No Sell Out Productions
Don't quit. Don't give up. Never give up. Like the Journey song, "Don't Stop Believin.'" That's the most important advice.
The second most important is to write, and learn everything you can about the craft.
The third most important is to learn everything you can about the business of writing, especially if you self-publish, i.e. the tools of marketing and selling your work, such as Goodreads. BookBub is another good one.
Be willing to invest money. Easier said than done (especially if you're a broke starving artist like most). Nonetheless, you gotta spend money to make money.
With so many thousands on thousands of self-published works every year, being piled onto already preexisting numbers, that's a whole lot of competition you're up against. If you can't get your message out and set your work apart, then from a business side, all you will do is toil and struggle.
Unless you're some major influencer on the likes of Twitter or Instagram, social media will only sell so many books, mainly to your (small) clique of most loyal friends; because how many of those 2,000-5,000 followers on Twitter do you really interact with, and of the ones you interact with, how many are buying your books?
I'd wager it's a tiny fraction.
Look to other tools, other methods, to market and sell, which will require money. You gotta spend money to make money. But be wise in how you spend it. Be wise like Solomon.
One more thought on the matter: the notion "cream rises to the top" is only partly true anymore. Unfortunately, author identity plays an increasingly more prominent role nowadays (so if you have that racket going for you--good for you!) Yet the mob is fickle. To show partiality is not good, but for a piece of bread a man will do wrong.
The second most important is to write, and learn everything you can about the craft.
The third most important is to learn everything you can about the business of writing, especially if you self-publish, i.e. the tools of marketing and selling your work, such as Goodreads. BookBub is another good one.
Be willing to invest money. Easier said than done (especially if you're a broke starving artist like most). Nonetheless, you gotta spend money to make money.
With so many thousands on thousands of self-published works every year, being piled onto already preexisting numbers, that's a whole lot of competition you're up against. If you can't get your message out and set your work apart, then from a business side, all you will do is toil and struggle.
Unless you're some major influencer on the likes of Twitter or Instagram, social media will only sell so many books, mainly to your (small) clique of most loyal friends; because how many of those 2,000-5,000 followers on Twitter do you really interact with, and of the ones you interact with, how many are buying your books?
I'd wager it's a tiny fraction.
Look to other tools, other methods, to market and sell, which will require money. You gotta spend money to make money. But be wise in how you spend it. Be wise like Solomon.
One more thought on the matter: the notion "cream rises to the top" is only partly true anymore. Unfortunately, author identity plays an increasingly more prominent role nowadays (so if you have that racket going for you--good for you!) Yet the mob is fickle. To show partiality is not good, but for a piece of bread a man will do wrong.
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