How to Make a Living as a Self-Published Author: 2 Fiction Methods
Bella Rose Emmorey
book editor, rogue behaviorist, digital marketer, writer, brand builder, plant aunt, and cheese enthusiast.
$ $ It’s easier now than ever before to make a living as a self-published author. But "easier" doesn’t necessarily mean easy. Any career worth pursuing (especially your dream) will take time. If you’re looking for a get-rich-quick method, this is not for you.
That doesn’t exist in the book world, so let’s set that expectation now.
If you’re looking for a proven, replicable strategy you can use over a few years to work toward a reliable full-time income, then these strategies are for you.
The method for going full-time with books is simple (not synonymous with easy): sell more than one book to a single reader.
It’s based on the idea that you’ll sell multiple books to a single reader and compound your income. Basic math. Here’s proof of real authors making healthy incomes from their books:
Some of these numbers are over a long period of time, others are in a single year. But all of these authors put in the time and followed many of the strategies below.
This is not a post about how to market your book! This is a long-term strategy for how to build a base and book roster that will bring you an author income.
How to Make a Living Writing Fiction in 2 Ways
Publishing many novels and series works to grow your author platform as a whole based on the idea that more books = more opportunities for readers to discover you. Instead of only one listing on Amazon, a book series gives you the potential for many—including box sets.
Think of it like each book and product (box set) is a branch that reaches out from your author network. The more branches, the more entry points for potential readers.
There are two primary methods for fiction: multiple book series or many standalone novels in the same world.
Method 1: Writing and Publishing a Book Series
Series are easiest to sell multiple books simply because one reader will want to buy the next book. The more books in a series, the higher LTV (lifetime value) of each reader. Which means that instead of only making $5 from one reader, you can make $20 per reader if you have four books in a series.
But it’s not as simple as writing a series and hoping readers buy them all.
On average, about 50% of readers of book 1 will move on to book 2. From there, about 80% will read book 3, and after book 3, you’ll have close to 90% read the rest of the books. How the book and series is written strongly impacts these numbers.
This helps predict marketing needs and getting your book in front of new readers. But those numbers really only work if you understand the basics of writing a book series, structuring the chapters and books for read-through, and how to self-publish correctly.
The Basics of Writing a Book Series
Book series aren’t like standalone novels in the sense that $ writing the endings will be very different$ . Your series will have open loops within each book until the last. But that’s not all. Here are some basics for getting started writing a series.
1. Characters first: the characters bring readers from book to book. You can get away with a somewhat crappy plot if your readers become attached to the characters (but please write a good plot). Focus heavily on writing realistic characters with flaws that can be grown upon—the character arc is vital. You want your main character to be likable, capable, and/or sympathetic from the start. And you want to give them many flaws that hold them back so there are opportunities for growth in each book.
2. Overarching series plot: A good series will have a larger plot that will take multiple books to complete. For example, Hunger Games’ series plot is about overthrowing the oppressive Capitol regime, but each individual plot finds Katniss with a different objective to further that goal. Make sure your series has this "ultimate bad" your protagonist must defeat for the series to finish.
3. Individual book plots: Book 1 heavily focuses on the main character discovering what the overarching series plot truly is. At the end of the first Hunger Games book, Katniss realizes how corrupt the Capitol really is and that it needs to be destroyed, which takes her the rest of the series to accomplish through individual plots. Each book should have its own primary plot that contributes to the end goal of the overarching plot—Katniss' first goal is to survive the hunger games, which she does, and that leads her into the next book with the spark of revolution and an idea of the end goal.
4. Open & close loops: Throughout the series, you’ll want to continuously open and close loops from book to book. This is what will drive the plot forward and lead readers into the next book. You want to introduce characters, conflicts, or questions that go unanswered until the next book. Open loops in book one that close in book two. Open loops in book two that close in book three. Just remember to close the main plot loop for that book by the end.
5. Introduce new elements in each story: From the setting to characters to plot-specific devices, you want newness in each book. If you’re writing a steampunk fantasy where the first book takes place in a very rural setting with primitive technology, the next book may benefit from changing the setting to one that’s more advanced (like a bigger city) with new tech and possibilities. If you write $ portal fantasy$ , you can even drop your characters into a different world from the first that allows for new world building, magic rules, etc. The point is to keep it different enough that your reader feels the excitement of a new book while still following the main character/s.
Writing for Read Through
"Read Through" refers to the book’s ability to keep readers turning pages. It’s based on the understanding that fiction authors make the majority of their income from Kindle Unlimited, which pays authors based on pages read.
Here are some tips to write for a high read-through rate:
• Study other books: Go to the Kindle Unlimited store on Amazon and navigate to the genre and subgenre you write in. Choose a book that’s similar to what you’ll be writing and read. Take note of how the author ends chapters, and also how they end the book. Studying is one of the best ways to discover new hacks within your own genre because highly rated books are proof of what’s working.
• Use cliffhangers for chapters: Most traditional teachings tell you that each chapter should be a completed scene with a specific structure—opening, conflict, resolution. But for read through, you actually want to stop your chapters during the climax at the height of conflict. The structure will look like: resolution of previous chapter, opening of next scene, part of climax, end chapter. Keep in mind that you do need to give readers breaks, so you can separate your book by sections and fully end a chapter with a resolution for each section so your reader can put the book down (and not get annoyed).
• Short book resolution—if any at all: This goes against what we learn in school about books. Writing for read-through means getting the reader to the next book immediately. This results in many Kindle Unlimited books ending during or right after the climax. Just be sure you make a note in your book description that "This book ends on a cliffhanger" to avoid angry readers. The next book will then open with the resolution of the previous.
• Hire an editor who specializes in read through: Some editors can specialize in this. They’ll suggest where to separate chapters and even what to cut and put at the beginning of the next book.
Publishing the Series
You can’t just upload your book and expect it to do well. There’s a lot more that goes into setting your book up correctly on Amazon to help books sell. These are some strategies proven to work well for book series.
Rapid release: Instead of waiting a year + between books, write all the books (or a few) upfront and publish them one month apart or even within the same month. This triggers readers to consume your books quickly and boosts them in the algorithm, making them more visible to new readers. It’s more upfront work, but the payout is better than allowing readers to forget all about your books and not read them at all.
Categories: Trying to market an urban fantasy series in the epic adventure fantasy category won’t bring in sales. Make sure to study and determine which authors have books similar to yours and mimic the categories they use. You can also add $ more than the 3 categories$ offered when publishing if you contact Amazon.
Keywords: Keywords help readers find you when they search for something specific. As noted in our blog post about $ romance subgenres and tropes$ , using keywords in your title and book description is important for the search function. A reader searching "urban fantasy school" will be shown your book if you’ve included this in the description, keyword section, and even the title.
Ongoing reviews: Reviews boost your book significantly. The amount and the rating. Readers on Kindle Unlimited have the option to rate and review right after reading, but you can even remind them at the end of your book by including text at the end saying, "Loved this read? Make sure to review so others can love it, too!" Sometimes all it takes is an extra ask. Also remind your readers on social media or other marketing channels.
Create box sets: Once your series is finished, create a new book product on Amazon and $ publish the box set$ . This is the entire series in a single product and skips the necessity of needing every reader to move to the next book because you’re selling them all at once. It’s also another entry point we talked about, because the box set is its own list item on Amazon.
Build a universe to house multiple series: $ Ramy Vance$ , urban fantasy author, does this really well with his GoneGod World books. The universe each series takes place in is the same, with the idea that the old Gods have vanished and, in doing so, have unleashed all the mythical creatures back to the earth. While each series has a unique plot and characters, the common element is the world they’re based in. This causes fans of one series to buy another because of the world they love. This is the best long-term strategy to build a book series list to work through that I’m personally using. So far, I have 3 trilogy series planned for this world, with many more ideas pending.
Ultimately, you want to study and learn as much as you can about successful self-publishing. Your cover, title, book description, categories, and keywords can make or break your ability to be seen on Amazon, which will severely impact your goals of becoming a full-time author.
Method 2: Multiple Standalone Novels
If writing a book series isn’t for you, no worries! You can still make a living with standalone novels. These are complete books from start-to-finish that close every plot loop opened and have a satisfying ending.
The key here is to set up your books to serve the same audience many times. Romance is one of the most successful genres for this, but others work well too. Here are some tips to write these novels in a way that keeps readers moving from one book to the next, even if it’s not a series.
Publish One Genre Per Author Account
With self-publishing on Amazon, pleasing the algorithm is really important for book visibility. Every book you publish is added to your account information, including the categories and keywords used. When your author account has one specific category, it’s much easier for Amazon to recommend you and your books.
This doesn’t mean you can’t experiment within a genre, writing both gas-lamp fantasy and urban fantasy, for example. But you wouldn’t want to write contemporary romance, urban fantasy, and mystery novels all under the same author account.
If you want to write many genres, use unique author accounts (pen names) and keep your genres exclusive to those names. It might be more admin work to manage multiple author accounts, but the benefits heavily outweigh it.
How to Write Different Standalone Novels
You want to give readers more of what they love, but you don’t want your books to all be the same. The similarity you’ll maintain is the overarching genre. But you will change various elements within the standalone book.
Here’s what you can alter to write unique standalones your readers won’t get sick of.
Meet Genre Expectations: Read highly rated books in the genre you want to write in. You’ll pick up on patterns that readers not only want, but expect. In romance, you can never end the book without a happily-ever-after. To do so will anger your audience, and it won’t be considered romance, but something else. When you don’t fulfill genre expectations, readers get very upset. A great book to study this is $ Anatomy of Genres$ by John Truby.
Change Settings: You can write urban fantasy a number of different ways and in different cities/locations. One set in New York City will differ considerably from one set in Beijing, Tokyo, or even Mexico City. Romances also offer a wide range of versatility, too. A southern comfort romance is quite different from one set in Chicago, which is wildly different from a rainforest expedition setting.
Use Different Tropes: Tropes can give you strong, beloved frameworks to work through. Romance tropes are often easiest, but even in other genres you have tropes like orphaned child, found family, the chosen one, and more. Learn which tropes are popular in your genre and find a way to create a unique twist on them.
Create Unique Characters: One trap new writers fall into is writing protagonists that are all similar, despite being an entirely different book. The "badass warrior woman" is a popular character that becomes overwhelming after a couple books. Spend a lot of time learning how to craft realist characters that are different. This goes for secondary characters as well, who open the opportunity to write standalone novels about those characters, should your fans react really well to them.
Change the themes, conflicts, and story type: You don’t need to write the same theme of found family into every single book. To make this easier, focus on $ various conflict types$ in your standalones. You can also focus on the type of story you tell, those options being $ plot-driven or character-driven$ .
BONUS TIP for going full-time writing books:
If you’re the type who can play well with others, co-authoring books and publishing them together helps expand your network of readers by adopting another author’s fanbase. Authors don’t need to compete with one another. If a reader loves urban fantasy, they’ll read many different books and authors. No reader in the history of forever exclusively reads only one author.
Use that to your advantage and add more books to your roster. Plus, you can write and publish books faster if two people are working on them.
Try writing a split perspective book where each author writes a perspective. You do still have to meet, plot, and work together (in addition to splitting expenses and profits), but it can be done much faster than doing it yourself.
Full-time authors like $ Ramy Vance$ , $ Craig Martelle$ , $ S.W. Clarke$ , and $ Raven Kenndy$ use this method—at least one of these authors makes over $1 million per year from their books.
No matter which method you choose or genre you write, the best and most reliable way to make a living writing books is to write multiple books that serve the same audience. Put a plan together and stick to it. Three years might seem like a long time, but if you could leave your day job and only write books in the next 3 years…isn't that worth it?
To keep you on track, check out these 10 proven tips to make you more productive.
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