My Genre and the Writer's Market

     As a writer, most of us generally write about something that we get an idea about.  This is fine, but not always the way to go.  There are some categories of writing that do better than others.  So to know what the writer's market is buying is extremely important to a writer who wants to be profitable with what they are currently writing.

          The genre I generally write in is ROMANCE.  This is a highly in demand genre, but it is also problematic because of the oversaturation of the Romance Market. The percentage of women who read romance is 84%, and the percentage of men who read this genre is 16% as of this writing.  To be successful today writing in the romance genre you have to lean on what is popular.  The romance that is highly popular today is Shapeshifter Romances and Vampire/Werewolf Romances.  I'm sorry to say that I really don't have any desire to write in that area of romance, and this is probably why I am a struggling Indie author.  My romance stories are generally contemporary fiction and fall into the category of couples with issues who find each other.  (Basically, the relationships are messy and complicated, but love always finds a way to persevere through many twist and turns).

     Take one of my past stories: "The Shattered Pieces of Shay".  This story was inspired by a soap opera that drove me crazy with a particular storyline.  I decided to write a story that was totally opposite from this one and fix all the problems with the storyline with my own rendition of how I thought the story should go.

     This is what authors do.  We basically find our ideas through various means.  Some of my books actually come from dreams that I have.  

     I did actually try my hand at writing in the Romance/ Erotica category since I had heard that erotica was selling generally well.  The book I wrote is called:  "The Ugly Side of Paradise".  And, of course, erotica is also an overly-saturated market as well, and hence I have struggles selling any books in this genre as well.

     So the life of an author can be extremely challenging with not knowing what in the Writer's Market will be hot and what is not.  So what is a writer to do?  You can write exactly to what is hot in the market and hope for the best, or you can continue writing what you believe in and also hope for the best.  I believe that no two readers are alike in what they like to read, so I say first, write a good, intriguing story, and then cross your fingers and hope that the audience of readers will be there to read it. This is what I hope for every day. So far this hasn't happened, but I've decided to just keep writing and to not ever think about giving up ever again like I thought about several times in the past.

     In my next blog entry, I'm going to talk about whether it is a good idea to use a pen name or not.

     So Stay Tuned!

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The First Book I Published, and What I Learned From That Experience

 

      In my previous blog article, I talked about the first thing I learned when I first started to self-publish my books online.  In this entry, I'm going to discuss the first book I published and all that happened after it.

     The first book I published was titled:  "The To Nowhere Train" and it was self-published on amazon.com back in October of 2012.  The book was actually inspired by a dream that I had, and I had several other family members help me write it.  It was in the genre of Science Fiction/Paranormal.

     The book as I stated in my previous blog entry had a cover that I would classify today as awful.  In fact, I wish I could display the cover to you here, but I deleted it.  Anyway, the book basically failed as far as I was concerned.  It never really found an audience and the few people who did read it was few and far between.  The book received (2) 4-star ratings; (1) 3-star ratings; (1) 2- star ratings, and (1) 1-star rating.  At this particular time, I didn't quite like those ratings, and I have to admit I almost gave up on publishing anything else to the Internet.  I have to also admit here that I have since unpublished this book from amazon.com.  Now, was this the end of my writing career - NO!  I went on to find a whole other group of people who were having the same problem with their own self-publishing, so in the end, I found out I wasn't alone in this.

     I realized that I needed to do more research, and I needed to do more studying about the writing market at hand.  I'm going to admit here that this was an extremely hard time for me.  I mean, after all, I just wanted to write my stories and share them with other people, and I was finding this harder with every day that passed.  I have to admit once again, that I almost gave up a second time.  I remember screaming and pulling my hair out at this time.

     If you are a writing reading this article and having a hard time like I've just described up above, I'm sure you can probably relate to what I am saying here. But, as a writer, I knew that I couldn't give up because writing and creating a story was too much in my blood.  So even if I walked away from my writing for a time, I always found myself going back to it in the end.

     I knew in the end, that I had to keep writing and persevering because I knew that some well-known author also had their roadblocks in the beginning, and today they are highly successful.  One, in particular, is Stephen King (the amazing horror/thriller author).  He had many a failure books in the beginning but look at his success today.  I knew I needed to remind myself of these types of authors.  I mean, even J.K. Rowling's had many literary agents turn down "Harry Potter" in the beginning before she finally found someone to represent what ended up being a million dollar winner.

     Anyway, although I have not republished "The To Nowhere Train" as of this date, I still am working on this book.  When it does get republished you can bet that the book cover will be amazing, and I've also decided to give the book a new title that I think suits it better called: "Beyond the Mysterious Red Door". And, of course, since all of this, I have gone on to publish other books.

     In my next blog article, I am going to discuss the writing market and the genre that I write in.

So Stay Tuned!
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The First Thing I Learned When I Decided to Self-Publish on the Internet

    When the self-publishing revolution started on the Internet back in May 2009, you could say that I was technically living under a rock.  The reason I say this is because I didn't learn about this until 2012.   Back in May of 2009, I was still writing for my own enjoyment and still throwing my stories into a drawer.  I was also at this time working as a teaching assistant in an elementary school's computer lab.  I was basically going about my business just making a living.

     Anyway, I basically stumbled onto Kindle Direct Publishing through an advertisement on a youtube video in early 2012. It was sort of funny because usually when an advertisement starts on a youtube video I generally click out of it, but this particular time drew my attention.  My first thought when I saw the ad was that this was probably for the old, traditional self-publishing that I was used to with the cost ranging from $2,000 to $5,000.  (Believe it or not, this type of self-publishing is still around today).  Of course, I discovered this wasn't the case.  It was at this moment I started to do more research about this online.  I went on to discover that people were self-publishing their work and selling it out on amazon.com

     So I have to admit at the time, I was pretty sceptical about this program.  I just couldn't imagine I could do this for FREE.  (Today I know it does take some money to do this if you want to do it effectively).
     
     Now, back to the subject of this blog, when I decided to give this a try I was so excited, only to find out that it wasn't as easy as I thought it would be.  First, amazon.com required a certain type of formatting and template, along with a certain size book cover in order to do this.  At this time, I have to admit I sort of pulled my hair out and almost gave up right there. But, I knew the Internet was the super highway of information, and I figured if these two things were needed then someone would have to be talking about it.  I started to do more research and I came across someone who was selling the Template.  Of course, when I got the template I discovered I had to reorganize my book into it.  I also had to learn about creating and linking my book's Table of Content to every chapter in the book so that the links would work. (Thanks so much for all of you who create instructional videos on youtube.com because this website became invaluable to me, and still is today).  Once I manage to complete my book in the template the next major hurdle was my book cover.  At this time in 2012, there was very little that I found to help me here.  There wasn't a lot of book cover designers around at that time that I could find, and when I did find someone they wanted a lot more money than I could afford.  There also wasn't a lot of sites that had public domain free photos that you could use. (I definitely didn't want to get caught using something that was copyrighted.  This would have opened a lot more problems for me if I had tried that route. DON'T DO IT)!  And, during this time Amazon didn't have their book cover launcher designer either, as they do today.  

   Needless to say, my first book cover STUNK. lol  I don't even have a copy of it, and this book has since been unpublished. The cover was something I created in Paint.net. It had an orange background and some stars.  It was pretty bad from where I sit today in 2017.

     In my next blog, I will talk about the first book I self-published, and what I learned from that experience.  (Believe me, I learned a lot more than the fact that I had a bad book cover).

So stay tuned!

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The Life of a Writer

     The life of a writer can be different as night and day.  There is no two writer's that live exactly the same life.  For example:  If you are a writer and you have to leave your home each day to work 8 hours or more doing something else other than writing, and later in the day find time to write, this is your life when it comes to writing. This is usually extremely hard because your writing isn't supporting you as of right now, although you wish it were.  

     The other person is someone who has a job writing for a career because their writing is supporting them, this is generally the job that most writers want to have.  At least, for me, this is the one that I want. Don't get me wrong, people who write for a living have just as many challenges as the ones who go off to do another type of job throughout their day.  I'm sure many writers who work at this 100% will tell you that juggling time and attention to their writing on the home front can be just as difficult. When you are at home you are probably more relaxed and so you might have a tendency to get caught up in other things that don't have to do with writing.  And, if you are having writer's block, even worse.  Plus, let's not forget that the refrigerator is always calling you, or at least in my case, it does.

     Let's say you fall into scenario number one and you have to work outside your home doing something other than writing.  I'm sure you would agree this is extremely difficult because after working all day you come home generally tired and the last thing you want to do is write.  Yes, you might like writing and it might be something relaxing, but when you are tired from a long day it is generally the last thing you want to do.  When I work outside my home I have a tendency to write wherever I can in a note pad.  I usually take a bus to work so I will write on the bus, I will write during break time, I will write during lunch. Then at the end of the day, I will just have to transfer what I wrote to my computer.  I have also found that I write anytime I find myself waiting, such as; in doctor offices, bank lines, grocery market lines, etc. (you'll never see me without my handy, dandy notepad).

     So the life of a writer from where I sit is usually one where you basically live your life each day writing wherever you find the time, and that sometimes can even be in the bathroom. lol  

     In my next blog article, I am going to talk about the first thing I learned when I decided to self-publish on the Internet.

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When I Knew I Wanted to be a Writer and Publish Books

   

     I think I wanted to be a published author from a very early age.  I always had a vivid imagination as a young kid growing up in Phoenix, Arizona.  I think from the moment I wrote my first words I knew I wanted to create and write stories.  I wrote my first story in 3rd Grade, and although it wasn't all that great, I still have it today, and let's just say that I am now fiftyish and leave it at that.
     
     I think if you ask most writers when they wanted to be a published author they would probably tell you that it happened sometime early in their life.  Of course, back when I was younger there wasn't anything called the Internet or self-publishing online as we know it today.  Self-publishing back when I even thought about it; some thirty years ago existed but it cost somewhere in the area of $2,000 to $5,000 depending on how many books you wanted to have printed.  Today, the world of self-publishing is exploding because it is so easy to do (with the eBook), and the cost being very little if anything.

     I will admit here that in my twenties I did try many times at getting a literary agent for a story that I had written, but it never happened.  The only thing that seemed to happen was I was able to wallpaper my walls with a lot of rejection letters.  My dream of ever getting published seemed as if it would never happen.  I do have to admit at times I did stop writing and dumped a lot of my stories into a drawer and moved along at working a 9 to 5 job.  But, as time went on I always found myself going back to my writing.  I guess it was because of my vivid imagination.  The stories just kept coming and I just kept writing.

     Today, I am happily published on amazon.com as an Indie Author.  I wish I could tell you it's been smooth sailing to get here, but it hasn't.  In my next blog entry, I'm going to talk about the "Life of a Writer" and what it's been like for me.

Introduction

     

I decided to start this blog to share my struggles at being an Indie Author.  I also want to share not just my struggles but what I've learned along the way.  Hopefully, if you are also an author that is struggling you will find some value in this blog.  

     Thank you for visiting this blog: "The Struggling Indie Author".  If you would like to connect with me on my author website, please go here below:

                               http://www.eshart-author.blogspot.com