All the Lies - Charlotte Byrd Page 0,44
catalog so that I have some leeway in terms of my publishing. If I want to take a day off or a week off, I can. Maybe even a month. There are hungrier authors coming after me and I have seen others who have made as much as I have suddenly dwindle down to making almost nothing. If you don't have new books out, then someone else will catch your readers' attention. My readers want to read something new every two months, if not sooner. Perhaps, I can push it to three months, but if I'm only putting out two books a year, I'm going to lose them.”
“Wow, that's a lot.”
“I worked really hard to get here and this is the only thing I've ever wanted to do. My readers allow me to do my dream job for a living.”
“I really appreciate you telling me all of this,” I say. “I had no idea that this industry even existed. I mean, I knew about the Kindle, I knew that some people were self-publishing, but I had no idea that people were doing so well.”
“Some people are making thirty thousand dollars per year. Others are making a six-figure salary. Then there are those that are making six figures a month, and some are making in the high six figures a month.”
I shake my head and think about my salary of thirty-five thousand dollars a year.
“This sounds like a gold rush,” I say.
“It's not. Actually, the gold rush is over. Back in 2011 and 2012, authors were putting their books up on Kindle and doing no advertising at all, with crappy covers and they were still clearing six figures or more. Many of them got traditional publishing deals and the majority of those said that they're not really worth it. There's just a lot more money to be made in independent publishing if you write books that the audience wants, that fit the stories that you want to tell, and if you publish those books consistently. Learning how to do Facebook advertising as well as Amazon and pop-up advertising isn't going to hurt. In fact, that’s pretty much required.”
“So, is that what you meant by you being an author in addition to being a writer?”
He nods and says, “When I was first starting out, the field was pretty robust and competitive, but I didn't have any money to pay a cover designer. What I would do is watch YouTube videos and figure out how to use Photoshop. I started out with some basic covers. They weren't the best, but I have republished a number of my old books and rebranded them with new covers, new blurbs, and things like that. Anyway, you learn if you take the time to learn, and time was what I had since I didn't have much money.”
“What about now?”
“The funny thing is that I actually learned enough that I continue to make my own covers. I don't know exactly how to communicate what I want on the cover since I have no idea what it is that I even want. So, I look for stock images, I manipulate them, and I look at other covers to try to find inspiration. Of course, the covers and the blurbs are your first point of contact with your readers so they have to be spot on for your category, otherwise your book will never be bought.”
“Wow, you know so much about this,” I say, shaking my head. “I wish I could just talk to you about this forever.”
“Well, you're more than welcome to stay for dinner, but only if you promise to tell me something about yourself as well. I'm a bit of a recluse if you hadn't noticed so when I'm around people, I tend to dominate the conversation.”
I laugh and agree to his terms.
27
Emma
When we take the conversation to the couch, I ask him about how he writes now.
He has already told me more than a lot, but it seems like he mainly said what hasn't worked or what has worked in the past. Not what is working now.
“Well,” Liam says, taking a sip of his tea from a glass see-through mug.
The peppermint tea is golden brown in color and there is a pyramid shaped teabag bopping at the surface.
“Why are you so curious about this?” he asks. “Is it just writer's block or is it something else?”
“It's mainly the writer’s block. I’m working on a love story, I guess a romance, and I just don't know where