Greetings, everyone.

I released my first book (The Voided Man) in May, and so November marks six months for me in the world of self publishing. I’ve learned a great deal in half a year, and I’m going to create a few posts this month to share some of it. In a few weeks I’ll resume talking about books that I’m working on or that will soon be released.

In my first post back in June, I characterized myself as the last man on the bench on a single-A minor league baseball team. At that time, I’d sold about 40 books, and almost all of those sales were to people I know personally. Six months in, I would rate myself as a starter on a double-A team. I’m a long way from the majors, but I’ve sold a couple of thousand books now, and I feel like I understand the KDP game much better.

But on to specific things I’ve learned. I have a top ten list, which will be divided over three blog posts.

1. You can write more than you think you can.

I have found writing output to be no different than running. If you haven’t been to the track for a long time and you show up with fresh-out-of-the-box shoes, you will probably get winded fairly quickly. But if you get back up there night after night, you can build up stamina in a surprisingly short amount of time.

Writing is the same, I’ve found. I’m turning out more than twice as many words per day than I did in the beginning, and it doesn’t seem burdensome. It doesn’t feel like I’m sacrificing anything that matters or burning out my brain or anything negative. It feels like I’ve been going to the track regularly and I can turn out easy quarter miles and a lot of them.

2. Reviewers are generally nice.

I read all of my reviews, and they’re very helpful. The ones that are most enjoyable to read, of course, are from people who loved one of my books. But even the reviewers who didn’t particularly like a story usually have constructive comments that I can get something out of. If you think of writing, or if you’ve written something but are reluctant to put it out there because of a fear of the public square, my experience has been that it is generally a supportive place.

3. You have to build a schedule.

Writing needs to be a habit, and your brain needs to know when it’s “writing time”. Part of getting more productive for me has been establishing that morning writing time is 8:00 and that evening writing time is 7:00.

It doesn’t matter what your schedule looks like specifically, I don’t think. It just needs to be consistent. And the schedule I’m talking about is for the creation of new material for the books you are working on. I edit and blog and work on ad campaigns and all sorts of things related to the books at random times, but building the new content happens at set times, and that seems to make a meaningful positive difference.

That’s it for this week. More of my top ten list of what I’ve learned in my first six months of self publishing in a week or so.

Thank you for taking an interest in my writing.