An Author's Resolutions, 2017

Over the last few days (hell, the last month), I’ve begun thinking about not only the 2017 business plan, but also my resolutions for the new year.

I have to be honest: I didn’t do well with my 2016 resolutions—I will blog more in 2016? Blogs were down from 41 to 29, not including this post. Significantly reduce my time on social media? You’re having a laugh—and I wondered if I would even do a list of resolutions because of this. Besides, I already did a post in early August about my goals for the next 12 months. I didn’t really need to do one.

But the great thing about setting goals and resolutions is that you have the ability to re-evaluate them at certain intervals, adjust things, and move on. And that’s what I’m doing today. Away we go:

I will write 250,000 words in 2017

I wrote approximately 219,000 words in 2016 over the course of two-plus books (the last 17,000 or so in The Peg-Legged Privateer, plus 101,437 in Ticket Agent, and the first 100,000 in Persuaded By The Reflections). I expect I’ll get another 25,000 words in Persuaded written before I wrap it up, but at 70,000 words I thought I would need only 50,000 more to finish; we can re-evaluate that when we get closer. It’s quite possible that Persuaded will surpass Redeemed in published words (132,000+), and maybe even Redeemed’s first draft total (140,177); I think it might. I don’t really know where the count will end up, and I’m hoping the first draft will be done by the end of February. That’s not a drop dead deadline for the book, but that’s my hopeful ending point. The end of February will mean a late summer edit, i.e. July or August, and a late December release. For March through June, I’m planning on writing the ninth Jaclyn Johnson novel, and I’m still up in the air about what I want to do in the second half of the year. Quite possibly the new series I mentioned this past August.

I want to publish two books, along with freshening up some of the back list, in 2017

Ticket Agent is currently with Kim—it’s her birthday, by the way, so happy birthday to Kim!—and I’ve given her until the end of January to get back notes and corrections to me so we can have a February release, much like we have had for Chemical (mid-February 2016) and Ticket (late January 2015) in recent years. Persuaded won’t be ready until late 2017, but I’m not going to publish it until it’s absolutely perfect. I’m also not going to go up against the holiday season. My hope is that the book will be published before the year is out, though. It could need some work after I do the editing, or it could be one of the greatest things I’ve ever written (after taking seven months to write the first draft, it might be). But not only that, I want to take some time to freshen up some of my older work; I may give Royal Switch a pass-through, mainly to see if I can fix the opening to the story and move that sluggish info dump somewhere else. I want to go back through two of my old John Fitch V titles and see if they can be fixed up and brought into my current writing level; I also want to freshen up the cover for A Galaxy At War, and possibly re-title it. And I want to get Furball & Feathers re-issued by the summer, too. I’ve done a sketch of potential cover art for it, but is it good enough to be published? I’m not too sure.

I want to learn how to do wrap-around covers for paperbacks in 2017

You’ll recall in August I declared that all of my work needs to be in paperback following my successful appearance at the Plastic City Comic Con on July 31. The second one is coming on July 30, 2017, in my hometown of Fitchburg. So far, 12 of my titles, including the entirety of the AGENT series, are in paperback, and I wanted to have the entire catalogue out in paperback by Thanksgiving in order to sell for the Christmas holiday. That didn’t happen, and that’s my fault. Honestly, I should know how to do a wrap-around; I can do a flat cover easily, and do it on the cheap, but not making it look cheap. So what I need to do is look for a tutorial in my spare time—what’s that?—and learn this important book creating tool.

I want to have The Obloeron Saga out in single copies for ebook and paperback in 2017

Pretty easy to do. I need covers for those, and I need the money to buy the artwork. That will happen when I can afford it.

I want to do better convention prep in time for PCCC in 2017

This will be some of the things I do in the first half of the year: get the Square credit card reader, get book stands, and, little by little, buy product for the event, i.e. ordering 10-15 copies of Zombie Showdown by the end of January and having them on-hand and ready, buying X of Ticket Agent and all the others, etc. In order to have an even more successful con, I need to have all of these things ready to go.

I want to get the rest of the AGENT series out in audiobook in 2017

Not exactly something in my control: this is akin to wanting 10,000 or more book sales in a year, because that’s something I can’t control. Laura Jennings has done a marvelous job on the first five audiobooks in the series, and I’m hoping she’ll continue in 2017.

I want to advertise more in 2017

I’m still here. I’m not going away any time soon. But still—my sales numbers do not reflect the numbers a full-time author should make, but again, that’s something that’s partially out of my control; I can’t rip people’s arms out of their sockets and make them buy my books. While I can turn a phrase with the best of them, my marketing skills are dreadful. I’ve relied mainly on word of mouth, Facebook links, Twitter, and—before 2012 and meeting my wife—ebook advertisers in eReader News Today and Kindle Nation Daily to varying degrees of success. I heard recently that one author got a BookBub ad without the pre-requisite review numbers, and I’m hoping I can do the same this coming year. Also some Facebook ads to encourage mailing list signups, Amazon ads, Twitter ads, and ENT/KND/BookGoodies/etc. I desperately need to re-claim my audience!

We’ll re-evaluate as the year goes on.

www.seansweeneyauthor.com

The goals for the year ahead

Usually around this time of year, I take a moment to breathe: I’ve cleared my desk of certain projects that have lingered for the time being, and I’m doing a bit of a cleanse, shall we say. I also take a moment to take stock in what I have accomplished in the year, and I also re-assess the goals I have set for the next 12 months or so.

(You can take a look at what I’ve said I would do in past years here and here. Some of it, I've followed through. Other stuff, not so much.)

We are slightly halfway through 2016. I’ve attended my first convention, and I’ve released two books so far. Through seven months, I’ve sold 459 books. Sixty-six books a month is a decent average, but not outstanding; to compare, my friend Daniel Arenson announced this morning that he sold “tens of thousands” of books in July. While I am incredibly happy for Daniel’s success, I want to have that success, too. I am desperate for that success.

In addition, my mailing list, after a thorough cull of spam accounts earlier today, is at 37 subscribers. In all, those are not great numbers.

The crazy thing about this: I know I can do better.

I am determined to do better.

That said, here’s what I’m planning to do over the next year:

First, everything I’ve written needs to be in print, via the old fashioned ink-and-paper delivery system.

As I explained Sunday, I had hesitated in bringing a great variety of physical product to the convention, not knowing how much I would sell, for starters: I didn’t want to be burdened with loads of stock, and I didn’t want to feel like the old “self-publisher selling books out of the trunk of his car” adage. But when I was asked, “Where’s the rest?” by several attendees on realizing I have 24 novels out, it makes me look inward and say, “maybe I really should have had more of a variety with me.”

The problem is this: the first four AGENT novels have the old covers on them, not the newer covers from two years ago. Also, The Lone Bostonian and several other books are not in ink-and-paper. Why? For me, my thinking over time is that I’d make them available if there’s a demand for them. I’ve only sold 180ish ink-and-paper books, and only 16 ink-and-paper books in 2016; most of my sales come via ebook. Suffice to say, there hasn’t been much call for ink-and-paper books.

But if I want to do more conventions, if I want to get out and meet more people—more potential readers—I need to have the books on hand, and in order to do that, I need to dedicate time and energy to making sure the books are formatted for ink-and-paper, and are formatted properly. I also need to release single versions of the books in The Obloeron Saga in both digital and ink-and-paper, and those need covers. I also need second-edition AGENT paperbacks for the first four books, a second-edition for Zombie Showdown, and I need to put the novella in print, too. I need all of this done by November, in time for Christmas.

Secondly, I need more ebook bundles.

I’m seeing loads of authors having success with ebook bundles. Right now, the only ebook bundle I have is for The Obloeron Saga, and that is six novels with three short stories woven into the prose. I need to get the Small Town PI mystery series into an ebook bundle, as well as the first seven Jaclyn novels into an ebook bundle. That needs to be done ASAP.

Third, I need to write a new series.

At present, I just don’t know what that new series will be. My next book is a follow-up to a book I released last year, The Long Crimson Line (ebook and ink-and-paper, and hopefully we’ll be in audio soon), and I plan on starting to write that book next week or the week after. That will make TLCL a duology instead of just a standalone. I’m going to try and stay away from writing standalones for the foreseeable future; they just don’t sell, at least not for me. That gives me a few months to come up with something, another series, before I start plotting out JJ9.

I’m also considering writing that new series under a pen name. I did it with Jaclyn under my real name after sales under the John Fitch V name slumped.

Fourth, I need to get Furball and Feathers back out, with new cover art.

This one isn’t as imperative as the others, but one I need to exercise patience.

I’m not the best artist in the world. I admit that. I did sketch out and color the horse cover for the third book in that series, but it needs a massive overhaul, art-wise. I bought a sketch pad a few weeks ago, and I’m hoping to ferret some time away to design a whole new set of colorful covers. I miss that children’s world!

And finally, do better convention prep.

Better signage, a Square credit card reader, book stands… and more product. Yes. My next convention will be better.

Simply put, I as an author need to be better.

You as my readers deserve better.

www.seansweeneyauthor.com

To cut my nose off to spite my face, or no? Free book indecision.

Catchy title, is it not? It is. Oh, it is. And it can be explained in one anxiety-riddled blog post.

I've battled a demon for these last few months. The demon is a tricky one, since it has been the driving force behind my good fortune when it comes to this publishing/book sales game I've played these last few years.

Yup. It's the demon of indecision, the demon of whether or not to take Model Agent, the first book in the Jaclyn Johnson code name Snapshot/Agent series, off perma-free status and make it a paid book on Kindle and iBooks again.

Through September, readers have downloaded Model Agent in excess of 103,000 times for free, with a little less than 900 paid copies through Nook and Kobo. On iBooks, MA is still good for well over a hundred downloads a month. On Kindle, not too many. For instance, in September, MA saw 158 free downloads on Apple; in August, 197, in July, 187. Last month on Kindle, there were 79 free downloads; this month, 28. The sell-through over the last few months has not been spectacular; in September, I sold a grand total of 52 books; 26 were through Kindle, Nook, and Kobo, with another 26 through Apple. This month, I'm at 19 before the Apple numbers come through, and I'll get this month's Apple numbers in the middle of next month. I told you: not exactly great.

See my dilemma?

The theory of making a book free, especially in a series, is to sell-through the remainder of the series, and use the first book as a loss leader. The sell-through, from Model to Rogue to Double and so forth, has been decent through Double: as I've explained, I bought ENT sponsorships for the first three, and that is part in parcel of the series' draw. As I've reported, I was unable to get one for Federal Agent, which recently eclipsed the 700-copy mark; that book has been out for three years. The most recent two books, Literary (JJ5) and Travel's (JJ6) numbers aren't exceptional, and sales are down across the board. I don't know if people didn't like the first three or just don't know if there are more books since I didn't get an ad for Federal. If I'm being honest, the writing in these latter books is better than the writing in Model. Some people are buying and downloading them, yes, but are doing so in small quantities instead of the rate of purchase from a few years ago.

So what to do? It's a question that doesn't have an easy answer: If I take MA off perma-free, what will happen to my Apple sales? What will happen to my Kindle sales? They are low as it is, and if the perma-free is driving what I have for sales as it is, well... I don't want to think of what my sales would be without Model Agent being free. And if I'm being honest, I don't have another series at the moment with a first book to use as a new loss leader.

This may require a little more thought... maybe until the holiday season passes.

www.seansweeneyauthor.com

Are there rules for writing? Not at all.

I usually talk to Jen's cousin Foster three or four times a week. As I've previously explained, Foster is an up-and-coming author that I've taken under my wing these last two years. His first novel, a mountain lion of a story, is expected out soon--whenever Foster decides the book is ready and it's time to publish. I can't wait to celebrate the release of this first full story.

We talked yesterday morning (yesterday evening for Foster, as he's in China). He was a touch depressed regarding his writing process; in a mood, he called it. I told him that it's OK to take a break every once in a while--especially when dealing with a project such as Apprentice of the Rain.

Basically, our conversation went like this:

Me: "Drinking coffee, getting geared up to write."
Him: "Trying to edit... can't force it. Well, real writers can."
Me: "And you're not a real writer? I call bull shit."
Him: "I don't know, man... real writers can write X thousand words a day, every day. That's been elusive for me."
Me: "Dude, I piss on that logic and that theory."
Him: "And yet you do it."
Me: "Did I write yesterday? Did I write Saturday? Yeah, in a perfect world, I'd write every day. Saturday, I changed my mother's oil in her car, covered a football game... went home, wrote the gamer, collapsed. Sunday, I wrote three pieces for the weeklies out west, then veged all day. I could have written something (fiction), but I decided to re-charge. We all need a re-charge."
Him: "They say amateurs write when they're in the mood; professional writers put themselves in the mood, and write X amount of words everyday, usually at the same time."
Me: "Who says that? I think that's bunk."
Him: "I've seen that advice everywhere, from every author I know except you."
Me: "Write when you can. Edit when you can."
Him: "My goal is to be a pro. Make writing my full time job."

About eleven hours later, my friend Nickie Storey, another protege of mine, stumbled across a Facebook post from New York Times bestselling author Anne Rice. In the post, Rice said the following:

On giving writers advice, offering "rules."  I'm asked a lot about this, and people bring great lists of rules for writers to the page all the time. What do I think? I can't say it loud enough. There are NO RULES for all writers! And never let anyone tell you that there are. Writers are individuals; we each do it in our own way. Don't ever let anyone tell you that you're not a "real" writer because you don't follow their rules! I can't tell you how much harm was done to me early in life by others judging me in that way. I was told in college I wasn't a "real" writer because I composed on a typewriter; I was condemned later on in damn near apocalyptic terms for "not writing every day." "Real writers" are those who become "real writers." That's all there is to it. And again, we each do it in our own way. For me, stubbornness has been as important as any talent I might possess. I ultimately ignored the people who condemned me, ridiculed me and sought to discourage me. I laughed or cried over it in secret; and went right on writing what I wanted to write, the way I wanted to write it. I knew of no other way to become the writer of my dreams. If you want to be a writer, go for it. Critics are a dime a dozen, and people who would love to see you fail are everywhere. Just keep on going; keep doing what works for you. Keep believing in yourself.

Understanding Foster's frustration from earlier in the day, I sent Rice's diatribe to him. He answered, "Good stuff. I need to find my way." I replied, "Yes. FUCK. THE. RULES." He wants to be the writer in his dreams, and I think that's great. It's great to have a goal. Getting there--the process--is one that he has to set for himself. It's what every author out there has to set for himself or herself.

I know many authors, all of whom have different processes. My process: I wake up, have coffee, and write. I try to do it every day. If I write a thousand words, great. If I write fifteen hundred words a day, fantastic. Two thousand, excellent. If I write more, awesome. After I had that initial conversation with Foster, I proceeded to write two thousand words. I wrote another five hundred and change, and finished a chapter this morning. Will I write more today? Possibly. I don't know yet. Right now, I write about four days a week. Sometimes five. I still put out a few books a year. If I wrote seven days a week, I'm sure I'd put out another book a year: but I have other responsibilities other than writing.

Kevin J. Anderson, an author whom I aspire to match in output one day (and I suspect I will die trying to catch), works daily, dictating finished prose into a digital recorder while hiking. Jim C. Hines spares his lunch hour to write, and will write at home after work. The same with David Forbes. Other authors may have a different approach than these three. They are all pretty damn successful in their own way.

And remember, gang: there are some so-called "real writers" out there who put out only one book a year. It varies from author to author. Not every author is the same, and you as an author shouldn't compare your writing process or speed to any one author. You're still going to finish your book--at your speed. Not every writer is going to write every single day. Not every writer is going to edit every single day. Not every writer is going to do something writing-related every single day. Not every author is going to publish more than one book a year. Not every author is going to put out a book every five years: Martin makes a shitload of bank, shall we say, doing it this way. Same with Rowling.

I think it's a misconception that non-writers have of writers, one that I know won't stop after this blog post: the whole, "If you have so much time on your hands, why aren't you doing it each day, every day?" It's just rubbish. We're not machines. We're human.

There are no true rules. If there are any rules, it should be these three:

Write.
Edit.
Repeat as many times as necessary.

That's it.

Basically: Pace yourself, and set your own rules for yourself.

Happy writing.

www.seansweeneyauthor.com

Raise, or Hold: The Publishing Poker Game

Ever since the start of the Amazon vs. Big Six/ebook pricing war back in mid 2009, my full-sized books have been priced at $2.99. Some, well after their run, have been bumped up to $3.99. My AGENT series books, which have been my perennial best sellers, remain at $2.99 even after being on the market for nearly three years. I've pretty much done that for one simple reason: we were in the midst of a crap economy (thanks, President Bush), and the thought of building an audience by charging an arm and a leg for a book while people were trying to find a way to put food on the table, gas in their cars, and keeping the lights on rankled me. At $2.99, I was (and still am) at the bottom end of the 70 percent royalty. A book sold equaled two bucks in my pocket.

When MODEL AGENT hit the virtual shelves in February 2011, sales went well at $2.99. I sold quite a few in the first few days that my dear friend Deborah Levinson, in a message, told me to bump the price to $3.99.

I balked. I remained at $2.99, and still sold quite a few books.

A few months later, I tried an experiment. For one week, I had priced ROGUE AGENT at $3.99 after selling well at the $2.99 price point.

After that one week was up, I brought it back down to $2.99. I hadn't sold a single copy in that time. It made me wonder--and still does to this day--if I as an author could command a price higher than $2.99 and have it sell at a rate that would allow me to put food on the table, gas in the car, and keep the lights/cable on. Would my die-hard readers, the ones who have been with me from the start of this journey, appreciate a jack-up in price?

It's the question that has plagued me and so many other authors struggling to find "the sweet spot" when it comes to pricing our books. $2.99 has been mine. I know several other authors who have gone to $3.99 and have been successful. I had the TRILOGY at $4.99 and I still managed to sell a couple copies a month before I took it down in November for a complete re-write (which I still haven't gotten to do yet). Still... a couple copies at $4.99 isn't enough to pay for lunch.

But now, after a blog came out recently, I'm wondering to myself if it's time. Am I truly low-balling myself? Is my work worth more than it is right now? Can I make more money by charging a higher rate for my books? My work has improved; fellow author Rich Meyer called me, "A bloody indie superstar" on Facebook last week. Surely if this were true, my sales would be higher than they are now.

So... what to do about this conundrum? It's like I'm playing a poker game: Do I raise the prices (and, in poker parlance, the stakes), or do I hold? Do I risk alienating my base at the risk of more profit, or do I remain where I am to keep the readers I know I have happy? Do I turn off readers who I haven't reached yet, or do I try to reach the level of the big boys and girls and see what happens?

Decisions to make--all of which are tough ones.

www.seansweeneyauthor.com

Current list of Sean Sweeney titles

At the moment, my website is down. I've provided the links for you here:

Amazon US 
Amazon UK 
Amazon Canada 
Amazon Australia
Nook

For Apple iBooks, search in iTunes for Sean Sweeney

Books and stories by Sean Sweeney

The Jaclyn Johnson, a.k.a. Snapshot AGENT series 

Model Agent: A Thriller*

Rogue Agent: A Thriller*

Double Agent: A Thriller*

Promises Given, Promises Kept: A Jaclyn Johnson novella

Federal Agent: A Thriller

Literary Agent: A Thriller (Coming soon)

Royal Switch: A Major League Thriller

Zombie Showdown*

Eminent Souls

Redeemed

The Obloeron Prequel Series

The Rise Of The Dark Falcon

The Shadow Looms

Cold Altar

Voir Dire

Furball and Feathers: The Cat Food Caper

Furball and Feathers: The Birdseed Bugaboo

Furball and Feathers: The Case of the High-Wire Horse

Short stories

Belief Debt: Paid In Full (Part of Christopher Nadeau’s Not in the Brochure anthology)

C is for Coulrophobia (Part of the Phobophobia anthology*)

Red Christmas (Part of the Bump in the Night 2011 anthology*)

As John Fitch V

The Obloeron Trilogy*

The Quest For The Chalice

The Return To Labergator

The Fall Of Myrindar

One Hero, A Savior*

Turning Back The Clock*

A Galaxy At War*

The Mastermind: A novella

Short stories

Sidetracked

Amber Twilight

Vuvuzombie

A certain philosophy on kiddie lit

Like most people, I live my life by certain personal beliefs. I'm not a church goer, nor do I care about the NFL, NBA or NHL. But that's beside the point...

I also have certain beliefs when it comes to children's books.

I've recently extended my writing reach into children's literature with my crime-fighting duo Furball and Feathers, but one thing some people always ask is, "Why are there no pictures? Children's books need pictures!"

That is an incredibly ignorant question and statement, at least in my opinion. Why? Why do books aimed at children have to have pictures? Is it because that's how it's always been done in the past? Do you think kids need pictures in order to read it?

Bollocks.

One of the things I've learned in the past few years is to never underestimate children. There are some children who want to learn how to read a book with only words, much akin to the books mommy and daddy are reading.

I make my children's books short, less than 10,000 words, which is enough for a young child to read in one sitting. Add in entertaining characters--Furball and Feathers are bipedal cat and bird crime fighters with alter egos--and you have a story that children WANT to read.

When they're done reading the picture-less book, look at their faces. Have they accomplished something? Have they read a book like mommy and daddy, or have they read something that underestimates their intelligence? More than likely, you can answer yes to the first part.

Food for thought: Do you want your child to excel, or do you want to hold them back? You may be surprised at what your child can do.

www.seansweeneyauthor.com