standard writing procedure is to rotate the place I write in. Most times I write at my desk. Except when I get “cabin fever” and must get out of the house. Before the COVID-19 bull, there are a few coffee shops I like to write in. One of them is Starbucks. But I only use that as they have a policy stating they can’t kick people out. The other is a coffee shop right on the beach. Being stuck in my house, I had to figure out how to stay productive.

Goal Recap.

2020 GOALS

1. Write 600,000 words in publishable story related projects.
2. Write every day of at least 500 words making words in a row at 731 days in the road.
3. Catch up on editing allowing no more than 2 manuscripts waiting to be edited.
4. Edit every day of 1 chapter at a minimum.
5. Secure cover art for any book in the editing stage.
6. Publish a minimum of 1 book.
7. Publish a minimum of 3 books.
8. Publish a minimum of 5 books.
9. Publish a minimum of 7 books.
10. Write one blog post a week.
11. Write update blogs at the start of every month.
    1. Write an update blog for the remaining months.
12. Clean up Tokyo Tempest #1 with a proofread.
13. Write and submit 5 short stories to markets.
14. Publish 7 short stories or novellas to amazon.
15. Set up a Patreon account.
16. Set up proper social media author accounts and a proper newsletter.
17. Have 1 paying client of editing services.
18. Make 100 dollars one month through publishing.
19. Make 500 dollars one month through publishing.
20. Make 1000 dollars one month through publishing.
21. (Bonus) Get back in shape physically by losing 20 lbs.

There are my goals for 2020.

Breakdown of Goals.

As I have so many goals, and many of them build on others, I will be only going over the goals I am dealing with at the moment.

1. Write 600,000 words in publishable story related projects.
   • I am at 204k words for 2020. This month I wrote 48,670 words. If I keep this pace up, I will be around 614k words for the year. This is good. I am writing more than I did last year. I want to raise that number for the year up, so I will have to do better in April
2. Write every day of at least 500 words making words in a row at 731 days in the road.
   • I am on day 487 of 731. I am making my goal.
3. Catch up on editing allowing no more than 2 manuscripts waiting to be edited.
   • There has been changes with this number. I looked back at my Felix story and decided to make some big changes in regards to the magic system. This means I now have an additional two novels to be edited. On a plus side, I have received edits for my Des O’Neal books. Look for updates on that in the next few weeks.
4. Edit every day of 1 chapter at a minimum.
   • This is being done. I have more focus on this than my other goals. Editing finished work is a week spot of mine. The time getting it done at least. I have been getting more editing per day than words. (Especially with changing Felix #1 and #2.
5. Secure cover art for any book in the editing stage.
   • Working on this. Hard going, but expect updates on it soon enough.
6. Publish a minimum of 1 book.
7. Publish a minimum of 3 books.
8. Publish a minimum of 5 books.
9. Publish a minimum of 7 books.
10. Write one blog post a week.
    • This is being done. I have yet to miss one and I don’t attend to miss it.
11. Write an update blog for the remaining months.
    • This is to keep going. No time to waste.
12. Clean up Tokyo Tempest #1 with a proofread.
13. Write and submit 5 short stories to markets.
    • I should write some short stories.
14. Publish 7 short stories or novellas to amazon.
15. Set up a Patreon account.
16. Set up proper social media author accounts and a proper newsletter.
17. Have 1 paying client of editing services.
18. Make 100 dollars one month through publishing.
19. Make 500 dollars one month through publishing.
20. Make 1000 dollars one month through publishing.
21. (Bonus) Get back in shape physically by losing 20 lbs.

Future plans.

I am getting close to being about to publish some manuscripts. I see the light at the end of the tunnel and it isn’t a train. I hope to get things moving and up. Being in the fifth month, I have yet to publish anything. I need to change that. I hope things will move soon and I will have some new titles being launched.

This journey is not something I can do alone. It takes support from many people for it to become a reality. The easiest way is to visit my Amazon Author Page and purchase one of my books. They are available in all countries and for free in Kindle Unlimited. I do have a tip jar set up at Ko-Fe, where you can buy me a coffee. Or you can also visit me on Facebook. Your help and support are much appreciated.

Thoughts on this Indi-Publishing thing 1.0

As it goes from being January 2018 to February 2018, it is approaching 15 days since I published my first book.

You can find it here. Phantom Sorcerer.

It has not been any type of success. No movie deals offered, or entry onto the New York Times List.

It just hasn’t. It has sold a grand total of four copies. I managed to give away forty-five copies one weekend, but people horde free books and never read them. So I don’t expect any reviews from that bunch.

It happens.

So does that mean that I need to give up? Like all the pessimists out there that tell me all the time?

No.

This is exactly as I expected it to happen.

I am a complete unknown with very little social media presence. I have an email list, but no one on it.

This indie-publishing thing. this experiment. Is not for the faint of heart. It is a long-term game.

Does that mean that after the first books that I should be able to make lots of money?

No.

There is a strategy that is called, “20 books for 50k”. In it, the idea is that you write twenty books you should be able to get successful. If you write twenty books, then the total sales of each book will make enough to be successful.

The traditional model of being able to write a single book a year and being able to live off of the royalties and the advance from that is dead and gone. Traditional Publishing as we know it is an unwieldy, dying beast. The indie-community knows it. The traditional publishers know it. The traditional publishing world is thrashing around to save itself.

Indie-publishing is the way to go. But it is not perfect. In the indie-publishing world, a big argument is the elephant in the room.

Amazon.

There are many publishers that an indie author like myself can go to. There is Direct-to-Digital, Smashwords, Amazon to name a few.

Amazon has 70% of the US market for indie books. It is also the only one to demand exclusivity in being able to sell on Amazon.

But it is only some of its books. It is called, “KDP Select.” In it, you get a range of promotional benefits as well as the ability to put your book into the lending library of Kindle Unlimited.

One side will argue that it is best to go wide. To not leave out the 30% of the market that is not Amazon. That you can still get 70% royalties from any books sold on Amazon and be able to sell it everywhere else.

That Amazon is an evil beast, and you shouldn’t hitch your horse to that wagon. That by saddling yourself with Amazon, you are becoming a dependant author reliant on Amazon for your lively hood. That I am no better than going with traditional publishing.

I, however, have a different opinion.

Scary huh?

While I have sold a grand total of four units, which means that I have a total of approx. $15 Canadian so far. It is approx cause the differences in the values of the currencies.

So far, I have a total of approx. 2000 KENP Reads. That is the number of pages that someone that subscribe to Kindle Unlimited has read. That is, of course, new page reads.

I don’t have any idea on how many people started the book and went to something else, or how many people have actually read the entire thing. They don’t give me the number of users that have read it.

For authors, KENP works by Amazon setting up a fund from the subscribers to Kindle Unlimited. That pot is split up to be paid to all of the authors. It is currently based on the amount of KENP page reads that has been read by a subscriber. Based on the given approximations, it doubles my revenue from that single book.

Now, this is without using any of the promotional abilities that KDP Select allows me to use other than the free days. It does not show the other side of the equation. How much could my book have made by going ‘wide?’

For an entirely accurate number, I can’t tell you. I’d have to pull my book out of KDP Select and put it up on the other markets. I may do that when I can. I may not.

But if Amazon has 70% of the market and I have managed to receive 70% of the sales possible for that book, then I should be able to get another $4.50 from them. That means KDP select is $30 while going wide is $20.

That is only a guess at the moment, based on some rough numbers. It might have gone differently if I had done differently.

Now in regards to the notion that my going exclusive with select, that I am no better than going with traditional publishing. I disagree.

As an indie author, I still hold my rights. I have the audio-books rights, the paperback. The only right that I have given up is the digital rights to the books. And it is easily returnable. I’d only have to wait 90 days. With tradition publishing, you have to wait a pre-selected amount of time that the book is out of print, or spend a boatload of money to get it back.

Those are just my thoughts so far. I plan on posting more of these posts later, once I publish more books.

Nathan’s Amazon Author Page

Phantom Sorcerer

Until Next time.