Support for Indie Authors discussion

I am the author of Sineria: The Great Kingdom, the first book in what I plan to be a fantasy series. My problem is that my first book is getting little to no attention, and I've got the sequel planned out. I've read a good method of gaining attention is by releasing more books, and I don't know if I should go ahead and write and release Sineria's sequel, or continue marketing The Great Kingdom. What would be best? Thank you.

Definitely work on the sequel(s) and, in the meantime, feel free to give #1 a nudge with some marketing here and there. How big 'nudge' exactly? Well, that's quite the question.

You have to work on both. Without some kind of public knowledge with the first book you will probably have little with the followup.
You will have to promote the first to get it moving in the market.

The sequel won't get written if you don't write it. I wouldn't even recommend putting it off for a little while, or it increases the chances you'll never get back to it. Market when you can find the time. Write when you can make the time.

I'm in the same boat & received the same advice. My view is to keep writing the series and keep some marketing going so that you can maybe get some reviews/feedback on Book #1 that might help you better edit/draft Book #2. Consider all costs with books one and two to be sunk costs that will hopefully begin to get covered after you publish book three. I had originally hoped to cover my costs with book one before deciding whether to keep going ... but have given up on that objective in favor of allowing for a longer time-frame to break-even. Good luck!

I understand your conundrum. I have just released my first book and am working on the sequel as well as some marketing. From what I have read about others becoming new authors/publishing new books, the first book probably won't get much notice but as you market and grow a following the sequel will be more popular. I would suggest marketing as best you can but get that sequel out within 6-8 months of releasing the first one.
All the best. Just don't give up!

Unless you're Lee Harper (Kill a mockingbird), you can't get noticed with one book. The successful authors tell us it takes 6-10 as a "backlist" and it also means promoting the ones out there. Yes, it's "rinse and repeat." and repeat, and repeat.
As those above said, don't get discouraged, and don't give up. Keep writing. Write every day.

Write the sequel. You can learn marketing along the way by setting aside time to work on it. As Frank said, it does take time. Very few people have become best sellers with their first book. Most take 5-10 years to get noticed. As you are writing, take some classes, read some books on writing, practice with short stories. Over that time, you will find you are improving and learning your craft so that when you do hit it big, you are at the top of your game. Even the one book authors wrote other things they never published, learning how to write.

Today, having a backlist of multiple books is almost a must, but still, you need to work on perfecting your craft. A lousily written backlist won't get you readers. I'll admit my first book wasn't the best out there. My second one was a lot better and the third better yet. That's because I'm taking classes, learning, and practicing with things I'll never publish. The key is improving as you are building that backlist so that when people pick up that book you just wrote, they want to read more. If you are a slow writer, don't worry about it. Plan on publishing one book a year and go with it. If you are young, that means you can publish 30-40 books in your lifetime.

Oh, if you are expecting to live off your writing, don't. I'm not saying to treat it as a hobby, but unless you become the next JK Rowling or Nora Roberts, getting steady sales is a goal.

David:
You see producers doing sequels as a means of tapping a proven market; in other words, your novel was a hit, tons of sales, so you want to follow up.
I've never done this, just because sequels have such a bad rep.
But at least for ebooks, there are marketing advantages to producing a long story as a series; you create sequels by dividing a long story into multiple books.
You can then market the first book as a freebie, and price the other books at "normal" levels. The advantage is that nothing moves like a free book.
It's reader friendly - the reader can read your first book for free, then decide whether they want to spend money on the others.
Hope this helps.
Roger

All such amazing advice. Same thing here. Write that sequel. I write urban fantasy, I have three out in my series and one book outside my series. My genre is one where readers love a series - and they don't want to wait for the next book. Sometimes single titles are hard to convince people to read. Get more books done, keep marketing as you can.

I got frustrated at first, too, but I have the opportunity to attend writers round tables and workshops each year with some successful authors. One of them told me his books didn't take off until he had ten out there. (Now he's a full time writer releasing four titles a year.)

Sequels are vital. I read mysteries and if I find an author I like I will devour evrything they throw at me (well, assuming the quality stays the same).
As an author I know about the power of sequels and the need to have more than one book up. It is hard to hold back, but I#ve got one edited sequel to the book contracted with a publisher (they've got first dibs on the sequels). Given that they are quite slow, I will need to self-pub that second book plus another one I'm about to write. I also have two novels out in Wattpad Paid Stories. Hybrid is the sign of the times!
But as the others say - one novel is almost not worth the marketing. It is, if one has more to come afterwards.

Roger wrote: "David:
You see producers doing sequels as a means of tapping a proven market; in other words, your novel was a hit, tons of sales, so you want to follow up.
I've never done this, just because sequ..."

Four a year?? Oh wow. Yes, I saw that as well, but for me that would mean writing formula. Or being incredibly prolific. Or writing in an authoring team. I read a really good guidebook on how to market (not sure if I'm allowed to post titles here? It's meant as a recommendation, but I don't want to break any rules...) they publish four to six but there's three authors involved. Can't see how, as a single author, I can write that much?

Maybe if
... you use really simple words
... and really big letters
... or you're an absolute machine.
I could see writing three or four first drafts in a year. And I don't mean junk, I mean novels destined for publication.
But four finished novels?? I couldn't do it, not in a year. Editing takes way too much time, way too much work.

Or maybe they have a stable team of editors and betas to the point they just write new books and do some bits of story-based editing while the team takes care of the rest.

As JA Konrath said, this is a marathon, not a sprint. The best way is to see your output as a year's work. How many words can you write a day? Even on bad days, 500 words is totally doable. That's 15000 a month. In a year, that's 180000 words. Two books a year is possible.

Well, not everyone's imagination is strong enough to bust out 500 words/day forever.

Bruno wrote: "As JA Konrath said, this is a marathon, not a sprint. The best way is to see your output as a year's work. How many words can you write a day? Even on bad days, 500 words is totally doable. That's 15000 a month. In a year, that's 180000 words. Two books a year is possible."

That's not two books. That's two rough drafts.

Dwayne wrote: "That's not two books. That's two rough drafts."

Hey! It was 76% of a rough draft in my case!

On a serious note, good point. Editing takes probably even more time than creating the first draft - and it's much harder to track or set daily goals.

B.A. wrote: "Write the sequel. You can learn marketing along the way by setting aside time to work on it. As Frank said, it does take time. Very few people have become best sellers with their first book. Most t..."

Do you take online classes? Are there one or two you can recommend?
I usually attend a weekly critique group, but other that I read books on writing and pick on tidbits on Youtube, but I would like to attend a writing class. I receive mailings from Nick Stephenson and Mr Dawson, but I've never taken them up on it.

My recommendation is Tim Grahl who does marketing for a living. He does have a step by step course to follow. Nick Stephenson and Derek Murphy (Creativindie.com) are good also. They both offer a lot of free things for you to use. I've done Mr. Dawson's class which was decent, but I keep going back to what Mr. Grahl taught as he is the one well known authors use to keep being well known.

Keep writing. Think of this as your second chance to get more customers. Also when you promote it, think about doing it as a series instead of stand alone books.

Lyvita wrote: "Keep writing. Think of this as your second chance to get more customers. Also when you promote it, think about doing it as a series instead of stand alone books."

Good point. The more one writes, the more solid the first draft is, the less time it takes to box it into shape.
And I agree, we're not talking sprint. It takes a lot of determination to get a foothold. And time. And good nerves. And - whatever else it takes. This year, I wrote one new novel and edited it and edited two others. That is perfectly doable, even with a fulltime job while waiting for getting onto the NYT bestseller list... ;-)

Keep writing whilst the muse is there I'd say. Especially if it makes you happy. I'm new to all this so will watch the discussion with interest.

Lina wrote: "Sequels are vital. I read mysteries and if I find an author I like I will devour evrything they throw at me (well, assuming the quality stays the same).
As an author I know about the power of sequ..."

Lina wrote: "Sequels are vital. I read mysteries and if I find an author I like I will devour evrything they throw at me (well, assuming the quality stays the same).
As an author I know about the power of sequ..."

Lina wrote: "Sequels are vital. I read mysteries and if I find an author I like I will devour evrything they throw at me (well, assuming the quality stays the same).
As an author I know about the power of sequ..."


Wow, this is all great advice. Lina may I ask how you're doing with the Wattpad paid stories? It was something I was considering too but I'm so new at this... As a new unknown, my books on Amazon are drowning in the sheer volume of work that is out there. If your work is a paid story on Wattpad, can it remain on Amazon as well or do they require it to be exclusive?

Hi there,
Unfortunately, If you're in Paid Stories, you cannot be published anywhere else at the time.
You can, of course, apply making sure you can withdraw from Amazon if you get accepted.
Paid Stories means there's marketing behind you, and Wattpad are simply great with looking after their authors. They really care. The amount you earn depends a bit on the genre you write. Romances are popular on Wattpad. Mysteries perhaps not so much.
The simple fact I was sought out and offered these opportunities means a lot to me. It's the type of encouragement we authors lack when cowering in the query trenches with the rejections coming in hard and fast. Okay, I also got one novel accepted. That helps as well.
It still is hard and motivation is needed I find!

I found this topic useful as im currently in the same boat. My first book isn't selling and while I am marketing it I haven't written the first book but based off the comments toward the person who made this thread I think I'll take and consider the suggestions here as well.