Hey Folks,
Well, something’s ‘off’ in my world today. Not sure what, and therefore not sure how to fix it. I’m annoyed. I’ll leave it at that.
I’m also not sure what will happen around here today. So I’m calling this a nonwriting day. (Turned out to be a writing day after all.)
I won’t write, at least not fiction, unless a lot of stuff in my mind settles out.
Maybe I’ll start a new website where I can vent. I’m not writing under any of my personas anymore, so maybe I’ll use one of them for that.
Probably I’ll spend the balance of the day uploading selected short stories to BundleRabbit. I’ve been meaning to do that for awhile anyway.
Topic: Streams of Income
If you’re a writer, and if you’re intelligent enough to have embraced indie publishing, you want as many streams of income as possible off everything you write.
If you aren’t a writer, you can stop reading now.
If you are a writer, but you’re still pursuing an agent and/or a traditional publisher so THEY can make all the money off various streams of income, please stop reading now.
Anyone else, keep reading. For the rest of you, for at least a limited time, I’m offering to answer any questions any of you have regarding getting revenue from your stories, short or long.
The only prerequisites are that you’ve read this topic in its entirety, and that you have downloaded and read the free resources I offer over at http://HarveyStanbrough.com/downloads.
Those include The Essentials of Digital Publishing, Quick Guide to Self-Publishing & FAQs, and Heinlein’s Business Habits For Writers (Heinlein’s Rules), Annotated
I also recommend you read and study the posts under the MS Word for Writers tab on the website. Especially if you’re still using the Tab bar or the spacebar to indent paragraphs.
A write not being thoroughly familiar with MS Word (or whatever program you use) is like a carpenter not being really sure what a hammer is for.
But to the topic.
Basically, getting multiple streams of income first relies on making your work available in as many different venues as possible.
If you “publish” (distribute) exclusively with Amazon or anyone else, you can’t do that. In fact, if you publish exclusively with Amazon, you aren’t even allowed, legally, to post your short story or novel on your own website.
So that’s the first lesson, a’right? Go wide.
I recommend distributing everything you write to Amazon and to Draft2Digital.
Smashwords also is a good distributor that will get you into a lot more minor venues, but I’ve never made a sale (since 2011) in any of those venues. So personally I don’t allot any of my time to uploading my work to Smashwords.
Once you’ve settled on distributors, you can shift into the second level of building multiple streams of income.
Collect your short stories. Collect your novels. Period.
When I have written ten short stories, I automatically have 10 new streams of income.
If I make those stories available (through D2D and Amazon) in nine venues, that means I’ve just created 90 individual new streams of income.
If I also collect those stories in two 5-story collections and one 10-story collection, I’ve just created three more streams of income. Times the same nine venues.
So now, having written 10 short stories, I begin receiving income from 117 different streams of revenue.
Later, there’s no law that says you can’t combine two, three or four 10-story collections into one omnibus collection either. More streams of income.
Of course, you can also group your novels. You can sell the first five books in a series in one book. You can sell the last five books in a series in another book. And you can sell all ten books in a single book.
Again, from having written 10 novels, you’re now bringing in revenue from 117 different streams.
Every time you find a new way to present your work, you create a new stream of income that is multiplied by the number of venues in which you offer that work for sale.
That’s also why I use and recommend BundleRabbit. When your work catches the attention of a curator there and he or she bundles it, you’ve just created yet one more stream of income.
Try it. The math isn’t as difficult as it seems.
And those trickling little streams of income all flow into the same river that feeds your bank account. It really is that easy.
Any questions or comments, please add them below or email me directly at harveystanbrough@gmail.com.
Today, and Writing
Rolled out at around 3:30. Not sure what the day will hold.
I messed around, wrote the stuff above, then cross-posted it to the big blog (for January, 2018).
Then I went to the store and the PO, then back to the house.
I was thinking about BundleRabbit again when an idea hit. So I wrote the opening, about 350 words.
Once I had that, I saved it to my flash drive and headed for the Hovel. That was around 1:30.
I wrote on the thing for about an hour total, then went to put my spare for my 4Runner back underneath the truck.
Came back to the Hovel and wrote another half-hour, then called it a day. I didn’t write anything on the novel, but I got a good start on what will probably be a short story in the same series. We’ll see.
That or maybe it’s a start on what will be the fourth novel in the series. A lot better than I expected when the day started.
Back tomorrow.
Of Interest
At Dean’s place, not really a lot, actually. He and Kris will offer a new online workshop titled “How to Edit Your Own Work”. Might interest some of you.
If you haven’t signed up for the email subscription over at The Passive Voice yet, I strongly encourage you to do so. I read almost every article, but I don’t really have time to read them and then pass them on. Visit http://www.thepassivevoice.com/, then scroll to the right to subscribe via RSS. If you want email updates (my own preference) scroll down in the right sidebar.
Fiction Words: 1743
Nonfiction Words: 770 (Journal)
So total words for the day: 2513
Writing of “Beats All” (probably a short story)
Day 1…… 1743 words. Total words to date…… 1743
Writing of The Platinum Blond Perturbance
Day 1…… 1381 words. Total words to date…… 1381
Day 2…… 1864 words. Total words to date…… 3245
Day 3…… 2136 words. Total words to date…… 5381
Day 4…… XXXX words. Total words to date…… XXXXX
Total fiction words for the month……… 14313
Total fiction words for the year………… 222869
Total nonfiction words for the month… 6650
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 63990
Total words for the year (fiction and nonfiction)…… 286859
The Daily Journal blog streak……………………………… 505 days
Calendar Year 2017 Novel Goal (15 novels)… 4 novels