Publish More in 2024
When I decided to self-publish, I knew I would not be a "one and done" author. My plan was to write a duology, then see what happens and go from there. But I wrote Books One and Two in the duology and realized that I was far from finished telling the story of the Jovian Universe. I had to keep going. Readers wanted to know more.
Since that time, I have decided to tell the story in a five-book series. The last two installments are all mapped out and ready to go. I "just" have to write them. Though I have the plots sketched out, even I am eager to see how the story ends!
WRITE A SERIES
Early in my self-publishing journey, I had learned that series are a good thing for unknown indie authors. We hook the readers with Book One, which we provide for free or for 99 cents, and we hope they'll want to buy the other books in the series at a higher price. Not all readers do, of course. No author has 100 percent read-through, but hopefully some “fans” continue to read book by book to the end of the series, leaving reviews and recommending the series to their friends.
I can honestly say that with each book published in the Jovian Universe, the series becomes more popular. The books are in the Kindle Unlimited library, and in addition to sales and downloads, total KU page-reads have experienced a noteworthy uptick with the publication of Book Three.
The great thing about KU is that you can observe the page-reads—you can actually "see" that people are reading your books. Through KU, I can monitor my read-through rate simply by checking the number of page-reads each book receives.
EARN MORE MONEY
The thing about self-publishing books is that once you get started, it’s hard to stop. I find myself wanting to publish my next book soon after the last one has gone out. Of course writing books takes time, so unless you write an entire series and then publish the books in quick succession (a method I’ve heard works really well for marketing purposes), there will be time lapses in between. In my case, that means six months or more in between books.
“Many books published” is the goal for those of us who would like to publish for a living. This becomes evident when you read an article like the one Written Word Media (of Freebooksy and Bargain Booksy fame) put out last week, December 4, 2023.
Titled “Survey: The State of Indie Authorship” and written by Clayton Noblit, the blog post can be read in its entirety by clicking here. The address is https://www.writtenwordmedia.com/survey-results-the-state-of-indie-authorship.
I love this annual survey because it gives you a great idea of where you stand in relation to other indie authors.
The part I found most interesting concerns price points for books, and how much you can expect to earn depending on how long your series is.
According to the article, “As authors publish more books, their earning potential increases. If you have 5 published titles and sell them for $3.99, a reader can really only spend $20 on your books.”
The writer goes on to say, “If you have 30 titles available at $3.99, the maximum a reader can spend on your books increases to $120.”
That’s a sizable difference.
He also says that it’s possible to increase earnings without a massive catalog, though doing so happens less commonly. It is possible, in other words, to have a very popular book that earns well and does the work that a large backlist does for other authors.
PLAY THE NUMBERS GAME
According to those surveyed (about two thousand authors), those who have published 30 to 39 books make $5,000 to $14,999 monthly. Yes, monthly. Amazing.
Those who have published 40 and more books reported monthly earnings of $15,000 to $20,000 and more.
Moving into 2024, my goals haven’t changed. I want to publish more books! I hope to release The Moon Children, Book 4 in The Jovian Universe, by or before the month of June, and Book 2 in the Angel of Death series by or before the end of the year.
Granted, it's going to take me a while to create a backlist of thirty books, and I don't even know if that's my goal, but what I do know is that there are definitely more books in my future. I will continue to write and publish because that's what I love to do.
How many titles have you published, and what are your publishing goals for 2024? Leave a comment in the box below.
