What I learned in Fifteen Years of Publishing on Kindle

 I belong to a group on FB for authors supporting authors. Every day I read posts. I see the hope of new writers and the struggles. I don’t comment because some posts get so many comments. I buy books from them quietly.

That group inspired me to share my story for anyone who wants to know about my publishing journey. And give some tips.

In the month of December, I celebrate fifteen years of being published on Kindle. My first kindle was published December 21, 2015. I remember the first royalty check of $33.00. I bought a pizza for my family.

When I started there were only 750,000 Kindle Books. Back then most of us did our own covers and you could pick out a self-published author by the cover and price. Some of mine were downright awful. Take a look at the first. I’m surprised I wasn’t run out of town.

There was a love and hate for self-published authors then. A lot of readers rallied around us because they were getting good stories at an affordable rate. They remained faithful.

I remain faithful to them.

Back then it was cutthroat. One bad review would tank your book. Competing authors knew this and would put torpedo reviews to hurt your sales.

I watched it grow to the six million books out there today. It’s harder now, but I am dedicated to my readers and grateful more than they know. I love them and know many of them personally now.

I still love getting an email telling me how much someone loved my book, and there are days I get some not so nice ones. I appreciate their honesty.

I went from a single mother standing in line at a foodbank to supporting my family with my passion for writing. You will never hear me tear down Amazon, because Amazon gave my unpublished work a platform.

Before KDP, I tried traditional publishers and was rejected because of the books I wrote. I have a bin with 1,172 rejection letters for my books, poems and screenplays. I was relentless, but I was getting nowhere. Fifteen years ago, on the advice of a friend to take a gamble with ebooks, my life changed.

It took a couple years to gain traction, but I did.

Granted, there are ups and downs. Good years and bad ones. Like when Covid hit, no one wanted to read end of the world books because they were living it. Many of my peers shifted gears. I didn’t. I plugged away.

Many new authors have written to me asking for advice, I freely give it and am always happy to help.

I am not an A list writer, or even B. Maybe C, but if I were to offer tips to new writers here’s what they’d be. 

• Advertise. You have to spend money to make money. Even if it’s a $15 Awesome Gang Book ad. They work.  Here is a report (Poor Man's Guide to Advertising) I did five years ago on many different affordable advertising. Tried and tested but some may no longer be valid.
• A good cover is important, one that stands out on a thumbnail. Canva is a great tool if you can’t afford an artist and don’t know photoshop. It doesn’t need to be elaborate.
• Have a sale and do giveaways on your website. Again, this is advertising,
• Connect with your readers, get to know them. If you are struggling to find readers join a FB book group that is similar to what you write. Get to know the people there. But don’t self promote in these groups. Allow them to find your work organically by knowing you.
• A great story and one well written will keep your readers turning to you for what is next. Of course, not all books will be great, even if we loved writing them.
• Don’t be afraid to give a book or two away. Word of mouth can not be beat. I relied heavily on grassroots in the beginning. Also, readers know when you’re genuine and you’re not. I give a lot of books away because sometimes readers can’t afford to buy a book.
• If you aren’t part of Kindle Select and KU, you’re missing out.
• Kindle Create is FREE and Formats your book.
• And finally, don’t give up. Keep writing!

If I were to define writer success as the ability to have people read your stories, then I have succeeded. When I first started, that was all I really wanted. People to read my stuff. As writers we love what we do, driven by storytelling and not financial gain. Write to be read not to be sold. Be real, get the word out and readers will come.

 

 

 

Racing with the 48 Hour Film Project

 

My fifteenth year.

This year will mark the Crystal anniversary of my participation in the 48 Hour Film Project. One would have thought I’d given up by now. I thought about it, but 48HFP is as much of a yearly addiction for me as pickle juice, bourbon and HoHos during the National Novel Writing Month.

I remember in 2018, a young cameraman posted he was looking for a team. After a lengthy FB message exchange over days (Him interviewing me BTW), and a few days of him ghosting me, he declined because he wanted to work with a serious team.

Wait. What?

Ironically that ended up being the year we lost all our footage and the 48 became the 24 when we had to do a second movie.

Anyhow … that exchange and, of course, coming up on a milestone, got me to thinking.

I took the 48 HFP very seriously, however, I realized, no one really took me seriously. At least it seemed that way to me.

Why?

Because for 11 out of fourteen years, we made the audience laugh. Then again, it could have something to do with the one year we tried to be serious and dropped the ball. We were literally booed, heckled and publicly humiliated on social media.

It was so bad, I thought of never doing 48 again. Even though the producer shut that sh*t down, the damage was done.

If that sort of behavior is that of ‘serious’ teams, well, then, I’d rather not be serious. That behavior isn’t what 48 is about.

It’s about making the impossible possible, and yes, at the expense of cutting corners.

My mindset has always been I was going to make a movie that people remembered and do something new. I never go into competition with the mindset I’m entering to win. Maybe that’s why I never won ‘Best Film’. But I have won because I finished the project every year.

I was late one time and it wasn’t because the film wasn’t finished, it was because I sat on the Liberty Bridge for 35 minutes because The Dark Knight Production shut it down. For the record, I refused to see that movie … ever. Yeah, I’m still bitter.

So on this eve of my fifteenth, which is just days away, I thought I’d reflect on  a few things and asked myself if I had to name the three biggest mistakes I have made, what would they be? I came up with these.

 

ONE - SKELETON IDEAS

Technically, thinking of things isn’t really rule-breaking, I mean, how do you stop the creative mind from blasting out an occasional, “Dude, if we pull this, we should do …’ But one of the things I have seen teams come up with a skeleton idea. That is an idea that can be molded in any genre and the character/prop/line can be dropped in. (BTW most of us can spot this within 45 seconds of your film) Anyhow in 2008, I was brought on as a writer for a team. The team wanted one writer … cool. But that wasn’t the case. They needed someone to pen the script.

They had multitudes of meetings beforehand to discuss "ideas", things that could fit multiple genres. When the time came, they told me what to write. I brought up the ethic of it, and they didn’t see it as cheating as long as the ‘script wasn’t written’. We didn’t win anything that year. It made sense to me. Anyhow, the problem with these type of ideas is you get so pigeon holed into doing it, you force it to work a genre and the other required elements. Plus, seriously, it really takes away from the fun and in my opinion … is cheating.

ONE B – SKELETON LOCATION

The same can be said for locations. Find several and don’t set your sights on one really cool location. You end up forcing the story to fit the location. The audience sees and feels that.

TOO AMBITIOUS

We all have visions of grandeur when it comes to our films. But when you only have a limited time, that can be a hinder. Look at your idea … is it ambitious. Will it take too much post production time and side work. One year I spent sixteen hours in post in one position doing special effects. We won special effects, but still …. Erg.

 There are some genres you don’t have a choice, like Musical and Science Fiction. They require those extra steps. But keep it simple and remember this advice, it was the best advice I have ever gotten, ‘Write for the shoot and shoot for the edit’.

LEARN YOUR STUFF

It took me until 2012 to learn this, but as a team leader there should be no aspect of filming you don’t know or can’t do. Writing, filming, editing, music … you, as a leader should be able to do any role required. Even if you don’t do it well, you need to know it.  You never know. The editor may walk out, your sound may be crappy and you don’t’ have countless hours trying to find the best royalty free music selection, because let’s face it … music sets the tone.

I learned this the hard way when I discovered our 2011 editor was editing for another team as well and did theirs first. Yes, he finished ours on time but it was unnerving and came down to the last minute. Never again, I said. Even if I had to use Windows Movie Maker, I’d make sure our film was done hours before drop off.

LASTLY … COMEDY

I know I said three, but this isn’t a mistake I made. It’s what I have done right. I have heard way too many people say, ‘Try not to do comedy’. So let me say this, there is nothing wrong with making a funny film. Again, I repeated. NOTHING WRONG WITH FUNNY. Despite what people say.

Comedy doesn’t win? Bull. Over half the winning films I have seen were comedies and did you know a 48HFP comedy won an award at CANNES in 2016. Not to mention, on set and in post you continuously laugh. I have never had a freak out moment or anxiety when filming comedy.

The ability to make people laugh takes as much talent, if not more, as it does to make them cry or think. It’s a craft and an art and to hear the audience laugh is an amazing reward.

After all these years, I learned … that people remember the things that made them laugh.

If you are participating this year, be safe, good luck … and most of all … have fun. It’s not about winning it’s about making a film.

Pushing Through Writers Block

I am blessed and fortunate enough to be a writer.  I am able to, for the first time in my life, be self-sufficient as support my family without the help of a partner, significant other or spouse. That’s not to say it’s easy, and it’s not to say that there are months that are exceptionally rough. After all, selling books is a form of sales and sales are not always consistent or predictable.

 One of the biggest questions people ask me, is how I find time to write. But, when all you do is write for a living you better find time to write. LOL. However there are times, when life, family, commitments get in the way. Not as much as a full-time 9-to-5 job

 I strive daily to write 5000 words. Or 18 pages. To me that is a good excellent writing day. I will settle and be satisfied with 3000 words

But there are times, even I need to get motivated.

So many writers, including myself at times, are ‘fly by the seat of your pants’ writers. Let the story tell itself. But when you are unmotivated or blocked, that just doesn’t work. Structure is best. It will help motivate you to have a plan.

The Deer Method

Go to Google and search the word Buck. The first buck that shows up in your image search count the points on the antlers. That is your target. That is how many points of your story you will get across for the day. You may not hit them all or you may. But let’s say you find a six point deer. That’s six points of your story. For example

Let’s say I hit a wall at the 10,000 word mark in Silent Victor. By the way there are several times in a novel a writer can hit a wall) This is what I would have picked for my six points.

• Joe sees Peter and knows he has the virus
• Joe sees the national guard
• Joe panic shops
• Frank finds out his leave is canceled
• Joe tells Kelly about the virus
• Ellen’s son is sick

Sometimes that is all you need. But if not here are two tricks that I always use.

Words Sprints

These are exactly what they sound like. Ready, set, go. Say you have a lot to do. And you could only write 15 minutes at a time. Take set a timer. Take five minutes and reflect about what do you want to write, then for 10 minutes you write. Whether it’s a sentence or a page. You write and don’t stop writing until the 10 minutes is over with. When the next hour comes about, you do the same thing. On average if you write 15 minutes every hour for three hours you should have 1000 words. Remember six weeks of doing that you have a novel

Writing Rewards

Truman Capote used to reward himself with a double martini after he completed 1000 words. If I did that I would be hammered. But he chose to focus for something he wanted. And that’s what I do. Especially when I feel like I want to slack.

Remember, if you want to earn a living as a writer, you need to earn what you want by writing.

Whether you want a snack, a nap, I drive, or to watch that show you have been binging on, earn it through writing. Here’s how it works:

If you want to nap, binge watch a show, or movie, or anything that is done in increments of time, you will write 10 words for every minute. For example if you want to watch an episode of Schitt’s Creek, at 24 minutes an episode you need to write 240 words in order to watch that. If you want to watch Avengers Endgame, that’s 1820 words.

Say you want a snack, or milkshake or something like that. Write five words for every calorie for which the food is. Before you decide you can go here see what the calorie count is for your favorite food and multiply that by five. For example if you want a hoho, you need to write 1000 words.

These are my helpful tips for the day feel free to leave any questions in the comments