winning ecstatic sales

[slrogers]

I’ve heard that there are three types of sales:
1)      Soft sales: where the person might pay for the product after they’ve seen it and know that it meets their needs.
2)      Hard sales: where the person will pay up front for the product because their fairly certain in advance that it’s probably alright and worth the risk.
3)      Ecstatic sales: where the person loves everything you’ve ever done and wants everything you can sale them and is clamoring for more.

I figure that there is nothing that exemplifies this ideal of the “ecstatic sale” more than with writing. Whether you call it brand name recognition or the “Harry Potter” phenomenon, it’s an elusive ideal worthy of all the effort it takes to reach that lofty goal.

I recently went to a writing convention where one of the authors that spoke talked about how you can’t think of being an author as a hobby. He joked that when people say to him that they want to take off for the summer and write a book he’d respond with, “Yeah, I was thinking of taking the summer off to become a neural surgeon.” The point being, that when you create a book that you want others to read, it’s got to be professionally done. If the author bypasses traditionally publishing because it’s too much work to go through all of the editing and revision stages, then the book is really just good for one reader alone, and that’s the author.

On the flip side of this however, of the approximately 1% of people that get accepted by a publisher and get a book published, the average income is about $3,000. This means that even for those that are published it’s not likely that being an author is more than just a hobby. Perhaps this is the fault of the publishing industry. Perhaps the reason for so many inadequate books that get published is because of an inadequate model.

I’ve realized that before I want to do anymore marketing of my book, I still have to improve the writing inside – which means for me paying for copy editing. Having come from a science/engineering background where my communication skills and knowledge of the English language is still quite limited, in order to give my book a more professional feel I have to pay someone that knows what they’re doing. Even as I learn more spelling and grammar rules, I imagine I’ll still need someone who can professionally look through my work and make sure I didn’t mess up. My brain is just too amazingly good at filling in details that it wants to see as opposed to what is actually there.

I think the path to getting ecstatic sales also includes holding back on other promotional methods until the quality of the product does match the standard that you want to reach. Once a bad review is out there it will limit the potential audience. On the other hand each critical review offers the potential for improvements that can be made to insure that people are ecstatic about what you have to offer.

Hopefully someday I’ll be able to make a career out of this, it’s certainly exciting enough that I can imagine enjoying creating entire universes and tour guides through them on a full time basis.

There are so many amazing people here that I look forward to reading what you have to say on the subject.

[Mickey Finn]

Verified as real! Scott will come back and fix.

[slrogers]

Verified as real! Scott will come back and fix.

Thanks for all the trouble you go though to keep us all safe.

-Note: Board members find and report things when we're busy, like this, so it's the community as a whole! -Mickey

[meg_evonne]

If you are writing, you are an author whether you are published or not, whether anyone reads your work or not. A professional author doesn't need to write full time and usually has a day job. A professional strives to perfect every word, every sentence, every paragraph, every scene for a higher proficiency and skill. The writer's journey is life long. We write because we must, not because we want to see a paycheck.

As another author said at a convention, "There are far more easier and far less painful ways to make a living than writing." The true writer doesn't care and keeps cranking out pages.

I hire professional part-time staff who are full time students. They are amazing. The term professional writer isn't a designation granted only to full-time pursuits, but exemplifies the dedication to learn, to sweat, and to keep your butt in the chair in front of the key board.

I am a professional writer. I am not published, but I've taken this journey all my life. I've only been a professional for twelve years. My butt is in that chair every morning from six until eight--rain, shine, writer's conference, vacation, ill, whatever.

I wish you well on your journey. Think of it as a road trip up a mountain. You start in the foothills where you can't see or imagine the top. Once in awhile, you get a tantalizing glimpse of the roughed peaks. The vast majority of professional writers are in the foothills. If you are speaking of hiring an editor? I fear you might still be in the badlands and not yet to the foothills. Still, I wish you well on your journey, but spend your money wisely. Spending your disposable income on a maybe wish before cranking out not just a nice story, but a fantastic, incredible, can't put down work--and you've gone through countless, countless, and yet more countless revisions and drafts--do you spend your money wisely for an editor. I've heard that most authors have eight completed and perfected manuscripts before they get the next one published. Where are you on that scale?

I hope that isn't discouraging, but let's face it--becoming a writer also requires a tough skin. Best writing wishes and enjoy your journey. Celebrate each step and every accomplishment!

[Wordmaker]

Haha, yeah one of the things I often have to remind my friends of is that I have 2 full-time jobs (my day-job and writing/editing/promoting books) as well as having twin baby daughters. The hard work side of being an author is rarely revealed in the media, so it's easy to assume it's a laid-back gig.

[The Deposed King]

I agree with many of the statements here.  Writing is a job, not a hobby and if you approach it like its a hobby, you can have a lot of fun but that's all it'll ever be.  You'll probably never break on through to the other side unless you're the Rainman of writing.  A hidden genius who everything he/she touches turns to gold.

On the other hand if you are dedicated, and willing to write/work, even when its not fun.  Even when you'd rather be reading someone else's book or watching TV instead, then you can succeed at this authoring business!

However and with all of that said, I have to wonder if Kindle has changed things.  Maybe in the past you had to be a dedicated professional, slavishly perfecting each and every paragraph, line and sentence if you wanted to be a writer.  The reason I wonder this because I certainly don't.

I also don't pay anyone to help me copy edit.  I do whole heartedly agree that writing is a continual effort of self improvement.  If you're not getting any better then certainly you've plateued at whatever level you've already achieved.

Admittedly part of the reason I don't pay anyone else to fix up my work, is because I have made many of the contacts necessary to find people to help me out.  I have a handful of other aspiring and actual (kindle) authors and other who aren't authors to acting as beta readers helping me with plot, story and the egregious stuff.  I also have my brother and another guy over on our.forum.com to help the copy editing side of the equation.  Admittedly at some point it may become more cost effective to try and go professional, hiring some outside people to help with the copy editing side of things.  I honestly don't know because I haven't got there yet.

I'm on the cusp of being able to turn this writing business into a full time job that will support me and my family.  I've made 10k off my first two books and 6/7ths of it came from book 2 due mainly to the price differences.  Book 3 so far shows every sign of continuing this trend and in fact I'm having higher 'peak' sales than on either of the other two books.

Peak sales -
Admiral Who? = 50's
Admiral's Gambit = 60's
Admiral's Tribulation = 90's

Right now book three is screaming like an eagle, its only been a little less than a week out so I suppose it could drop like a rock and leave me scrambling but if it only does as well as book 2 and I can manage to keep putting out a new 400-500 page novel every 3 months, I can make this writers gig work.  If not I'll have to reevaluate.

In short I say don't be discouraged when you hear you have to make everything perfect grammar wise. If you can make everything else an 8 through a 10, there's an audience out there who will forgive you so long as you keep improving.  At least they did for me.  Admiral Who? was pretty rough when it first came out.  Just look at my reviews!

Writing at this level won't make me rich and I'll never break through into larger audiences if I don't keep fixing and improving my game.  I'd probably make more money working as a nurse in all honesty.  However each and every book I've got better, as has my team.  Having watched me and helped edit my brother is even working on an epic fantasy type series of his own and is two and a half books into a multi-book arc.

In my experience its got to be readable but it doesn't have to be perfect, so long as you are killing it in the other areas.  If you aren't watch out.  And wherever you are on the writer craft front, unless you launch into the Jim Butcher/David Weber etc stratosphere you'll need to hone your skills.  Just don't let anything stop you and don't become paralized with indecision.  Its better to get something imperfect out there now, then wait half a decade until you've got it exactly right, IMHO.  Perhaps I'm showing my own bias here, because people do do that, hone and hone their work until its perfect and then make it in the writing business.  But I'm living proof that you can write a book in a month, edit it in another and then launch the beast into its eventual success.



The Deposed King

[Wordmaker]

There is a danger in rushing a book out before it's ready, but it's just as dangerous to edit and re-edit with no end. Eventually you have to trust that the book is as good as you can make it and take the plunge.