If you look at my collection of books for sale at this point in September, you'll see that I have thirteen novelettes out. That's not even including books I have out under another other penname (at the moment, another six). There's also four backlist titles I just need to make some edits to and then they'll be good to go live again. I'm also planning on getting another three to four novelettes out under my other penname. So, by the end of September, I'll have self-published at least twenty-six novelettes across three pennames.
I know each novelette is short. The shortest one (under my undisclosed penname) taps out at about 4k words. The longest one is probably my spicy apocalyptic romance My Soldier in the Zombie Apocalypse, and that's sitting pretty at 14k words.
Still, when I add up all my efforts over the last three months, my works represent a combined 220, 000 words!
That's a heck of a lot of words. The thing is, a lot of writers are sitting on a similar treasure trove of words that have yet to make it out into the real world. Instead, they're sitting in some hard drive, collecting dust. You can't make money unless you get that work out there. Why sit on a gold mine and not use it?
I believe that the single most important ingredient in any venture into self-publishing is your dedication to the process. It will not be easy. Your initial well of motivation will quickly be dried out by the heat of no sales in the beginning. Your early romanticism will wane after a few days of hard work, a few weeks if you're lucky. You've probably heard the advice that, if you're writing erotica, you need to persevere until you hit the 'dirty thirty' to begin seeing a boost in sales. At this point, I still haven't hit that, but I'm getting closer and closer every day.
That's because I LOVE the self-publishing process. Don't get me wrong; it's bloody hard work. (Here's an example of what my typical week working on my self-publishing business is like.) There are some days I question why I even bothered setting up a website, for example, because that initiated the next phase of 'going all in' and committing to the long haul. The self-sabotaging part of me just wanted to take the easy way out and call it quits when the going got tough.
That's Why You Have to Set Up Systems that Work for You! Make Writing Easier for Yourself.
Everything changed when I shifted into treating my writing like a business. Instead of only writing my own stuff whenever I felt like it, which wasn't often because I already write for others as my day job, I began working on it all the time. I'm more privileged in the time department, I suppose, because I have massive amounts of time to devote to spending whole days writing and working on my business. But, I have that time privilege because I don't have the financial privilege: my day job is dwindling because of AI.
Admittedly, it is sometimes easier to work non-stop on a passion project when you don't have constant interruptions from life pulling you away from your work. But, it still takes a bucketload of self-initiative. You have to love what you do, even when you hate it.
My point is: could I have gotten to where I am now if my writing model was to write longer novels? I know that's where the market has swiveled. Especially if you're enrolling your book into Kindle Unlimited or Kobo Plus, you stand to benefit the most when you're putting out longer works so you can rack up more page reads or minutes read per unique reader that gives your book a chance.
Put out a 400-page novel, and you might earn $2 per full read per reader.
Put out a 35-page novelette like I do, and you're lucky to earn $0.10 to $0.17 per full read through (depending on where in the great wide universe the reader is reading).
Still, if I had forced myself to go the novel route and try to write prolifically using that model (some people try to write one 50-60k word novel each month), I would one hundred percent have burnt myself out. Novels are much harder work than novelettes. They require so much more dedication to seeing a single plotline through, so much more enthusiasm for the same revolving doors of characters. They require more involved editing. I have to admit that I'm not the greatest with writing novels.
But, the whole point of self-publishing is to be in control of the whole process (or as much of it as you want). For me, that means protecting the bottom line.
Therefore, the question is:
How can I encourage myself to enjoy the process, enough that even when I hate it in the toughest moments, I'll follow through?
The answer?
Write to your strengths.
My strengths aren't novels, at least not at this point in time. I'm working on a few, but I've put in accountability measures to stay on track, like creating a preorder community to connect with readers and further motivate myself to write. (This is what I'm doing with Playing Human: Stella White and the Seven Hockey Players). Nevertheless, a lot of the time, it feels like pulling teeth.
So, the key is to write stuff you enjoy that won't make you feel like pulling teeth the majority of the time (maybe 10-20% of the time is fine). If you know your strength is mining the early enthusiasm for a work that comes with starting a new project, then use that to your advantage. Instead of seeing it as a weakness, turn it into a strength.
To illustrate: Whenever I hit the 20-30% mark in a novel-length manuscript, my enthusiasm starts to fade. I manage to get about 10-15k words in and then want to abandon it to chase a new plot bunny.
So, knowing that about myself, trying to force myself to fit the mold and publish novels on a frequent schedule would be drudgery. I'd end up not writing and publishing at all.
But writing novelettes? My very own predisposition makes me a powerhouse in that department! I have an all-but-nothing mentality and I love to tick things off my to-do list. That's everything writing coaches say not to have.
I make it work for me though. Nothing makes me feel more accomplished than setting out to write a novelette-sized story, and uploading it to D2D, Kobo and my website by the end of the day. That sends rockets and fireworks going off in my head, feeling like my ambitions for the day are tidily wrapped up.
Remember, Procrastination Is a Sign of Overwhelm.
My advice? Figure out where your tapping-out point is. If you can write up to 10k words in one day, you're cut out for the prolific novelette lifestyle. Even if you can write 3k words a day, that's fine for taboo erotica. You can make it work.
In fact, that's the route I'm taking. My other penname is the one earning me the majority of my royalties this month. I've only sold 14 books so far within a week of getting six stories up online, but people are buying them even though I price them from $2.99 to $3.99. There's still a market for it. Even with these few sales, I'm sitting at $33.90 in royalties. It took me forever to get that with page reads on KU.
*I only sold 14 paid copies; 5 were free copies I downloaded myself to test the purchase process.
The Lesson Here? Just Start, No Matter The Length of Your Story.
Of course, you can write whatever and however you want. You don't have to write a prolific number of words or works to achieve your self-publishing dreams. All I'm saying is that if you've found yourself waiting on the sidelines, never self-publishing because you just can't seem to publish that novel because you can't finish it, then do yourself a favor and break the ice by self-publishing a novelette or novella. I guarantee that just starting works wonders.
For years, I put off self-publishing. I tried one time in 2017 and only put out one book. I never continued because I was so burnt out trying to wrestle out even 30-40k words on one continuous work. I finally only returned to self-publishing this year, after forcing myself to just publish a novelette. But once I started? I never looked back.
In my opinion, once you start and make it a habit to publish frequently (at whatever speed you can accept without burning out), it gets a lot easier. The long hiatus between publishing times is what gets me: it eats away at my self-confidence that I can replicate the process and create another story, even though, intellectually, I know I've done it multiple times before. When you stagnate, your systems get rusty and crusty and all things nasty. Be like a river: always flowing, always bending. It'll be much easier to keep up the momentum.
Overall, Just Enjoy the Grand Experiment, and Keep on Learning.
In conclusion, if you're trying to become a self-published author, it's important to write what you enjoy! Yes, write to the market to some extent, but make sure you enjoy the process.
Start out with novelettes, then work your way up to novels if you're finding it hard to just do it. Self-publishing is a long game after all, and people rarely get it 'perfect' the first time. Just enjoy the grand experiment, and keep on learning.
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