After the Gold Rush – Making a Living as a Writer Today

Jeffe Kennedy / / Blog, Podcast

THE DRAGONS OF SUMMER, my standalone and RITA(R) Award Novella Finalist from the SEASONS OF SORCERY anthology is now up at all the retailers! Including in print, for those collectors among you. You know who you are. Very shortly I’ll have print versions available in my website store that you can have me sign, personalize, if you like, and mail to you.

Last night I had occasion to scroll back through the ancient history on my Kindle. I was looking for a story with a particular scene that’s stuck in my mind, from a book I was given to read and possibly blurb back in early 2016. (See? Totally ancient history so far as my Kindle library – sorted by Most Recent – is concerned.) I remembered the scene, but not the author or title of the book. So I scrolled back and back, through the 608 digital books I’ve acquired (I know I have nothing on some of you) since March 5 of 2009 when I bought Jeaniene Frost’s HALFWAY TO THE GRAVE and kicked off my eReader life.

Which means I just passed my ten-year anniversary. Go figure!

Anyway, I went back considerably farther than 2016, because I couldn’t find the book and wasn’t at sure when I’d read it. And something struck me as I did: So many of the authors there had disappeared from my awareness. Some of them have disappeared altogether, perhaps into new pen names or other professions. This somewhat jolting discovery came at the same time that a lot of authors are talking about having to take day jobs again, because they’re no longer making the money they once were from writing. There’s lots of theories about this, but this is what I think is happening.

On April 19, 2011 – isn’t it weird how these thoughts come to me around the same time of year? Could be doing taxes – I wrote a blog post called Silver and Gold and Cautionary Tales. It’s all about the gold rush in self-publishing and thinking long term.

Back then, a lot of people were talking about all the newbies flocking to self-publishing with starry eyes and dreams of getting rich quick. And some did.

Many of us predicted – myself included – that the ones who didn’t get rich quick would soon bail and move on to the next gold rush. And some did.

What I didn’t forsee is what I think is happening now:

  • Self-publishing floods the market with cheap books. This is especially true of Romance.
  • The undercutting of the Romance market causes traditional publishers to cut their losses in the genre. They no longer make the same profits, so they offer their authors – even bestselling Romance authors – worse and worse deals. Even a bestselling author no longer gives them the profit margin they want.
  • Authors once happy at traditional houses feel forced into self-publishing. Whether they want to or not, if they want to publish books and put food on the table, they have to self-publish because the trad houses sure aren’t paying anymore.
  • More and more once trad-only authors become hybrid, bringing more books into the market. To be competitive, they price the books low.
  • The dilution effect really kicks in – more authors might be making more money overall – but many individual authors see their annual earnings drop, including early adopting self-publishing authors who once did very well.
  • What comes next?

 

I think we’ll still see authors moving on to the next gold rush. The money stopped being easy a while ago, so those who don’t care about WRITING at its core will find an easier way to make a living. Readers have become more discerning, following particular authors and no longer wasting their time on free and cheap reads that simply aren’t worth their time, no matter the price. We have a huge and avid reading community, which is a wonderful solace to so many of us.

Here I am, for example, ten years with my Kindle (third one) and reading strong.

I’m curious – what was your first eReader purchase? (On Amazon you can go to your account, your content and devices, then sort by Acquired Date: Oldest-Newest.

Refilling the Well

Jeffe Kennedy / / Blog

I finished THE FIERY CITADEL, book two in my Forgotten Empires trilogy with St. Martins Press, sequel to THE ORCHID THRONE. Yeah, it doesn’t come out until 2020 – maybe summer? we don’t know – but I completed the first draft and sent it in to Editor Jennie. There will be more work to come, but that’s the big milestone to pass.

I promised myself this time that I’d take some time off before heading into the next project. More than the weekend. As a full-time author, I write five days a week, going for 3,000 – 3,500 words per day. It takes me an average of 3 – 4 hours to get that, with an overall elapsed time of about 6 hours, including breaks. I usually have a pretty tightly packed schedule, so finishing one book has meant diving right into the next. But I track my productivity pretty carefully – I can’t control my creative process, but I can learn all there is to know about it and plan accordingly (which is part of owning your process) – and I’ve discovered that the week after I finish writing a book draft tends to be unproductive.

Even when I schedule myself for my usual work week, the writing tends to feel like pulling teeth. My word counts are low, I screw around a lot, and I don’t really refill the well.

So this week I’ve been not writing. Yesterday I tackled the garage. We have this one corner with a built in workbench and set of shelves. When we moved in (lo, these ten years ago – sheesh), we stuffed a lot of stuff back in those shelves, especially the lower ones, and back in the deep corner where they form an L. The original plan was one side of the L (the long one) would be for David’s tools and the short side would be my garden bench. My husband, however, while possessing many sterling qualities, is almost pathologically incapable of organizing his stuff. So his workbench has been a mess since day one. In fact, it’s a more ancient mess than that, as he pretty much threw the existing mess of his workbench and garage stuff into bins when we moved and dumped it out here.

I keep a hammer and a few screwdrivers in my office, just so I can find them when I need one.

Not only is his workbench a nightmare, when he has no place to put anything – which is always – he’d stack it on my garden bench. It got so I couldn’t even get to my gardening stuff. So I ceded the field of battle. I moved the baker’s rack from our front patio around to the secret garden and put everything there that can safely weather outside. I’ve also pulled most everything out of that space – discovering numerous rodent nests in the process – and now I’ll organize it for him. I kept a lower shelf for my garden stuff that needs to be out of the weather, but otherwise my garden bench is now for his fishing supplies. I’m kind of excited to do the thing where you hang up the tools and draw Sharpie marker outlines to designate where they go. We’ll see if it works and how long that lasts…

Anyway, it’s been good to disengage my brain and simply lift and organize. I’ve been rearranging the patio and garden, too, and things are looking pretty. Plus, I found some cool garden ornaments I shoved back in that corner and forgot I had! Watch for pics of those as I get them put out.

Show Me the Money! (Or at Least Don’t Make ME Pay)

Jeffe Kennedy / / Blog

Our topic at the SFF Seven this week is Lit Cons, Fan Cons, Comics Cons: What’s Best For You?

I imagine there will be a variety of replies to this topic – and maybe someone will take on defining each – but I’m taking a bit of a slant and talking about the stance I’ve taken on conventions in general. Come on over to find out more. 

 

One Stop Shopping

Jeffe Kennedy / / Blog

Exciting news here in Jeffeland! I’m delighted to announce that my website store is *finally* up and running! After ditching my previous negligent and irresponsible web designer, I’m working with an absolutely fantastic and professional company, Overmountain Studios. They have been just incredible – and less expensive, go figure. Yeah, I had to essentially start over and they built me a new website from the ground up, but it’s GORGEOUS, loads so much better, is far more secure, and is so much easier to use it’s unreal.

Reader, I am thrilled.

I think you’ll find it’s much easier to find books and series. You can see books sorted by genre, find out the reading order, search by keyword. It’s so sexy!

As for the store, this is my attempt to liberate myself somewhat from being dependent on internet retailers. All of my self-published books are available as ebooks from the store. The beta testers say the system is super easy and works great. When you buy my books from my site, all of the money goes to me, as opposed to the 30% (or more!) that a site like Amazon takes. I know it’s not quite a slick as buying from those retailers because you will have to download the book to your device and then send it to your preferred eReader or app. We have instructions if you need them! That extra effort on your part means a great deal to me, and is a way to help support me as an author. Really, though, buying my books is awesome of you in the first place and I’m grateful no matter how you do it.

Coming next, we’ll have paper copies available for purchase – of as many of my books, trad and indie, as I can round up – that I can personalize and sign, and send to you. We’ll also have fun merchandise! Harlan bookmarks, anyone?

Right now, my novella THE DRAGONS OF SUMMER, which is a finalist in the RITA® Awards, is available on the website only. This is the standalone novella that previously appeared in the SEASONS OF SORCERY anthology. If you have that book, then you already have this same novella. Minus the man candy cover, though. 😉 There will be a print version of that novella available soon.

Thanks to all the Jeffe’s Closet folks who helped test the site, and all of you who gave feedback on the previous site! And, as always, thank you for your wonderful support.

 

Still Bleeding – the Worst Rejection Ever

Jeffe Kennedy / / Blog

I had to share this tweet from Agent Sarah. We got the cover flats for THE ORCHID THRONE (out in September 2019, but review copies are going out now – eep!) and they have foil! That’s the shiny stuff on the cover. It shows best in the video from her tweet, but here’s a still pic, in case the video doesn’t play. Super cool, huh? It’s my first cover with foil, and it’s SO PRETTY!

Our topic at the SFF Seven this week is Knife in the Heart: The Harshest, Meanest Rejections from a Publisher/Editor/Agent. Come on over to hear about mine.

Hands on Keyboard, Butt out of Chair

Jeffe Kennedy / / Blog

Our topic at the SFF Seven this week is the deceptively simple “Perfect Writing Snacks.”

I say it’s deceptively simple because I’m going to have to pull a Veronica Scott this week and say that I just have nothing on this one. Come on over to find out why.

 

A Report from the Book Brain

Jeffe Kennedy / / Blog

I received my box of galley proofs of THE ORCHID THRONE! They’re really just gorgeous. Even the paper has a wonderful texture. And these are just for Advance Reader Copies (ARCs)! I can’t wait to see the finished versions. The book releases in September, but I’m crossing fingers that I might have copies at RWA in NYC. For the moment, I only have ten ARCs, so we’ll be seeing who to send them out to. I included the lovely note Editor Jennie sent. Now you all can see why she’s so fab.

If you follow my podcast, First Cup of Coffee, then you know I’m hard at work on book two of the Forgotten Empires trilogy, THE FIERY CITADEL. This trilogy follows the same heroine and hero for all three books, so it’s been very fun to follow my pair as their relationship deepens, and as the overall threat escalates. As many of you know, I discover the story as I write it, so I’m finding out some amazing stuff. And the stakes are pretty intense. I’ve passed the midpoint of the story and am closing in on the end of Scene 5. The book has come to life in my head, which is something that happens at a certain point in drafting for me. It haunts my thoughts continuously. I think about it as I fall asleep and it’s on my mind when I wake up.

I really dream vividly at this stage, too, and talk in my sleep a great deal. David tells me that the other night I was having what sounded like a conversation in my sleep, but I was talking in two different voices. Kind of creepy, huh?

Good thing I have an outlet for this level of crazy…

Anyway, being at this intense level of creating gives me what I call Book Brain. I don’t have much room in my head for any thoughts that DON’T have to do with the story. I’m just sure I start sounding all vague on the podcast…

So, that’s where I’m at. A couple more weeks and book 2 will be done. Woo hoo!!