It all started about a year and a half ago.
I was in grad school, a Ph.D. student in a field I had dreamed of studying ever since I was a kid. And at a world-renowned school, to boot. On paper, it was everything I wanted, everything I had been working toward my entire academic career.
But after finishing my first year, I knew there wasn’t a future in it for me. At least, not a future in which I was excited about living. I could write multiple blog posts about why a career in my “dream field” wasn’t a fit for me, but it all boils down to one thing: I found it all too suffocating.
I had no desire to sit back and watch some of my best years slip away as I sat in a library reading esoteric books and writing esoteric nonsense in preparation for a career in an esoteric field. It didn’t feel like a fair exchange to me, so I looked for other options.
Enter self publishing.
I stumbled upon a post on reddit about people self publishing short stories on Amazon. They were making a fair amount of money, and after reading a few of the stories, I figured I could do just as well if not better.
So as I trudged on with my Ph.D. program, I began writing and publishing stories on the side. I made about $70 my first month, doubled it the next, and by the end of the year I was pushing past $1,000 without that much effort. A few hours a week at most.
These stories were terrible, absolutely horrific. I felt bad for the people who were borrowing them through Kindle Unlimited, and even worse for the ones that bought them for a few bucks.
As the semester was coming to a close, I realized that there was something to this experiment. I could see a future in it. One that I would actually be excited about. But I had to make a choice: continue writing part time and find mediocre results or drop out and give it my all.
I chose the latter.
With an emergency fund and a meager income from writing I started to focus on producing more stories. For a few months, I continued writing the same types of stories I had been but soon found my income plateauing around $1750.
I needed to change my approach.
Before this point, I had basically winged it, writing whatever came to my head. There was no market research, no real thought put into covers or blurbs. I just wrote.
I decided to take a few weeks off and research what was selling and why it was selling, dissecting covers, blurbs, reviews, character types, writing styles, plots—everything.
A few months and a short, serialized novel later, I had doubled my income and on my way to even greater heights. It worked.
Until it didn’t…
Amazon rolled out some new changes to the Kindle Unlimited program (pay per page read) and I saw my income plummet overnight. Literally. Just take a look at the image below.
July 1. The day the new changes rolled out.
My sales rank tanked. My income tanked. And my morale definitely tanked.
But, it wasn’t altogether unexpected. I wasn’t part of the group that thrived from these changes (established novelists with large back catalogs).
The new changes allowed Amazon to shift the market away from shorter works (what I had been writing) and toward novels (what most people tend to buy). I had to recalibrate and focus on writing longer. That had always been the plan, but I hadn’t expected the rug to be pulled out from under me so quickly.
Unfortunately, I still haven’t recovered from that steep decline; I haven’t published a single thing in the intervening year.
Not. A. Single. Thing.
Many of the reasons are my own doing: perfectionism; inconsistent writing routine; not setting clearly defined deadlines or goals. Among others.
I could fixate on those failures, but it wouldn’t be productive. Instead, I’m focusing on the future and my clearly defined goal:
Five-figure months and a top 100 bestseller on Amazon
As of right now, I’m aiming for a completion date of one year from now. Let’s say, by the end of August of next year. It’s a lofty goal, but I wouldn’t have set the goal if I didn’t believe I could attain it.
Although I’ve struggled with this novel for the past year, it’s nearly finished. And I feel better prepared for the challenges ahead of me having gone through that struggle.
Part of the reason I made this blog was for public accountability. No one wants to fail, especially not in such a public forum.
I’ll be posting daily word counts, and once I publish, monthly income reports. I want to document my journey as I gradually return to my previous income level and then surpass it.
All I need to do is stick with my routine (more on that in a later post) and focus on making writing a habit again.
You must work at it constantly, day and night. You must never stop reading, studying in depth, exercising your will. Every hour is precious.
—Anton Chekhov