Blog - Career Indie Author

Instagram Tips for Writers and Authors

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by Bill Peschel • Public Persona, Social Media

(Bill here: Teresa wrote up for an event the Instagram tips for writers and authors. She offered it to members of a writers’ organization, and the response was so positive we decided to post it so anyone can learn our way to do it. We hope you find it useful.)

I’m self-taught on Instagram but here’s what I’ve learned.

Your account name needs to be your author name. If someone’s using your name, add author or writer, before or after. Don’t use something cute or a book title. You are a business. Make it easy for people to find you. You should use the same name for ALL your social media. Thus, we use Peschel Press for everything.
It’s easy to find us on Instagram and everywhere else.

Post regularly. Once a day, twice a week, or once a week but not less than that. People forget who you are and stop following you. If you use brand colors, use them in your posts.

Make your posts in advance. I use Canva and make a bunch at a time. There’s nothing spontaneous about our Instagram account. We do Instagram on our desktops, using Meta to schedule them. I don’t use a smartphone. Be aware that the desktop Instagram is crippled compared to the smartphone version.

Use your posts to showcase what you do or what you’re about. Give people a reason to follow you. In our case, it’s books (ours and book-love for other writers), author quotes, our events, our adventures, holidays, and added kitty and gardening pix. We advertise our books but only one book per week. That’s all. People hate “buy my book! Buy my book! Buy my book!” so don’t do that. I also don’t repost other people’s memes.

Our Posting Schedule

Our Instagram schedule is:

Sunday: our book advert and an adventure.
Monday through Friday: daily author quote.
Saturday: Book love for someone else.

I add in kitty, gardening, and holiday pix, upcoming events, podcasts and interviews (when we’ve got one) and anything else.

If we’re short of time or I don’t have something, I don’t worry about running an extra post.

We also make four regular posts timed to the day of the month. These are repeated every month. The 10th: Newsletter advert. The 20th: Mid-Atlantic Book festivals. The 30th: Mid-Atlantic Bookshops. End of the month: a list of next month’s events.

If you do events, you need three kinds of posts: one at the end of the month listing next month’s events with dates and locations. One post dedicated to each upcoming event, posted a few days before the event to advertise your presence. Post more often if you like but once is critical. An after-event post if you were able to take some pix, especially if you can showcase other artists or writers who were also there. Help your fans find you at public events!

Why Let People Know Where You’ll Appear?

For God’s sake, do not skip posting about upcoming events! Even if you don’t post very much on any other subject, make sure people know where you will be.

The other reason you must post about events is more venues are examining how you handle publicity when they select applicants. If a book festival has limited slots, why should they choose the applicant who won’t advertise them over the person who does? Your inability or refusal to advertise your events might harm you.

Use Your #Hashtags

Hashtag! Good hashtags are critical. Instagram is very searchable and hashtags help people find you. You’ve got 30 hashtag slots. Try to use most of them. Always include your name (#peschelpress), the name of the event, or details about what you’re posting about or doing. For example, for our author quotes, I use the author’s name, name plus quote, name plus quotes, writer quotes, author quotes, and so on. “#quote” and “#quotes” are different! Kitty pix get “#Luluthecat”, “#tortoiseshellcat”, “#tortoiseshellsofinstagram”, and so forth. Generic hashtags disappear into the great tsunami of Instagram. More specific hashtags don’t have as much of a reach but they’ve also got less competition.

If you follow us on Instagram (look for peschel_press and thank you!), look at my hashtags and you’ll see what I mean. Then look at other people’s posts for comparison and good ideas. Make a file listing all your typical hashtags so you can cut and paste. Keep an eye on your spelling; #quuote and #quote are not the same hashtag.

I’m not sure how to “tag” but I do use mentions. This is the @ symbol with someone’s Insta-handle. When I post an after-event report or an adventure or book-love, I always add the pertinent mentions so that venue or author knows I posted about them. As with #, you get thirty slots for @.

Instagram won’t post more than 30 hashtags, 30 mentions, and a grand total of 2,200 characters. I use [CONTROL] F to keep track of #s and @s. If I think I might run over 2,200 characters total, I write my post in Word, count the characters, and then cut and paste to Instagram. Don’t expect Instagram to tell you you’ve run over their limits. You find out when your carefully crafted comment plus hashtags and mentions doesn’t appear.

If you forgot to write a caption, hashtag, or mention, you can do it after the post has appeared by commenting. Write what you have to say (keep it short!), hashtag, press enter, and voila, your post has the hashtags you forgot to post or IG refused because you had too many characters.

Doubling Your Footprint

Because we use Meta, Facebook’s inhouse program that combines Instagram and Facebook, we’re able to make our Instagram posts do double-duty by also appearing on Facebook. The audiences are different. We use an after-market plug-in to make our Instagram posts appear on the right side of our websites. If someone only sees our website, they still see our Instagram posts.

Put your Instagram handle and links (along with Facebook and the rest of it) at the top of your website so people can find you. Similarly, make sure all your social media accounts are listed on your swag, bookmarks, business cards, and whatever else you hand out.

If someone goes to the trouble of commenting or asking a question, respond! It’s not hard to respond to a legitimate comment. A [heart] is quick and easy. That says you saw that person and acknowledged they exist. If someone asks a question, answer it! If someone harasses you, block them. Similarly, if someone direct messages you, respond as appropriate. Don’t ignore them, particularly if it’s someone you know. What you just said was “I don’t care about you.” That may not be the message you mean but that’s the message you send.

Stay Out of Jail

Instagram Jail is real. If you follow too many people at once, you’ll be cut off for a day or two. Too many likes, hearts, comments in too short a period of time, or comments Instagram doesn’t like and you’re in jail. They claim they’re trying to keep out trolls and spammers. It passes.

I’ve been in jail a few times. Based on my limited experience, most prolific commenters and engaged users do. Jail doesn’t last long; a few hours (you may not notice) to a few days which you will notice.

Jail varies; sometimes you can’t post, comment, or [heart] but you can still scroll. Other times, if Instagram deems your offense more serious, you can’t scroll at all. You see nothing.

Your only recourse is to wait it out. Interestingly, despite spending 36 hours in jail, my regularly scheduled posts still appeared. Other people didn’t know I was in jail.

You can’t follow more than 7,500 people. If you do, that’s another jailing offense and you must purge your follows to below 7,500 before you’re allowed posting privileges again. If you must purge how many people you follow, you have to do it one account at a time. Start with accounts that haven’t posted in a year. There is no easy way to purge.

You are allowed unlimited followers so don’t worry if those numbers stack up. Don’t buy followers. I don’t recommend follow trains either, as many of the people who do them aren’t interested in you. They’re only interested in high numbers. Good posts and good hashtags will get you followers who want to know what you do. Expect it to take a very long time to break 1,000 followers unless you suddenly become famous.

how much money can i make writing novels santa

Ask the CIA: How much can I earn writing novels?

by Bill Peschel • Ask the Career Indie Author

I’m still drafting my first novel, but I see all these inspiring posts online where people are earning $5,000 a month, on up to $50,000 a month. How can they do that? Do they do a lot of advertising? If so, how much do they keep? And what about expenses for editors, cover artists, and formatting?

The answer depends on many variables. A cover could range from free to $500 and up. Editing costs depend on whether you want developmental, copy editing, or both. Formatting a book could be free if you DIY, or more.

Then there’s advertising, and that depends on how good you are at it and if you’re using BookBub ads, Amazon, or Facebook. I’ve seen percentages of that from zero to 35% for successful authors.

There’s also this to consider: a great many authors pump out books, as fast as once a month. They’ve figured out the genre they’re working in, how many words to write, and are highly organized. Think of them as the Campbell Soups of the business. For their income, they’re relying on attracting a whale reader to book #1, and hoping they’ll go on to #2, #3, #4, etc. Their books are in Kindle Unlimited, and they can afford to spend more money on popular keywords, hoping to make it up in page reads.

Mark Dawson is a good example of this strategy with his 20-book-plus John Milton series (except for the writing-a-book-a-month bit; he takes more time). It also helps his bottom line that he also writes books of a high enough quality to attract a publisher for his print books, and runs the Self Publishing Formula podcast and teaching business (both highly recommended).

There are many profitable writers who can duplicate his success. Their books are good enough to attract readers. Some of them may become fans. Many, however, will not. They’ll go on to other books in the genre and they may or may not return.
Then there are the ones whose soup isn’t of Campbell’s quality. They’re supermarket house brands. We’ve seen plenty of posts from them as well.

So to answer how much money can I make writing novels, the answer depends on how well you do will depend on the quality of your storytelling, your marketing and promotional strategies, your alliances, and your luck.

Morning Diary April 30, 2022

by Bill Peschel • Business Diary

My morning diary, April 30, 2022: More chores, little actual writing. I’m still battling the con crud picked up at Malice Domestic, but I feel like I’ve turned the corner and recovering.

* Continue processing clips from “Dead Man’s Folly” (2013).

* Write and post “Cheeseplate with Agatha” and post to Agatha Christie FB fan site and SM

* Finish revised “Complete, Annotated Whose Body?” Upload print version to Amazon, changing status to public domain

* React to Amazon’s responses to price changes to some books.

* Post more media to SM

* Continue work on publishing schedule

* Take Teresa to public notary to sign pension papers

* Work on back yard patio

* Play with tomato plants

Commentary: All of this is self-explanatory except the near-constant battle to keep Amazon from delisting the “Complete, Annotated” books. Despite accepting a flood of cheap knock-offs, they still insist on blocking some of my books. Part of this is my fault; I believed that adding 30,000 words of copyrighted material makes them a copyrighted book. They disagree.

My problem is that yesterday I updated the price on “The Cases of Blue Ploermell” without changing the status (I forgot). I fear it’ll go through their automated system and get flagged. Two truly copyrighted books were passed quickly, but not this, nor “The Casebook of Twain and Holmes” (could the words “Sherlock Holmes” trigger the system?). We’ll see.

Gilbert Gottfried’s Death Can Teach You About Keeping in Touch with Readers

by Bill Peschel • marketing, mini-lessons

There’s a maxim from Baptist preacher Charles H. Spurgeon that states, “Begin as you mean to go on.”

I’ve also heard this expressed as, “Dress for your next job.”

For indie authors, I think this can mean, “Act as if you already succeeded.”

Which is true. If you’re self-publishing your work, you have succeeded. Now you need to make the incremental improvements that make it noticeable to others.

Let me give you an example. After the flap with Amazon over “The Complete, Annotated Murder of Roger Ackroyd,” I learned from their public domain page that they want your book description to be formatted in a way that makes it easy for one of their employees to see that your work is unique enough to stay on the site.

I didn’t pay attention to that, and I think that’s why Amazon banned “Ackroyd” and the print version of “The Complete, Annotated Murder on the Links”. They could have looked inside the book and seen all the work I put into it.

Or, I could have told them up front.

I’m trying to make amends. I rewrote the book description to “Links” and submitted it for the ebook version (which Amazon still sells; see how inconsistent they apply their policy?).

Risky business

It’s a risk. Their algorithm could flag the book. They could ban it. Then, I’ll send them another email, pointing out that I followed their policy (which I didn’t do last time, because I didn’t), and resubmit a photo of the copyright certificate from the U.S. Copyright Office proving that “The Complete, Annotated Murder on the Links” is copyrighted.

And whatever employee who gets this appeal could very well ban it. They could even, if they’re in a bad mood, take down the account, like last time (and reversed it a few hours later).

So my choices are not optimal no matter what I do: fix the problem and risk being banned, or hide and risk being banned.

Which would make me feel bad, because I didn’t nothing to stop it. Whereas, by being proactive, by “begin as I mean to go on,” I can at least say, “I tried. I didn’t fail. Amazon KDP failed to follow their own stated policy.”

The result will be the same, but how I feel about it won’t.

What does this have to do with ‘keeping in touch with readers’?

Right. Moving from “making incremental improvements” to “keep in touch with readers.”

Let’s talk about Gilbert Gottfried, who died unexpectedly last week.

This was a gut punch, because he didn’t tell anyone he had been sick for apparently quite some time. Muscular dystrophy is a degenerative disease, which is one reason — it turns out — why he had been staying at home and doing his podcast and not touring comedy clubs and making TV appearances.

I loved his “Amazing, Colossal” podcast, and he will be sorely missed by his fans. I wish I could tell his family and his podcast co-host Frank Santopadre how much I’ll miss Gilbert.

When I visited the podcast’s website, I see they had anticipated this response.

“Thank you. You loved Gilbert. We did too. We need to take time off, mourn, and figure out what we’re going to do next.”

This is how to stay in touch with your fans.

But he’s famous! I’m not

Remember, “begin as you mean to go on”?

First, you don’t know if you have fans. Even if you have one, and it’s your mother, you should keep her up to date about your plans.

I can think of many authors who don’t. There’s the best-selling urban fantasy author who started a second series with a new character and world. Teresa loved those books so much she tracked when they were published and bought them. But the author never said when the next one would come out, and didn’t tell her fans that she wasn’t writing any more of them.

Then there’s the indie author whose two superhero novels did fantastic business. He ended the second one on a major cliffhanger. But for some reason, he didn’t publish the third. He dropped (I think) one blogposts telling fans it would be delayed.

He published the third book recently, after five years of silence. I learned about it only by visiting his Amazon page on an impulse.

Even though Teresa loved the first two books, she hasn’t bought the third. Mostly because of the upheavals in our lives recently, but also the desire to know what happened next has faded.

Thus the lesson: Stay in touch with your fans. I don’t mean confess everything that’s going on in your life (unless you’re one of those confessional authors).

Just a note, if only to say, “Hang on! My next story’s coming!”

Oh, and tell them to sign up to your mailing list so they can buy it.

Ask the CIA: How Do I Research Historical Fiction?

by Bill Peschel • Ask the Career Indie Author, Research, Writing Advice

I’m thinking about writing a story set in the past, but I don’t know how to research historical fiction. How much research I need to do?. Do I need a fact-checker? That could be so intimidating.

I’ve written stories set in the Victorian age featuring Sherlock Holmes and Mark Twain, and the answer to “how much research do I need to do” is “until you feel comfortable writing the story.”

stack of books research historical fiction — stack of Old books on black surface

The first step involves general reading about the time period. Read several books on the subject. This will let you cross-check the major facts and pick up ideas for your story.

Next, find books that focus on the day-to-day details of people’s lives. Think locally. If your story is set in an area with newspapers and magazines, check them out on Google Books. You can find archives on New York Magazine, Life, and more.

If you’re looking for newspaper archives, I recommend the Library of Congress, the now hidden Google newspapers site, and the British Newspaper Archive. I’ve used all of them.

You need to get a general feeling for the times, manners, relationships, but wait until you’re getting the bare bones of the story down to do the specific research in those areas. That way, you don’t fall into the procrastination trap.
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When you’ve read enough, start writing. Don’t worry about getting all the details right. You might have to insert in square brackets notes about what you need to fill in.

When the draft is finished, go back and research whatever you need to flesh it out. Remember that you can’t rewrite a blank page.

Research Historical Fiction Workflow

The process becomes a cycle:

1. General reading

2. Write the story

3. Research what you need to fill in the blanks

4. Run through the cycle again until satisfied

5. Publish

Self-Publishing Mini-Lesson #2: Dealing With Writer Stress

by Bill Peschel • health, mini-lessons

Everyone undergoes periods of stress, but when you’re dealing with writer stress while running your own business, it can be more powerful and come from unexpected directions.

Recently, we’ve been dealing with the health of my wife’s father. Anyone with aging relatives will recognize the slow decline followed by sudden shocks, leading to the end, the funeral, the paperwork to go through and, after a long time, a sense of reaching an equilibrium.

On top of that, after I published “The Complete, Annotated Murder of Roger Ackroyd,” Amazon blocked it, claiming that my book didn’t qualify. I pointed out the 30,000 words of footnotes and essays, and that they had published my six previous books.

They rejected it. Then they blocked the print version of “The Complete, Annotated Murder on the Links.” I appealed, pointing out that not only did it have the same amount of footnotes and material, but it had been copyrighted by the United States government. I sent them a photo of the copyright certificate.

They rejected that.

Then It Got Worse

Then they banned me from KDP and said they’ll take down all the books and keep all the royalties.

That was a bad day to get out of bed.

Worse, I had to tell my wife that our business was kaput.

Now, to give Amazon some credit, they sent an email two hours later (which I would have seen if Google Gmail hadn’t seen fit to send that one to my Promotional list. Thanks, guys! The guy who killed my account apologized, and said the account was restored (which it was).

But I still can’t publish “The Complete, Annotated Murder of Roger Ackroyd” — the capstone to the whole series of Agatha Christie annotations on Amazon. Plus, I can’t sell the print version of “The Complete, Annotated Murder on the Links.”

Despite the fact that Amazon is still selling the Kindle version of “Links” — not to mention all of the other books in the Complete, Annotated series. Which shows that depending on who you get there, they may or may not understand Amazon’s policies.

So, what do you do when you’re dealing with writer stress? I have seven suggestions, many of which I used during this crisis:

Dealing With Writer Stress

1. Scenario it out

Come to grips with the problem. Before you act, mindmap the possibilities. List the options without judging whether or not you think it works. The idea is to get all the possibilities on the table before you so an inspired answer can come.

2. Will you care about this a year from now?

Another way to gain perspective about your problem is to ask the above question. Chances are, you might not even remember it.

3. Exercise it out

It doesn’t solve your problem, but it’ll make you feel better. Focusing on your body and the way it moves can focus your mind on a problem that won’t leave you enervated.

4. Walk it out

Another form of exercise, but this has the added benefit of getting you in the sun (valuable Vitamin D), enjoying the sights, and giving you space to think, dream, and plan for the future.

5. Start a new project

If you don’t have anything to work on, start something new. It can be a short story, outlining a novel, or a job that needs to be done around the house.

6. Learn to meditate

Another way to ease stress is to set a timer, sit quietly, focus on your breathing, and let time pass.

7. Just grind it out

If you can’t figure out a solution just yet, do anything. Don’t think about it, if it’s productive, do it anyway. At the end of the day, you’ll be glad you’ve accomplished something. This is also the difference between a hobbyist and a professional.

Can I make money self-publishing books?

by Bill Peschel • Ask the Career Indie Author, business, mini-lessons

I’m working on my first book and want to know if I can make money self-publishing it. I’ve seen people claim they’ve earned tens and even hundreds of thousands of dollars with their books, and at the same time stories about how few people make even a thousand dollars at it. And can you make money self-publishing your books after you pay all the expenses?

This question pops up frequently online, and the true answer is “it depends,” and we’ll get into that later in the post.

First, if someone says they know a way for you to earn a lot of money self-publishing books, beware. They’re selling you something.

Speaking of which, did you know about my book, “Career Indie Author,” that can help you get off on the right foot for your author journey? (Yes, I see the contradiction. But at least I don’t promise you’ll get rich.)

One Path to Self-Publishing Success

Authors getting rich self-publishing books tend to follow the same path (it’s possible to not do this, but it’s harder):

* They’re writing and releasing multiple books in a series. Some write the first three or four books and use the “rapid release” technique. They publish every month, and if the initial sales are good, Amazon will put this book in front of more customers, generating more sales.

* These books are in one genre and embrace its tropes.

* The author is active online. Typically, they’ll have a newsletter which they build up using advertising and a reader magnet. They may also be a member of a Facebook group or two open to that genre’s fans.

* The author also advertises through Facebook and/or Amazon (I’ve seen authors succeed with either platform). He doesn’t it well enough to have a positive ROI (return on investment). Spend 50 cents and earn a dollar, that’s a 50 percent ROI, which is good. Spend a dollar and earn a dollar, that’s 100 percent ROI, which is bad.

* Some authors have an advantage. They have deep ties in their community, so they can hold a launch party. Their friends can mention the book on their social media. They can get news coverage.

* Finally, the novels are great reads.

As for expenses, it can vary from nothing to the sky’s the limit. One figure I’ve seen is about $2,000. This covers the cost of the cover ($400), professional editing ($1,500), and ebook formatting ($100). Print formatting could cost $300.

These are estimates only, and the quality of the work varies widely as well. As the boss, you’re responsible for hiring good workers and rebounding after the bad ones take your money and give you a substandard product. But that’s a another post.

Campbell Soup of Authoring

So a great many authors pump out books as fast as once a month. They’ve figured out the genre they’re working in, how many words to write, and are highly organized. Think of them as the Campbell Soups of the business. For their income, they’re relying on attracting a whale reader to book #1, and hoping they’ll go on to #2, #3, #4, etc. Their books are in Kindle Unlimited, and they can afford to spend more money on popular keywords, hoping to make it up in page reads.
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Mark Dawson is a good example of this strategy with his John Milton series (except for writing a book a month; he takes more time). He also writes books so good a publisher cut a deal with him to distribute his novels to bookstores.
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There are many writers who follow the same path with varying results. Their books are good enough to attract readers. Some of them may become fans. Many readers will not.

How well you do will depend on the quality of your storytelling, your marketing and promotional strategies, your alliances, and your luck.

Self-Publishing Workflows: Business Mini-Lesson #2

by Bill Peschel • business, mini-lessons

The major difference between a self-publishing author and a traditional author is the amount of work that has to be done on the business side. Self-publishing workflows can help.

The traditional author doesn’t have to worry about filing for copyright, advertising campaigns, discount promotions, editing your book and getting a cover for it. That’s the publisher’s job.

The self-publishing author, however, does all those jobs, plus more. The more part varies from author to author, depending on their personal circumstances, their inclinations, and their ideas for promoting their books. It could mean visiting schools to talk about writing, offering classes online, attending cat shows to sell their cat-themed books, offering editorial and consulting services, or visiting bookstores and secretly inserting their books on the shelves (don’t do this, by the way).

Handling the business side of your self-publishing empire demands developing a new set of skills to perform those tasks efficiently. Even if you have an obliging spouse, child, or personal assistant, it’s still important to develop procedures to perform these tasks. These are jobs that will be done regularly, so it’s important to do them consistently, correctly, and leave behind enough data to judge the success of that task and figure out how to do it more efficiently next time.

This is best accomplished using workflows.

What are self-publishing workflows?

In the business world, there are processes and workflows. Processes or procedures defines a particular task that you want to accomplish. Workflows are the steps that you take to perform that task. It’s that simple.

So a process can be mail the monthly newsletter. The workflow for that process can be:

1. Write the newsletter in Word. List art you need between “***”.
2. Create the art, no larger than 700 pixels and 96 dots per inch.
3. Open MailerLite.
4. Use the saved template to create the newsletter.
5. Test-send the newsletter to your publishing partner for comments.
6. If approved, schedule the newsletter to run at 9 a.m. EST the next day.
7. Save newsletter in Business / Newsletter / 2021 folder.
8. Go to website, schedule publishing newsletter for next month.
9. Revise page “Newsletter Archive” with URL for next month’s newsletter. Scheduling updating for same time as newsletter post next month.
Now, I’m not saying that you should do it this way, but it is the way we do it at Peschel Press in a truncated form.

That’s It?

If this is so simple, you may ask, why do it at all? Why take the trouble to laboriously type it out?

It is a simple process, but your business is made up of many simple processes. Rather than keep all of them in your head, write them down and you won’t have to try to remember the details of this process. If you know you won’t have to remember the details of the process, your brain will be able to focus on remembering the things that are really important to you, such as that important plot twist you want to introduce in the next chapter. Or the names of your children. Whatever is important to you.

Does every process need a self-publishing workflow?

No. Only the ones that you feel need a workflow.

I don’t use one for publishing books online. The forms are easy to find and fill out.

I do use a metadata form for each book. This form, one for each book, is my central storehouse of information about that books life online. It contains all the metadata needed to fill out the forms: title, subtitle, series name, series number, book description, keywords, price, cost of book, etc. It also keeps track of where and when we publish that book, and any problems we encountered.

As you work on your business from day-to-day, you’ll see when you need to work up a workflow and when not to. Generally, any process that you use regularly will end up needing a self-publishing workflow.

(Ad alert: In our book Career Indie Author, we provide a metadata form that you can modify and use.)

Self-Publishing Mini-Lesson #1: The Business Mindset

by Bill Peschel • business, mini-lessons

Welcome to the new series of mini-lessons about the business of self-publishing. The first one is on the business mindset, because that is the foundation of everything which will follow.

These mini-lessons consist of ideas and concepts which have occurred to me in the 12 years that I have been writing, selling, and publishing books. I’ll also be posting mini-lessons in writing fiction and nonfiction, but I want to focus here on everything else apart from the creation of works.

Many of us spend our lives working for somebody else, but when you start your writing journey – if you have an ambition to make money at this – you need to change your way of thinking.

No matter what emotional attachment you may have to your story, whether it’s a memoir or an essay or a full-length book, at the end you holding your hand a product that must be packaged and sold.

If you intend to make money at this, especially if you’re going to deduct your business expenses on your tax return, you have to start thinking like a business owner and less like an artist.

Even if you intend to turn over the business decisions to a partner, a spouse, or a publisher, keep an eye on what they’re doing. There are way too many object lessons of artists who have signed away their rights and their money to unscrupulous people. Just ask Chuck Palahniuk.

Elements of the business mindset

Here’s what I mean the business mindset:

1. Keep track of your work. File your stories where you can find them. File away any contracts you signed where you can find them. Make backups of your work, preferably multiple backups on paper or CD.

2. Keep track of your expenses. Open a separate business checking account. Get a credit card that you use only for business expenses. Record your expenses, whether on paper or on Excel.

3. Keep track of your daily tasks. You need to prove to the IRS you are operating a business. If they’re not convinced, they’ll classify what you’re doing as a hobby and disallow your business expenses, and you’ll be left with a whopping tax bill to pay.

4. Adopt a cold unemotional eye. No matter how much you love your book cover, if it doesn’t catch your readers’ attention, if it’s not genre-appropriate, if it’s not what readers in that genre are seeing RIGHT NOW, consider replacing it. No matter how much you love your prose, if readers disagree, consider ways of improving your writing.

Why we resist change

Recognize that people default to doubling down on their decisions and beliefs. We resist reconsidering them in light of new information. When it comes to your favorite sports team, author, or movies, this is not necessarily harmful.

Believing that you’re writing career is on the right course despite low sales and negative reviews, however, will hurt you financially and emotionally.

(At the same time, don’t let one person’s opinion sway you. Or even everyone’s. History is full of examples. Did you know “Casablanca” was a B-movie potboiler that no one thought would work? Or that “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” was a box office bomb? Or that J.K. Rowling’s first Harry Potter was rejected by multiple publishers, and it was the publisher’s daughter who recommended acquiring it?)

It boils down to that line from “The Godfather”: “It’s not personal. It’s strictly business.” When bad things happen to you, you need to bounce back emotionally. Adopting the business mindset lets you distance yourself from other people’s decisions and opinions will help safeguard your ego and give you the mental energy to push on.

We’ll go into bouncing back from adversity in a future mini-lesson. But when you’re not neck deep in your next story, look at your business like a boss, not an employee.

should i finish my novel author drinking heavily

Ask the CIA: Should I Finish Writing My Novel?

by Bill Peschel • Ask the Career Indie Author

I’m at the beginning of my writer’s journey, but I’ve run into a problem with motivation. Not my characters’ but my own: Should I finish writing my novel I’ve lost passion for?

I have one published novel and a couple of stories and two serials, and they are doing well. But I’m bogged down in the middle of my second novel — part of a three-book series — and I’m not in love with it. As a result, my writing has slowed down considerably, and it’s hard to get started on the day’s work.

My goal is to be making a consistent four figures a month within a few years, so my question boils down to this: Should I finish writing my novel by pushing through, or start something new? There are advantages to both, so far as I can tell.

RELUCTANT WRITER

I consulted my magic 8-ball containing the trapped spirit of Charles Dickens, and he says, “How much are you making?”

There’s no one right answer, because much of it depends on what’s going on in your head. Instead, here are a couple of observations to consider:

1. You are halfway through your three-book series. Deep enough in that the novelty of the new project has worn off, and far enough from the end so you’re not encouraged to go on. A horse returning to the home stable will pick up speed when it is in sight. The same may be happening to you.

2. Do you have a habit of abandoning projects? If so, this could be your self-defense mechanism kicking in. It’s intentions are good, to protect you from criticism and failure, but it is misguided. In fact, it is working against you. If you keep giving up on finishing, you’re learning not to finish projects.

3. By offering the first book in a series, you’ve made a promise to those readers that you’ll finish it. Literature is filled with abandoned series, leaving behind disappointed readers (*cough* G.R.R. Martin *cough*).

4. I wonder: Do you have an outline for the series or are you writing into the dark? Phrases like “bogged down” signals a flabby middle. Either the story needs tightening, or you need to rethink it.

5. Could you turn the trilogy into a duology? This gets you out of the project earlier, and at the same time leave behind a completed story?

The answers depend on how you planned this project, your work habits, and personal stuff you may be reluctant to reveal in public.

If you need bucking up, consider Agatha Christie, who ran into this trouble early in her career. She had separated from her husband, went missing for 11 days, became a national media sensation, and had a deadline to finish a book she cared nothing about (“The Mystery of the Blue Train”).

As she wrote in her autobiography:

“I was driven desperately on by the desire, indeed the necessity, to write another book and make some money. That was the moment when I changed from an amateur to a professional. I assumed the burden of a profession, which is to write even when you don’t want to, don’t much like what you are writing, and aren’t writing particularly well. I have always hated ‘The Mystery of the Blue Train,’ but I got it written, and sent off to the publishers.”

It could be, in the end, you should try and finish the book. If you want to make money at this, you can’t afford to quit just because you’re going through a rough patch. Even if you push through and discover you have a bad book on your hands, you can always revise it (you can’t edit a blank page), or abandon it, but at least you’ll do it with a finished book, not the equivalent of a junked car on cinder blocks.

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