I'm writing, publishing, and launching a novel in 7 days.

[themental]

Corona has kicked the arse out of my word counts.

Between homeschooling children, looking after shielded relatives and just general creative drain, my publishing schedule has fallen to pieces.

So, I have a pre-order deadline and a file that needs to be uploaded on Monday at 11.59pm. 5 days to write, 10k a day, two days for editing and formatting and then publish.

The fastest I've ever managed a book is two weeks. So this will be interesting.

Cross your fingers for me please

So if you are interested in more on the MVP thing, I think this author explains it pretty well in this video (I watched it not long after I got into writing).

I'm not really sure either when it comes to readership. I have two (about to be three) pen names, so readers probably wouldn't even know I was publishing so frequently unless I told them.

As for polishing a stone into a diamond... I don't actually know what this process involves either. 😂 I'm not really sure why it takes some people 2 years to write a book, unless they are only spending 15 minutes every third day actually writing? My guess is they spend a lot of time thinking and a lot of time re-writing? So I suppose that is the "polishing a stone into a diamond" part?

Which has never really made sense to me. I guess I never understood why anybody would do that if they wanted to get better at writing and telling stories? For example... if I wanted to be a painter I would paint a lot, and hopefully with practice I'd get better. I wouldn't spend lots of time thinking about the plant pot I'm painting, or repaint the same plant pot six times? I'd just paint lots of different things in lots of different ways, and practice as much as possible.

And that way seems to have worked okay for me so far.

Good for you, OP. For me, too much time spent thinking and rewriting.

I recall reading about a study where two sets of students on a creative degree course (possibly ceramics) were randomly allocated to two groups. One was told to make the best piece they could. One was told to make a new piece every day. By the end of the project, the routine pieces made by the 'piece a day' course was demonstrably better on average than the best piece made by the other group.

I usually say good luck but I doubt you need it.

But if we take the ceramics analogy into novel-writing, that’s a lot of readers reading poor prentice work on the way along, even if the final work by the daily ceramicists tops that of those who work for longer on their ‘best’ piece.

But I suppose the MVP argument is that people are still prepared to pay money for those pots/novels.

@Zilla1 thank you! And that is a good analogy.

@Limpetlike... I guess in years gone by that might have been the case where you'd have lots of readers reading it because they'd bought and paid for it. But the way the market works in my genre, 85% of my income comes from KU, where authors get paid for the pages people actually read.

So if people weren't reading it (i.e, slogging through the first chapter and thinking this was a poor practice piece, and giving up) I wouldn't get paid. So essentially they are voting with their feet, and I like that.

I think this comes down to the fact that a lot of readers aren't necessarily looking for the best pot. They just want a nice pot, that they can use right now and then enjoy another nice pot next month, when the new designs are available.

These "nice pot" readers are voracious and they just want to consume gripping stories quickly, then move onto the next. They don't want to be challenged or drool over the perfect prose etc. I think we are comparing different markets, maybe

It’s essentially what Dickens was doing back in his day, and then the prolific pulp writers after him.

OP if you don’t mind me asking, what do you charge for your books?

If a stone actually sells, I already have one. And I’ve lost my job so have time to put into promotion.

How exciting! Happy writing op

But Dickens only wrote 14 novels, @vbhafjlb, and many are masterpieces, as well as having been huge popular successes.

Glad to hear you're having a good experience of KU, OP. I've not participated myself and have seen mixed reviews, coloured by authors presumably with downloaders who don't read on.

Don't forget to Kindle Storyteller your laster work, OP, when it launches. It seems to be a prize that embraces genre rather than lift.

www.amazon.co.uk/b?node=12061299031&tag=mumsnetforu03-21&ie=UTF8

Dickens was prolific. On top of his novels he also wrote novellas and short stories and plays, In addition to his other work.

If he had the technology of today he may have produced even more.

And his novels were written in serial format, where he was paid per word and had to keep the masses coming back for more with each instalment, so he played to the crowd with cliffhangers and adjusting the story to their reaction (pretty much like fan fiction writers do today).

At the time he had many detractors and his work was viewed by some peers as cheap entertainment for the masses. But he was doing similar to the OP in terms of writing to entertain and keep people coming back so he could keep getting paid (by the word, in the case of Dickens).

But your post actually supports the point I was hinting at in my last post. Many of his works are considered masterpieces now, even though he was prolific and churned out his serials, and was basically just playing to the crowd in his time.

OP is just doing the modern day equivalent, and with a more targeted audience in mind.

Not a huge Dickens fan. It's interesting as a window onto aspects of our social history but I don't think he's an engaging writer - many of his characters are just clumsy stereotypes based on people he didn't really know or understand, and his books are quite badly written. If it wasn't for the 'let's gawp at the poor' angle, I don't think he would have been very successful. And he had a team of people to edit and proof-read his work because he wasn't self-publishing.

He was prolific, and audience-conscious, sure, and some critics didn't care for him, but he was also being widely reviewed, critically praised and compared to Smollett and Fielding at the time of writing.

I'm not a huge fan of the more cartoonish/grotesque parts of his writing and his humour passes me by (The Pickwick Papers always makes me want to throw things) but I reread Great Expectations recently, and that is an astonishing piece of work by any standards.

I guess part of it depends on what you're trying to achieve. The OP is successfully managing a lucrative writing career that she started not that long ago, all things considered.

Some people care about making great art. Others care about entertaining and getting paid for it. Most care a bit about both, but the latter work is at least more likely to actually get produced and be seen. Time and history ultimately decide what the great art is anyway.

You can't plan this sort of thing anyway. My best selling and best reviewed book is the one I consider to be my most inferior. Loads of writers I've spoken to say the same thing.

I was going to post some information about average UK published writer income, average self-published writer income and 'successful' literary fiction authors' advances and sales/income. Am now going to read some of my favourite genre and pulp fiction to cheer myself up instead.

My best selling and best reviewed book is the one I consider to be my most inferior. Loads of writers I've spoken to say the same thing.

No disagreement from me on that. My best novel never got bought. My agent still shakes her head about it and wants me to consider letting her send it out now, but I think that moment has gone.

I guess part of it depends on what you're trying to achieve. The OP is successfully managing a lucrative writing career that she started not that long ago, all things considered.

Yes, I find it interesting, which is why I was asking about what she (assuming she's a she!) considered the difference between the 'diamond' vs 'stone' analogy. Because I can see easily why that works for the writer, as it's clearly working for the OP and good luck to her, obviously but I don't necessarily see what's in it for the reader. Any reader with access to a library, even if what they like is, say, fairly formulaic romances or thrillers, can have free access to thousands and thousands of those which weren't written in a couple of weeks.

I mean, clearly enough of them are choosing the product the OP is providing them with for it to be financially worth their while, I'm just interested in why they're paying for what they're paying for.

Limpet, you've touched on something I'm wondering more and more about. Why would people buy new books at all (the OP mentioned KU so it's a little different as the one-off KU payment means people can read anything within KU for free) when there are so many books within the canon available for free or at minimal cost. I know there are so many groups whose stories haven't been told properly and aspects of current life that are not explicitly touched on, equally aspects of the human condition don't change.

Why would people buy new books at all
It's novel innit!

Good luck OP. This thread has been very interesting. Some of the best songs were churned out in minutes.

Jane, I'm impressed.

This is incredible! I’m so surprised people can churn out novels like that and have them be readable and interesting and sell. I’m really really impressed OP. I know this isn’t an AMA but how much do you earn doing this? How many copies do you sell? Do you have to write sexy bits?

Thanks for all the comments

I'm briefly stopping for some coffee and lunch and reading through them.

WC 24k (I slept in today so a little behind) but it's going well and they are pretty clean words! I actually have an author friend following on behind me in google docs and a blogger who is alpha-reading every night so that'll save some time at the end.

For anyone interested, this is a good post by Dean Wesley Smith on pulp speed:

www.deanwesleysmith.com/the-new-world-of-writing-pulp-speed/

I have a friend who writes at the highest level of pulp speed and publishes a novel every 2 weeks on one pen, and a 100+k epic fantasy every month on another pen. I am no where near that level but one day when my kids are all grown, I'd like to be. Maybe 😂 he's broken six figures a month so it can be very lucrative if you're good at it.

@LilacTree1 between £2.99 and £3.99 but like I said, the bulk of my income comes from Kindle Unlimited where I get paid per page read.

If you have a book already written then that's great! I would spend some time working out where it's going to fit in the store, and tailor everything around making it look the same as those others books.

The biggest mistakes I see authors make is treating their books like their babies and thinking their snowflake deserves to be different. Find the closest things to that book and follow what the crowd are doing

If you are interested in learning more about marketing then the 20booksto50k group on facebook is an invaluable resource. Just make sure you read the rules and answer the questions properly or you won't get in.

@AnneBullen

My income is all over the place 😂 between my two pen names I make mid-high 4 figures a month with the odd 5 figure month. That's the nature of self publishing so you have to keep feeding the beast.

My only real expenses are courses. I take so many courses on writing, marketing, cover design etc. I don't really spend on ads (maybe

I would love to read some of your work

This has been a fascinating thread.

I've got so many plots and characters that I've developed in my head over the years and I've always want to get them down into written format.

I guess the worst that can happen is that it's terrible and no one likes it.

How do you get started? Is it just literally sit and type and see what flows?

I know there are so many groups whose stories haven't been told properly and aspects of current life that are not explicitly touched on, equally aspects of the human condition don't change.

This is what I love about self-publishing.

I know I would never be picked up by an agent (I don't actually want to be, but that's besides the point). But there is a little bit of me, my voice, and my upbringing in every single one of my books. Even though they are completely fictional situations.

And it's not a voice that is really represented in mainstream / successful fiction at all, with perhaps the exception of Irvine Welsh.

There is an argument maybe that some voices should never be heard, and that trad know best and therefore should be the gatekeepers... but the readers can (and do!) decide for themselves and I personally like it that way.

I can post my first opening (unedited) chapter if people are interested in hearing "my voice" 😂