Daniel Greene – What One Year as a Full-Time Author Looks Like

I recently surpassed my one-year anniversary of being a full-time author. Going full time was not an easy decision for my wife and me, but it was one we made together. There was a certain amount of resistance to pulling the trigger on making the jump, but when I did, it gave me a great sense of freedom. I remember sitting on the couch with my wife after I’d come home from my last day at a job that I’d done for over eight years, and she said, “So are you going to spend some time hanging out and decompressing?”

I looked at her and said, “No way. Monday, I hit the ground running.” And that’s what I did.

But I will talk more about making the jump at a different time…

You might be thinking, Daniel, if you hit the ground running, you must have written seven full-length books with all the time you have to write.

False.

Being a full-time indie author is like wearing a dozen different hats. You should never expect to only be a writer because you’re going to be a beta reader, an editor, a marketer, a social media guru, and a salesman. I’ve published one full-length novel and one novelette over my first year, which has been kind of a letdown for me, but never fear, this doesn’t mean I haven’t been working. I have three full-length novels lined up for release in the fall. Now, that’s the kind of output I want all year long…but how?

Below, you will find some lessons learned and takeaways from going full-time. I hope this helps you with wherever you are in your writing career as most of them are not exclusive.

ALWAYS BE FINISHING

I didn’t produce as much content as I wanted in my first full year. My production schedule/process needs to be refined or at least tweaked. While I’m going to try a long rapid release schedule for the fall, I’d rather spread it out more over the year. Not to go too much into rapid releases, but it’s generally accepted that launching at least one book every ninety days helps the author exponentially with Amazon’s algorithms. There are many other factors that help the author, but that deserves a blog post on itself. There are plenty of blogs on the phenomena that can be found by a quick Google search. I use the term long rapid release, because generally speaking, rapid releases are anywhere from 2 – 6 weeks apart. I am looking to stretch this a bit to 10 -12 weeks apart between releases in the same series. You may think this is some sort of secret method, but it’s merely to give me time to finish the next book.

A release schedule of at least every 90 days helps with marketing, especially for ebooks on Amazon, and it’s good to keep having fresh content available to fans. Keeps your name in front of people, which is what you want.

Over the year, I was working on all sorts of new content, but not moving any far enough along in my production/release schedule. It seemed that instead of finishing a book, I would get to a certain point and start a new one…I am now facing a production bottleneck where all of my content is set to release in the fall. Obviously, there are worse problems out there, but I’d like to modify my approach.

How I am fixing this production bottleneck? First, I’ve lined up a release for early 2020. The deadline has been set. This will keep me on track for the rest of the year. I will be focused on this project first and bearing down for the release early in 2020. I am hoping starting the year with a release, one that is part of the long rapid release schedule, will carry with it enough momentum to get me later into the year. Now I won’t start the year by stacking content, and I won’t have such a long stretch of time between book launches.

Takeaway: Set a manageable deadline and shoot for it. Stay focused on finishing content.

MANAGE YOUR PROJECTS WITH CARE – FINISH THEM (There’s a theme here)

I usually work at least two projects at once, but as a rule, I’m always moving novels through a different stage of my pipeline toward release. Right now, I only have one series available. The books in the post-apocalypse series are long with quite a few point-of-view characters. Terribly fun to write and takes an excruciating long time to finish. The last novel was over 140,000 words, meaning I basically wrote two full-length novels, or three by some counts, for the price of one. While I love the series and the characters, it won’t last forever. As a full-time author I need to come out with some fresh characters and content in a new world.

My primary focus has been coming out with this new series. I started working on the first book last winter, but as I tried to finish the fifth book in my current series, the new series was sidelined. In the early spring, I realized I wasn’t going to make my personal deadlines. I had to take a step back and refocus on my new series or it simply wasn’t going to happen. I just needed to shift my priorities and do a bit of project juggling. This leads nicely to my next lesson.

Takeaway: It’s hard to start; it’s hard to finish. Resistance fights you the entire time. Make sure you are focused enough to not only write THE END but also hit the publish button. I think someone wise said this: Finish what you start.

IN A GALAXY FAR, FAR AWAY ARE YOUR FUTURE PLANS

I plan my upcoming novels far in advance. This can always be modified, but I like to have things to look forward to. I followed this strategy for 2019. It helped me stay focused (mostly), and to always be thinking ahead, but I also need to be realistic. I thought I would have three books ready in June. It’s July and I am only about half way done. I have a habit of checking my launch schedule monthly so I can see where it is I’m headed and what I need to do to get there, but adjustments can also be made.

Takeaway: I’m halfway through 2019 and I’ve already begun planning my writing schedule for 2020 and 2021. This is one of the most stressful and most fun pieces of the publishing pie for me. I’m a big planner; I love having long-term goals and knocking them out. I know that these plans will probably change over the course of the year, and that’s okay, but it helps to know where you’re going before you start, even if you have to take a bunch of pit stops along the way.

START THE CONVERSATION WITH YOUR PRODUCTION TEAM EARLY

I’ve learned to reach out to my editors, beta readers, formatters, cover artists, fans, and publishing teams early in the process. Being an indie has loads of benefits and can really accelerate the publishing process, but respecting your team’s time and getting them engaged early helps them to do good work and takes stress off both you and them.

Always build in more time than you need. Somewhere in your process—rough draft, beta reading, editing, cover design, marketing—just about every step in the process is prone to going longer than you expect. Build in some extra time. Otherwise, you’ll really stress yourself out.

Takeaway: Start the conversation early and often with your team. The earlier you can complete the different processes, the less stress you will be under.

FIND A ROUTINE

One of the first things I had to work on going full time was finding the right routine for positive creation. I messed around with writing times, wake up times, workout schedules, eating times, email times. You name it, I’ve considered it. I discovered plenty.

I don’t do my best work right away in the morning, but usually between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m., I write the most words. I tend to do more reviewing in the early hours and more email/business side of things later in the day.

Takeaway: Some people thrive in chaos. I thrive on good repetitions. By setting myself up with a consistent productive environment, I allow my mind and body to fall into a regular rhythm that lends itself to even better production.

I BUILT A WORD COUNT TRACKER

I created an Excel spreadsheet that I use to track projects, word count, stage in production, and current goals. This is one of my main planning tools that I use daily. There are plenty different ones out there. I tried to base mine off a really rough version of a project management tool. It helps me to see I’m meeting daily production goals whether it’s putting words in a rough draft or rewriting chapters or making sure I am on target to reach quarterly goals. It’s all there and I have to look at it every day.

Takeaway: Track your progress. 500 words a day, great, 4 to 5 months from now you’ll have a full-length novel. 1000 words a day, 2 months. By tracking, you can see your successes and build on them, just like you can see your failures and work on them. It is a fun game to play: beat your own word count from the day before.

DON’T GET DISCOURAGED

I would have loved to release five books this year, in fact, that was my original goal. I’m talking about calendar year versus my first year of full-time writing, but it still applies. I wanted to more than double the current content I have available to my readers by the end of 2019. It was a worthy goal, if a bit ambitious.

If you count the novelette as a work, then I’m only going to hit four books this calendar year. A little short. Should I throw my hands up and quit? No, then I wouldn’t have a job. It just means one of two things. I need to refine my process if that’s possible, or I need to understand that four books may be my current maximum output.

Do I want my production to tick up, get quicker with better writing and process? Yes. Most likely this will happen given more time. But you can’t beat yourself up for lack of effort because I’ve put in a ton of time this year. So I accept that I ran full steam in the right direction, and more importantly, learned from it.

Takeaway: You can’t always win, so always be learning. Chin up. Chest out. Eyes on the prize.

This year has been fun. I’ve learned a lot about myself. I’ve also learned a lot about the industry. I am happy with the way it’s summing up. Could it have been better? Sure, but it could have been way worse. I have a long way to go and I am having a blast on the way there. Hope this helps you make your year even better. Thanks for stopping by!

Amazon Links:

End Time (The End Time Saga Book 1)

The Breaking (The End Time Saga Book 2)

The Rising (The End Time Saga Book 3)

The Departing (The End Time Saga Book 4)

The Gun (The End Time Saga Origin Short Story)

Recommended Articles:

Daniel Greene – Organizing Multiple Point-of View Novels

Daniel Greene – StokerCon 2019

How Ito Survive the Zombie Apocalypse – Guest Post by Daniel Greene