MAKING A LIVING AS A WRITER

You want to make a living as a writer? Here’s the route I went.

I wrote a book a year for six years. Totally failed. Until I sold the sixth book, a romance, called Land of Dreams, to Robert Hale. For the fabulous, unforgettable sum (well, I never forgot it!) of £100. Yes. That’s right. £100. That’s around US$160.

As you might guess, my sales were negligible. The marketing less than nil.

I’ve been published by small independents (Hale and Severn House). By big players (Macmillan and St Martin’s Press). By audio and large print publishers (Isis Soundings and Ulverscroft respectively). But, you know what? All of these so-called experts had one thing in common: they not only didn’t know how to market me. They didn’t market me.

Since I’ve taken the ebook route I’ve marketed myself. I’ve done a blog tour,  I’m on facebook, though my tweeting leaves something to be desired. I post on kindleboards and respond to other posts. I’m on DorothyL and Murder Must Advertise and have learned a lot from both. I’m on crimespace and Librarything, goodreads and the Red Room. I have this blog and I send out a monthly newsletter. And you know what? I sell far more books than the publisher ‘experts’ ever did. For relatively little effort.

Hey, I’m no expert. I’m no marketing guru. I’m not even J A Konrath! But I have learned one thing from experience over the last nine months.

And that is that any ebook that is well-written, that entertains and that has been professionally edited and eformatted, with a professionally-designed cover – will sell and sell well enough to give you the living you never managed when you were print-published by the so-called professionals.

Go figure.