10 Tips for New Authors
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When I first started publishing in 2019, I didn’t have a clue what I was doing. I had heard about things like ‘marketing,’ ‘newsletters,’ ‘book launches,’ and ‘pen names’ etc, but naively, I thought it would be as simple as writing a book, clicking publish, and posting on social media about it, then sit back and watch royalise roll in.
And they did! For about five minutes, and then my book was buried under the weight of the virtual amazon bookshelf.
So, four years on, I have done a lot of learning. My newsletter is well into triple figures, my books are selling regularly, and my following has grown immensely.
Below are a few things that I have learned the hard way, so that you can get to where you want to be quicker.
1 – Pick a genre, or at least, use a pen name.
Does Stephen King write romance? Does JK Rowling write splatterpunk? You know exactly what you’re getting when you hear these names, and you want your readers to know the same when they hear yours.
I write very dark fiction, from crime thrillers, horror and dark fantasy. My readers will cross over into the other genres, because they enjoy the style of my writing, and the themes correlate to each other. Now imagine if I threw in a romantic comedy in there, or a children’s colouring book. My readers would be very confused, and so would the Amazon algorithm.
You must stick to a genre, and if you wish to deviate from that genre, use a pen name. It prevents your readers from getting confused, and also the meta data and voodoo witchcraft of Amazon from getting confused too. It will encourage read through, and you will attract those kinds of readers that enjoy the work you put out. Amazon will also push your books in front of the eyes of potential readers who enjoy the genre you’re writing in.
Remember, if everyone is your target audience, then no one is.
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2 – Consume the genre you write in.
If you write horror, crime or romance, you should read it or at least consume it through other mediums. It will give you an idea of chapter lengths, feel, tone and language used in these kinds of books. It will allow you to write and create something that is familiar to the readers of that market, and not accidently throw in a unicorn in the middle of a steampunk dystopia.
3 – Writer’s block doesn’t exist.
I have spoken about this in a few of my blogs and videos. You do not need inspiration to write. You do not need the muse to appear to you. If you write only when you’re inspired, you will fail. You must make writing a part of your day and treat it like a job. You must give yourself targets, word counts and deadlines. You must write when you don’t want to. That is how books get written.
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4 – Writing is a business.
If you want to make a living writing and telling stories, then you must adopt a business mindset. This is why writing in a genre is so important, and why writing to a schedule is so paramount.
No, I don’t mean sleezy sales tactics or underhanded techniques. Marketing is basically putting your book in front of people that will want to read it. It’s that simple.
Learn about marketing. Learn about calls to action, mailing lists and how to engage with your readers and build relationships with them. Don’t be one of these annoying writers who scream in a crowded room for someone to buy their book.
Find a target market. Find where those people hang out. Engage first, then promote. Offer something for free. Encourage sign ups to your mailing list. Offer content, and then promote your work.
How to market as a writer
5 – Self-publishing is a viable option.
If you dream of being a traditionally published author, then that’s brilliant. All power to you, but don’t think that if you manage to land a publishing deal, you’re set for life. Far from it. I know plenty of writers that are still not making ends meet through trad publishing deals, and many independent self-published writers that are making bank each year through DIY publishing.
Decided what you want to do and focus on it. A proverb I love is ‘A man who chases two hares will catch neither,’ and you need to focus your energy on one path and get very good at it.
Focus is the key.
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6 – You don’t have to be the best at everything.
You don’t have to be the best writer. The best marketer. The best at SEO, emails, social media etc. You just have to be good enough at a lot of it.
7 – Never stop learning.
The landscape of publishing and writing is always changing. Don’t think you will know everything. You will fall down rabbit holes and implement information, and then you will discover something new to try.
8 – You will need to write books. And then more books. And then more.
You will not get successful from one book wonder. Lightning strikes do happen (E.L James – 50 Shades of Grey), but do not build your career on the hope of a one book wonder success. If you’re in this for the long term, then you better be ready to write millions of words and keep publishing.
9 – People will laugh at you for being a writer.
Fuck them.
10 – You will get discouraged.
Everyone does. We all have slow days. We all hit mental blocks. We all have self-doubt. Be consistent, and outwork your self-doubt by writing good stories, and putting them in front of people that want to read them.
Jay Darkmoore is a writer and writing coach from the UK and author of over ten titles and counting.
How to make a living writing: The advice you don’t want to hear
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If you’re a writer or another creator, you aren’t going to like reading this. This post will piss you off, but I hope it will make you think a little about your direction and goals.
A fellow writer friend emailed me and asked how I manage to stay motivated when writing. How day by day, I write and make progress in my work. How I manage to post consistently. Juggle family life, creativity, health, and business. How I manage to wake up at 5am on days off and get to work day by day.
As if by magic, I heard this saying, to ‘outwork your self-doubt,’ and it hugely resonated with me.
I’m not going to go into imposter syndrome or feeling out of your depth. Those things go without saying.
No. I make a habit of writing. I make it part of my day. My writing is a non-negotiable activity. I must do it, and I have a list of promises I make to myself. A task list to complete that never ends.
Write X amount today. Read this marketing book. Post this content. This call to action. Create this advert. Hit this word count deadline. Complete this edit. I do not break those promises. Because when you can’t trust yourself to get your shit done, then you can’t trust anyone.
Use self-doubt as fuel. It’s the enemy, and you must crush it every time it rears its head. Be hungry for the self-doubt, and then devour it with your successes at the end of the day. Every time I hit the keys on the keyboard. Each time I cross something off my list. Every new email subscriber. Every new story. Every new fan email. It’s all one more millimetre up the mountain.
Keep the promises you make to yourself. No one cares if you fail. Only you.
And only you hold the key to your own success.
- J
About Jay Darkmoore -
Jay Darkmoore is a UK horror and Dark Fantasy writer. He enjoys the darker and more Macabre sides to story telling, and has a great time doing it.
Starting with his debut Novel in 2020 ‘The Space Between Heaven and Hell,’ a multiple POV thriller mystery novel which delves into the deepest depravities and secrets of the human mind, he has gone on to self publish anthologies and a fantasy sage.
His Podcast ‘The Darkmoore Diaries,’ tackles issues such as mental health, relationships and more ‘human’ elements of life, where as his YouTube channel supports writers in honing their craft.
He has a distinct eye for the unusual, and often can be seen enjoying cold weather in frozen lakes, and is a wellbeing and fitness enthusiast. He is two opposing sides of the same coin. The yin and the yang, the dark and the light, and he has a great time bringing both terror, and comfort into peoples lives.
What it’s really like being an independently published author
What it’s really like being an Indie Author
You have been lied to.
Forget the ‘Make $1000 a day’ or ‘How to get RICH quick with KDP’ videos on YouTube. I am telling you now. They are complete bullshit.
Think about it; why would anybody do anything other than sell books on KDP if it was that easy to make money? And not only that, if you discovered a secret money pile, would you really tell everyone about it? It’s clickbait. And I feel that you, like me, have been on that hook many times.
I have been selling books independently using Amazon KDP for around two years now. Let me save you a lot of pain in the long run and allow me to break your heart quickly.
It is not easy. It is not a get-rich-quick scheme. I have been a delivery driver, a carer for disabled children, and even a police officer. And running a business as an independent author is by far the hardest job I have ever had to do.
And yet, I and thousands of others still do it. Not because I want to get rich quickly (even though I wouldn’t mind having a few more zeros in my bank account generated from book sales), but because I must write stories. I must get them out of my head. I must see what the characters get up to and I am their guide, as they too guide me through the narrative.
So that said, is KDP a fool’s game? Far from it. Is it possible to make a living, even a great living from selling books online? Absolutely. But is it easy? Not a cat in hell’s chance.
The Three Questions
Firstly, if you want to sell books on KDP, you have to ask yourself are you prepared to invest money into book covers and editors.
Are you willing to spend money on adverts, keywords and marketing?
Are you willing to spend hours and hours not only writing a book, but editing it, sending it out to beta readers, Advanced Copy Readers, build a network of other writers and readers in the hope that with enough time, effort and tears you will eventually be able to make a living out of doing this?
If you answered No to a single one of those questions, then give up now and don’t bother. But if you answered Yes to all of them, then you are about to embark on an amazing journey.
Like the heroes in the stories we write, being an independent author is filled with a roller coaster of emotions. I remember the first time I was able to buy a meal with the royalties I got from my debut novel The Space Between Heaven and Hell. I remember my first bad review on The Everlife Chronicles. I remember the amazing interviews I have had with writers on my Instagram, and the first YouTube video I uploaded that got comments.
Self-publishing is an incredible thing to make a living from if you have a realistic mindset about it all. It won’t be overnight, and if you can’t defer gratification then this is not the career for you.
When I first started self-publishing, I devoured everything I could about the subject. Some things stuck, and others didn’t. I made mistakes. I wasted money. I bought courses that promised a quick fix. I bought budget book covers that still give me nightmares. I skipped out on the editing. I overpaid for ads. All to chase the dream.
But there is something that comes from fucking up. You get experience. You lick your wounds, and you get back up and get back in front of the keyboard and you crunch away. You will always make mistakes. You will always have more to learn, and you will pick yourself up more times than you can count and get back to it.
So for the budding author reading this. I thank you. Not only for reading my blog, but for chasing your dream in the pursuit of writing stories.
If you are looking to embark on this journey, then I implore you to read on to my next blog, ‘How to Market as an Indie Author.’
Why you should choose independent publishing.
If you’re thinking of Indie Publishing, click this article.
My name is Jay Darkmoore, and as an indie published author of seven novels (at the time of writing), spanning horror, grimdark fantasy, short stories and dark romance, I have dipped more than my toe into the world of self-publishing.
Here, I have listed fifteen reasons that self-publishing has an advantage over traditional publishing, to help you make that informed choice before you commit.
1 – Freedom to write what you like.
You may have heard this one, but the main pull for a lot of aspiring writers to self-publishing is not being constrained to what genre you can and can’t write. You might have a fiction that blurs the line between dark fantasy and action. Maybe you have a historical romance with aliens? Hell, a deep-sea diving book with goblins and werewolves. Whatever your genre, or a mix of genres, you can publish it because there is no specific shelf space that the story must fit into.
2 – Pick your own time frame for publication.
With traditional publishing, you will work to deadlines. This means drafts, editor slots, cover design slots and of course – the book release itself. These can be constraining and can be months, if not years in the future.
With indie publishing, you can decide your own schedule. You can produce work as frequently or infrequently as you like. Want to release three books in three months? Two books a year? Four books in six months then make your readers salivate for the fifth installation? It’s all yours.
And that is a hell of a bonus.
3 – Be your own boss.
If you’re anything like me, then you don’t like being told what to do. With indie writing, you can have your cake and eat it, so to speak. There is only yourself to answer to. You decide how productive you are, how you market and how you go about this crazy thing called storytelling.
You own all your successes and all your own failures.
4 – Market however you like.
Trad publishing will do some of the marketing for you, but not all. Those days are gone when you could get signed, sit back and collect royalty cheques. These days, publishing houses require you to do most of the heavy lifting yourself, and there may be constraints on how you are able to do this.
With indie publishing, this isn’t the case. Want a YouTube channel? Go right ahead. Want a TikTok? Knock yourself out. Want to scream n your neighbour’s roof at the top of your lungs? (Where this isn’t recommended, you certainly can…) Then go for it.
The world is your oyster, and how you reach that world is completely up to you.
5 – Better royalty rate.
A lot of people are drawn to trad publishing because of the advance in royalties you can receive when you get signed, which can be anything up to £10,000. Sounds great right? You can quit your day job and go sipping Pina Coladas in the Maldives.
Wrong. You may get the advance, but you won’t earn a penny until your book sales make that back. And that is with your 10% royalty rate for the face value of the book.
Now, take indie publishing (I only publish via Amazon, so I can’t speak for the rest), but you can earn up to 70% of the face price of the book in royalties.
So, if you sell a book at £10.00 –
Trad - £1.00 - £1.50 royalty
Indie - £3.50 - £7.00 royalty.
There is absolutely money to be made in the indie game. More money, for fewer sales, and if that doesn’t torque your jaw…
6 – Experiment with genres.
If you published your teen YA vampire series with a trad publisher and then decide you want to write post-apocalyptic sci-fi, your publisher might freak out. They might not agree to publish the new book and demand you stick to your current genre. You can be writing yourself into a box that you can’t get out of.
But with indie, that choice is completely up to you. It allows you to be as free and as creative as you wish to be.
7 – It’s faster.
If you submit the final draft to a trad publishing house in January, your book may not be on the shelf until October or even the following year, meaning that after you have been paid your advance and have spent so long writing the story, it won’t be in your reader’s hands for months, if not years! So, you won’t earn that royalty payment back anytime soon.
With indie writing, you decide when you publish, and you can start gaining royalties in just a few days.
8 – You’re in control over just about everything.
You have control over the book cover design, the blurb, the sales copy, the online description, the royalty rate, the scheduling, and the release date. You oversee the project from the first press of the keys to when you hit submit on your outlet.
9 – Financial clarity.
Trad publishers will sort the money side out for you, meaning that you won’t know if you’re making a dime until you get that royalty cheque through. Not only that, you might not even know in what format these books have come from or from where. Is it from your YA vampire series or your paranormal romance series? Is it from audiobooks or from your paperback or eBooks? You won’t know what to expect to come through the mail until it lands on your doorstep.
With indie publishing you can clearly see how much you are making, when it will be paid and through what sales and what format, which will give you a great indication of how to write, what to write and what to invest your time and money in.
10 – You retain the rights to your books.
With traditional publishing, you enter into a contract which you are obligated to, or they will drop you. If you do not honour that contract, and they drop you from their publishing house, then you no longer earn money from the books you have written and are being sold if you do not own the rights to them.
With self-publishing, you have complete control over the rights to your work in whatever format you have them in. This means you are free to write whatever and however you like.
11 – Work as much (or as little) as you like.
This is paired with number 3 of Being Your Own Boss. If you don’t like working mornings and you are more of a night owl, then go right ahead. If you can only write in the mornings and want to dedicate the afternoon to marketing and advertising, then the world is yours to play with. If you don’t like working weekends or on Tuesdays or past 4 pm, then you pick your own hours.
With no publishing house looming a deadline above your head, you can write as much, or as little as you like. This is a three-headed beast though, as you have to worry about burnout and procrastination.
12 – No Gatekeeper.
Who has the final call on a story idea or an ad campaign? You do. Who has to be consulted if you want to translate your stories to different languages and submit them to marketplaces abroad? Only you. Have a new idea? It’s your decision to make.
No relying on the current market or ongoing trends. It’s all up to you.
13 – Traditional publishing is still an option.
If you go traditional first and sign them to five books and then exit the contract, then as I mentioned before, you are going to lose the rights on those books. But if you indie publish first, and then decide to go trad, then you keep everything.
14 – Experimentation with advertising.
A traditional publishing house may require you to advertise or market to a specific audience or niche, be it the over 60’s or women under 30. They may have specific platforms and methods by which you have to do this. But with indie, you are free to experiment in whatever way you like, however you like.
15 – You learn to be a master of the craft.
With indie publishing, there are going to be setbacks (the same with any business venture). This means that you will learn how to market better, write better, edit better and produce better content. Without having other people doing some of the heavy lifting for you, you have to get good and get better with time. Meaning that with enough practise, you will become a hell of a self-publishing badass.
Writing as a Single Parent
There you are, folks! My 15 reasons why you should self-publish. If you liked this article, then share it with someone that is thinking of going trad and wants to know about self-publishing, or save it to your favourites bar on your desktop and have it to refer to in the future.
While you’re here, why not sign up for my newsletter for a free book?
Thanks for stopping by. Until next time.
- Jay Darkmoore