This was great. Don't know if I'll ever write fast enough to meet these goals, but it shows the power of a longer backlist and fluctuating advertising focus. Thanks for the info. Stay well :)
I love how transparent you are with your writing business. One thing it certainly does is put to rest the idea that you can make a good living off of one good book. Thank you for sharing your experiences.
When it comes to having fans follow you to a new series, I find it works best if you do it WHILE the old series is still going. That was your advice from a few years back and it was awesome advice.
It's still just as true, but more and more I worry about long term backlist sales, not just new releases (which alternating series helps so much). Are you going to be in Chicago or Vegas? I have talks in both places about this, and would love to pick your brain.
As always, these videos are great. I’m plot gardening right now. And tomorrow will be day 21 in my write every day habit from Life Long Writing Habit. Learning about creating habits has been amazing. I popped three habits together-writing, exercise and meditation. The month of April I’m going to try for 2000 words a day.
I'm experimenting with monthly audio-first/audio-only books. So far, it's been slow and I'm scared to dump money into Facebook ads -- I've had trouble targeting them properly in the past. I'm looking forward to your ads for authors who hate math book. I hate math. :)
Chris, you are beautiful person! Thank you for all those percious information you give us for free! Man its absolutely unexplainable how much we appreciate your advices!
This information makes me feel like my new publishing plans are quite solid. Thanks, Chris! I've learned a lot from your TH-cam channel and your books. :)
I just discovered you this last week. I bought the Garden Plotting book. Finished it in a few days. I've only done a portion of the exercises, but will go back and do more. I'm working on a book idea. I get tons of ideas, but never turn them into books. Your book has inspired me, by giving me an idea of how to really make it happen. As I said, I get tons of ideas. I've had authors (such as Randal Graham, whose work I love) tell me, after I shared some ideas, "I'd read those books! Write them!" But I've never known how to do it. Your books give me hope that maybe I can figure it out now. Thank you!
Chris, I so appreciate your honesty and showing us your real figures! It really builds the trust that you know what the heck you're talking about, and I could see in your graphs where I helped make the points go up based on promtions. So cool. Thank you!
Just want to say, I love your transparency, Chris! I haven't picked up any of your books but likely will before long. If all goes well, I'll be a competitor someday here, as I'm on book two of an unpublished sci- fantasy series.
Another incredible video! Very grateful regarding the transparency shown with actual concrete evidence on how to achieve such a goal. As always, a wonderful teaching moment.
I've been following you since before the Destroyer breakout, back when you were just starting to make a little noise with 5k Words an Hour, and I'm really impressed by your -- for lack of a better phrase -- story arc. I watched your ascent in real time, so I know it's legitimate. You're one of the strongest voices right now for indies to model. I've finally decided to stop fighting it and stay following your guides -- starting with plotting instead of pantsing and ending with ads etc. Thanks.
Wow, it would be fascinating to see myself through your lens. I feel like I must appear so pompous and full of myself now. I'm glad to hear that you're turning off ads if they aren't making you money, and that you're thinking about plotting. Story structure made me such a better write IMO. I'm curious to hear how it works out for you, and which plotting system clicks.
@@ChrisFoxWrites not pompous at all. Quite the opposite: you admit where you fell short of goals as well as where you crushed it. If you were a newbie who enjoyed writing both mystery books and romance books, which genre would you pick and run with? Where would you focus all your energy, assuming you used Write to Market to find the right niches?
@@bigphilly7345 Both genres are highly competitive so it really comes down to which you're more excited about. I'd give a long careful look to the next five years. In 2024 are you still going to enjoy whatever you picked to write? Keep that in mind when choosing. Other than that I would focus on consistency. I've meandered all over genres. Don't be me. Double down on whichever genre you pick and produce a lot of quality books =)
@@ChrisFoxWrites makes sense. Real quick, though: 15k novellas sell very well in romance whereas mystery must be at least 50k. Do you think that's a reason to give romance the edge? I can do a new mystery novel perhaps every other month I can do 2 romance novellas per month. Is it more viable to quickly build that list and visibility in romance?
@@bigphilly7345 If it's easier for you, then it's easier for the authors already in that genre too. The number of releases will reflect that, and competition will be crazy.
I think it's a case-by-case basis. Sarra Cannon, for instance, doesn't do ads and she's doing just fine lol. I do think having a few series + consistent output is the main key. But I disagree that one MUST absolutely do FB, AMS, or Bookbub ads to make money. (I don't really classify newsletter inclusions like Freebooksy, bookscream!, etc as the same category as risky social media ads. It's not the same investment.)
I think authors like Sarra are the exception at this point, and I'll stand by that. Every writing community I'm part of is freaking out because massive ad spend is required to hold the same ground we got without ads back in 2016. It's possible to make a living without any ad spend at all, especially if you release quickly and have a large fan base. But if you're coming in the market today as a brand new author? How many do you know who broke out in the last year and are making it without ad spend? Probably no more than a handful, I'd wager =/
What truly perplexes me about Sarra is how involved she is in scheduling. For me, I would find myself not creating enough words per day because I had spent too much time with journals. I don't know how she does it!
You might not remember replying to a comment of mine when you released a video about keeping schedules and work consistent, and all that fun jazz. Here is an update. My writing hasn't skyrocketed yet, but I am working my way up to it. Your books, videos, and constant motivational speeches have helped me and numerous others do the impossible. Thank you. The work you do changes lives, and your books are fantastic. Keep up the great work. I have a question, if you don't mind. Do you know how to make give-aways on Amazon that can work for multinational audiences? I help organize and run a large, and generic, reading group. The majority of the active population in the group resides outside of the United States, but not in any specific country. When Dark Lord Bert released I hosted a give away for it (I bought a quantity of copies and gifted them) because there are a ton of LitRPG readers in the group. It went well, but there were a lot of people I couldn't get the book to because of how the region locking Amazon does. I'd like to get around this so I can do large give-aways more often. If you have any advice I would greatly appreciate that.
It's common sense that needs to be drilled, unfortunately. I've been struggling with consistency in my marketing from the start. This is my second year publishing and I don't feel I've made much progress. Thanks again for your videos!
For people who can’t keep up that kind of output, I actually wonder if one year on/one year off would be the best approach, and maybe maintain things like social media and fan communities during the “off years”. So maybe you get the benefits it high consistent rankings when one DOES release books...but also can manage the pressure.
Chris Fox Yes - precisely this. :) And keeping it in the same universe would certainly help to reengage that interest. Thanks for all you do - and I’m a big fan of the Technomage series. It’s everything I love about fiction. Did you ever figure out the genre name for this specific breed of magic vs tech prose? I feel like you’ve kind of cornered the market because no one else is doing it with any legitimate vigor.
I think Space Fantasy is the safest descriptor. Here's the interesting thing. The people who tried to cash in via writing to market have all moved on, but a whole bunch of authors with a legitimate love for the genre are quietly building up series. I think we'll see some really good ones in the future.
Chris Fox That’s awesome. I really do feel like people are starved for fantasy that isn’t, like, Narnia or Tolkien. The answer to that seems to always be this effort to make magic into science fiction. Like, “all magic is just science we don’t understand”. And I genuinely believe it’s because it is incredibly difficult to secure a sci-fi audience if you’re introducing things like real magic. But the way to accomplish it, I think, is via what Star Wars discovered years ago (prior to the prequels). Faith/Magic coinciding with science fiction works so long as there are clear established rules and limitations, as well as not an aggressive move towards “hard science fiction”. Authors seem so scared of it (not even being hyperbolic). Why does science advancement have to necessarily be the eradication of magic? Like, yeah, that’s one possible path (like the Marvel movies took), but it seems like there’s this whole other massive genre (Space Fantasy) that video games have played in for years, and now the people who played those games and loved all those Star Wars books (that are no longer canon) are starved for more in-depth content. At least I was. Haha
I love the content you share! So much disclosure is very kind of you! I've never seen any author bring up the charts and graphs to share their ups and downs over the years. I am wondering a lot about audiobooks and how that works on audible. I know narrators can be expensive. Does Amazon help with that after you get so high in the ranks or do you yourself go and choose a narrator and hire them? I really like the voice of the guy who narrates your books. Ryan Burke. A video about audiobooks and the details of how that works would be great insight.
I do all audio myself. It's expensive and difficult. I did a video on audio back in 2017 that's still pretty relevant. ACX makes doing your own books very doable. I'll see if I can slot in a 2019 version.
@@ChrisFoxWrites Thanks so much. I watch a lot of youtube writing vloggers, an I can honestly say your content has done more for me than any others. I'm not up to 7000 words a day yet, but I'm easily getting 2000 since I've been learning from your ebooks and videos, and that's a big accomplishment for me. THank You!!
@@99Michaelthom When I say I did the audio I mean I produced it. You need to select a narrator via the ACX.com site, who you either pay up front or split royalties with. Have you watched the 2017 video I did?
Nice video, confirms a few suspicions :) I'd be interested in your take on piracy - my sales trended upward until Q4 2018/Q1 2019, where active targeting and distribution through pirate FB groups and sites waterboarded my sales (to the point where more *sites* hosted my content than individual unit copies sold for Dec/Jan/Feb). Naturally this reduced my income from modest to meagre and I'm back at a day job because daddy needs to make rent. Through this I advertised, and what I saw was click-throughs but a reduction in conversion (presumably people escaping sideways to their favorite torrent provider or whatever). How do you combat this when you become a target for it?
I'm really sorry to hear how this has impacted you. My stance on piracy is much different than most authors. Wack-a-mole doesn't work. Sites spring up faster than we can send takedowns. That isn't to say that we shouldn't make the effort, but after fighting it for a while I've gotten tired. I'm fortunate in that my core audience doesn't pirate, or plan to pirate, and the presence of my books on torrent sites won't deter them from purchasing. This is doubly true of KU readers, as they essentially read for free. The most egregious pirates of my work are mostly TH-cam versions of the audiobook. Seeing the number of views, and how quickly they happen, just floors me. I still a lot of audio though, and see that as a tax we have to pay. On the plus side many pirates convert to purchases down the road. I remember being a broke college student surrounded by broke college students. Torrenting was worth the time and effort, despite the inconsistent quality and risk of viruses. But as soon as I could afford to stop I did, simply because downloading something for Kindle, or Audible, is so smooth and easy. It's my hope that will be true of many of the people who found us on pirate sites. Here's to hoping you turn it around. Lot's of people seem to be seeing declining effectiveness in PPC advertising =/
Another great video, Chris. Question. In terms of series, is it advisable to go three books deep or so before switching... or should I pre plan multiple series and then cycle writing books between them?
I’m loving these videos. Congrats on your success. I’m working on scaling up AMS and BookBub ads (I write nonfiction) David Gaughrans book on BookBub ads is very good and his strategies are working.
Chris Fox the synopsis is to drop the price to 99 cents for an entire series. Then promote the series with an ad on BookBub. Amazingly, people usually buy all books, lifting your sales rank for all books. Then of course you increase the price. It’s pretty interesting.
@@AuthorPreneurElite Interesting. That's the same thing I've been doing for the last two years (and isn't a tactic I invented). Every time I release a later book in a series I reduce the price on all previous books to 99 cents. If you look at the sales graph in the video from May of 2017 you'll see that reducing the price on all six Void Wraith books carried me for almost 3 months because of the page reads after the books returned to full price. I like the tactic a lot. I don't like trying it on BookBub, because my costs per click there are insane, so I do it with Facebook, AMS, and Reddit. Sounds like I should read Dave's book and see if I can reduce my CPC on BookBub. I'd love to have that be a more active part of my ad spend, but to date they're simply too expensive per click. If I do anything reasonable I get no impressions.
Chris Fox CPM is the way to go on BookBub. If your ad is compelling (great image, punchy copy, and mention of discount), CPC can be 30-50 cents. The key is to link to the series page, not your individual book. If you look at Peter Hollins, he does remarkably well. I preordered your Ads book and am looking forward to learning how you use FB and Reddit Ads. I’m a nonfiction guy, but I’m interested in applying your strategies.
@@AuthorPreneurElite I've tried CPM, but it could be the creative as I haven't done enough experimentation. I'll read the book and give it another look. I find Reddit, Facebook, and AMS much easier and more profitable than BB so far.
I'm intrigued-I was sent over here by an acquaintance on the Wandering Aimfully Slack channel I belong to-but I'm pausing at 6:39 to say: while a five-figure income would be nice, or even a four-figure income, or even a three-figure income, I'd just be happy figuring out how to get to a consistent two-figure income. I'm gonna hit play now and watch the rest of the video, because I'm definitely intrigued (and I'm hoping you'll say something about ads, which haven't worked for me at all).
My next book is called Ads For Authors Who Hate Math and is out April 30th. The first chapter asks you to assess your backlist, and decide if it's even worth advertising yet. If you don't have the best cover in the industry I wouldn't spend a dime on ads. I'd save that money, get the best cover, and only then start advertising.
Took three pages of notes on this video. Thank you! I've bought and read all your books and STILL found this so helpful and informative as well. AND is there a way to get in line to apply to be a beta reader for Ads for Authors? Thanks!
Chris Fox i found them i love them thank you so much! i also shared your channel on my twitter! i also plan on reading your books and sharing them on my channel as well!
@@ChristopherMeeker I'm not sure if you saw my other comment, but here's how you track down artists. Search for airship, steampunk, and any other keywords you can think of. You can begin with a Google image search, and then expand to Deviantart or Artstation. Your goals is to find people who can create the style you're after. Most will take commissions, and most will work for between $250 - $750 depending on skill and experience.
@@ChristopherMeeker Sure thing! Remember that once you get the artwork you still need typography, and unless the artist is also a cover designer they will not know how to do that very well.
It does include that time. I write it, then I do a full edit. Next I had the book off to my wife to edit. At the same time beta readers are reviewing it, and as they send back typos I forward them to my wife for processing. Once she'd finished I do another rewrite, and then we both check it for typos =)
Hi Chris, I am the author of only one book, the novel The Dandelion. Harper Lee and JK Rowling did well with one book and I am hoping I will too. I may be inspired to write a second novel but in the meantime I would like to have a solid strategy for the book I have. Who do you suggest I pay attention to on TH-cam, aside from you, of course. Thanks in advance.
JK Rowling didn't do well with one book. She had 7. Harry Potter wouldn't work, or sell, as a standalone. Harper Lee wrote her novel a century ago. The realities of publishing today are not the same. I don't have a solid strategy to offer you, because a single book is very difficult to advertise profitably. =/
@@ChrisFoxWrites awesome! I think that as I grow my backlist, making sure to do something every 6 weeks will be important. I'm sure as I write more my speed will increase but being in it for the long haul is my mindset :)
Hey Chris, another great vid! How do I get on your beta reader/ARC list? I've done it for a few authors in the past, it's always fun to be part of a new project. :)
Did I hear you right when you said that you need a release at least every eight weeks to keep steady sales going? Your email said you've released every four weeks, so I'm not sure if I heard you right, your voice dropped a bit on that word. Thanks for the video. It was very interesting.
@@ChrisFoxWrites I had seen the same thing, but I write 35,000 word novellas and I had hoped longer books would stay evergreen longer. People talk about novellas trending, but their sales life is extremely short. Amanda Lee has said the same thing for years. I'm moving into longer books now and I was really hoping longer books would stay afloat a lot longer on their own.
@@ChrisFoxWrites I'm blown away. So, you create the plot, write the book, pass it through beta and ARC readers, run it though an editor, make any last minute changes, have the book art made, all in 4 weeks? Do you have a Tardis or something?
@@chrisf9143 No, I have experience. My first novel took me four years, and almost a dozen editing passes. The more books you put out the easier this becomes.
@@mspoofycat Thanks for that. I was wondering if novellas were viable. As I'm sure you know, the argument goes: More books allows more frequent releases, more promotions, and more chances to get people onto the rest of your series. But it sounds like novella series successes are somewhat rare. In fact, in my casual searching, the only highly ranked novellas were just preludes to a series of full length novels. I couldn't find a single (fantasy) long running series of novellas.
Chris, At 8:19 you mention "page reads" vs sales. By page reads, you mean Kindle Unlimited? Your chart looks like sales out perform KU. Is your promotions aimed only at readers that buy, or a mix of buyers and KU members?
Most authors who are really killing it find KU as 66% or more of thier revenue. Mine skews toward sales because I publish more slowly, and because I have non-fiction which is not in KU. My promotions are aimed both at KU readers and full price purchasers.
How does launching a boxed set on audio work? Doesn't that mean no one will ever buy the individual books again since you can get books on audible for a single credit?
Great question. It murders the sales of the component books, permanently. Many of my fans will not by my new releases, and will wait for the inevitable box set. However, I sell a lot of box sets. I tend to wait a year between release of the first book and the first box set, and accept that the box set really becomes the new anchor for a series, not book 1.
@@ChrisFoxWrites By "impact", you mean it hurts the individual books, right? (which would make sense -- why by individual books if you can buy a bundle -- but wanted to make sure I'm understanding.)
Great video as always Chris! I'm wondering something: when you run a free book promotion with KDP select and someone adds your book into their KU library, do you still get paid for that even though the cost to "buy" the book is free? I've never been able to find a straight answer to this.
The blue on my graph is how we get paid. If anyone who borrows your book reads any portion you get paid for the total number of pages read. The amount you're paid varies each month, but comes from one big pool that Amazon pays out.
The blue on my graph is how we get paid. If anyone who borrows your book reads any portion you get paid for the total number of pages read. The amount you're paid varies each month, but comes from one big pool that Amazon pays out.
The principles will work for any book you're trying to sell, though how much control you'll have over this stuff depends on the publisher you sign with.
Do you have a video (or book) going into your strategy of KU vs Sales? For example, do you do just some books in KU in hopes they convert to sales of the remaining in the series?
Kindle Unlimited pays very well so we don't have any incentive to split a series. Either it's all wide, or all in. Readers who use KU to devour books tend to get very angry when the fourth book in the series isn't in KU and they have to shell out for it. Not advised IMO. I don't have a video specifically addressing KU, unfortunately.
All of my fiction is in KU, for now. I will begin rotating series out as I complete their lifecycles, and I will eventually do a video about that process. My non-fiction isn't in KU, as the books are super short and I made ~30 cents a read versus $3.50 for a sale.
@@ChrisFoxWrites So, I'm confused. In another reply, you said KU bundles affects individual sales. That wouldn't matter if all your books were on KU, right? So, you didn't start out with all your books in KU?
Profitably is implied. I'm doing it profitably, and the advice explains how to do that. Was that not clear in the video? I guess I could add it to the title, but that seems like an attempt to stuff keywords.
@@paulsheppard2294 I'm not being an asshole, and I'm not saying Chris isn't doing it. Obviously, in this case, it's implied that the $10k is net. But some people could spend $15k and show an Amazon graph of $10k earnings. Some could spend $5k and make $10k. Some could spend $1k and make $10k. Those are all extremely different. There are definitely people who will watch this video and think the numbers they see are profit when it's possible someone could (not in this case!) be operating at a loss with those numbers. My comment was a sarcastic way to remind people that the number Bookreport shows you isn't the important number, but I guess it came across wrong.
Chris, can you please do a video on how you do so well on Audiobooks? Very impressive. Thank you!
This was great. Don't know if I'll ever write fast enough to meet these goals, but it shows the power of a longer backlist and fluctuating advertising focus. Thanks for the info. Stay well :)
Chris I must say you are truly an inspiration, all the information you give is outstanding and truly invaluable! Thank you so much!
I love how transparent you are with your writing business. One thing it certainly does is put to rest the idea that you can make a good living off of one good book. Thank you for sharing your experiences.
Keith Price didn’t JK Rowling do well with her first book?
@@tezzag818 Hah! Just because we can see lightning strike doesn't mean we can direct it.
Thanks Chris. This definitely puts things into perspective.
When it comes to having fans follow you to a new series, I find it works best if you do it WHILE the old series is still going. That was your advice from a few years back and it was awesome advice.
It's still just as true, but more and more I worry about long term backlist sales, not just new releases (which alternating series helps so much). Are you going to be in Chicago or Vegas? I have talks in both places about this, and would love to pick your brain.
@@ChrisFoxWrites Vegas for sure. I can't wait to hear your presentation!
As always, these videos are great. I’m plot gardening right now. And tomorrow will be day 21 in my write every day habit from Life Long Writing Habit. Learning about creating habits has been amazing. I popped three habits together-writing, exercise and meditation. The month of April I’m going to try for 2000 words a day.
I'd be happy with $10 a month.😅😂😭
Set goals, work toward them, and then raise them. You can do it!
@@JefferyHHaskell_Author Thanks. Only have a self-help book out so far. Working on my novels.
@Sherelle Winters lol
I said that 3 years ago. I'm doing 7k a month now. Stick with it!
Me too.
I'm experimenting with monthly audio-first/audio-only books. So far, it's been slow and I'm scared to dump money into Facebook ads -- I've had trouble targeting them properly in the past. I'm looking forward to your ads for authors who hate math book. I hate math. :)
Chris, you are beautiful person! Thank you for all those percious information you give us for free! Man its absolutely unexplainable how much we appreciate your advices!
Thank you Chris for the Inspiration, it helps. I* am at the "depression" point you talked about in the video. Thanks for a helpful video
This information makes me feel like my new publishing plans are quite solid. Thanks, Chris! I've learned a lot from your TH-cam channel and your books. :)
I just discovered you this last week. I bought the Garden Plotting book. Finished it in a few days. I've only done a portion of the exercises, but will go back and do more. I'm working on a book idea. I get tons of ideas, but never turn them into books. Your book has inspired me, by giving me an idea of how to really make it happen. As I said, I get tons of ideas. I've had authors (such as Randal Graham, whose work I love) tell me, after I shared some ideas, "I'd read those books! Write them!" But I've never known how to do it. Your books give me hope that maybe I can figure it out now. Thank you!
I'm so pleased to hear you're writing! No doubt Randal was right. There are never enough good stories, and all it takes is time and practice.
Chris, I so appreciate your honesty and showing us your real figures! It really builds the trust that you know what the heck you're talking about, and I could see in your graphs where I helped make the points go up based on promtions. So cool. Thank you!
Just want to say, I love your transparency, Chris! I haven't picked up any of your books but likely will before long. If all goes well, I'll be a competitor someday here, as I'm on book two of an unpublished sci- fantasy series.
This is a great video, man. Really needed to see it today. Thanks, Chris!
Thanks so much for this information! Super helpful! I can tell you really enjoy what you're doing. I love your mix of genres too.
Another incredible video! Very grateful regarding the transparency shown with actual concrete evidence on how to achieve such a goal. As always, a wonderful teaching moment.
Thank you for giving me a lot of information that I don't know and need. Definetly will start reading your fiction books, I'm very curious.
I've been following you since before the Destroyer breakout, back when you were just starting to make a little noise with 5k Words an Hour, and I'm really impressed by your -- for lack of a better phrase -- story arc. I watched your ascent in real time, so I know it's legitimate. You're one of the strongest voices right now for indies to model. I've finally decided to stop fighting it and stay following your guides -- starting with plotting instead of pantsing and ending with ads etc. Thanks.
Wow, it would be fascinating to see myself through your lens. I feel like I must appear so pompous and full of myself now. I'm glad to hear that you're turning off ads if they aren't making you money, and that you're thinking about plotting. Story structure made me such a better write IMO. I'm curious to hear how it works out for you, and which plotting system clicks.
@@ChrisFoxWrites not pompous at all. Quite the opposite: you admit where you fell short of goals as well as where you crushed it. If you were a newbie who enjoyed writing both mystery books and romance books, which genre would you pick and run with? Where would you focus all your energy, assuming you used Write to Market to find the right niches?
@@bigphilly7345 Both genres are highly competitive so it really comes down to which you're more excited about. I'd give a long careful look to the next five years. In 2024 are you still going to enjoy whatever you picked to write? Keep that in mind when choosing. Other than that I would focus on consistency. I've meandered all over genres. Don't be me. Double down on whichever genre you pick and produce a lot of quality books =)
@@ChrisFoxWrites makes sense. Real quick, though: 15k novellas sell very well in romance whereas mystery must be at least 50k. Do you think that's a reason to give romance the edge? I can do a new mystery novel perhaps every other month I can do 2 romance novellas per month. Is it more viable to quickly build that list and visibility in romance?
@@bigphilly7345 If it's easier for you, then it's easier for the authors already in that genre too. The number of releases will reflect that, and competition will be crazy.
You're the man, Chris!
I'll put my hand up to Beta read Chris. Always ready to learn more from you so its the least I can do.
Ditto :)
Thanks for the excellent video, Chris.
Really fascinating stats & info. Lots to think about. Thanks! :D
I think it's a case-by-case basis. Sarra Cannon, for instance, doesn't do ads and she's doing just fine lol. I do think having a few series + consistent output is the main key. But I disagree that one MUST absolutely do FB, AMS, or Bookbub ads to make money. (I don't really classify newsletter inclusions like Freebooksy, bookscream!, etc as the same category as risky social media ads. It's not the same investment.)
I think authors like Sarra are the exception at this point, and I'll stand by that. Every writing community I'm part of is freaking out because massive ad spend is required to hold the same ground we got without ads back in 2016. It's possible to make a living without any ad spend at all, especially if you release quickly and have a large fan base. But if you're coming in the market today as a brand new author? How many do you know who broke out in the last year and are making it without ad spend? Probably no more than a handful, I'd wager =/
@@ChrisFoxWrites I wish the truth were different .... yikes!
What truly perplexes me about Sarra is how involved she is in scheduling. For me, I would find myself not creating enough words per day because I had spent too much time with journals. I don't know how she does it!
You might not remember replying to a comment of mine when you released a video about keeping schedules and work consistent, and all that fun jazz. Here is an update. My writing hasn't skyrocketed yet, but I am working my way up to it. Your books, videos, and constant motivational speeches have helped me and numerous others do the impossible. Thank you. The work you do changes lives, and your books are fantastic. Keep up the great work.
I have a question, if you don't mind. Do you know how to make give-aways on Amazon that can work for multinational audiences? I help organize and run a large, and generic, reading group. The majority of the active population in the group resides outside of the United States, but not in any specific country. When Dark Lord Bert released I hosted a give away for it (I bought a quantity of copies and gifted them) because there are a ton of LitRPG readers in the group. It went well, but there were a lot of people I couldn't get the book to because of how the region locking Amazon does. I'd like to get around this so I can do large give-aways more often. If you have any advice I would greatly appreciate that.
Hi Chris, I'm looking forward to seeing if you manage to get the last 10K words completed. Got my fingers crossed for you, mate.
It is clear - prolific consistency is the only way to make it. I'm still struggling to finish writing one novel, so now what?
You keep writing, and you finish the book. My first one took four years. A backlist isn't built in a day.
"only $100,000" :|
lol
to be fair, the amount after accounting for promotion and editing is a lot smaller.
Thank you for your videos and your ebooks! Greetings from germany!
Your books and this channel have been crazy helpful! I’d be honoured to be a beta reader, if you need another set of eyes.
It's common sense that needs to be drilled, unfortunately. I've been struggling with consistency in my marketing from the start. This is my second year publishing and I don't feel I've made much progress. Thanks again for your videos!
Great video Chris
Great video! Thank you!
For people who can’t keep up that kind of output, I actually wonder if one year on/one year off would be the best approach, and maybe maintain things like social media and fan communities during the “off years”.
So maybe you get the benefits it high consistent rankings when one DOES release books...but also can manage the pressure.
I think your fans would find you, and lynch you, unless you finished a series each year, then took a year off, then did another series.
Chris Fox Yes - precisely this. :)
And keeping it in the same universe would certainly help to reengage that interest.
Thanks for all you do - and I’m a big fan of the Technomage series. It’s everything I love about fiction. Did you ever figure out the genre name for this specific breed of magic vs tech prose? I feel like you’ve kind of cornered the market because no one else is doing it with any legitimate vigor.
I think Space Fantasy is the safest descriptor. Here's the interesting thing. The people who tried to cash in via writing to market have all moved on, but a whole bunch of authors with a legitimate love for the genre are quietly building up series. I think we'll see some really good ones in the future.
Chris Fox That’s awesome. I really do feel like people are starved for fantasy that isn’t, like, Narnia or Tolkien. The answer to that seems to always be this effort to make magic into science fiction. Like, “all magic is just science we don’t understand”. And I genuinely believe it’s because it is incredibly difficult to secure a sci-fi audience if you’re introducing things like real magic. But the way to accomplish it, I think, is via what Star Wars discovered years ago (prior to the prequels). Faith/Magic coinciding with science fiction works so long as there are clear established rules and limitations, as well as not an aggressive move towards “hard science fiction”. Authors seem so scared of it (not even being hyperbolic). Why does science advancement have to necessarily be the eradication of magic? Like, yeah, that’s one possible path (like the Marvel movies took), but it seems like there’s this whole other massive genre (Space Fantasy) that video games have played in for years, and now the people who played those games and loved all those Star Wars books (that are no longer canon) are starved for more in-depth content.
At least I was. Haha
you can also make more with working less when you are going in niches with higher SEO
What are you releasing?
Why are advertisers a pain to hyper text marketing website development?
What to do when your work is turned down?
I love the content you share! So much disclosure is very kind of you! I've never seen any author bring up the charts and graphs to share their ups and downs over the years. I am wondering a lot about audiobooks and how that works on audible. I know narrators can be expensive. Does Amazon help with that after you get so high in the ranks or do you yourself go and choose a narrator and hire them? I really like the voice of the guy who narrates your books. Ryan Burke. A video about audiobooks and the details of how that works would be great insight.
I do all audio myself. It's expensive and difficult. I did a video on audio back in 2017 that's still pretty relevant. ACX makes doing your own books very doable. I'll see if I can slot in a 2019 version.
@@ChrisFoxWrites Thanks so much. I watch a lot of youtube writing vloggers, an I can honestly say your content has done more for me than any others. I'm not up to 7000 words a day yet, but I'm easily getting 2000 since I've been learning from your ebooks and videos, and that's a big accomplishment for me. THank You!!
@@ChrisFoxWrites How is it expensive if you do it yourself?
@@ChrisFoxWrites I hear Ryan Kennard Burke on the sample of Void Wraith at audible? Do you mean to say you started out doing it yourself?
@@99Michaelthom When I say I did the audio I mean I produced it. You need to select a narrator via the ACX.com site, who you either pay up front or split royalties with. Have you watched the 2017 video I did?
Nice video, confirms a few suspicions :) I'd be interested in your take on piracy - my sales trended upward until Q4 2018/Q1 2019, where active targeting and distribution through pirate FB groups and sites waterboarded my sales (to the point where more *sites* hosted my content than individual unit copies sold for Dec/Jan/Feb). Naturally this reduced my income from modest to meagre and I'm back at a day job because daddy needs to make rent. Through this I advertised, and what I saw was click-throughs but a reduction in conversion (presumably people escaping sideways to their favorite torrent provider or whatever). How do you combat this when you become a target for it?
I'm really sorry to hear how this has impacted you. My stance on piracy is much different than most authors. Wack-a-mole doesn't work. Sites spring up faster than we can send takedowns. That isn't to say that we shouldn't make the effort, but after fighting it for a while I've gotten tired. I'm fortunate in that my core audience doesn't pirate, or plan to pirate, and the presence of my books on torrent sites won't deter them from purchasing. This is doubly true of KU readers, as they essentially read for free.
The most egregious pirates of my work are mostly TH-cam versions of the audiobook. Seeing the number of views, and how quickly they happen, just floors me. I still a lot of audio though, and see that as a tax we have to pay. On the plus side many pirates convert to purchases down the road.
I remember being a broke college student surrounded by broke college students. Torrenting was worth the time and effort, despite the inconsistent quality and risk of viruses. But as soon as I could afford to stop I did, simply because downloading something for Kindle, or Audible, is so smooth and easy. It's my hope that will be true of many of the people who found us on pirate sites.
Here's to hoping you turn it around. Lot's of people seem to be seeing declining effectiveness in PPC advertising =/
Another great video, Chris. Question. In terms of series, is it advisable to go three books deep or so before switching... or should I pre plan multiple series and then cycle writing books between them?
Stick to one series. Write it as quickly as you can =)
Volunteering for beta reader duty
I’m loving these videos. Congrats on your success.
I’m working on scaling up AMS and BookBub ads (I write nonfiction) David Gaughrans book on BookBub ads is very good and his strategies are working.
I've loved Dave's other books, but haven't had a chance to read the one on BookBub.
Chris Fox the synopsis is to drop the price to 99 cents for an entire series. Then promote the series with an ad on BookBub.
Amazingly, people usually buy all books, lifting your sales rank for all books. Then of course you increase the price.
It’s pretty interesting.
@@AuthorPreneurElite Interesting. That's the same thing I've been doing for the last two years (and isn't a tactic I invented). Every time I release a later book in a series I reduce the price on all previous books to 99 cents. If you look at the sales graph in the video from May of 2017 you'll see that reducing the price on all six Void Wraith books carried me for almost 3 months because of the page reads after the books returned to full price. I like the tactic a lot. I don't like trying it on BookBub, because my costs per click there are insane, so I do it with Facebook, AMS, and Reddit.
Sounds like I should read Dave's book and see if I can reduce my CPC on BookBub. I'd love to have that be a more active part of my ad spend, but to date they're simply too expensive per click. If I do anything reasonable I get no impressions.
Chris Fox CPM is the way to go on BookBub.
If your ad is compelling (great image, punchy copy, and mention of discount), CPC can be 30-50 cents. The key is to link to the series page, not your individual book.
If you look at Peter Hollins, he does remarkably well.
I preordered your Ads book and am looking forward to learning how you use FB and Reddit Ads. I’m a nonfiction guy, but I’m interested in applying your strategies.
@@AuthorPreneurElite I've tried CPM, but it could be the creative as I haven't done enough experimentation. I'll read the book and give it another look. I find Reddit, Facebook, and AMS much easier and more profitable than BB so far.
Hey Chris! I’ve been following since your very first video. You’ve given me a lot, I’d love to beta read for you😬
Your profile image is different now, but I still remember what it looked like waaayyyy back in 2016 =)
Chris Fox That’s super cool! I really appreciate how much you give back. I have all your books👍
I'm intrigued-I was sent over here by an acquaintance on the Wandering Aimfully Slack channel I belong to-but I'm pausing at 6:39 to say: while a five-figure income would be nice, or even a four-figure income, or even a three-figure income, I'd just be happy figuring out how to get to a consistent two-figure income.
I'm gonna hit play now and watch the rest of the video, because I'm definitely intrigued (and I'm hoping you'll say something about ads, which haven't worked for me at all).
My next book is called Ads For Authors Who Hate Math and is out April 30th. The first chapter asks you to assess your backlist, and decide if it's even worth advertising yet. If you don't have the best cover in the industry I wouldn't spend a dime on ads. I'd save that money, get the best cover, and only then start advertising.
P.S. You totally earned the plug at the end. No need to apologize for that.
Chris Fox Thanks! I’m in the midst of re-working my covers now. So glad to know that I have my priorities straight.
Took three pages of notes on this video. Thank you! I've bought and read all your books and STILL found this so helpful and informative as well. AND is there a way to get in line to apply to be a beta reader for Ads for Authors? Thanks!
i looked through your video and i'm seeing much on your editing process i would love to see you do some videos on how you edit
There are a couple editing series on my channel page, and full challenges where I've written and edited novels on camera =)
Chris Fox i found them i love them thank you so much! i also shared your channel on my twitter! i also plan on reading your books and sharing them on my channel as well!
Volume too low
I think a lot of my problem is trying to find a GOOD affordable cover artist. If anyone has any suggestions I'd love to hear them.
What genre do you write in?
@@ChrisFoxWrites Right now I'm looking for a cover for a steampunk series.
@@ChristopherMeeker I'm not sure if you saw my other comment, but here's how you track down artists. Search for airship, steampunk, and any other keywords you can think of. You can begin with a Google image search, and then expand to Deviantart or Artstation. Your goals is to find people who can create the style you're after. Most will take commissions, and most will work for between $250 - $750 depending on skill and experience.
@@ChrisFoxWrites Thanks so much for your help!
@@ChristopherMeeker Sure thing! Remember that once you get the artwork you still need typography, and unless the artist is also a cover designer they will not know how to do that very well.
Would love to Beta Read for you, Chris. (I do plenty of fiction experience, but yours would be my first non-fiction.)
Chris, does your write to publish time include editing/proofreading? Do you do that or someone else?
It does include that time. I write it, then I do a full edit. Next I had the book off to my wife to edit. At the same time beta readers are reviewing it, and as they send back typos I forward them to my wife for processing. Once she'd finished I do another rewrite, and then we both check it for typos =)
So I was watching this again, and I was wondering if this is still relevant? Is this how you are still doing things today?
Hi Chris, I am the author of only one book, the novel The Dandelion. Harper Lee and JK Rowling did well with one book and I am hoping I will too. I may be inspired to write a second novel but in the meantime I would like to have a solid strategy for the book I have. Who do you suggest I pay attention to on TH-cam, aside from you, of course. Thanks in advance.
JK Rowling didn't do well with one book. She had 7. Harry Potter wouldn't work, or sell, as a standalone. Harper Lee wrote her novel a century ago. The realities of publishing today are not the same. I don't have a solid strategy to offer you, because a single book is very difficult to advertise profitably. =/
Do you feel that this is doable wide as well? From what I've gathered, backlist is key regardless of zon exclusivity or wide.
Absolutely! I know plenty of people killing it wide.
@@ChrisFoxWrites awesome! I think that as I grow my backlist, making sure to do something every 6 weeks will be important. I'm sure as I write more my speed will increase but being in it for the long haul is my mindset :)
Hey Chris, another great vid! How do I get on your beta reader/ARC list? I've done it for a few authors in the past, it's always fun to be part of a new project. :)
Just added you =)
Cool. Looking forward to it! :) @@ChrisFoxWrites
Do you need my e-mail or will you be using a BookFunnel type link? @@ChrisFoxWrites
Hey@@ChrisFoxWrites , do you still need advance readers for your new book? Let me know :)
Did I hear you right when you said that you need a release at least every eight weeks to keep steady sales going? Your email said you've released every four weeks, so I'm not sure if I heard you right, your voice dropped a bit on that word. Thanks for the video. It was very interesting.
In a perfect world I'd release every 3-4 weeks. Anything more than 60 days and I see a serious drop in revenue.
@@ChrisFoxWrites I had seen the same thing, but I write 35,000 word novellas and I had hoped longer books would stay evergreen longer. People talk about novellas trending, but their sales life is extremely short. Amanda Lee has said the same thing for years. I'm moving into longer books now and I was really hoping longer books would stay afloat a lot longer on their own.
@@ChrisFoxWrites I'm blown away. So, you create the plot, write the book, pass it through beta and ARC readers, run it though an editor, make any last minute changes, have the book art made, all in 4 weeks? Do you have a Tardis or something?
@@chrisf9143 No, I have experience. My first novel took me four years, and almost a dozen editing passes. The more books you put out the easier this becomes.
@@mspoofycat Thanks for that. I was wondering if novellas were viable. As I'm sure you know, the argument goes: More books allows more frequent releases, more promotions, and more chances to get people onto the rest of your series. But it sounds like novella series successes are somewhat rare. In fact, in my casual searching, the only highly ranked novellas were just preludes to a series of full length novels. I couldn't find a single (fantasy) long running series of novellas.
Chris, At 8:19 you mention "page reads" vs sales. By page reads, you mean Kindle Unlimited? Your chart looks like sales out perform KU. Is your promotions aimed only at readers that buy, or a mix of buyers and KU members?
Most authors who are really killing it find KU as 66% or more of thier revenue. Mine skews toward sales because I publish more slowly, and because I have non-fiction which is not in KU. My promotions are aimed both at KU readers and full price purchasers.
How does launching a boxed set on audio work? Doesn't that mean no one will ever buy the individual books again since you can get books on audible for a single credit?
Great question. It murders the sales of the component books, permanently. Many of my fans will not by my new releases, and will wait for the inevitable box set. However, I sell a lot of box sets. I tend to wait a year between release of the first book and the first box set, and accept that the box set really becomes the new anchor for a series, not book 1.
When you released your quadrilogy, was this a box set of previously published books? Or were all four newly released?
They'd all been out for a while. I try to wait a year before bundling, because they really impact the sales of the existing books.
@@ChrisFoxWrites By "impact", you mean it hurts the individual books, right? (which would make sense -- why by individual books if you can buy a bundle -- but wanted to make sure I'm understanding.)
Great video as always Chris! I'm wondering something: when you run a free book promotion with KDP select and someone adds your book into their KU library, do you still get paid for that even though the cost to "buy" the book is free? I've never been able to find a straight answer to this.
The blue on my graph is how we get paid. If anyone who borrows your book reads any portion you get paid for the total number of pages read. The amount you're paid varies each month, but comes from one big pool that Amazon pays out.
The blue on my graph is how we get paid. If anyone who borrows your book reads any portion you get paid for the total number of pages read. The amount you're paid varies each month, but comes from one big pool that Amazon pays out.
@@ChrisFoxWrites Okay that makes sense! Thank you for clarifying
What are pagereads?
Does the marketing book work for both self and traditional publishing?
The principles will work for any book you're trying to sell, though how much control you'll have over this stuff depends on the publisher you sign with.
Do you have a video (or book) going into your strategy of KU vs Sales? For example, do you do just some books in KU in hopes they convert to sales of the remaining in the series?
Kindle Unlimited pays very well so we don't have any incentive to split a series. Either it's all wide, or all in. Readers who use KU to devour books tend to get very angry when the fourth book in the series isn't in KU and they have to shell out for it. Not advised IMO. I don't have a video specifically addressing KU, unfortunately.
@@ChrisFoxWrites So, do you do all your books in KU? Or do you have a strategy for determining which and when?
All of my fiction is in KU, for now. I will begin rotating series out as I complete their lifecycles, and I will eventually do a video about that process. My non-fiction isn't in KU, as the books are super short and I made ~30 cents a read versus $3.50 for a sale.
@@ChrisFoxWrites Oh wow! So, your income is exclusively through KU and audio books? That's amazing. And very good to know.
@@ChrisFoxWrites So, I'm confused. In another reply, you said KU bundles affects individual sales. That wouldn't matter if all your books were on KU, right? So, you didn't start out with all your books in KU?
What about your TH-cam income?
I average about $90 a month from TH-cam =p
Everyone can obviously hit $10k a month. The question how to do this at a profit.
Profitably is implied. I'm doing it profitably, and the advice explains how to do that. Was that not clear in the video? I guess I could add it to the title, but that seems like an attempt to stuff keywords.
@@ChrisFoxWrites you know you don't have to add that in the title some things are just common sense and some people are just assholes.
@@paulsheppard2294 I'm not being an asshole, and I'm not saying Chris isn't doing it. Obviously, in this case, it's implied that the $10k is net. But some people could spend $15k and show an Amazon graph of $10k earnings. Some could spend $5k and make $10k. Some could spend $1k and make $10k.
Those are all extremely different. There are definitely people who will watch this video and think the numbers they see are profit when it's possible someone could (not in this case!) be operating at a loss with those numbers.
My comment was a sarcastic way to remind people that the number Bookreport shows you isn't the important number, but I guess it came across wrong.
Do you coach?
Not anymore, no =)
I just figured out that in order to simply keep my head above water I need to sell 35 books per day. Per day! I guess my writing career is sadly over.