Ask a self-published shillster anything

Ask a self-published shillster anything.

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At what point in your life did you figure out that you would never have enough talent to be formally published?

I've never reached such a point in my life; it is inevitable that I will become traditionally published. Simply using self-publishing as a means of starting out. 6 books finished, working on several others.

Should I continue writing my novel? I'm not sure if I have talent.
docs.google.com/document/d/1yBZGuOZtvcilfI3LVrnxiFMRzFqVXbIffsy8oNGdy5Q/edit?usp=sharing

I only read the first page, but it's really bad. It reads like fanfiction. You really have no business trying to write a novel at this point. Don't spend your time writing a bunch when you have no idea what you're doing. Just read and learn.

The true beauty of Truth Seekers is revealed after the first page.

Why is it in present tense that hurts to read. And Aiden is a faggot name

He's literally a faggot

No, no it isn't. Your writing quickly becomes annoying to read. You used the word horizon in nearly every sentence for the first couple paragraphs. Your sentences are fraught with grammatical errors and trite descriptions that add absolutely nothing to whatever narrative you're trying to give us. You also use semicolons entirely incorrectly.

W-what'd you write?

OP here. I haven't read any of your stuff but the advice I generally get from authors who have 'made it' is to put your MAIN idea on the back-burner. For your first book, make it about something you're interested in, but not necessarily the primary idea you want to write about. It'll be a book through which you'll learn. If you write the book you WANT to write initially, then put it away for the time being and write that side-project. Once the side-project is written, get it critiqued, try and get some unbiased readers, put it up for free on Lulu, self-publish it on Amazon if you want and make it really cheap.

As you get feedback, you'll learn some mistakes you've made and some things you might not be particularly strong with. Everyone makes mistakes with their first book, or at least so I've heard. After you've learned much from that practice book, then write your main idea, or if you already have then read over it and edit it according to what you've learned about your writing. This will make your main idea a better book than if you also made it your first book and finished it quickly. So I don't know how your book is coming along, but if you question your talent, which is a good and modest thing to do I think, put your main idea on the back-burner and start on a book you're not so passionate about. Practice makes perfect, but remember, you'll never achieve perfection. It doesn't exist. You can edit a book a hundred times and spend years on it but it might not yet seem perfect to you.

My first book? It was my main idea. There are some aspects that I think I would benefit in changing, aspects that would make my book a bit more enjoyable for mainstream or 'casual' readers perhaps, but I made my book the way I wanted, it is finding its audience, and I have made a series with it. I am very much enjoying the process of writing this series, and have already heard from two readers in countries other than my own whom I had never previously spoken with who said they loved my little trilogy. Feels fantastic to hear such.

I'm the writer that goes by J N Morgan. Haven't been coming to Veeky Forums much lately, not as much as I used to. 6 books written with more on the way, though I'm ashamed to say that I haven't put anything out in a little over 2 months now. Since May 8th I've sort of hit a wall. My daily writing averaging 1500 words per day dwindled to more like 1500 words per couple weeks at best. I'm getting back into writing now but it's still taking time to get back to where I was. Anyways, I think the writer's block has ended, and I've got a handful of other books I've started so if I don't much feel like writing about specific books or just can't come up with how to continue them, then perhaps at least ONE of them will have some ideas of note to include in it.

Been writing for less than a year, I know that at least one of my books could really do with some editing but I'd like to get my 7th book out there first before I start on that again, and yeah I'm starting to actually make a little bit of regular income. Not much, about $45 in March, $50 in April (best month thus far), $25 in May, and merely $15 or so in June. So yeah, definitely getting a slump in sales, but it's none the less some very welcome income. That's about $135 that I made, 100% profit, simply for doing something I genuinely enjoy. Like someone gave me that much money just for gaming or something like that. There will be more to come, more books to self-publish, more money to be made, and I do entirely believe that it's inevitable that I'll become traditionally published one of these days, but traditional publishers will only ever get the right to publish physical copies and perhaps audiobooks. Ebooks will be for Kindle/KDP Select exclusively. That's their speciality.

As for right now, I'm not even pursuing traditional publishing. Working on my online platform, writing more books, trying more genres but also expanding on my Living amongst the Dead series which focuses heavily on realistic survivalism, character development, descriptive interactions and scenery, continued struggles, and also includes some social/political aspects that I'm interested in. SJWs, feminists, BLM, and I will likely end up including a Muslim character eventually who will be quite devout, and I'll doubtlessly include some actual passages from the Quran/Koran. Startling how much that Holy book promotes intolerance, distrust, and conflict... those who refuse to fight in the name of Allah will be "punished by a painful punishment". Can't remember the chapter/verse, but that's in the Islamic Holy book. I doubt there's a passage in the Bible that promotes going to war in the name of God.

Yeah, it's a bit of an odd concept, but I love writing it, and I've spoken with at least two individual who loved reading it and are eagerly awaiting the 4th instalment. Great feeling...

What happened on or around May 8th?

Nothing in particular, really. Basically I had been writing daily for quite some time, got my 4th LatD instalment about a quarter finished, and then came to a simple problem. The group should continue going east, but a dirt path opened up on the left and right. I know, roughly, what is to the right. There's no logical reason to go there... but for some reason I wanted them to go. Now I have figured out a reason, and so they went. I have an idea of how to progress the story finally. Very silly case of writer's block, but the worst case I've had since I started writing in late August 2016.

Just feels good to be writing again, and I hope I'll be able to slip into writing daily once more. But hey, from late August 2016 until early May 2017, over 8 months, I had basically been steady writing or editing. Right around 300,000 words had been written in that time, a lot of editing had been done, and I have learned a lot about self-publishing. Essentially, I think I basically just hit a wall, and needed some time to mentally recuperate. I think I've finished doing so, and so now I hope to pick up where I left off and return to daily writing. You know, in March, I self-published a novelette, a novella, and a novel, in that order? Intense stuff, though granted the novel had been mostly written in August/September but then merely edited/finished at the end of March 2017. Quite a productive month, perhaps that's why March is when I started actually earning money and then with yet another novel finished by the end of April ended up with that month being my most profitable thus far.

I've heard theories that perhaps during the summer with the weather being so nice, people spend more time outdoors and less time reading. 'Casual' readers are doing so much less this time of year, and so perhaps that's why this slump in sales has been going on, coupled with the fact I haven't been doing much lately. I'm hoping that come autumn and winter, probably my most favourite seasons, sales will pick up. Come October 20th or so, I will have been a self-published author for a full year. Looking forward to how things are going then, but I truly believe that there's a good chance I'll be a full-time author by October 2018 or earlier. At the latest, early 2019. Wouldn't take much; I can survive relatively comfortably on $15,000 a year. I live a simple life. Some self-published authors average $5,000-15,000 a MONTH. That's more than I'll ever need though.

Do you shill your books on Veeky Forums and if so does it actually do you any good? I've always imagined this is a terrible place to shill, because of the low traffic if nothing else. And while congrats on the $135 it doesn't sound like you'll be quitting your day job any time soon.

I self published 5 books myself. I personally did it because at the time I knew I wasn't good enough to get published traditionally and I wanted good feedback. Something really interesting that I found is, of my five books, my worst one was written when I was a lot younger and into anime. The book reflected that and basically sucked, but it earned $400 somehow, compared to the 30 or so my others earned. Anime = good way to get people to buy your book, even if it is shit

Self publishing is a fucking joke...

Agents laugh at that shit nowadays. There's a book cartel; give into it. Don't pay money to have your book. You're shooting yourself in the foot.

> it is inevitable that I will become traditionally published

Not the way you write, asshole.
Firearm Valhalla is laughably bad.

You're a fucking autist, holy shit.

or maybe you were inspired to the point of copying methods of the anime author so it ended up being your only book with professional content

If you're a new writer, why would go the traditional publisher route?

You get 10-15% tops from sales through a publisher, whereas self-publishing through Amazon is around 70%. You might say that traditional publishers provide marketing and distribution, but only the latter is true and just barely. They don't do squat when it comes to marketing for newly published authors. Why bother when they get a higher return if they dump those advertising dollars onto established writers?

I think this is the most sensible route for new writers in the modern world. Use self-publishing to establish some sort of name for yourself then use that as leverage in getting a deal with a "real" publisher.

I do from time to time, but not very often. I can't say with certainty if it's effective or not, but it certainly was effective when I shilled on /k/. All of my books include firearms to one extent or another, and I've gotten ebook and paperback sales from /k/ before. I've also gotten some feedback on Veeky Forums for some of my books I was writing. I particularly remember the feedback I got for the beginning of Firearm Valhalla. I was very pleasantly surprised to hear positive feedback for a book I was essentially writing for /k/ but it does have a fairly captivating start, I think.

And no, I won't be quitting my day job anytime soon, but I DO genuinely believe that at the rate I'm going I'll be a full-time author within less than 2 years. In the grand scheme of things, as far as I'm concerned, that's soon. I won't even be 30 years old, but I will be making a living by doing something I love. Ultimately, I think that's a dream that many individuals have, and I feel lucky to have it as a possibility. I thank Capitalism for the opportunity.

To each their own. If you did read my book, then I thank you for taking interest, even if you got it for free. I'm actually planning to write a sequel one of these days. Going to read over it, give it an edit (turns out blond=masculine and blonde=feminine; I used blonde over and over for the male protagonist), and then start writing to make it a series. As for the autist bit, unironically, probably. I'm rather obsessed with continuity and focusing on details of... damn near everything. So fair enough. I still see it as inevitable that I'll become traditionally published. I'm not actively seeking it out, but one of these days when I have an even greater variety of books to choose from I'll start picking out publishing companies and sending out manuscripts.

Even if you're right, however, I'm already making money via self-publishing. Not only are people making a living from self-publishing, but people are getting filthy stinking rich, some making $15,000 a month or more. In the end, I just hope to become a full-time author, and since all I really need is $15,000 a YEAR, that is most certainly attainable via self-publishing, so if I never get traditionally published I won't be disheartened by it. I just see it as, basically, an unavoidable inevitability unless I actively avoid it, which I'm not. I'm just not much pursuing it.

I think that even if someone is actively pursuing traditional or 'real' publishing, as it were, that they owe it to themselves to also self-publish. Traditional publishing is a looooooong process. You have to send the manuscript, it can take up to half a year or maybe even more before your book gets checked out to be accepted or denied, and even if it gets accepted it must be edited, a cover must be created, and then it must be printed in mass-production followed by distribution to stores. It takes a LONG-ASS time, to put it simply.

Self-publish, it ultimately takes less than a week, and in your spare time when you're not writing more books you can promote and advertise online. Shill, in other words. Try out some promotions, and create some buzz before your book makes it to store shelves. Then, when the publishing company is advertising your book, that advertising will go towards both paperback sales from stores along with sales online. The ideal situation is leaving ebooks to Kindle/KDP Select and leaving paperbacks to traditional publishing. Traditional publishing companies are the masters of getting paperback/hardcover sales, and Kindle is the master of ebook sales by a long shot. Leaving both to only one or the other won't be as effective as having both on your side, but to have KDP Select you cannot let anyone else sell ebook versions of your books, which means you have to tell the traditional publishers to leave the ebooks alone; you'll be contracted to KDP Select for 3 months at a time on an automatically renewing contract though you can stop it at any time, which I've done with one of my books.

lulu.com/shop/j-n-morgan/another-one-please-to-dull-the-pain/ebook/product-23229284.html

This is a book I put up for free, no longer on KDP Select so it's ok to let other sites/companies distribute it. Feel free to give it a shot, but I wrote this novella in less than 5 days. I've heard there's some grammatical errors, potentially due to some slight dyslexia on my part, so I'll have to go and edit it one of these days. I'd love to hear some feedback for it, but yeah, I'm aware of potential grammatical errors. The book is mostly inspired by the problems men face in divorce court, the issue of male suicide, it revolves around a bad marriage, sort of touches on infidelity a bit I think, and it's admittedly a little bit inspired by MGTOW. Over half of it was written within a 24-hour period. The first 15,500 words. The first 10,000 was written within 6 hours.