[Writerpreneur OS] Lesson 0402: Rules for Building a Profit-Making Publishing System

The trick to earning income from writing is both writing and publishing what people want - and being efficient at it...

Only the naive and stupid artists starve in garrets

A little homework will show you why...

There are 3 key rules to memorize as mantras. And the reasoning for these we've covered before - but repetition brings results. So:

1) Write short and narrow.

Most of the Golden Age writers learned their craft by sitting down and writing one short story per week and then shipping it off to a magazine editor.

Louis L'Amour, Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, "Max Brand", Erle Stanley Gardner. Just a few.

They also wrote those stories to a very precise genre. Above, you'll see mysteries, romance, science fiction, westerns.

Only later did most of these diversify onto additional genres - and sold there, too - because they were trained authors by that time.

And the discipline of writing weekly (not weakly) was what enabled these top names (whose works are still in print, by the way) to master their craft as a writer.

Write short and narrow.

2) Publish long and wide.

Once you have all these short stories, then compile them into collections and publish.

The longer paperbacks have always sold more and returned more income than single short works. Always. Despite all the current ballyhoo about ebooks.

Here's some authors who started making real money once they compiled their collections and sold them as hardbacks: Jack London. Ray Bradbury. "O Henry".

The math of this proves this out. Say that each of your short stories is 6,000 words long. And a decent paperback is 200 pages, or about 50,000 words. Every eighth short story, you could have a collection out there in print.

Meaning that while you create 50 short books a year, you should also be able to have 3 paperback collections out there.

The back end of that rule is to publish wide. You want to publish to as many different audiences as possible. Every major book distributor sells all the genres they can. But only a few Print on Demand publishers will actually send your paperback out to all the POD distributors.

So, be wary of where you publish your paperbacks (and hardbacks). You want to be everywhere, all at once. Do your due diligence.

Publish long and wide.

3) Build a deep backbench.

Few ball teams start out with just enough players to man the minimum positions on the field. A deep backbench ensures a good game.

When you look up the top-selling authors, you'll see that they have a lot of books to their credit.

See those authors mentioned above.

Most have the habit of typing "The End" and then rolling in a fresh sheet of paper to start the next one. Let's stick to authors whose books are still in print long after they have passed on.

L'Amour. Brand. Gardner. Bradbury. Even O. Henry.

You make more income by having a lot of books which follow the first few. That's your back bench.

Readers want to follow writers who follow that strategy. As people find out about your work, they'll want to get the earlier books. Ka-ching!

So:

1) Write and publish short and narrow.

2) Write and publish long and wide.

3. Build a deep backbench.

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