 Another post for those writing books.
Reddit posts about self-publishing are extremely sad reads most days. People who have tried their best to write what they consider a book (or books) worthy of purchase, asking and pleading for help to generate sales. I've answered a few, but doubt that helped much. If what they've written is good (it often isn't), they must then navigate the complex world of book marketing. How to get reviews and the role of influencers. How to create a homepage for the author and their books. Where to run ads, what makes a good ad, how to define their target audience, and the requirements and restrictions of advertising platforms. Reading their pleas for help, you feel their pain. Meta (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp) ads are the gold standard for selling books. But you need some knowledge of what to do and what not to do to get the most from your advertising investment. Those of you paying attention will recognize the image included in this post. I used it in an earlier post about the same thing, which generated the most responses in the last year. Many asked what they should do and/or whether I would do it for them for a fee. There is no short answer, and no, I won't do it for anyone other than myself, fee or no fee. But I will do this. Text, email, or PM me; we'll talk about how you learn book marketing.
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Those who have read The Unlived Lives Reckoning know that An, son of Asian, is special among all Unlived characters. (Haven’t read it? You’ll have to, to learn why.)
You also know I’ve set aside writing more Unlived and am encouraging others to pick up where I left off. There is interest in doing so, with four of you saying you don’t know where to begin. Not as easy as you expected, is it? Maybe this will help. I would focus on An, who, in Reckoning, is the most interesting, the most confused, and maybe the most fearful of all Unlived Lives characters to this point. Whether that is so was left to readers’ imagination, but it makes sense since he is the only one who is... A fourth book focused on An needs to introduce his storyline to readers in the first ten to fifteen short chapters. At that point, the book will begin to write itself, and readers will want to keep reading to find out what happens next. I have a rough idea of what I would do with him if I were writing the book. I’m not, but one or more of you could be. This is where collaboration among two or more people interested in the same concept could be mutually beneficial. I’ll be happy to join you in that conversation if you like. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FPGSCX1K #psychologicalthriller #fictionbooks #booktok Writing The Unlived Lives trilogy required imagining the unlived lives of the characters I created. Not always an easy task.
I would wake up at one or two in the morning, unable to fall back asleep, stuck on how I wanted Raymond, Shelly, and the others’ stories to go. Very frustrating; if I didn’t know what it should be while writing during the day, why would I suddenly be able to figure it out, sleep-deprived, in the middle of the night? Raymond and Shelly would certainly want to be the couple riding a scooter on a beach. And if that were one of their unlived lives, the dialogue between Raymond and Asian in the video would become obvious. “What do you want, Ray? When you know, make it happen.” Do you want to live a life different from the one you currently live? Start by imagining what that would be. List the steps you need to take to make it happen. If you find yourself thinking it could never happen, it never will. To make better choices in the future, Raymond, Shelly, and all the other Unlived Lives characters were given the opportunity to explore the lives they could have lived had they made different choices in the past. You can too. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FPGSCX1K “The Remains of Company D: A Story of the Great War” is about a group of doughboys, slang for US Army soldiers in WWI. It includes a quote from Orson Warren, the father of Bill Warren, who served in Company D, 28th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division.
"Orson Warren, born in 1860, seems to have had as little luck achieving professional success as he did in controlling his oldest child. Orson would admit in an autobiographical sketch he wrote in 1934: “The fact is, I have during my career lingered near the bottom rung. Then, too, my life has been so full of blunders it isn’t pleasant to think of having them paraded.” The last sentence is highlighted to emphasize what is true for most of us. We list our regrets, not our accomplishments, including the author of this book, when talking about someone else. More often than not, most readers commenting on my books do the same, talking about their unlived lives. I tell them to look for what they are pleased they did and said, along with what they wish they hadn’t. We need to do both to do more of the former and less of the latter in the future. I tell them that’s what they should do, though I don't always do it myself. Orson Warren found his “blunders” being “paraded” to be unpleasant. He graduated from college, became a teacher, married, and had a family. There was good he could have cited as well if he'd only looked for it. Don’t do what Orson did, or me, for that matter. Examine your life, but do so looking for good and the bad. You will find both. The Unlived Lives trilogy reminds readers of other books addressing similar themes, particularly The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. But the concept of lives not lived is not new or unique to Matt or me.
An exact match for a Google search for “unlived lives” returns approximately 21,000 URLs. Remove the quotes, and Google finds 25,000,000 to 30,000,000 matching URLs globally. I started writing The Unlived Lives of Raymond Quinn a little over ten years ago. No plan for what I would do with it; just something to occupy my time. I’ve since added The Unlived Lives of Shelly Bennett and The Unlived Lives Reckoning, completing the Unlived Lives trilogy. That’s enough “unlived lives” from me; we’ll now see what others interested in the concept might have in mind. In the meantime, take some time to contemplate the lives you might have lived had you made different choices in the past. As content as you are with where you are today, there’s always room for improvement. You’ll never know for sure what might have been, but you could change what happens tomorrow if you choose differently today. Hardly a day goes by without emails, texts, and messages from readers of the Unlived Lives trilogy. The majority are about how the books prompted them to examine their life choices. That wasn't my intent; I was just writing fiction. But I understand why it happened, because it did for me as well.
But you don't need to read a book about past choices to wonder how different your life would be if you had acted differently. The Unlived Lives trilogy just makes it very hard not to think about it, in most cases, leading you to conclude that your regrets outweigh your happiness. Examine your life, but do so with an eye for what you got right as well as what you didn't. Learn from it, remember it when making that next important decision. We all get second (third, fourth, etc.) chances in life; apply what you've learned from the past to improve your future. It’s never too late to change. All three books in the Unlived trilogy are now available in print, digital, and audio formats. Total sales for each are running about as expected, except for audio.
To date, Raymond has sold the most total and audio because:
That doesn't mean I regret offering audio, but I do question whether it will ever become part of the "cake" or, at best, remain a thin coating of "icing" on the "cake". I don't control audio pricing; ACX does. Without a subscription, audio versions cost two to three times as much as print or digital editions. What percentage more than a digital copy, the least expensive of the three formats, would you be willing to pay for books you read or listen to?  Based on the image in this post, doesn't it seem as though writing and marketing your own books is a good way to make a living? All you have to do is read one of these "how-to" books, self-publish, and deposit royalty payments.
I've been following a few subreddits where first-time, unknown authors ask questions about writing, self-publishing, and book marketing. If you are an unknown self-published author hoping or assuming you will make money selling your books, here are the current statistics for sales:
I am you, and these statistics apply to me as much as they do to you, with one exception. My Unlived Lives books in all three formats have sold over 1,700 copies to date. How? I invested serious marketing money to make that happen, and as of now, the Unlived Lives project is neither profitable nor at break-even. I didn't expect it to be. I did it to build awareness for future sales once all three books were available in all three formats. They are now; it remains to be seen how good an investment that will be. I'm not trying to discourage you from writing. On the contrary, if you enjoy writing, write! But do so with realistic expectations about the financial side. Don't spend money you need for other aspects of your life. Earning a living writing is an extremely tough game. You could be one of the very few who make it work, but what if you're not? You've worked hard writing your book, now work even harder/smarter with reasonable expectations for how and what it will cost to market it.  Now that all three books in the Unlived Lives trilogy are published in all three formats (well, not exactly. Still waiting for Reckoning in audiobook format to clear the ACX review process. Should be any day now), I thought I would check in on the Many Worlds Interpretation debate/argument.
Emphasis on "argument." Generally, two science nerds, one who believes there are an infinite number of universes parallel to the one we inhabit, the other certain there are not, arguing about something that cannot be proved or disproved. Personally, I don't concern myself with any of that. I chose to write the trilogy as though they did exist simply because it seemed like it could make good fiction. Back to my update, I searched for "Many Worlds theory argument," and the first result was Joe Scott and his video, The Most Convincing Parallel Universe Story. Joe's presentation style eases the viewer into a subject that is challenging for solid C science students like me. But I grasped enough to keep watching to the end. If you've read or listened to one, two, or all three of the Unlived Lives trilogy and have 18 minutes of free time, watch Joe straddle both sides of the Many Worlds theory debate (argument). Doing so won't help you understand what you didn't in my books, but you should enjoy it nevertheless.  If you've written a book or are contemplating writing a book, look at my Meta Ad Manager page.
Intimidated? If not, if you know what that's about, move on; there's nothing for you to see here. If you haven't a clue what this is, don't move on; read on. I was you when I released The Unlived Lives of Raymond Quinn in October 2024, book one of the Unlived trilogy. I had learned much more by October 2025, when the sequel to Raymond, The Unlived Lives of Shelly Bennett, came out. The Unlived Lives Reckoning is now available, and while I know even more than I did for Raymond and Shelly, I'm still learning. Don't do as I did and publish your book with no idea how to market it. Don't pay others who promise to do marketing for you. They will, for a price, and the great majority of them are scams. I am not a book marketing expert, but I have learned a great deal about marketing my books with sales to prove it. I can help you begin to learn what you need to know to have a chance at sales success for your book. I won't ask you to pay me anything. I'm just paying forward the help others gave me. |
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