10 Years of Writing – What have I learned?

About 10 years ago, I decided to do something different. I’d decided to finish writing a story…a novel I’d started when I was in high school. Since then, I’ve written 28 novels, 2 short stories, and 1 novella. That amounts to 2.4 million words published and well over a million books sold. When I first started out I never thought I’d sell over a million books—most of which were sold in the last 5 years. A certain amount of luck may have been involved over the years, but luck is difficult to measure. I do know a lot of hard work was a big factor and that’s easy to measure. 

The industry has changed over the past 10 years, but there are constants that haven’t. People are still hungry for great stories. (I’m one of them.) Luck might get you a flash-in-the-pan success, but then what? I’ve seen books that seemed to skyrocket to the top of the charts only to have the author unable to maintain any level of success, much less earn a living. It’s sad to see, and I didn’t want the same thing to happen to me. I pounded on my craft for years, trying to learn how to consistently write a good story. I’m a much better writer than I was when I wrote that first book. Those early days, I wondered whether what I was writing was good enough? Did I even like the story I was writing? Would anyone read it? Or worse, would a lot of people read it, and realize that I was just pretending?

I later found out that those questions are common among writers. If you’ve read or listened to an author interview, you’ve likely heard the same. 

But there’s more! 

After the book is released and readers get their hands on it—did they get their hands on it? Was there a good enough cover that made people curious? 

Maybe. 

What about the book description, or as authors refer to it, the blurb? Did the blurb create enough intrigue that enticed someone to look at the sample and read a few pages. If the stars aligned, then the book I wrote was the right fit for that particular reader. But skills in getting the right cover and writing a great blurb were something I didn’t have 10 years ago. There are great cover designers out there who have a breadth of knowledge at their disposal, and I relied on their expertise. I’d share a few inspirational images that contain the spirit of what I’d like to see on the cover. 

Blurb writing is a whole other animal. There are tons of okayish blurbs out there. They need to be written for a particular audience. I prefer simple and straightforward blurbs. I don’t want the history of the world or a synopsis of the entire story. Blurbs are an introduction to the story. It’s really interesting and challenging studying blurbs. The interest for me is because I’m curious about how others are writing blurbs and is there something I could do better for my own blurbs. The challenge, especially for newer writers, is to separate a well written blurb from an author who has a dedicated following. Example – Stephen King. His name on the book cover will sell millions of books. The same can be said for other well known authors. They’ve turned their writing into a brand of storytelling that readers love. 

Blurbs matter if you’d like to earn a living writing as a writer. I know it matters to traditionally published authors who must pitch their stories to editors. There are some great resources (books and blog posts) to help with writing blurbs, but I’ve found that reading blurbs (of consistently selling authors) in my target genre is where the gravy is at. They’ve either built an audience or are building their audience. But, it also depends on what your goals are. My bias tilts toward someone who wants to make writing a career. Not everyone does. I was a part-time writer for 5 years before I was confident enough to take a real shot at changing careers. Even then, the work wasn’t done. I’ve arrived at the conclusion that I will always be tweaking my skills at telling a great story and the other parts of this whole writing business. I reread my favorite books on craft to glean nuggets of wisdom that I either needed refresher on, or hadn’t gotten the first time around. I sometimes read new (for me) books on storytelling. I definitely have a bias toward books or interviews with authors or filmmakers who have consistently told great stories. That’s the success I’m hoping to emulate, because I want a long writing career. We can’t count on winning the proverbial lottery and write that once-in-a-generation book that becomes a global success. That doesn’t mean I wouldn’t want it to happen to me, but it’s comforting to know that you can improve your skills, build an audience, and earn a nice living doing what you love. 

Book reviews, and/or reviews of my books. 

My perspective on this has flip flopped over the years. I’ll state right off the cuff that I do read all my reviews. But, I manage when I do read them, because sometimes reviews have a way of getting into your head, especially the bad ones. I’ve learned how to deal with those. General advice I’ve encountered on reading reviews goes from never do it, to read the bad ones and look for a pattern so you can improve your work. I think listening to bad reviews is about the worst advice you could possibly follow. There hasn’t been a nugget of wisdom worth listening to in any 1 or 2-star reviews. Almost always, they confirm that the book wasn’t for them. Fair enough. Why would I ever listen to the lowest percentage of readers who didn’t enjoy my stories and aren’t likely to try my books ever again? Better yet, why would I ever listen to those 1-star reviews over the people who actually enjoyed the book or series? There is more insight in positive reviews than the negative ones. Readers will tell you what they enjoyed most about the story. Did they like a particular character or direction the series is going. As a storyteller I’d much rather please 90% of my audience than lose any of that 90% trying to satisfy the 10% who didn’t like it. We can’t please everyone, and we really shouldn’t. Even the most well received books has their share of critics. 

I can already anticipate reactions to those comments above. The assertions that I simply can’t take criticism. Heh, maybe. If some part of the feedback resonates with me, then I do take that into consideration. But, I wouldn’t bank my whole career on one or even a few people’s feedback. I’ve seen this twist writers into knots, and in some cases, cut their careers short or prevent it from getting off the ground in the first place. 

Something for the journyman author who has released a handful of books that haven’t hit the mark. It’s frustrating. I get it. I really want to offer some good actionable advice for this, but it’s hard because depends. Different genres have different expectations from their readers and there are sliders for those expectations. Some ideas have only a niche audience. Remember that first series of books I’d mentioned earlier. It was fantasy mixed with science fiction. Hardcore readers of both genres probably won’t enjoy it. This is where reading reviews can offer insight. Distilled the compliments and critisms in their most basic forms. Then take a break and come back to it fresh. To take it a step farther, I suggest reading reviews of books and series whose success you’d like to emulate. 

If all else fails, I usually go back to story craft and making sure I’m ticking the boxes that my readers want from my stories. 

Something that makes me scratch my head, even to this day, are other would-be authors who 1-star other authors’ work. Sometimes they’re trying to be a story expert, a self-professed expert in everything story, but they’re not. You can usually tell when a writer is reviewing a book. They use language that most readers don’t. Those would-be writers eventually release their “perfect” book, which often flops big time. I’ve even had some of these authors reach out to me for advice, then proceed to leave bad reviews for all my books at the same time. I’ll never understand the thought process behind this behavior. If I don’t like a book, I just move on. My advice to the authors who think of themselves as critics is to keep a few things in mind. 

1) Authors who have consistently released books that are well received by readers is because their stories are good. Period. You might not like it, which is fine, but why put out that negative energy by being petty? Don’t. 

2) Try to understand why readers are engaging with particular types of stories. This will help any author who is frustrated with their own stories, or lack of reception of their stories.

3) If, after some thorough analysis, you simply don’t understand or like those stories, move on. It’s that simple. Move on and figure out what kind of story you actually want to tell. 

4) Don’t launch a smear campaign against a fellow author. It really isn’t the best use of your time, and it will never address what’s really frustrating you. 

I have this mindset that the kind of energy I put out in the world affects my personal experience in it. Karma. I’m pretty sure someone much smarter than me said, hey, don’t be a dick. It’s that simple. 

I have yet to meet another author who doesn’t like to talk about writing or “the business side of things” especially at cons. I know a lot of us are introverts, but sometimes an actual conversation yields so much more than emails or a few words on social media. Go to author conferences and interact with other writers. It’s a great experience.

Chasing dreams can be humbling, endlessly frustrating, and exceedingly rewarding. I read somewhere a long time ago that the frustration is the learning part. It kinda stuck with me. I don’t enjoy the frustration, but I recognize it for what it is. Writing a book is simple, but it’s not easy. I will say it does get easier the more you do it. I wish it were as easy as simply writing more will make you a better writer. It’ll help, but writing more stories does have a cap on improving storytelling capabilities. Writing isn’t for everyone. It’s the truth. You can quit, and honestly, there isn’t anything wrong with that. 

I can hear it now. 

How can you say that, Ken! 

Never give up! Never surrender! 

Yeah, yeah, I get it. I do. I didn’t give up, and I won’t. But sometimes, it’s just not meant to be. I think there is a heck of a lot more self-respect to be had by taking a real shot at something, than simply enjoying a fantasy. Not everyone has it in them to be an author just like any other profession, but there are commonalities that I’ve seen among author success stories that persist regardless of gender or genre. Let’s assume for a second that you’re not some kind of closet genius and are like the rest of us. We’re normal people who have to work for everything and at everything to develop a skill. Many of the authors I’ve researched, whether they are traditionally published or independently published, achieved the success they have because they worked hard. There is a common thread among their origin stories. They fit writing into their busy day on a consistent basis however they could. They researched the genre they wanted to write in. They read, A LOT. They also tried their hand at writing different genres, and sometimes they discovered a talent for writing something they hadn’t expected. There is a lot of trial and error in this. However, every single author has the same starting point. Everyone has been the person who has never written a story before. But they did something that most people simply don’t do. They chased a dream.

When I published my first book 10 years ago, I didn’t really know what to expect. I wasn’t an overnight success in that I sold millions of copies of my first book right out of the gate. I did sell about a thousand of them over the first few months. Despite what I now consider amateurish writing, people did connect with the story. It was validation as an author I hadn’t realize that I’d wanted or needed. 

Writers are a mixed bunch, like people in general, I guess. We all have our own individual goals and reasons for writing. I’d dreamt about becoming a full-time author since I was a teenager. What would it be like, and could I really do it? That first year of writing part-time, I was dipping a toe into the water to see whether writing novels was a real possibility. Eventually, I wanted more. I wanted to replace my salary and to be honest, I wanted to earn a good bit more than my previous salary. I never wanted to be a starving artist.

A couple of takeaways from writing those early books. First, I liked writing stories. It was challenging and fulfilling. I had skills that needed a lot of work, but I was bitten by the bug, and I didn’t want to stop. I paid attention to reader feedback, which mainly came back in book reviews, but also through emails. With each book that I wrote, my writing improved. I learned to recognize my own particular stumbling blocks and experimented with different ways to overcome them. I made productivity a priority because I knew I could always go back and polish it after. 

Along the way, I read many books about writing and storytelling (They’re different). Some of those books resonated with me, while others didn’t. I have a few that are my “go-to” references that I’ll put down at the bottom. I also watched/listened to a lot of author interviews, looking for a nugget of wisdom about their own journeys. I was especially keen to find authors who had written longer series that gained momentum as it went on. Those are harder to find than you might think. 

One of the questions I often get is when did I find time to write. The truth is I didn’t. I made time to write. I tried writing at all different times throughout the day to see what worked best. Eventually, I found that getting up before work to write was best for me. However, I wrote my very first book during my lunch breaks, 30 minutes at a time. Time is like saving money. It adds up. Sometimes I’d get an evening writing session too. 

One of the habits that made the biggest difference in my productivity was that I started tracking my word counts in a spreadsheet. Over time, my word-counts increased. I still track my word counts. 

Not all my time was spent writing. Shocking, but it’s true. Sometimes I was planning and researching. I used to work from two outlines. One was very high-level and the second was more specific with chapter goals. I still do a variation of this, but I’m now able to plot out the entire book before I start. 

I also listened to writing podcasts during my workouts or commutes to and from work (Sometimes during work if my schedule allowed). I immersed myself in it. It was comforting to hear from other writers and their origin stories. 

The best advice I can offer other writers, no matter where they are in their career, is to be honest about your weaknesses and work to overcome them. If your books are missing the mark, read more in the genre you’re hoping to have more of an impact. Not only that, break down the story, chapter by chapter, and you should get an understanding of the story on a deeper level. I also think it’s important to experiment with writing different genres. I grew up reading a lot of epic fantasy and thought that this was the kind of fiction I wanted to write. I was wrong. Way wrong. 

I hope there are a few nuggets of wisdom in this blog post that will resonate with someone.

Writing books that resonated with me: 

Immediate Fiction by Jerry Cleaver. This book is based on a successful writers’ workshop that was taught for over 20 years. This book resonated with me more than any writing class I’d participated in. It’s a great starting point. I wish Mr. Cleaver was alive so I could tell him how much his book helped me. 

I’m a big fan of Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files. Remember earlier when I said I wanted to find an author whose series gained momentum as the series grew? These books really resonate with readers, and I wanted to emulate that in my own work. The next two writing craft book recommendations stem from him. They’re written by Deborah Chester, who also has a great writing blog with lots of good information. (Link to Blog)

Fiction Formula Plotting

Fiction Formula Plotting Practice

I find that a lot of writing books take forever to get to the point. Deborah Chester's books don’t. I often refer back to these books when I’m plotting a new book. 

Another great book on bare bones outlining is Take Off Your Pants by Libbie Hawker. I hadn’t discovered this gem until I began writing my second series (Ascension), and boy did it help me in terms of structuring a good story. 

Also useful are videos of Brandon Sanderson’s writing course at Brigham Young University, which I also found useful when I was getting started. Search YouTube and you’ll find them there.

Look, there are tons of writing books out there, and they all have their strengths. Read some of them, and talk to other authors. You never know when that tuning fork in your brain will start to resonate with great idea. 

I hope this was helpful, and I hope I’m here 10 years from now writing a blog post about my 20 year writing career!

~Ken