career

Crossing $1000 in Book Royalties 2022

Lee Hall Leave a comment

Money.

A subject that can be kind of divisive for anyone who has published or released something creative in this world and for pretty much everyone else. With that discussion firmly to one side, this is my account of how I crossed $1000 in book royalties for the year 2022. Making any type of income from my books and creativity online crept up on me over the years and while I did spend my time churning out content and publishing with my head down doing the work, eventually my income began to grow.

Before I do dive in, I’ve always believed that creatives deserve to be paid for their work. And its perfectly valid for an artist or any creator to value their work. It is also normal and okay for a creator to aspire towards making a career out of their endeavours – something I one day aspire to do. But that word value is where we shall begin…

Value

Over the years of being published I’ve discovered that having a perceived value for your works is the first step to making money from them. From taking pride in a job done well to the hours you’ve put in to create something from scratch to even your public perception of that work. All of this stuff and the general success of it along with you, revolves around that value. There is a lot more I could say about value, but as long as you are aware of how you conduct yourself online and have pride towards your work, you’ll be fine.

Now, linked rather closely to value is pricing…

Pricing

That perception and belief of value should drive what you think is a fair price for your work. Pricing for books can be a sometimes tricky thing to master. I’ve tried numerous pricing strategies over the years but my major selling price was in fact my perceived regular price.

Having tried the lowest possible price for my e books via kindle ($0.99) for an extended time didn’t result in many consistent sales but after raising that price (around $2.99) things started moving more frequently. This is part value and psychological towards the potential reader. Low prices can be good for a temporary book promotional boost, but a decent competitive price over an extended time will do good for your sales eventually. Paperbacks are another factor here also and seeing as I used to sell predominantly digital, paperback sales began to rise for me in recent times. This is probably due to fair pricing and value while also because of my rising profile on social media. Having 40,000 Twitter followers does help sometimes but it took a while for me to get there.

With regular sales at regular price, royalties will trickle in consistently and we’re not talking several sales a day here. Just a consistent one or two sales every three or four days will work wonders for that royalty balance trust me. And trust, is a huge factor in this…

Trust

Just how does a creative earn trust online? Well it isn’t easy and it takes time, a lot of time. But if you take responsibility in everything you do in the public facing domain of social media, eventually you’ll earn that trust of others. I sell most of my work through social media because I am present and generally pleasant. Decent behaviour sticks out big-time in this day and age. Running parallel to that time I have spent earning trust is consistent creative content…

The Three C’s

Those who know me will also know my guide book is titled Consistent Creative Content and I wholeheartedly believe they are three things any creator needs to succeed. It took me six or so years to release eight books and using my time rather well it has propelled me towards higher royalties. This writer journey is a marathon not a sprint and you may be one or two books in or more, but over time it gets better if you keep going. Readers like choice and if they make a good enough connection with one of your books, they will return for another, so having that option will increase your chances of sales. Backlist really is King and alongside that is another huge factor, promotion…

Promotion

Book Promotion is a huge umbrella of variety and to the first-time author a rather daunting concept. You can only do what you know how to do at the time of a book release and that’s okay. I’ll admit my book promo methods were limited during the release of my first book and over some years I learned a lot. All of the things I did learn I then applied back to that first release and it is now one of my most successful.

With book promotion and discovering the many methods it involves, this will take time. Generally, I pay for advertising via book promotion websites while also plugging my work online occasionally. My method for regular sales is to focus more on convincing potential readers to be interested in me and then hope they move on to my books – this concept works for me mostly…

I am regularly present on social media. For those who aren’t, advertising takes many forms and if you want serious results then sometimes you have to pay serious money.

BookBub is a promo site that brings fantastic returns and during 2022 a perfect BookBub storm unexpectedly erupted for me. It was during the run-up to the final release in my Order of the Following Series that I managed to grab a coveted featured deal -BookBub’s ‘Holy Grail’ of advertising packages, for the first book in the series. Of course I pounced and put into action everything I’ve learned to ensure maximum sales and KU page reads.

That featured deal happened back in September of 2022 and now in February of 2023 I am still getting page reads, reviews and sales from it.

An effective book promotion, will serve a book for plenty of time after.

Most of my fictional works are enrolled in Kindle Unlimited and that gives maximum opportunity for extended royalties from digital downloads. Quantity is key here and if you can sell books in quantity, the money will eventually roll in.

Quick Fire Factors

And so I’ve hopefully laid out the details to reaching a huge royalty milestone. Here are some quick fire factors that helped shape that journey.

Writing in Series – long term but this helps, when my series was complete it became way more lucrative, keep going series writers!

Writing Stand Alone – peppered between those releases in series are stand alone books in a variety of genre and length. This helped me big-time. Remember backlist is King.

Supporting the industry – I regularly review books by fellow authors from my social media connections. This has helped me regularly release reviews that serve as blogging content and is an opportunity to gain trust and friendships from fellow authors.

Social Media Presence – there are a lot of potential readers out there online, spending time with them will drive sales, eventually.

Time is your friend – it takes time to get to anywhere good on a creative journey.

Paid Advertising – to make money you sometimes have to spend money.

Kindle Unlimited – most of my fictional works including my series is enrolled in KU. Those page reads add up if you can reach readers.

Taking this journey seriously – serious results comes from a serious attitude. I am always doing something to help market myself or my stuff online. From blog posts, to reviews, to social media presence to the odd book price promo or advertising.

Concluding Thoughts

I’ve tried to be as neutral as possible when highlighting my experiences of making over $1000 is book royalties because like I said at the start, money can be divisive subject. For this account I have homed in on certain subjects that all work in unison to create the perfect recipe for book royalties. You shall find more specific guidance below.

Thank you for reading!

This account was inspired by a recent Patreon Audio Presentation where I talk in detail about my journey. You can find that here.

Further Reading:

Building Trust on Twitter

My Most Recent Guide on Securing a BookBub Featured Deal

A guide to Selling Books on Social Media

Twitter Coaching Sessions

A concise list of Book Promotion Websites

Relaunching Patreon

Lee Hall

I’m bringing back my Patreon. Those who have been around since last year might remember that I took the plunge into starting one and now I’m ready to return to it. My initial vision to start a Patreon was simply an experiment and now with everything I have learned, I’m diving back in.

So just what am I offering on Patreon and what is Patreon? Good questions and simply Patreon is a subscription based platform where creatives can earn an income for their work. There will always be those who roll their eyes or turn their noses up at the concept of creatives making money and I’m not doing it for that but simply because my guides have value – you won’t be able to find what I have on offer anywhere else. I used my Patreon to release author/social media guides and a little fiction, some of it was free to read while others are behind an affordable pay wall of just over £1/$1. That content is still available including a whole book.

Time constraints and the fact my social media following was a lot less back then kind of forced me to re-think and put together a brand new strategy for how my Patreon would offer the very best in guides for fellow indie authors at an exclusive level. Now my Patreon will feature guides and specific coaching based content that will be found nowhere else. Very soon I am going to release a series of audio based guides that will provide detailed coaching on Twitter for creatives – a subject I know a lot about. From selling books/content regularly to reaching more followers, I’ve learned a bunch which I will exclusively pass on to Patrons. Those who do sign up will get regular shout-outs on my Twitter in front of 27,000+ followers and will also have access to all future content on Patreon.

I don’t see this as a cash grab as my subscription fee is very affordable but I do see my work as valuable to those who need it. I’ve spent many years working to this point and above all, I am incredibly excited to help fellow authors and creatives.

Right now I am working on updating my Patreon page, but here’s the link if you wanted to take a look. You can read some guides and the entire novel ‘Last Outlaw’ a book that I will probably publish next year.

You can expect to hear more soon!

Joining Patreon

Lee Hall Leave a comment

As mentioned recently I have taken the rather uncertain step towards authoring and blogging being a potential career by joining Patreon. Yesterday my first guide post launched rather softly and that is going to be my approach to begin with. Gradual has always been my key to success in any new venture and social media is a tough arena to launch new ventures in.

My ultimate goal is to help others in the world of authoring, blogging and creating because helping others is fulfilling and being known for that has presented me with an opportunity. Over the past year I have experienced enough growth to justify my work to have a certain value and so Patreon feels like the best choice to showcase future guides, book promotion results, writing tips, social media tutorials and even my fictional works. Most of this stuff is what my readers and followers want and I have a plethora of work planned for this venture. I hope it is received well while some of you on here consider joining me over there.

This blog will still operate at normal capacity. Lee’s Hall of Information will continue to provide readers with book reviews, weekly rambles, guest posts and all the usual content you can expect as a follower for free.

While some might think joining Patreon is just a cash grab, and there has already been some frosty-ness shall we say towards the idea of my blogging work being monetised but those who do choose to join my Patreon will be rewarded. The incentives range from a basic shout out on social media all the way to a free digital copy of my book ‘Consistent Creative Content’ and the higher tier will also include exclusive one on one Q&A’s. For now all of my future guides will be available first on my Patreon first and then eventually they will make their way to here, my base of operations. You can find all of the relevant information here.

The first month of content which includes a few guides and some exclusive fictional work will be FREE to read. I would have never got to this moment if it wasn’t for the loyal support you guys have shown for this blog. Whether you are a blogger, writer, creative or just a reader, I hope you’ll join me in this new venture that dreams are made of. Rock and roll man!

Weekly Ramble #118

Lee Hall Leave a comment

I’m warming to the idea of starting a Patreon for my writing and self help social media guides. My overall ambition is to make writing my primary occupation and this year has proven that I can take strides from this being a hobby to something much more serious. From having 10,000 people download one of my books in a single day to exceeding that same number in follows over on Twitter, maybe it is time to monetise my content.

Of course the concept of monetising isn’t just about me. I intend to very much make it worthwhile for my patrons by rewarding them not just with content but hopefully other stuff like social media shout-outs, guidance, and even author spotlight stuff on here – a place where I know book folks and good readers are. And this won’t be monetising all content all the time – there is value in our words and with the right following it can be perceived that way.

Something seems to have aligned quite well with the content I create and the readers who appreciate it. You can see for yourself the plethora of social media, blogging and author guides I’ve put together over on the resources page to back that up. Not only do I have content, but a following who appreciates it and this is only ever going to be a career option if I take strides towards setting it up for that. By no means is this a cash grab because as I said there will be incentives for supporters that I will work for so to me, this is merely an opportunity for my words to support themselves and seeing that I have the infrastructure, perhaps Patreon is the way forward.

Already I have a content plan – much of the stuff you have become used to seeing on here will remain on here but will most probably premiere on my Patreon first. I’m committed to creating content that helps others and so the idea would be to make my Patreon an intimate way of passing on knowledge not just through posts but with perhaps one on one coaching – this will all depend on the level of membership available. I am also envisioning to release exclusive fiction stuff to patrons as a further reward for their support. Watch this space.