A tweenager recently sent me an email asking me some questions about being a writer. I thought I might post them below, as I’ve been asked them before. 

1. What made you want to become a author? 

   I did not want to become an author. I enjoyed writing non-fiction and fiction when I was your age, but I didn’t think I could make a living as a writer. I like food, and not worrying about how to pay bills. I still think about getting a “real” job a lot. Coding isn’t necessarily more lucrative, but it is more dependable.

2. Do you have any advice for becoming an author?
   

   There are three pieces of advice I’d give to any writer.
   The first is to read and write! Read anything you like–fiction or non-fiction, in your native language, or your second language if you are studying in school. Think about what it is in the books and articles you read that makes you like them. And write. Always write. Not for the hope of being famous or for money, just because you love writing. If you don’t love writing, don’t become an author.
   The second piece of advice I would give is to find something else you enjoy doing, something that will pay the bills while you build your writing career. For someone your age, that would translate into not just studying creative writing, but also studying history and science (fantastic for story ideas!), art or photography and at least take a music appreciation class (studying the appearance of things and sounds will help you describe scenes more vividly),  and mathematics. The last one, mathematics, makes artists groan, but it is so important for all artists of every type, especially if you want to make a living with art. So many artists don’t understand money, and they wind up getting taken advantage of, or they aren’t capable of analyzing their sales to make informed financial decisions.
   Working hard at all your subjects achieves two things–you learn how to work hard, and you might just find something that you like and are good at that makes a fine “day job” while you build your writing career. It turned out, I am a decent coder. I know writers who were lawyers, accountants, nurses, editors, graphic designers, marketing directors, businesswomen, and more. There are only a few writers out there who just emerged from high school or college as writers. You might be that person, but most likely not. Prepare for the not.
   The third piece of advice I would be is to live your life. Travel, make mistakes, meet people, talk to them, fall in love, and have children if you want children. These are things that should help your career in the long run, not hinder it. It will give you a greater understanding of the human condition and will allow you to write with greater empathy and compassion.

3. What is your favorite genre to write about? 

   I love fantasy with a sci-fi element, and writing technology as though it is magic in sci-fi. I like all my fiction to have historical references. I can’t write without writing adventure. And I love romance that is integral to the plot, but not the whole plot.

4. What is your favorite book that is not one of your’s?

   I cannot name my favorite book–that’s like asking a mother who her favorite child is.

   The first book I remember reading was Pirate’s Promise when I was just out of third grade. (I have dyslexia and reading came late for me.) I loved the adventure in it, and the hero who was determined to do the right thing. It also made me realize that adults could be stupid. At the end of the book, the boy who was avoiding becoming an indentured servant goes to live with a family in the deep South–a place with slaves! Couldn’t he have gone to someplace like Massachusetts?

   Black Beauty was the next book I remember reading–I love writing from non-human points of view, and maybe that is why. (Sleipnir has his own story in I Bring the Fire, it is called, The Slip. Carl Sagan, the ten-legged, venomous alien weasel … err, “werfle” from my Archangel Project series has his own story, too. It’s called Carl Sagan’s Hunt for Intelligent Life in the Universe.)

   I read all of Robert Aspirin’s Myth series soon after those–mostly because a friend I met at camp was his niece and she had a box of Advanced Reader Copies. Those taught me that books could be funny. I read all those books the summer between third and fourth grade. I read The Prydain Chronicles and the Westmark Trilogy by Lloyd Alexander soon after fourth grade started. Those taught me that books could be funny, lyrical, exciting, and deep. And then I just took off on a tear!

   There were many books I read between fourth grade and when I began writing. I think On A Pale Horse by Piers Anthony probably influenced my desire to write from the misunderstood immortal’s point of view. Dr. Zhivago made me realize I could like a human who did things I’d normally find distasteful. (The title character was unfaithful to his wife.) Dan Simmon’s Hyperion Cantos, Lois McMaster’s Bujold’s Paladin of Souls, and Raising the Stones made me realize I could use sci-fi and fantasy to discus theology in ways that were more fun than discussing theology. (Not to diss Bujold’s Vorksigian Saga. Shards of Honor has one of the best love scenes ever.) I really enjoyed several non fiction books about China and Japan: Wild Swans in particular, and a lot of really dense texts, Death Ritual in Late Imperial Early Modern China particularly stands out in my memory. I read books about economics and psychology too: Charles Wheelan, Steven Pinker, Daniel H. Pink, Malcolm Gladwell, Hernando DeSoto, Steven D. Levitt and Stephen Dubner) and Sharon Brownlee all can make non-fiction riveting. (Lately I’ve discovered Alexis Clark’s Enemies in Love. Fantastic historical documentary of racial segregation during WWII.)

5. Do you have any writing tips?

   The only tips I have for writing are to write something every day. It doesn’t have to be fiction. It can be a letter, or an email, a book report, science report, anything. Also, don’t be afraid of feedback. It’s a hugely essential part of growth; as is learning which feedback to heed and which to ignore.

I hope this has been helpful. Now get writing!

Recently, Archangel Down, the first book in my Archangel Project trilogy and my I Bring the Fire Box Set were both on sale for 99¢. The sales for both started at the same time, and ended at the same time, and both are still currently at $2.99. Besides the obvious difference in the number of books in each “sale”, Archangel is in Kindle Unlimited and I Bring the Fire is wide. Also, I Bring the Fire had a BookBub, and Archangel Down did not (it had a BookBub December 23rd–I stacked promos during this sale because I couldn’t have another BookBub for my recent release of Heretic, the conclusion of the trilogy.) Archangel Down was not running a Count Down deal, so it only earned a 35% royalty.

Here are the profits so far:

Although I earned more overall on the I Bring the Fire box, I earned more per dollar spent on the Archangel Down title.

Takeaways: this promo makes me really hesitant to take my Archangel Project out of Kindle Unlimited anytime soon. That said, the recent account closings due to scammers picking up KU books and getting authors accounts pulled has me hesitant to put I Bring the Fire into Kindle Unlimited. As you can see, I do earn about 1/3 my income  “wide.” If I were to experience an account shut down, I would at least have a small revenue stream during the weeks that it took me to get my account re-established.

Here are the promo line-ups for the sales. Besides what you see here, I spent roughly the same on AMS ads for each book. I think they were around $20? But I forgot to track.

The newsletter swaps / FB and newsletter mentions were really effective. I will probably try to line up more of those in the future.

In the web design business we have a saying, “Don’t make me think!” Basically, it means that all interfaces should be as easy to use and intuitive as possible. Web designers who try to be “too cool” are really saying,”This is all about MY VISION of DESIGN and I don’t care about you!” I wonder, if when we make things difficult for readers, we are inadvertently saying, “My ART is so wonderful, it’s worth struggling to discover”?

… and that’s kind of horrible and narcissistic. It really should be the other way around. I am honored when anyone spends time and/or money to read my books, and I think I need to make sure it shows. (Not saying I always succeed, but I TRY, darn it!)

Recently, I was reading a self-pubbed writer bemoaning that her series (and she has multiple series!) don’t sell well, despite good reviews, and the fact that she has been traditionally published in the past and has industry cred. I was curious how someone with so much going for her could be floundering. So I went to her author’s page on Amazon. I couldn’t find which of her 20 or so books were part of a series, and which were one-offs. I wondered, how many of her readers couldn’t find the next book in their favorite series either? How many clicked away in dismay, and how many sales were lost?

So here’s three tips–two easy, one hard–to make sure your fans know your series has continued.

1. Put the series name in the title not just on your cover in the actual metadata when you enter the title on Amazon. Your book cover is going to be postage stamped sized in the browser window until someone clicks on it. No one can read “Diary of a Wimpy Teenage Vampire Part II” on a postage stamp!

Make sure the title next to your book cover reads, “Life Sucks (Diary of a Wimpy Teenage Vampire Part I)”

2. Put the sequential number in the metadata.Make sure it’s “Bloody Sunday (Diary of a Wimpy Teenage Vampire Part 7)”. You don’t want to frustrate readers, they’re your customers. Love them. Make things easy for them–and let them know which book to buy next. Their lives hard, and they worked hard to spend the money and time to read your story.

3. Make your covers match! Anyone who has followed me for a while knows that this is something I, ahem, struggled with. (For a hilarious peek at my cover attempts check out my Goodreads page and the old editions there https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18299288-i-bring-the-fire).

It can be hard to make covers match and expensive! When I first started out, I did something as quickly and cheaply as I could. Was unhappy, so did something that took several days worth of work to produce. (Couldn’t afford stock art at that point!)

When I hit “Monsters”, Part II in my series, I realized making an artistic masterpiece for all of my covers was going to bankrupt me in either time or money. So I simplified. I went to iStock and picked out some lovely background textures, and then used Fireworks to superimpose images and Viking-themed patterns on top of those textures.

You can see my covers in my signature. It’s obvious all except “Murphy’s Star” belong to the same series. “In the Balance” is a novella that wasn’t part of the original plan. I tried to use the slight variation in the theme to reflect that. “Murphy’s Star” is a genuine stand-alone.

To be honest, I could probably make the covers even simpler and cheaper and sell as well. But I’m pleased with them, and will continue the theme.

I’ll try to hit on “Simple Covers that Sell” at some point. I’ve noticed having a masterpiece for a cover really doesn’t do much in the long run. It’s more about keeping things clean…but for now, back to editing Part IV! (Almost done! Almost done! Almost done!)