Steven’s conversation touched on many writing topics, so I’ve tried to collect things under headings for you. Please let me know if I’ve missed any favorite nuggets from what he had to say.

How to earn money from books

1. Big-name publishers can buy in bulk, so their books will always be cheaper than print-on-demand books, therefore easier to get into bookstores and easier to sell.
   1. (Note from Sheila, Indie-publishers are often print-on-demand, and profits have to be shared between the publisher and you, so they’re often priced higher than big-name and than self-pub.)
2. Self-published books take a lot of time, effort, and money:
   1. Don’t rush to print. Any errors will haunt your writing forever.
   2. It’s worth being a perfectionist. Fix any problems before the world sees them.
   3. It’s worth paying for good cover art and design.
   4. It’s worth paying for a good editor.
3. The book world has changed:
   1. Audiobooks are where he makes most of his money.
   2. Ebooks are more popular than print.
   3. Paperbacks are cheaper than hardcover.
   4. Vanity presses may be gone, but so are the gatekeepers who guaranteed a book was worth reading.

Genre

1. How do you choose what genre to write in?
   1. Read lots of genres.
   2. Write in lots of genres. Experiment. Learn and practice the craft.
   3. Find out what energizes you and what saps your energy.
   4. Remember, writers are entertainers, like guitarists playing for tips. Is it fun for you? If not, it’s probably not the right genre for you to write in.
   5. Just because you like reading a particular genre, that doesn’t mean you’ll end up writing in that genre.
   6. His books are scifi + comedy + noir detective + superhero:
      1. He wanted to write science fiction with a difference.
      2. His story takes place in a limited space where he can concentrate on relationships, therefore a city.
      3. He adds new characters (and places) as he adds more books (10 and counting).
   7. Read other books to know what readers will expect in each genre.
      1. Remember, writing is entertainment. You have to consume entertainment(books, movies, TV) to know how to entertain.
      2. Reader expectation matters, so you have to know your genre.
   8. Lots of things cross genres. It might be better to think of “mode” (the tone, or reality level of your story) rather than genre in working out what you can and can’t do.
      1. The three stooges will throw pies and pull hair. But if one of them shoots another and blood pours over the page, it will put readers off. It breaks the “mode.”
      2. Set the mode right at the start, then stick with it.
      3. You can break the reader’s expectation, but you must be consistent and mustn’t drive them away. You don’t want them to stop reading and say “Huh? How did that happen?”
   9. Humor can fit into any genre, but it’s got to be the right humor:
      1. Violence as humor doesn’t fit in a cozy mystery for example.
      2. “No easy jokes,” was advice he received from his mentor.
   10. Magic appears in lots of genres, but has to be there from the beginning.
       1. Magic just in the final scene to solve all the problems doesn’t work.
   11. Mystery novels aren’t straight realism. Life isn’t really like that.
   12. LitRPG is a new genre. Writers and readers who love role-playing games enjoy the use of numbers, but keep it consistent. Don’t introduce numbers randomly.

Length

1. Novels sell better than novellas and novelettes (novelette is probably halfway between short story and novella)
   1. Sell your shorter books as ebooks on Amazon at, say, 99 cents, as tasters for readers.
   2. Or see if you can grow them into novels.
2. Print anthologies and magazines are dying, but you can still sell short stories to anthologies.
3. Children’s books are shorter, but remember, kids are savvy:
   1. Graphics for children’s books have to be really good—you’re competing with the latest computer games for their attention.
   2. Kids will read ebooks on phone or tablet.

Finding Time to Write

1. It’s his day-job. He has to find time.
   1. When he worked in computers, he would write in notebooks while traveling—write in the hotel room, etc.
   2. Book time away. Stay in a hotel and write. But stop when the words stop flowing. Have a meal. Do something else. Then come back and write.
2. You need to find a place without distractions
   1. Yes, the internet’s distracting. Switch it off if it’s distracting you.
   2. Remove any apps that are going to make noise and distract you.
   3. Switch off your phone.
3. It’s a good idea to start your day by looking at what you wrote yesterday.
   1. Then write some more, if you’re writing-ready.
   2. Then walk the dog, make dinner, live life, while the story bubbles in the back of your mind.
      1. With appropriate phone apps, you can dictate the next chapter while walking the dog. Make an audio-memo. Or take notes. Or send your ideas to yourself in an email.
      2. Or make sure the story’s still in mind when you get home.
   3. Then write some more.
4. Writing is personal. Find a way that it fits into your personal lifestyle
5. Use whatever technology or lack of technology works for you.
   1. He’s not comfortable with laptops – ergonomically they don’t work for him.
   2. He is comfortable with a  phone.
   3. He used to write longhand in notebooks. But it can be hard to decipher your longhand writing.
   4. Jay Leno used to record everything on an old cassette recorder.

How to Persist in Writing

1. Writing and procrastination go hand in hand. (Note from Sheila, Procrastinate Productively https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/21/productive-procrastination-or-getting-your-ducks-in-a-row/.)
2. Join a writers group that will keep you accountable.
   1. Stay motivated. Stay productive.
   2. We’re a tribal species. We need other writers to talk to.
   3. (Note from Sheila, we used to go around the room asking everyone about their writing achievements, maybe every other month. Should we try to reinstate that?)
3. Hone your skills.
   1. Writing takes Talent (that you’re born with) and Skill (that takes experience).
   2. Take every opportunity to gain experience—write in multiple genres, try things out, ask people to read what you’ve written, etc.
   3. Don’t rush to publish. It’s better to wait till the book is really ready.
   4. Can you find any college level external courses to help hone your skills?
4. Don’t get discouraged.
   1. 95% of people don’t like Shakespeare. 95% of people won’t like what you write either, but that doesn’t mean it’s bad.
   2. In a critique group, look for critique of your writing rather than your content. Don’t let someone turn what you want to write into what they want to read.
   3. When you look for an editor, look for someone who edits the sort of thing you are writing.
      1. Look for advice on structural issues rather than content.
      2. Expect to go back and forth with your editor. It’s not because your writing’s bad; it’s to make it better.
   4. When your book isn’t selling, remember it’s competing against his, which competes against those published by a bigname publisher, which competes against all those celebrity cook-books that sell just because they have a celebrity’s name in the title.
5. Avoid setting word-count targets.
   1. Write because you want to write this scene, not because you need to write this number of words.
   2. When you’re writing for the wrong reason, you’ll produce text that only represents 80% of your best. Then you produce 80% of that the next day, and so on, till at the end of the book, you have lots of words and very little worth reading.
   3. Remember, if you wrote that passage yesterday when your brain wasn’t in gear, you’ll still find it hard to delete all that hard work today
   4. Instead, set targets that say “I will read and write today.”
6. Know what saps your energy.
   1. You can probably earn more editing and ghostwriting, but if it leaves you with no time to write, was it worth it?
   2. Feedback from readers who don’t like your style can burn you out.
   3. Rejections can burn you out. But remember: that great book you just read was probably turned down by 12 publishers and 40 agents. If the author had given up, you wouldn’t have got to read the story.
   4. Feed your enthusiasm.
7. Be confident—you need confidence to know what you want to write and to keep at it.

Inspiration

1. Find inspiration in movies, other books, TV series, people you meet, walking the dog…
2. In learning about historical authors, visiting the homes where they lived…
3. In failing to sit in Dickens’ chair (https://media.architecturaldigest.com/photos/55f9dfa500a69f791feb278e/master/w_1600%2Cc_limit/dam-images-daily-2015-04-charles-dickens-desk-charles-dickens-desk-02.jpg) …
4. Life events become episodes of TV series—could become episodes of your novel too.
5. Look for anything you can repurpose or “steal.”
6. Who do you meet or read about? Showrunners for TV series, famous personalities, cartoon characters…
7. Consume everything.

Self-Publishing

1. The most important thing is to take it slow, be a perfectionist, and be patient. Then you can produce something to be proud of.
2. It’s worth paying for an editor:
   1. Old-school (structural) editor takes your piece under their wing, giving feedback, helping you polish. They’re hard to find.
   2. Research and find an editor who works in your genre or shares your interests. Try googling Independent Copy Editors Organization. (Note from Sheila, https://kindlepreneur.com/book-editors/ might be useful.)
   3. You need someone to check for typos at the very least.
   4. You need someone other than you to read the book. Your mind will skip over errors and see what it expects to see on the page.
   5. It can cost from $100s to $1000s to edit your book.
   6. If you can’t find or pay for an editor, at least get someone to beta-read for you.
      1. There are lots of unedited books out there, but you don’t want yours to be one of them.
      2. Mistakes live on and kill your reputation.
   7. (Notes from Sheila: Join one of our critique groups to meet with people who share the task of beta-reading and editing for each other. Email groups @ portlandwritersmill . org.
   8. Sign up for a group critique in the second half of one of our monthly meetings by emailing critiques @ portlandwritersmill . org.)
3. It’s worth paying for formatting.
   1. He reprinted his first book before releasing it because of a formatting issue.
      1. Look for things like italics?” where the symbols can run into each other, depending on what font you use.
      2. You don’t want to release something that looks bad. It will haunt you forever.
   2. Some editors will format for you.
4. It’s worth paying for a book cover.
   1. Even famous people can fail to sell books if they have bad covers (e.g. a book with a green cover and no images). Do you want your book to sell?
      1. That said, once you have a guaranteed audience, you might not need such a good cover. Do you have an audience?
   2. He paid for the first covers and creates his own now.
      1. He has a one-minute 3D animation of his character, and uses this to create covers.
      2. You have to know what you’re doing, how and why, to make this work.
      3. A cheap boiler-plate cover costs around $100
   3. Yes, some breakout books have very poor covers, but unless you’re semi-professional you should hire someone to give your book it’s best chance.
   4. It’s not just the image, but the image is very important:
      1. https://www.artstation.com/ is a good resource for hiring an artist
      2. (Notes from Sheila: https://www.fiverr.com/ can be a good resource
      3. Or try https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page, https://unsplash.com/, https://pixabay.com/
      4. If you know other places, email pages @ portlandwritersmill . org and suggest they get added to our website.)
   5. Look at other books in your genre (on Amazon) to see what sort of images, what fonts, and what overall look sells those books.
      1. Romance novels have a particular feel to their covers, for example.
      2. As do cozy mysteries, etc.
   6. Get a mockup of the cover you want, then ask people what they think.
5. It’s worth paying for the audiobook (see below).
6. It might not be worth paying for print/publication. Amazon has a lot to offer (free).
   1. You can pay someone else to print lots of copies and get a much better price per copy:
      1. But will you be able to sell all those copies?
      2. And how will you get them into bookstores?
      3. (Note from Sheila, it’s hard to get Amazon print books into stores. You might want to use Amazon to get the book online, and, say, https://www.ingramspark.com/ to get it into stores. But even then… it’s hard to get books into bookstores.)
   2. Paper costs money, so paperback and hardcover books will be expensive.
   3. Most people are going to buy ebooks or audiobooks. The bandwidth for download is much cheaper, so less overhead:
      1. Our Zoom meeting consumed about the same resources as 10 times each of his 10 books, ebook and audio, all combined.

AudioBooks

1. This is where the money is. This is what sells.
2. You can record your own audiobook, but you’ll need to be a really good speaker, and really good with technology to make it work.
   1. Expect to take about 13 hours just to record it.
   2. Then there’s the editing, cutting and combining, etc.
3. Once you hear someone reading your book, you might want to change some of your writing style: e.g.
   1. The sentence: “Well,” he said, “I’m not sure about that,” reads smoothly in the reader’s head, but when read aloud, by someone using a different voice for speaker and narrator, it becomes a lot more awkward.
   2. Tolkein’s (and other fantasy authors’) complicated names are quickly absorbed by a reader who probably can’t pronounce them aloud but recognizes the pattern when reading silently.

The Takeaway

1. Reading and Writing go Together. READ.
2. Talent and Skill go Together. WORK.
3. Writing and Procrastination go Together. KNOW what works for you.
4. And remember: there’s room for all of us—dedicated professionals, successful writers, ghostwriters to the rich and famous, self-published dreamers, one-book wonders, and us. ENJOY it.