Tales from a hybrid author

For the past two and a half years I've been self-publishing as well as being digitally published. I write contemporary romance which is one of the genres that has really exploded in the last couple of years through digital publishing. Mostly I write shorter books, some very traditional category-style romance, and some a little bit quirkier.

I'm going to begin the thread with a series of posts explaining how I've got to where I am, how I've chosen what to do with different books, where my income is coming from, what's worked for me and what hasn't, and what my plans are for the future. But first, here's where I'm at today, 2nd October, 2013:

Books available:
Three short stories (10-15,000 words)
Four category romance novels (40-45,000 words)

One of the short stories and three of the novels are self-published. These are the books in my signature. The others are published by Entangled.

Total income:
Self-published books: £3188.17 (approx $5179)
Entangled books: £2356.45 (approx $3828)

Total: £5544.62 (approx $9007)

I'll give breakdowns for each book later. Most of this income has been in the past 15 months or so. Also, this only reflects income actually paid. There's about $800 in my Smashwords balance, less than that at Amazon, and some money owing from my publisher for foreign rights sales (about £3000 or $5500). My current monthly average income is about £400 (approx $650) but it does vary pretty wildly from month to month. Smashwords and Entangled pay quarterly, but in different months, so that helps smooth things out a bit.

Work in progress and future plans:
I have another novel due out with my publisher in December for which I need to send in final edits in the next couple of weeks. I'm working on a short story to self-publish next month which is due with the editor this weekend. I'm finishing the first draft of a novel for a Harlequin/Mills and Boon contest, which needs to be completed in the next couple of weeks.

I submitted my PhD thesis in August and I've decided to give myself a year to see if I can make writing produce a sustainable income. I'm in a very fortunate position of having a place to live rent-free, and I also have a part-time job which covers my bills with a little left over. I need to double what I'm making now in the next 12 months. My plan for that includes both self-publishing and trade publishing. I'd like a new contract, either with Entangled or Harlequin. And I'd like to have books to self-publish while the longer process of trade publishing goes on.

It was only ever supposed to be a hobby. For years, the tagline under my name on AW read 'Happy hobbyist'. To be honest, I can't quite remember how or when it first became a bit more than just writing for fun and putting things on my Live Journal for people to read if they wanted to. I started in fanfiction and gradually moved towards original fiction. I wrote a few short stories, half a Regency romance and then some contemporary romance. And at some point, I submitted the contemporary romance to Mills and Boon, who, quite rightly, sent a form rejection back six months later. On a whim, I entered their New Voices contest in 2010 and got nowhere. But I'd had some really great feedback on the chapter, and when I sent a first page in to Dear Author, I had some amazing comments from real authors like Laura Kinsale and Sarah Mayberry. I started to think maybe I could do this. So I finished that story and submitted it to Mills and Boon. And again, six months later, a form rejection.

So, in the summer of 2011 I found myself with two completed manuscripts on my hard drive. I didn't know where else I could submit category romances, and the few epublishers I found who were acquiring that sort of book didn't impress me much - I felt like I could do a better job on the covers and blurbs. As for editing - well, I had no idea where you'd find a freelance editor and no money to pay for one. And besides, this was still only a hobby for me. I thought of it much like the things I made to sell at craft fairs - no, they weren't professionally made, but they still had some value to a few individuals.

So I self-published Reckless Runaway at the Racecourse in July 2011 and The Tycoon's Convenient Wife in August 2011. I had an initial flurry of sales from friends and family, which quickly subsided to a tiny trickly. I think it took six months before my Amazon royalties hit the threshold for payment. I got a couple of reviews on romance blogs for Reckless Runaway, but it didn't have much of an effect on sales. So mostly I forgot about them and carried on.

In April 2012, I gave them new covers with people on, to more clearly signal the romance genre. In May 2012, sales for The Tycoon's Convenient Wife began to pick up, especially on Barnes and Noble. Since then it has consistently been my best-selling book. I think this is probably because it has the most obviously genre-romance title and cover. It's definitely not the best book! The lack of editing is very obvious, I think.

In the autumn of 2012, I set Reckless Runaway as free for about six weeks. This got about 6000 downloads and a good number of reviews - over 50 at B&N - which I was very pleased with. Sales after the free period were demonstrably higher than before. So in March 2013, I decided to try something similar with The Tycoon's Convenient Wife. I was not expecting over 100,000 downloads! It hit #3 on the Amazon UK free list and the top ten on Amazon US.

Something I don't really understand is that, while it was free, it was still making me money on Amazon. Obviously the sales of my other books had a boost, but TCW itself was still generating income and because of the huge number of downloads, it was actually making more money than when it had been on sale. I don't know if maybe it wasn't free on all Amazon sites worldwide, but then the royalties were listed under .com on kdp. So I don't know. The downloads began to tail off after about six weeks and a couple of weeks later, I put the price back up. Since then, it's still my bestselling book, now selling around 150 copies/month. By way of comparison, Reckless Runaway sells about 15-20 copies/month.

I think there are a number of factors which have helped the sales of TCW:

1. Changing the cover really helped.
2. Having other books available - the sales were boosted after my Entangled books had come out and I'm sure there was some crossover readership.
3. Having a title and a cover that absolutely scream the genre of the book.
4. Possibly just having the word 'tycoon' in the title - sales have been way better since the 50 Shades phenomenon. Although my book is NOTHING like 50 Shades - no sex, for a start, tycoon is now a key word in romance sales.
5. The free promotion has left sales at approximately 20 times the level prior to the promotion.

The next step with these books:
I've just given all my self-published books new-look covers so that they have a clear brand. I used the same stock images, so hopefully readers will recognise that they are the same books. I've also produced new editions with some minor corrections and better back matter (more on that later). And I've set TCW to be free again. I'm not sure if that's going to be a good move or not. It's a bit scary because it is my biggest seller. But because it is my biggest seller and the book which draws most attention, I think I'd like it to be permanently free as a way of widening my readership for the new book that's just come out. So far, it's been free for less than a week and it's hitting some Amazon top seller lists, but not yet having the real breakout.

ETA: Should have said where I published them! On Amazon through kdp and everywhere else via Smashwords, since I'm in the UK so that was the only option at the time to get into B&N, itunes etc. I do have a print version of Reckless Runaway available via Lulu because a couple of friends who didn't read ebooks really wanted to be able to buy a copy. I've never sold enough to get any royalties from it!

Old Hack said:

Also, a word of warning: before you share any more details of your trade publishing experiences do please check your contracts. Writers are often forbidden from discussing the details of their contracts in public, and that often extends to discussing their sales.

Click to expand...

I'll check, but I think it's fine. I put some of this on my blog a while ago and had a conversation with the CEO of Entangled about it then. She didn't ask me to take it down.

I fell into a publishing contract by accident. I'd heard of a new publisher called Entangled and liked what I saw of them. So when I'd written my next category romance, I sent it to them as well as Mills and Boon. In the meantime, I followed one of their editors on twitter.

In October 2011, she tweeted asking for Christmas short stories, needing to be submitted within a couple of weeks. A friend and I both decided to go for it. Hers was finished first, she sent it in and quickly got a rejection with a lot of helpful feedback, that she kindly forwarded to me. So when I sent mine in, it was accepted. That was mid-November and three weeks later it was published. Three weeks that involved five rounds of edits, plus copy edits and proofing. And a LOT of very late nights indeed. It was a seriously intense introduction to working through the process of being published and I wouldn't recommend it. But it was great, and I loved working with that editor.

He had a call for Valentine's short stories, so I wrote one and sent that in. And at the same time, I asked him about the other story I'd submitted earlier in the year. He followed up, and it turned out that Entangled were about to launch a new line of category romances - and they wanted mine! So within the space of about six weeks, I signed three contracts with Entangled. The Valentine's short story came out in February 2012 and the category romance in July.

For all three books, the publisher organised a lot of good publicity for me. I had interviews, guest posts, giveaways and reviews on blogs. They also purchased advertising in various places and they worked hard to tweak covers and blurbs for maximum click through and sales. It was a huge learning experience for me and it was brilliant. I didn't have the mega sales that some of their authors made, but I was really happy with my numbers, and with the royalties they paid. They are a great company to work with and they've always been completely transparent and very helpful. My royalty statements come on time every quarter and payments are prompt, though inevitably, the royalties are paid on a longer delay period. So, for example, my first royalties from December 2011 sales of the Christmas story weren't paid until May 2012.

During 2012, I submitted two proposals for category romances and another short story to Entangled. One of the proposals didn't quite fit their line and, rather than make the changes the editor wanted, I decided to put it on hold and self-publish it later. The other was contracted and is due out in December 2013. There was a bit of confusion around the short story and in the end I didn't sign a contract and self-published it last November.

Last December I had two very exciting emails to say that Entangled had sold French language rights to my Christmas short story and Greek rights to the category romance. I would never have been able to do that myself and it has been the biggest thrill of my writing career so far to see my book on sale in Greek. It's also the only print edition I've had so far! I don't think the French one has come out yet.

All I Want For Christmas is my second highest earning story and the book with the highest volume of paid sales at about 7500. Not bad for a short story that took less than three days to write. Table for One and The Oil Tycoon and Her Sexy Sheikh haven't had quite the same volume of sales, but they've both done okay. This summer, Entangled organised for all their books in the Indulgence line to be a Kindle Daily Deal, which included The Oil Tycoon. I haven't seen the royalty statements for that yet, but it was very fun to see the book shoot up the rankings. They are really proactive in promoting all their books and working hard to maximise the income from them all.

Here's a thing I've learned about myself: I can't write partials.

After I'd been contracted with Entangled, they no longer required me to send in a whole manuscript for consideration. They would offer contracts based on a synopsis and three chapters. I've never been the kind of author who works with a detailed outline, but it seemed like a good thing to try. During 2012, I wrote a dozen synopses, but struggled to make myself write the necessary three chapters. I think I managed it twice. One of those was contracted and then I found myself having to write the book. I did it, but it nearly killed me. I really hated writing to the synopsis. I felt bored - I already knew where the story was going, so where was the fun in writing it? In fact, I felt that about all the stories I'd outlined with the intention of submitting a partial. It absolutely killed my creativity.

Last month, I decided I wanted to try writing for M&B again and discovered I was eligible to enter their contest. They need a full manuscript. It's been like a breath of fresh air, being able to write the way that works best for me - without an outline or a synopsis, letting the characters and the conflicts work themselves out. I'll need to write a synopsis for it if I end up submitting through slush, but I can do that after writing the story, not before.

Here's another thing: I signed a contract at the wrong time.

Back at the end of 2011, it seemed like everything was taking off for me. Three contracts in six weeks! The world was my oyster. But the reality was that I was still deep in the agony of PhD writing, I was suffering from depression, I was working two jobs to pay my bills. I could just about keep up with everything I was contracted to do, but I had nothing left in me to come up with new ideas and no energy for writing new manuscripts. Other authors who signed with Entangled at a similar time have now had half a dozen books published. The opportunity was there for me if I could have taken it. It's only now, nearly two years later, with the PhD behind me and the depression, at least for the moment, lifted, that I can feel stories bubbling up and eager to get out again. I don't regret signing those contracts, but I wish the timing had been different. I wish I'd been in a better place in my life to make the most of them.

Once An Unsuitable Husband is published in December, I won't be under contract any more. I feel a little bit like I'll be starting from scratch again.

Sometimes, you have to write the book of your heart.

For me, that's the book I've just published, Flirting With The Camera. It was another M&B contest entry that went nowhere. It was a partial I sent to Entangled that wasn't right for them. It's been a serialised novel on my blog. And now, following a Kickstarter project that I've talked about elsewhere on the forums, it's a professionally-edited, finished novel that I've self-published. It went up on Amazon about 10 days ago. It's only just got into Smashwords Premium Catalogue and I'm still waiting for it to appear in other places. It's been sent to about 30 Kickstarter supporters. I've done a little giveaway on Booklikes. I've tweeted about it a couple of times and as a result, I think it's going to get reviews on a handful of major romance sites. This book is all about the heroine, and so far, everyone seems to love her as much as I do. I want it to sell because I want everyone to read it. I love it and I think - I hope - that shows when I talk about it.

Sometimes you have to write the book that needs to be finished

After a really positive experience working with the editor on Flirting With The Camera, I booked a spot for a short story to be edited this month. It isn't finished yet, mostly because I've been working on the book for the M&B contest. But I have to send it to the editor by Sunday. So, because this is a business and I can't afford to waste my deposit - and because I don't want to waste her time or be crossed off her list of authors to work with - I need to finish the short story first. For me, self-publishing is now a thing I take as seriously as my other books. It's not a hobby any more, it's a job. And if I want to make a living at it, I have to set deadlines and meet them. I have to work with other people and respect them. I don't want readers to love my Entangled books but be disappointed when they pick up one of the others. I want my name to be the brand, not the publisher's name. I want a Ros Clarke book to be one that people want to read.

Sometimes you have to think like a marketer
I loved the first covers I made for my self-published books. I still think I did a good job of making them look professional. What I didn't do was make them look like category romances. It wasn't obvious to browsers what these books would be about. My second covers did a much better job of this, though I don't think they were nearly as aesthetically pleasing. My current covers, I hope, manage both. I love the way they look and I think they signal the genre very clearly.

When I first self-published, I didn't think at all about how to use my books to hold onto readers. I had a very brief bio at the end of a book, with the url of my website (not hotlinked). My new editions all have a page with hotlinks to my other books (Amazon links for the Amazon editions, links to the book pages on my website, which have buy links to all the online stores) for the Smashwords editions. They have all my social media accounts, and they have a link to sign up to my newsletter which I only use to announce new releases. Everyone who is downloading a free copy of TCW now has a direct link to purchase all my other books and sign up to my newsletter. That kind of advertising is golden, because it is directed precisely at the people who are interested in it.

I am, mostly, hopeless at selling my books. I tweet a lot because I love twitter, and if a book is free or newly available, I'll tweet about it a couple of times. I don't ever schedule tweets because I hate reading scheduled tweets. I do have an author FB page and I'll put announcements on there. I have a website and a blog, which doesn't usually get a lot of traffic. I do hang out at a number of other blogs and forums that I enjoy and sometimes I'll mention my books there. I have a particularly wonderful group of knitters who enthusiastically follow my career and buy my books.

I have paid for bits of advertising over the years but I'm not really convinced it's ever been worth it. Maybe one of the Goodreads ads I did, but now I think GR is saturated with ads and they're not as effective. I've never paid for a blog tour but I have become friends with a handful of bloggers, some of whom have reviewed some of my books. I've been lucky to become friends with some really great authors on twitter, some of whom have become cheerleaders for my books. The publicity that I've had through Entangled has certainly had a knock-on effect for the self-published books and I'm really grateful for that. I'm sure that they wouldn't be selling nearly so well now if I'd only been self-publishing over the last two years.

And finally for now, the numbers.

Income from writing since November 2011 when I got my first payment from Smashwords. This includes all titles.

July 11: £0 RRR self-published
Aug 11: £0 TCW self-published
Nov 11: £21.25
Dec 11: £18.72 AIWFC published by Entangled
Jan 12: £0
Feb 12: £0 TFO published by Entangled
Mar 12: £10.19
Apr 12: £0
May 12: £9.50
June 12: £71.57
July 12: £0 TOTAHSS published by Entangled
Aug 12: £109.05
Sept 12: £253.49
Oct 12: £0
Nov 12: £317.62 12D self-published
Dec 12: £365.73
Jan 13: £210.30
Feb 13: £0
Mar 13: £439.30
Apr 13: £162.58
May 13: £13.58
Jun 13: £304.18
July 13: £973.75
Aug 13: £646.61
Sept 13: £275.68 FWTC self-published

You can see clearly how things changed in June 2012 and then again a few months ago. The biggest difference for me, other than just the actual numbers, is that I am now making money on Amazon finally. Previously, there would be one month in every three where I had nothing coming in (the other two had payments from Smashwords and Entangled). Over the last four months I've settled down to a regular monthly income of around £100 from Amazon. The huge payments in July and August were due to the success of TCW's free promotion on Amazon.

So, that's it really. I'll update the thread when I have things to report.

So, Flirting with the Camera is now on sale more or less everywhere. I can't see it on Kobo in the UK because of the current self-pub shenanigans but I'm reliably informed it's there in the US and elsewhere. Still not on Sony because they are as slow as a very slow thing. I need to get round to putting it on ARe directly.

Sales are slow but increasing. I'm really, really happy with the attention it's starting to get. I've had reviews at several well-known romance blogs including one today at Dear Author, which is like the Holy Grail, for me. It got a B- which is actually pretty good over there. Mostly it's had good reviews apart from one total shocker at Love in the Margins. Seriously. She hated it. Ah, well.

I've had my next short story back from my editor so the next thing on my agenda is to do the revisions on that and get it published by the end of the month. I've also got revisions to send back to my Entangled editor this week. And then I can start writing something totally new. That's always the most fun part for me!

Thanks, everyone!

So, October wasn't a brilliant month for me, though actually not as bad as I had thought. I sold 95 copies of my self-published books. I finally got round to putting them all up at All Romance, which has been really worth it. I've also had one of my books free for most of the month. I've had about 8000 downloads of that, which now has direct links to my other books in the back. I'm hopeful that will drive some more sales in coming months. I won't know numbers for the Entangled books until I get the next royalty statement at the beginning of December.

I've got a short story which needs one more round of edits and then proofing, but which should go on sale this month. I've also been working with someone at my publishing company to draft an outline for my next submission to them, which I'm really thrilled about. One of the great things about being hybrid is that I don't feel quite so on my own in this business.

I definitely plan to submit proposals to the publisher. In fact, I'm working with an editor there on a new synopsis at the moment, and I'm hoping to be part of a short story anthology there, too.

Thanks, Ann! I'm glad you enjoyed the book. Hope yours sells more than you can imagine!