September seemed to go by pretty quickly. I managed to get a lot done on the writing front, both for myself and for other people. I wrote 162,122 words this month, which beats out the 141,491 in March, making September my most productive month this year. Here are a few of the highlights:
My Writing
The goal is to keep working on my stuff until I make enough money so I don’t have to work for other people. Then I can work on my stuff more. I got closer to that goal by putting out a couple books in September and getting close on two more.
Tarot eBooks
The month began around during the Labor Day holiday and I was frantically working on my latest Tarot eBook. I worked on it a lot over a family vacation in Washington and more when I got back. I was finally able to publish Ten Minute Tarot on Friday, September 13.
The reason I released it on that day was because I was having a promotion on my other Tarot book, Tarot: The Mystery and the Mystique. I got a lot of downloads of the promo book, but not too many of the new one. Still, the book sold 5 copies for September and managed to get onto the Amazon Tarot charts.
I think to reap the most benefit I’ll have to schedule a $0.99 promo for the book sometime in October and hopefully get enough sales to generate some reviews. After that it should do well.
The reason I released it on that day was because I was having a promotion on my other Tarot book, Tarot: The Mystery and the Mystique. I got a lot of downloads of the promo book, but not too many of the new one. Still, the book sold 5 copies for September and managed to get onto the Amazon Tarot charts.
I think to reap the most benefit I’ll have to schedule a $0.99 promo for the book sometime in October and hopefully get enough sales to generate some reviews. After that it should do well.
Montana eBooks
For months I’ve been working on the second volume of my Montana history eBook series. It took me awhile, but I finally managed to publish Priests and Prospectors on Tuesday, September 22. Since then it’s gotten only 4 sales, something I was rather disappointed about, but I didn’t promote it at all, so that could account for that.
I’m glad to be finished with it, and I’ve decided to take a break from writing about Montana for a few weeks. I’ll get back on it eventually and I’m already planning on putting the third volume out in February 2014.
I’m glad to be finished with it, and I’ve decided to take a break from writing about Montana for a few weeks. I’ll get back on it eventually and I’m already planning on putting the third volume out in February 2014.
Promoting
Toward the end of September I really got motivated to start working on a new book, a new list book to be accurate. I got the idea when working on a project for someone else, which you can read about below.
The idea was to have a ‘101’ type of book, but I settled on 70 after doing the research. What the book’s about is sites that will help authors promote their eBooks. I’ve been looking into that, and it seemed there were a lot of lists out there, but no real analysis of them.
I set to work and over just 2 days managed to type up 60 pages and 19,000 words. I now have 28 free promo sites, 28 paid promo sites, and 14 free and paid promo sites. I also give a lot of insight into promoting books, although judging from my sales this month, that might not be worth a lot. We’ll see when I release and promote it in the coming weeks.
The idea was to have a ‘101’ type of book, but I settled on 70 after doing the research. What the book’s about is sites that will help authors promote their eBooks. I’ve been looking into that, and it seemed there were a lot of lists out there, but no real analysis of them.
I set to work and over just 2 days managed to type up 60 pages and 19,000 words. I now have 28 free promo sites, 28 paid promo sites, and 14 free and paid promo sites. I also give a lot of insight into promoting books, although judging from my sales this month, that might not be worth a lot. We’ll see when I release and promote it in the coming weeks.
Kindle Worlds
I’ve always been interested in Amazon’s short work options, such as Kindle Singles, Kindle Serials, and now Kindle Worlds.
What Kindle Worlds is about is fan fiction. They do well on comic book stuff, vampire TV shows, and Gossip Girl. In August they announced that Kurt Vonnegut was now going to be a part of the program, so I began working on an old story based off of The Sirens of Titan.
My story follows Noel Constant as he figures out his winning stock market formula that will make him rich, and the action of the original novel possible. The working title for the book is “Room 223.” You need to have 10,000 words to qualify for decent royalty options for this program, and so far I’ve got 3,000. I’d probably be done with it now if I didn’t get caught up in the marketing book.
What Kindle Worlds is about is fan fiction. They do well on comic book stuff, vampire TV shows, and Gossip Girl. In August they announced that Kurt Vonnegut was now going to be a part of the program, so I began working on an old story based off of The Sirens of Titan.
My story follows Noel Constant as he figures out his winning stock market formula that will make him rich, and the action of the original novel possible. The working title for the book is “Room 223.” You need to have 10,000 words to qualify for decent royalty options for this program, and so far I’ve got 3,000. I’d probably be done with it now if I didn’t get caught up in the marketing book.
Fiction
"John Colter Exploring Yellowstone" by Gerry Metz I think I’ve mentioned on this site how I’m getting a little burned out putting out non-fiction books all the time now. I haven’t written a novel in some time, and a comment made on this site the other day made me think about that.
Several months ago I talked about a new John Colter novel, but I never got too far into it. Someone mentioned they’d be having a new John Colter novel come out sometime next July, so I figured I better get into gear.
And anyone who does any research on Amazon will tell you that fiction sells a lot better than non-fiction. I’ve got lots of outlines, starters, and rough drafts that can be turned into some quality books. Hopefully October will see some headway in that direction.
Several months ago I talked about a new John Colter novel, but I never got too far into it. Someone mentioned they’d be having a new John Colter novel come out sometime next July, so I figured I better get into gear.
And anyone who does any research on Amazon will tell you that fiction sells a lot better than non-fiction. I’ve got lots of outlines, starters, and rough drafts that can be turned into some quality books. Hopefully October will see some headway in that direction.
Paid Writing
Yes, I write for money. It’s a little dirty, I know, but it pays the bills. In fact, this was my most profitable month this year.
This month I had several interesting jobs, and you can read a few of them in the latest installment of Adventures in SEO Writing. Other than that, here were a few of the latest highlights:
Well, that was September. I hope October is just as fruitful. You can find other monthly reports here, and thanks for reading!
This month I had several interesting jobs, and you can read a few of them in the latest installment of Adventures in SEO Writing. Other than that, here were a few of the latest highlights:
- Links: Probably one of the better jobs I’ve had this past month involved an eBook about link building. You see, people always want to get traffic to their site, and building links from other sites is a great way to do that. But you want other sites to link to you, and that can be tricky. People have to make great content, and then hope, or ask, for a link. The book we did got up to 115 backlink strategies, and gave me the idea for my own marketing book. Pretty good job!
- TVs: Sometimes I get work from other SEO companies. Lots of times these guys will get a big contract in from a company. They’ll need to produce a bunch of articles, but the problem is, these are often boring to write. This month I worked on several for a company about ways to hide your enormous flat screen TV. Yeah, everyone’s got to get the hugest TV, but then they’ve got to hide the damn thing! I’m glad sarcasm doesn’t show up well in writing.
- Editing: I always get really fast editing and proofreading jobs. These literally take me minutes, and I’ll get a few bucks for them. Most of the time people are in other countries, and the errors are invariably the same. Just small stuff with grammar that would be a dead giveaway for most native speakers, but for me is child’s play.
Well, that was September. I hope October is just as fruitful. You can find other monthly reports here, and thanks for reading!
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