When I began writing romance, I never gave a thought actually selling books for money. Seriously. In fact, at first I didn’t even consider publishing my book. I just wrote it for fun.
Fast forward three years of writing romances. Now, selling provides validation and the working capital I need to send my books into the Amazon stratosphere to be discovered.
It wasn’t intentional, this need to sell. It was a necessity that crept up on me gradually. First it was the costs for the cover design or the web hosting. Luckily, I was able to absorb those. But, then it was the course, the book, the tools and apps, the assistant and the coach until one morning I realized I needed to sell more books to pay for all of these and promotions and advertising too.
So, I am finally honest with myself – and with you – I am in this to make money. In my case to pay all my expenses and have a little left over to pay for a luxury purchase or two. But, for you, writing might support you and your family, or it might be how you are saving to pay those college tuitions that will be upon you before you know it. Maybe you write with the hopes of quacking that nine-to-five job to pursue a career you love.
As authors trying to make a living, we study trends in genre, or cover art. We discuss building our email lists or honing our craft. But, rarely do we discuss the realities of selling romance novels, royalties and income. I don’t really know why we avoid talking about money, so why not pull back the curtain and ask ourselves “Can I make decent money writing romance novels and if so, how?”
In my prior post, I discussed six current trends in romance writing. I hit on what was hot in genre, what kinds of tropes readers were gravitating to, hints and advice for improving character and plot. However, while I alluded to it, I left out what we writers really want to know – the financials – promising to address them in this post.
So Let’s Talk Money – Five Ways to Improve Your Bottom Line
Here are five actions you can take immediately to improve your chances of making a living writing romance, or to at least increase the amount of money you pay yourself as a romance author.
First, write the best book you can. Give it your all. None of the suggestions here will make up for poor writing, weak characters, listless plot or spelling and grammar mistakes. I start by assuming that you wrote a book people want to read, or better yet, several.
1/ Write a series.
Not a cliffhanger but a series nonetheless. Romance readers gravitate to a series, but most hate a cliffhanger, so you need an alternative way to tie your series together. (see rapid writing ideas in tip #3 if you want to leave your readers hanging).
In my Beguiling Bachelor series,I created four best friends in the first book, Bedazzled,and the subsequent books were about each of the friends. In my, B&B Billionaire Romance Series, I bring these characters back more casually and use the settings – bed and breakfasts – as the tying theme. Readers engage with characters. They want to see more of them. They engage with settings too. A series set in the same apartment building, dormitory, remote planet. Tie your books together.
2/ Copy what is successful.
Let’s be clear. I am not suggesting your plagiarize. I am suggesting you learn from the masters.
Look at the top selling books in your category. Do your research. Do the covers of the bestsellers have bare-chested men or a clinging couple? A historical novel might show a woman in a flowing dress; a paranormal story will likely have a darker cover and a werewolf?
Look at the colors and the fonts of the popular bestsellers. Are they dark grays or light pastels? Really know what sells in your category and genre. I promise you that a pattern will emerge.
Once you see that pattern, do your best to fit in. Readers know what they are searching for and you need to deliver it to them in a way that they can easily recognize. This is no place to think outside the box. Likewise, with your blurb for Amazon and other distribution channels, be sure you hit those expected norms.
3/ Consider rapid writing – or building a backlog before you publish.
In her book Rapid Release: How to Write & Publish Fast for Profit, Jewel Allen, lays out the good, the bad and the ugly of her journey doing rapid writing. Including her sales figures.
What is rapid release? It is the publishing practice of releasing your next book hot on the heels of your prior release – ideally every 30 to 60 days. Many authors doing rapid release put their next novel in preorder when then launch their current book.
If you follow step one above and write a series, readers are going to want the next book right away, while they are still thinking about your stories and characters. Especially if you write a cliffhanger – after all, people want to get off that ledge and find out what happened. Isn’t that why you left them in suspense?
Wait too long between books and they will find a new favorite of the moment or grow furious with you for leaving them wondering how a story they are now invested in will end.
Series sell. Each time you launch a new novel readers will discover and download more of your earlier works in the series, rapid releasing or not. But more so with rapid releasing – or with a backlog you can release quickly, even all at once.
I suspect if you ask someone like Hannah Ford, author of the bestselling series “What He Wants.” She wrote these short books as a cliffhanging series, publishing 26 books in 24 months and staying at the top of the bestsellers list the entire time. That’s the ultimate in rapid releasing.
Don’t plan on rapid releasing a saga or 150,000 tome, but for shorter books, it can increase your income dramatically
4/ Know your expenditures and budget for outlays required to increase income.
Remember those expenses I discussed at the top of this post that pushed me to think about writing as a money-making proposition? This is where they rear their ugly heads. Promotions, advertising, they cost real money, but if you want to get the widest reach for an Amazon free weekend, you will need to spend money. And giving away free books costs money too – just in a different way.
When you consider the statistics around author earnings, you understand quickly that managing your expenses is critical. From “Publishers are paying writers a pittance, say bestselling authors” posted by The Guardian on June 27 of last year:
“The latest report by the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS), due to be published on Thursday, shows median earnings for professional writers have plummeted by 42% since 2005 to under £10,500 a year, well below the minimum annual income of £17,900 recommended by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. Women fare worse, according to the survey, earning 75% of what their male counterparts do, a 3% drop since 2013 when the last ALCS survey was conducted.”
In my opinion, part of what hurts women authors is the number of 99¢ romance novels we sell. I am guilty of selling at this low price too, although Romance Writers of America studies have shown that the ideal price point for romance eBooks is $2.99. I do it because I know that romance readers are prolific readers and won’t spend $2.99 repeatedly, although I believe they will often. Or I do it with the first book in a series, using it as a reader magnet.
I also offer Kindle Unlimited on my novels, allowing me to reconsider that lower price point. Although KU requires Kindle Select, limiting my distribution to Amazon, I can’t ignore the fact that 2/3 of my monthly royalties come from KU. Kindle Unlimited may just be the romance novelist’s best friend.
[click_to_tweet tweet=”Hey Romance Author! If studies show our income shrinking, but certain expenses are inevitable, we have three choices – write more, look for alternative sources of income or manage expenses. I suggest doing all three.” quote=”So, back to expenses. If studies show our income shrinking, but certain expenses are inevitable, we have three choices – write more, look for alternative sources of income or manage expenses. I suggest doing all three.”]MadisonMichael.net
So, back to expenses. If studies show our income shrinking, but certain expenses are inevitable, we have three choices – write more, look for alternative sources of income or manage expenses. I suggest doing all three.”]
In the 2016 RWA earning study only 1900 romance authors of the 30,000 estimated writers were earning at least $10,000 per year from their novels. Yet, it is easy to rack up more than that in expenses. Consider an author – maybe yourself – hiring an assistant, a social media manager and then paying for Scrivner, book covers, formatting, web design, web hosting, Amazon and Bookbub ads, and a few books, webinars or courses. You see how fast those monthly bills can mount?
Some of these costs are inevitable and must be considered the price of doing business. But, much is also available for free. I follow the philosopy of Kirsten Oliphantwho says on her website:
“My philosophy starts with bootstrapping. Use ALL the free resources you can for as long as they are helpful! But realize when it’s time to invest in yourself and your business.”
One more thing: don’t spend what you don’t earn. Which brings me to tip #5
5/ Plot out your income – all of it
If you know from historical data that your last novel earns you $500/month in royalties, it is safe to bet that you will generate that much for the next book in your series, once it is published, as well as boosting sales for your previous titles. But, you cannot plan on that income in the spring if you book won’t launch until Fall.
Quarter by quarter and month by month, keep a spreadsheet and estimate your income from all sources – sponsored posts, affiliate income and your books – track each book separately. Don’t forget to put aside some dollars to pay your taxes, and to pay suppliers (see #4 above), and your employees and perhaps yourself.
You know what you pay for Convertkit or Bluehost. Record and account for those expenses every month. Consider sunk costs like your computer, desk or printer, then your fixed costs like webhosting, your VA or a course like “Your First 10K Readers.” Finally, you get to the costs you can play with month to month, your variable costs.
For me, promotions are my biggest variable costs and I watch promotion expenses like a hawk as well as the uptick in book sales I get from them. Because I usually have the best results from stacked promotions, I cannot be sure which sites are performing best for me, dollar for dollar. So, I test and evaluate, tweak and try again until I have a good sense of what works and what doesn’t.
Most of us are not breaking the bank. We cannot allow expenses to break us. Track, tweak and track some more. Do what you can yourself, contract out that which takes too much time away from your writing or that you truly loathe.
As you are author and CEO, you have a financial responsibility to yourself business. This is about your profit, your bottom line – income minus expense. Make sure managing your expenses is one responsibility you take seriously. Sometimes we can’t control income, but you can always control expense.
What to Read Next: The Definitive Study on Romance Earnings
In 2016, Romance Writers of America completed and published the definitive study on earning by romance writers. Since then more general studies have been conducted on indie versus traditional publishing, or ebook versus print, but nothing has touched specifically on romance writers since this study. If you have not read it, I recommend you do. You will learn which price points perform best for income, which genres and so much more. You may feel like your head will explode from all the charts, but it’s worth skimming at least. Get a copy here.
Gem of the Week: PublishDrive for converting Word files to eBooks
This one comes from Book Marketing guru, Jane Friedman. And I quote:
“While there are many softwares—and software work arounds—for creating an ebook file, this is probably the most straightforward and fast tool I’ve seen for producing an EPUB file out of a Microsoft Word document. That’s because it doesn’t require you to create an account, give up your email address, or do anything else fussy. Thank you, PublishDrive. Here’s the tool.”
Personally, I use Calibre – also free – to convert from Word to ePub, PDF and Mobi files and find it easy to use, reliable and fast. If you have a tool you love, won’t you share it in the comments below?
You may want to read:
- “Publishers are paying writers a pittance, say bestselling authors” The Guardian
- “How to Make Money Writing Romance Novels For Adults on Amazon” Making Sense of Cents
- “Writing Romance: How I Self-Published 40 Novels in 22 Months” HorkeyHandbook.com