ALLi Author Self-Publishing Success Story

Every Sunday we interview a successful self-publishing author happy to share best practices and tips for indies at every stage of their careers. Today we welcome US author-publisher Richard Lowe, who explains how he has diversified, combining many opportunities offered by modern self-publishing, including ghostwriting, audiobooks, and courses, to earn a living from his multi-faceted writing career.His advice includes how to:

• prioritize and plan your work to avoid overcommitment
• boost writing productivity using voice recognition
• remain motivated and creative in a busy writing life

What’s your proudest achievement as an indie author?

My biggest achievement as an author is consistently making a living, paying all the bills and then some, using my writing skills.

I have written over 113 books across different genres under my own name, plus a number under pen names. They make money month after month.

I also took another author’s advice and published 26 audiobooks. Those bring in a small amount each month, and I don’t have to do any work for it. It just appears in my bank account.

I’ve ghostwritten books about the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, and augmented reality, all highly technical subjects. I’ve also ghostwritten or coached books about retirement, dentistry, cleaning, and property management. The most interesting was the memoir of an Afghan politician who fled Afghanistan just before the Soviets invaded.

I’ve helped over 300 people with their LinkedIn profiles. That’s fulfilling because it helps them with their careers and businesses.

My real pride comes from being able to accept a book project on any subject, as long as it doesn’t violate my moral and ethical standards, and bring it to completion.

I’ve been writing courses designed to help fiction authors understand how to write and promote fiction books in different genres. I’m proud of this work because it helps writers of all levels communicate their message.

My current personal project is a ten-volume science fiction series set a million years in the future.

What’s the single best decision you ever made?

In 2013, I had been working in technology for over 33 years, with 20 of those at a major retail chain. The stress was causing problems: headaches, physical symptoms, severe pain. I was on call 24/7, which meant phone calls on weekends, evenings, anytime. The computer systems I managed were highly unstable, so calls came at all hours. I eventually started hiking in national parks, partly because cell phone coverage didn’t work so I could truthfully say I didn’t get the call.

In October 2013 I decided to leave my job of 20 years and become a professional writer. This turned out to be one of the best decisions I ever made. Sure, I’m not making anywhere near the money I was making at that job, but I make more than enough to pay the bills and live a decent lifestyle.

There’s stress, don’t get me wrong. As a freelancer, every month brings the stress of getting enough business to cover everything. But it’s entirely different from having the CEO, three VPs, and half the business standing over my shoulder asking why the computer was down and implying it was all my fault.

I’m much happier now doing something I enjoy and having the opportunity to fulfill my passion.

What’s been your biggest surprise as an indie author?

Three things surprised me most as an indie author.

1. How much control I have over my books. I create a cover and can change it at will. If a book’s not selling, I change the cover, and that often makes sales pick up. I’m in charge of promotion, writing, proofreading, editing, and every other phase of creating books. I am the master of my destiny as an indie writer.
2. The other side of that coin: I am responsible for creating and selling my books. If I don’t do what needs to be done to make them sell, they don’t sell and I don’t make money. There’s constant juggling: promote books, write new books, handle freelancing clients, work on social media, and everything else that goes into a successful career as an indie writer, ghostwriter, and freelancer.
3. How much I love writing books. When I started as a professional writer, I would take on anything to make money. But I quickly narrowed down to books. I love writing books. That’s my passion. All aspects of my freelance career now aim at writing and selling books in one form or another. This aligns with my goals in life.

For the first time in my life, I am fulfilling my goals and working towards my passions.

What’s your greatest challenge, and how do you deal with it?

My greatest challenge has been being too creative and too able to do too many things.

I frequently bite off more than I can chew. I write very quickly, sometimes as much as 14,000 words in a single day, ready to publish. That tends to make me over-commit. By writing that much, I have no downtime, no time to relax.

What I had to do was:

• become more realistic about what I can accomplish without burning out
• learn to schedule everything on a calendar and stick to that schedule

When a client calls saying they want something, I put it on the calendar. When that time comes, I work on it.

How do you get/stay in a creative mood?

I’m always in a creative mood. I love to write. Sometimes I have to force myself away from the keyboard because sitting too long is bad for the back.

• I get up for 10 minutes every hour at least.
• Walk around the block a couple of times.
• Get outside and look at things, talk to the neighbors.

Another thing that’s helped my creativity is voice dictation. I dictated the answers to these questions. This increased my productivity and removed the barrier between me and getting my thoughts into the computer.

I didn’t realize how much of an effect voice recognition software would have on my creativity and my ability to write. It’s been dramatic.

The third thing I’ve done is interview other authors. It’s fascinating learning about their challenges, successes, and motivations. This has caused me to think in new ways and understand that I’m not alone. There are other authors out there willing to help or be helped. That’s motivating.

How do you remain productive and motivated?

One of my greatest techniques is voice dictation.

That increased my writing from 5,000 words a day to as much as 14,000, sometimes even 20,000 words in a single day.

The dictation is pretty good and only requires a light edit afterwards to be publishable. This dramatically increased my productivity.

As far as motivation goes, my biggest problem is trying to do too many things at once. I did exactly this with making a living self-publishing. This is part of my Publishing & Marketing Hub, where I collect everything on the topic.

It feels like the entire universe is trying to smash into my head at the same time. I’ve had to learn to reel it back and do one thing at a time, not bounce between projects constantly.

The biggest motivation of all is knowing that I have control of my destiny.

If I continue to write and produce books on a good schedule, I make more than enough money to survive and pay the bills. If I goof off, I have to scramble. I have only myself to blame, which gives me total control over my destiny. That’s a great feeling.

I call it the writing life:

• I get to make decisions about my life I never had the freedom to make before.
• I can decide if I’m going to work today or not. I can work in my pajamas.
• I can take my laptop to the pool and type from there.
• I can use voice dictation without worrying about bothering anyone.
• I can sell my books any way I want.
• I can write in any genre I feel like writing.
• Except for clients, no one can tell me what to do professionally.
• I have no boss other than clients. One key to surviving as a freelancer and ghostwriter is ensuring I have enough clients that I can walk away from any two of them immediately without putting anything at risk. You should never depend on just one or two clients. I like to have six at least at any one time.

Writing books fulfills my passions and is causing me to achieve my goals in life. I love the writing life more than anything I’ve done before. See how to compare publishing paths.

What’s your favorite thing about being an author-publisher?

My favorite thing is having total control over my own books. I sell them on Amazon, Audible, and as downloadable copies from my own website. I removed my books from Amazon KDP Select to give me the freedom to publish through Draft2Digital and other retailers. I get to choose what I want to do, and it’s up to me to make it happen.

That can be frightening to some people. It’s something you must come to terms with as an author. You control your destiny, but there’s nobody else to blame. You are responsible for your success or failure.

I love being in that position.

What are your top tips for other authors?

The biggest tip I’d give any author or aspiring writer is to decide if you’re doing it as a profession or hobby. If your goal is to turn writing into a career, you must treat it like one. If it’s a career, it’s a business, and making money is an important part of every business.

If you’re treating it as a business, set aggressive goals. You can’t make it as a writer with a goal of “writing when you feel like it” or “writing 500 words a day, maybe three days a week.” You’re not going to make it that way.

The key to success as a writing professional is being able to produce quality writing that people want to buy.

You must produce it at high velocity. Your first novel almost certainly won’t sell well, but you’ll learn the ropes. You’ll understand how to create a novel and promote it. Your second novel probably won’t sell well either. But you learn even more. By the time you publish your third novel, you’ll probably start seeing sales. As you publish more books, your writing becomes smoother and better, your fan base increases, and sales improve.

• If you write quickly, you can get past these initial books quickly. You build your fan base fast. You learn the lessons at high velocity.
• If you write slowly, the whole process takes longer.

My biggest advice is to write every single day, but take one day off per week at least:

• Set aside a certain number of hours that is your writing time. Turn off social media, turn off your cell phone, and make it clear to family and friends that you are not to be interrupted except for emergencies. Don’t tolerate any interruptions.
• Sit down and write. Set an aggressive goal for the day. 2,000 words is a good goal for beginning writers. Increase that goal regularly until you’re writing 4,000, 5,000, or more words per day.

Equally important: do not edit while you write. Do your writing first, then go back and edit. If you edit while you write, you’ll write yourself into writer’s block very quickly and you won’t get much done. This is the primary reason many writers can’t write more than a few hundred words in a day. They’re trying to make those few hundred words perfect. Don’t do that. Just write them. Then go back and edit.

What’s next for you?

I’ve been creating training courses for fiction writers, plus a couple for freelancers, to help them with different aspects of writing. I have genre-specific training courses available now for fantasy, science fiction, romance, and mystery. Each is a 20,000+ word, focused training package that describes everything you need to know to write, edit, publish, and promote short Kindle ebooks in that genre. I’m also writing similar training packages on various aspects of book promotion.

My goal is to help writers learn their craft and become the best they can be, so they can produce books that communicate their message to their audience.

I also continue freelancing and ghostwriting, and I’m always looking for new clients. I enjoy coaching a business person through the process of writing a book that will help them expand and grow their company. It’s fulfilling.

You can find me at:

https://www.thewritingking.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardlowejr/

Thanks for the opportunity to talk about myself, my passions, and how I can help other writers.