I think story telling (aka fiction writing) is one of the most important things that you can learn how to do and stories are the most effective teaching method know to man (followed by repetition). Even though it’s a great book The Way Of Men as far as cultural impact has gone will never compare to a Conan or an Icelandic saga or Greek epic. And that’s no fault of it’s own it’s simply the nature of the medium. 50 Shades of Grey outsold every BDSM book that there has ever been, you could probably combine the top 10 nonfiction BDSM books and it wouldn’t touch 50 Shades. Housewives who would balk at a book like Women: The Ownership Manual will buy all three 50 Shades books tortuously plot and all.
My point with all this being the stories are the strongest, most persuasive, and most effective medium of conveying beliefs or ideas there is. Now with that out of the way let’s talk about how to actually make money from writing fiction. First off you have to be a decent writer. How does one become a decent writer? Three principle things must take place for this to happen. The first and most important is write and then write some more. The second is to read good well done fiction. And the third is to read good books on the structure of fiction and writing, I recommend starting with Jack Bickham’s 38 Most Common Fiction Writing Mistakes, that’ll save you a lot of time and trouble at the start. Consider it the “Starting Strength” of fiction writing.
But being a good, great, or even the best writer the world has ever seen does not mean you’ll make any sort of living from the craft. As always marketing is the golden ticket to actually making money from your writing and not just any marketing but direct marketing. Direct marketing is marketing that can be held accountable. Here’s the dictionary definition “the business of selling products or services directly to the public” but fails to convey the importance of it. With direct marketing you can hold every dollar accountable and know that if you spend 1$ exactly how much you will get back. I don’t have time to go in depth but if you want a run down Claude Hopkin’s Scientific Advertising is a great start.
An Effective Monetization Strategy For Fiction Writers
Alright so here’s what most people do (and let’s assume they’re good writers with a good story and have a good cover…obviously that’s not what most people do but bear with me) they write their novel taking months or even years (!) before finally sending it out to the public. So they have a single book out on Amazon clocked in at say 60,000 words that they have no idea if anyone likes or not. Then they sit and wait, maybe run some facebook ads or promote it to their list or on their platform (though most people have neither).
And unless they have a huge list or platform it’s not going to be enough to keep the book afloat forever. One of the most important principles of direct response marketing is testing the market to see the response. Say you have a product you want to see if people like. You start small testing small lists and ads before and only if it is proven to be profitable and effective to you roll it out big time. Meaning only if there is a strong market and demand for it do you then double down and fully invest in the marketing campaign.
You should treat your stories the same way, at least at first. Meaning instead of trying to write the next great American novel here’s instead what you should do. First off research what’s hot, doesn’t mean you should follow it exactly (I’d rather jump off a bridge then write vampire stories for teens) but it’ll give you an overall gauge of what the market wants (but again you’ll never really know unless you test). Then after research release short stories that would have been the start of novels. Perhaps one’s a short story about a regiment in the American Civil War, another about a group of explorers exploring a distant planet, a third about a knight during the times of the crusades, and so on and so forth. Then you see how people are reacting to your different stories.
Test Then Expand
So say your crusader story is selling 10 to 1 compared to your explorer story then you know to throw out more crusader stories and so on and so forth. Obviously this requires traffic of some kind to your brand but that’s just another reason why being prolific and writing short stories works so well. While the novel author has one title (and 7 keywords) to be found on Amazon you could take that same amount of effort and have 12 titles (and 84 keywords) to be found on Amazon. Write your fiction like a TV series (short stories) instead of movies (novels). At least at the start then you can get a feel for what people want from you and then provide them with more of that.
So here’s an example of price points and what to do. To start put out 10 or so 5-10 thousand word short stories on 10 different subjects (unless one takes off before you get to 10). Make sure they are written well and most important of all have killer covers. Sell these for 2.99 (or even .99 during the testing stage). Every 10 or so short stories clump them together give them a name and publish them as a paperback novel with kindle version for 9.99 (paperback cost will depend on size, demand, etc.). Repeat until profitable.
Making Money From Your Art
Writing fiction (aka story telling) is another one of those much needed skills to thrive in life (along with copywriting). It’s something that has deep power and when you master it cannot help but change your life. Plus with this strategy above it can be a potent money making business (if you treat it as such). You can still share your stories and art with the world but do so in a way that’ll make you money and also maximize your reach. Plus with masculine fiction you never know who you’ll be affecting in a positive way. So tell the stories that need to be told, and make some money in the process.
If you have any questions you would like to see answered in a future post send them to me at charlessledge001 (at) gmail (dot) com. If you found value in this post then I would encourage you to share this site with someone who may need it as well as check out my books here. I appreciate it. You can follow me on Twitter here.
-Charles Sledge
