How's the writing career coming, Yea Forums?

40k of how many?

probably 60k total. i imagine much of that will end up scrapped, too

The first draft is the skeleton. The second is the meat and fat. The third is when it gets /fit/. Just get the words on the page, user. If you do 1000 per day youll have it done by the middle of next month.

>The first draft is the skeleton. The second is the meat and fat. The third is when it gets /fit/.
I don't get how people can do this. Every time I sit down to write I am hypercritical of myself and make so many amends along the way. By the time I finish my first draft and move onto the second I don't even feel the need to change anything,

Well it could just be different styles. For my first draft I turn off my interal editor. It is just about getting words on the page. Once they are finished I worry about making them pretty. Being hypercritical all along the way takes away from the flow. Outside of your writing name one other thing you completed perfectly the first time?

Yeah your system is probably superior. My "internal editor" is so powerful though it would take a lot of willpower to turn it off.

Still getting my few short stories rejected by the random magazines I send them to.

I'm meeting with my developer tomorrow to work on a website where I'm going to serially release short stories that all contribute to the same overarching plot.

Publishers, especially those publishing short fiction are super oversaturated nowadays. With how easy it is to publish a shitty fiction zine, it comes down to mostly personal taste— or maybe that's just what I tell myself.

post example writing

I drew a few illustrations for my book today

I received my first royalty check. $20,238 for the period of April 18 to April 30.

This. Just turned 30 too. Resigned myself yesterday to the fact it’ll never happen :/

Post proof or kys

WHAT!?

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>trying to write a query letter

this is somehow worse than writing the damn book

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This is the start of the second chapter that will be released. It's currently unpolished, as I'm waiting for the website to be ready before I delve too deep into fixing all my mistakes, of which I'm sure there are many.

It's dark fantasy with a little bit of absurdist horror sprinkled throughout the world. Let me know what you think.

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8/10 but i would remove the italicized

>sent batch of 5 queries for novel manuscript
>1 rejection
>no other responses
>turned down from all the contests I entered
It's exactly what I expected.
Doing what, fren? Trad or amazon?

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Done very little for the past 10 years, probably gonna get t he show on the road soon.

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Maybe it comes with age, but eventually I realized (without writing much at all) that the first draft is the outline. It's like that Twain quote, once you get to the end of what you're writing, then you'll be ready to begin. If your critic is preventing you from reaching the end of your piece, then push it aside until the second draft.

Well, I made $800 in one month in 2018, and have made at minimum $106 a month for a year. Several months of more than $400, but the average is probably more like $250-300. Hey, good supplemental income, especially for someone as poor as myself. This is a slow summer, last summer was booming. Already made $78 thus far in July, I'm aware that people are going to laugh at that and call it 'nothing' or 'pathetic', but I don't care. I've been making money from my writings for about 28 months. August 2017 if I'm not mistaken was the first month in which I made over $100 and with that money I eventually bought my flip phone along with my first month of usage. I still use this phone. March 2018 was my first month of over $200. The computer I use (which I actually bought in mid-March 2018) is a refurbished $200 computer that I need to use an wireless internet adapter for internet access; it doesn't access wireless internet on its own. I suspect it was manufactured almost a decade ago.

With this cheap computer, I've since made over $4000 from my writings. Wow, hang on, is that right? Over $4000 in almost 16 months? Yes, over $4100 since April 2018, so I'm discluding the $220 or so that I made in March 2018. Include that, and we're at over $4300. OBVIOUSLY not enough to live off of, not in the West anyways, but I must say, I'm quite proud of this. As mentioned though, one month in 2018 was $800, so almost 20% of this income is from one singular month out of the sixteen.

Doing what?
More than 99.5% of Yea Forums has made.

I'm inclined to believe that this is true. Writing, like any skill, requires practice. I've been complimented many times on my writing ability but in truth I've read perhaps around 60 books, which doesn't sound like many, and over 10% of those books was in a 44-day period in which I was locked up.

Gross, sounds like you had inadvertently paid a leftist... repent your sins and beg God for forgiveness. Doesn't matter if race wasn't a theme in the story. Did it have a non-White character? No? Racist. Did it have a non-White character but it wasn't the main character? Racist. Was the antagonist (if applicable) non-White? Racist. Personally, I've written a novel series that has a Black lesbian antagonist (bad guy), some unsavory Muslim characters who represent various problems with the Islamic world (including inbreeding and child brides), and the term 'nigger dyke' comes up. Actually... hah, who's this bitch on Fiverr and how much for a review? I'd love to write some SERIOUSLY racist shit for her just to see her reaction.

It's true that any idiot can make a Fiverr account, but for any idiot to make a Fiverr account and make money? False. I've been on Fiverr for almost 2 years now and it's where I make the bulk of my income. You generally receive reviews after completing orders, and there's already a known issue on Fiverr of 'writers' either plagiarizing stuff or simply producing very sub-par work. If you get some bad reviews, I doubt anyone will touch you. Trying a new seller for the first time is a gamble, especially if they don't have reviews, so new sellers should have low prices to encourage people to give them a try. Then, as you fill orders (if you're lucky enough to get them), you will hopefully earn 5-star reviews. You can also climb 'levels', which will make you a bit more prominent and encourage potential buyers to give you a try. There is something like 6 or 8 criteria you must meet though, like maintaining at least 4.8 stars out of 5, no broken Fiverr rules, at least 80% response rate to messages, complete at least X-amount of orders, make X-amount of money, etc.

So while, yes, ANYONE can make a Fiverr account, it's in fact not too easy to make notable amounts of money. I agree, though, that Upwork is a far more serious website and probably has the most high-dollar 'buyers', to use the Fiverr term. That said, I've completed a couple orders as high as $150-250, and MANY between $50-100.

Primarily Fiverr, some money from self-published books (REALLY fuckin' hard to sell those...), and also bought some of my paperbacks; sold some in-person. Not at one of those self-published conventions though that people like to point out as being sad and cringeworthy. But yeah, by far, mostly Fiverr.

I'm him, by the way. As well as the person you replied to... though that doesn't necessarily mean that all my pseudonyms are male. Just saying.

I'm 28 hand written pages into my first draft. I'll do editing as I type it up. My friends that have read what I have written so far gave positive feed back.

Not bad. Would read.

Whatever works for you. I like reading what I write out loud to make sure it flows, and in doing so I catch a lot of simple grammatical mistakes. Editing is only the meat of the work you must do if you’re bad at prose, in my honest opinion. I might be wrong, but it’s just what I think.

I have no idea what to write about

I'm sitting on thousands of handwritten manuscript pages that could serve the basis for something good. Except I don't for the life of me have the will to toil over editing and transcribing it. I need to hire an editor, which granted isn't terribly expensive, but I would have to retain them for months.
That person would come to know more about me than my mother.

thousands? can you post a pic? I thought I was doing pretty good with 30 pages in Word

Stuck in that phase of "it's not good enough, edit a million times, get assmad, then toss it/forget it for years and start a new project"

Pretty great, although the projected size of the final product based on what's here so far is daunting, because I only have so much time on this Earth and I do other things too like music. Sometimes I feel like I should do the young man's game of music first and write novels into my older age.

But then I think if I get hit by a truck tomorrow everything dies in my head, so I just want to get it all out before my inevitable death. It's like it's all stored on the hard drive of my brain and the transfer to copy it all onto alternate drives is a slow process.

I know the feeling. You kind of have to choose, if that's the case. Maybe write the books you feel have to be written, then you can indulge in music.

Writing is my second passion, and while I refuse to let my works go unread, there is something else that my spirit calls for. I am not saying you can't do both, but it will be even harder. Perhaps incorporate what you learn from those two into music and literature.

Can you go into detail what she thought was racist? I want a laugh too

I incorporate my love of art and writing and make illustrations. Maybe he could release music tracks to his chapters, I've seen children's books like that

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I'll be an editor for you anonymous

When you guys prepare to submit pieces to mags, do you guys write pieces specifically for each mag? Or do you guys pick a piece that you've already written before you committed to submitting?

What type of freelancing work do you do? How much do you make?

There was an user that posted a thread about making 4k a month writing erotica and self publishing on Amazon. I think he was lying because he didn't show his earnings but nevertheless I got inspired to do it myself. Published two books so far. They're short (3.5k words each) and I didn't really take the writing seriously, but I just checked and I just got my first sale! It's only $0.35 (sold for $1 but royalty is 35%) and I doubt this hustle will turn into anything substantive but it's still exciting to see. Mostly I'm just scared that they will leave a negative review now.

Congratulations, soon you'll be a dollarnaire

Ghostwriting and custom erotica primarily, but I'm actively working towards traditional publishing as well as considering getting into journalism. I don't make enough to live off of, but it's very welcome supplementary income. It will continue to improve over time as I keep at it. Once I get traditionally published that will help quite a bit, I think. Get my foot in the door, something to put on a 'portfolio' as it were, being able to say "I'm traditionally published" seems like something that could give an air of competence and potential that saying "I'm self-published" doesn't chalk up to, and for good reason. Self-publishing is free and easy. Traditional publishing is actually vetted.

Was in that thread too.
I will maybe start writing in my language too

Fair enough. I've been thinking about doing freelance ghostwriting over the summer but I wasn't sure how lucrative it actually was.

As for traditional publishing, have you approached any publishers or is that something you're planning to do in the future?

Self-publishing is difficult, and it requires leg-work from you. You need to try and come up with a good cover, a captivating blurb that will hook in anyone who decides to click on your book, and indeed it is beneficial to get some positive reviews. Even then, you need to go around and spread the word. Try putting your book up for free on KDP Select. Also with KDP Select your book ends up on Kindle Unlimited where you're paid for every page read. I imagine Netflix is a similar system, where the movies/shows that get the most views end up getting paid the most money while those that get no views probably earn no money. So, you want to try to get everything right, from the cover to the blurb, even the pseudonym you choose, the layout of the title and name (unless you have a well-known name, the name should be smaller than the title font), and of course the interior. Putting glitter on dogshit doesn't change the fact it's dogshit. Even the description is important for the web page, and you could also make your own website as well as a mailing list so that any fans you manage to obtain can be kept hold of and kept up-to-date on your progress, but don't bloody spam them with daily emails.

I'm being a bit hypocritical here because I didn't actually make a mailing list, don't really know how and didn't put any effort into it. The best I've done in one month is about $50 in book sales and boy did I spend a lot of time online with different profiles made for different forums and what not. Now, with Fiverr, I make WAY more, and I haven't had a single solitary ebook/paperback sale or KENP in over a month I think. I don't particularly care; I make more money with Fiverr anyhow, far more. Still got some ideas, though, for self-publishing, but I'm focusing more on traditional publishing now.

In case you didn't already know, but you probably do, all the same if you don't, at $2.99 or higher you receive 70% royalties. So instead of $1 earning you $0.35 USD, the $3 will earn you about $2.05 USD or something like that, after little data-transfer fees or whatever. Still, the higher the price, the fewer people will be interested in giving it a go, and it's hard enough to get sales. I think there's something like 100,000 more stories/books self-published every month, or at least a million per year (80k per month and change), so when you self-publish something you're immediately going to start getting buried. In order to avoid that, you need to get sales, but even then I think the best I ever managed was like #14,000 for authors, one of my books reached #6 in a pathetically specific category for a very brief while, and overall... I dunno, maybe one of my books reached #10,000 or something like that once? Takes a ridiculous amount of effort and legwork. Write a good story in a genre that's popular, get a kickass custom cover, an appealing pseudonym, a fetching blurb, and then try investing in some advertising. That's probably your best bet.

If enough people read erotica in your language I imagine you'll be have an inherent advantage over English writers simply because you'll have less competition.

I've approached a publisher, yes, and have already had... I think 3-4 stories rejected. So I'm not blowing hot-air; I'm ACTIVELY working towards it. If you're going to get a start in ghostwriting, start now; get on Fiverr (it's a decent entry-level thing to get started), set a gig with low prices to entice people to give you a try, outline what your gig (or gigs) cover, then wait and check Fiverr daily. If you have a smartphone, get the app, that's probably best. Reply ASAP when someone messages you. If you specialize in fantasy (which seems popular these days) then set that up as your cheapest gig since you're best at that one. Ones that are more difficult for you, give a slightly higher price so it's more worth your while, but still... low prices. I think even $1 per 100 words would be pushing it.

You could offer a 1000-word scene (good for a test-run) for $10 (or even $5 if you're a fast typist), 3000 words for $20-25, and 6000 words for $35-40. Notice that with the higher order sizes, it costs less per-word, making it a better deal. If you just get a bunch of $10 1000-word scenes, you're making the most per-word. If you get some 6000-word scenes, it's quite a bit of work, but it's quite a feeling to hold money in your hand and say "I earned this from my writing." Treat each buyer with respect, be generous, don't try to skimp, don't make excuses if something doesn't go write, and earn REPEAT BUYERS. That's key. Blow them away so that they'll come back for more and once you get a few of those, you have reasonably steady work, even if it's just 3 people who buy from you like once a month. As you get more positive reviews, you'll get more people willing to give you a shot, and thus you'll get more orders. Then, you can increase your prices slightly since you've proved your worth to some degree.

With this method, I've made thousands on Fiverr over time. Not enough to live off of, but a BIG help in my quality of life.

i am going to be the most inspiring storyteller to have ever walked this earth.
witness me.

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Depends. English is a very dominant language, the most-spoken one in the world to my understanding when you take into account 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th languages. Chinese seems to be the most dominant 1st language but overall more people know English to some degree than Chinese. If you write in French, what's your market? France, maybe Quebec... how are you going to access Haiti or those French-speaking African nations? Who the Hell has money there anyways? Spanish is a good one, since I've even written for a woman from Mexico before. That's 'To Take what is Needed', she ordered it for her personal enjoyment (in English) and was fine with me self-publishing it, so I did. But yeah, consider how many people read the language. With English, you've got the UK, Canada, US, Australia, and New Zealand, as well as many English-speakers from other parts of the world. This means that there's many English-speaking entrepreneurial writers, yes, but also the biggest market (and with lots of wealth available) so if you can show your worth... I suspect English is the best language you can possibly write in. IF you have the talent, that is.

Yeah I was thinking to start selling at 2.99 once I gather an audience and get some reviews. I think the main thing I need to focus on right now is writing faster. So far I've been pushing out 500 words a day on average (highest was 1k) which is unacceptable if I want to publish routinely. My mind starts to wander all the time when I'm writing erotica because I just don't find it interesting. That said I have seen steady gains in my daily word count and I imagine it'll get better once I get used to it.

Have you had any experience with Amazons "free promotion/advertising scheme"? I haven't tried it yet but it seems like a good thing. Was thinking to reserve it for when I write something that I actually think is decent.

I have a way with words and a slightly twisted concept of sex that many young adults would be into I believe but I’m an utter virgin who hasn’t talked to a lady in years so I don’t know how credible I would manage to sound describing intercourse, specifically on the females side. But since we all know main consumers of literary porn are middle aged women then my target audience would be too small.

Honestly user it's easy you don't even have to be a non virgin. Just write about conventional sex tropes (girthy dick, moaning, euphoria, intense feelings building up, looking into his eyes, feeling his strength, etc.)

I can manage potentially 2300+ words per hour, and writing for a full hour generally isn't a problem once I get going, especially if it's on a project I'm passionate about. I've experimented with putting stories/books for free, or the more expensive ones on sale, but not with advertising. I've never done any advertising, though some fans had plugged my book in their blog or things of that nature just to show support. It helps a lot to spread the word while the books/stories are free, however it does open you up to possible trolling, and indeed I've been trolled in such a manner with 1-3 word reviews with 1-2 stars. Harsh, likely they didn't even read it, but anyhow if you do a successful campaign and lots of free downloads, it's quite common to experience an influx of sales afterwards to some degree. Remember though, as mentioned; $50 in a single month is the best I ever managed for self-published works, and I've been self-published for coming up on 3 years now so I've got some experience on the matter.

Thanks user. Really insightful.

I think that such will ultimately be lacking in the face of erotica written by people who are actually experienced in sex. I've felt the difference between vaginal sex and anal sex, what it's like to be blown, a bit of experience in rape fetish, been with an older woman before but also in my teens been with 15 year olds (legal in my country) including one redhead who was nice and thin, but also been with fat chicks... I used to be a chubby chaser but now I can't even find them hot anymore. Sick of 'em, only interested in thin chicks now. I digress, also made out with a Black chick, an Asian chick, one of the women I fucked had Jewish heritage allegedly, another was half-Native... I think yet another was full-Native... anyhow, yeah. To a degree, pornography can help with learning of different fetishes, for instance actual raceplay/racism incorporated into sex, which can be REALLY spicy. Love that shit, and indeed I've written a story for a White dude and his Asian wife that involved slavery-era America with the Asian wife ultimately becoming subservient to the White man and there was a house nigger side-character. By the end of the story, he had both the Asian and said Black slave impregnated.

I've even dabbled in foot fetish stuff, and as someone who's just not interested in feet, it ranged from a bit odd but kinda interesting in terms of psychology, to downright disgusting and stomach-churning. Even ended up writing a fart fetish piece once, for a high price of course... don't think I'll ever do that again unless it's like $3 per 100 words at minimum.

Glad you enjoyed it. I seem to have a tendency to inspire people on Yea Forums to try out writing professionally, meaning for money.

>I can manage potentially 2300+ words per hour, and writing for a full hour generally isn't a problem once I get going
Has it always been that way or did you have to get used to it?

The thing is, I've been engaged in creative writing from a very young age. Started small, little stories when I was like 7 or 8 (long-since destroyed by a natural disaster), wrote a few cringy poems in my teens (wish they were destroyed, don't know where they are), but also in my early teens I got into... and I suppose this is some real cringe, RPing. Hear me out. It was on a forum, I thought it was for a videogame but it turned out to be just writing. It even had RPG elements with a stats sheet and leveling up and what not. Anyhow, sure, some people could write short posts, but from the get-go as I recall I strove to write highly detailed multi-para posts or at least one proper paragraph. In time, though, I'd get into it, gain more writing experience, and eventually I got into a real one-on-one situation with someone that ultimately came down to a moderator to decide who won. Due to average post length, grammar, and attention to detail, I was named the victor. I was still a teenager, though probably late-teens by the at point.

So, when I actually started writing books in my mid-20s or so, I had unknown thousands, maybe even millions of words spent just for fun. Just experimenting with descriptiveness, with emotion, sometimes with humour, sometimes tragedy, and so when I started on that first novel I had the over 70k word first draft finished in something like 6 days. An average of over 10k words per day, I was writing like I was some kinda crack fiend. Boom, done, edit, done, and half of another edit before I realized I could edit it forever and it would never be perfect so I self-published it. Then, I learned that there were inherent issues to my writing style, for one I relied TOO MUCH ON ALL-CAPS rather than utilizing italics which I don't know how to use on Yea Forums. Also for some reason I'd capitalize the seasons, which apparently you don't do. The directions of a compass, which you also don't typically do. Things like this, so I went through a WHOLE nother edit and realized just how much I hate editing.

Now, though, I find that my first drafts come out VERY clean. Sadly my keybord is getting worn out (again) which is making it more difficult to keep things pristine on the first go but it's still pretty good. So, if you're only just getting into typing, yeah you'll probably need practice. Personally, I have untold hours of experience from my teens on keyboards. Blew my recent English teacher away with how quickly I can type, and with how few typos. Said I had a real gift, and I'm inclined to believe him. Next time I buy a new keyboard, no more Walmart junk. Gotta get myself something solid that'll last me.

Published a handful of short stories, a few verses, and some articles and lifestyle pieces so far this year. The last short story of that batch (and the best by far) is being considered by one of the big lit mags. Three novels finished (over the past 5 years) and two more in the final rewrite stages have netted me an agent. She is shopping around and driving up offers. Don’t finish one work and start finding an agent. Have a few ready so they can sell you as a writer who already has the next 5-6 years of steady releases primed and ready to sell.

This would be me if I wasn't a cripple on a wheelchair. Good luck user

I have some pretty good ideas but I also have an internet connection so...

>one of the big lit mags
I'm a peasant, I didn't even know we had lit mags. What are the big ones?

Going to use the story for a videogame so it's a lot of fun coming up with characters and what happens with them.
I have about 8 stories planned so far (possible other ones as well if I can make good use of the settings).
I've never really written much before but it's fun to make a draft of what I have in mind at the very least.
Granted most of what I'm writing right now is just stream of consciousness stuff so a lot will be filtered or trimmed by the end.

it's not

This. I don't feel qualified to write anything until I've read near all relevant and significant literature

On one hand, you could be just holding yourself back from expanding your writing ability. On the other hand... well, no, I don't think you could read everything on a certain subject and suddenly will be able to create a 'great work of literary art' immediately after. No, you need to work on your writing ability.