Are you
trying to find out how to write a romance novel and earn money? It's possible
to earn great money writing romance on the side. And you don't have to be an
experienced writer to get started.
Today,
Yuwanda Black of InkwellEditorial.com has shared with us how much
money she earns writing romantic fiction along with details on how to be
successful if you're interested in doing this.
And again,
you don't have to be a professional writer or even have fantastic writing
skills to make money doing this!
How To
Write a Romance Novel & Earn – Interview
How Much
Have You Earned as a Romance Novelist? How Long Did It Take?
With my
second novel, I earned almost $500 by selling almost 250 copies in that first
month. It took me exactly six months to hit the $2,000 mark.
In May of
2015, after writing 23 novellas in just over 12 months, I earned $3,211.57,
which has been my best month.
Between
the spring of 2014 and the end of 2016, I published 44 romance novellas (some
under a pen name). The breakdown looks like this:
2013:
First book (this one bombed)
2014: 21
books
2015: 18
books
2016: 3
books
Why the
fall off? Amazon's all-you-can-read subscription program, which caused sales to
tank for a lot of self-published (and traditionally published authors. Also, I
was burned out. At one point, I was putting out a book every 7 to 10 days.
But I’m
glad I did that, even though I don’t advise it. I still earn money every month
from those books I published back then, and now that I'm back to publishing
regularly again, sales have started to uptick again, as this post illustrates.
My plan is
to put out one book per month this year and for the foreseeable future until
I’m earning at least $5,000 to $10,000 per month.
I have
other streams of income, so this (very achievable) goal fits with my financial
plan.
Is romance
a profitable self-publishing niche overall?
OMG yes!
Romance is the #1 selling niche in fiction writing– by a wide margin. Proof?
According
to the stats in this post,
at $1.44 billion, Romance and Erotica are #1 when it comes to sales. This
includes self-published romance.
With 30 million
dedicated readers, it’s hard not to be successful in this genre — if you
publish regularly, even if you're not the best writer to be perfectly honest.
It's the
old, “Sex sells,” idiomatic expression at work. It's true — as my experience
proves.
And just
for comparison, the second best-selling genre in fiction is Crime/Mystery at
$728.2 million, roughly half of what romance writing makes.
What I
found out though is that niche matters in romance — and boy are there a lot of
niches!
So, you
can really earn money writing romance novels if you're an average writer?
I had zero
experience writing romance (or any kind of fiction) before I wrote my first
romance novel in 2013. Let me say that again — I had absolutely NO experience
writing romance or any kind of fiction.
One
important thing about the writing is that you must know your characters
intimately. This makes them believable because you know what they'll say, how
they'll react in certain situations, and what their “love language” is.
In
my e-course on writing
money-making romance novels, I include a Character Profile Template
to help you flesh out the characters so they become real to you. If they're
real to you, it's easier for them to become real to the reader.
So while
you can definitely start writing romance with no experience, if you fall in
love with this genre (pun fully intended!), you will naturally want to improve
your writing skill.
I read
romance novels and study how to improve my writing skill in this niche all the
time.
As any
writer will tell you, your skill as a writer can always be improved. So don't
wait until your writing is “perfect.” It never will be, and you're kidding
yourself if you think that's the case.
Get
started — and educate yourself along the way. Again, it's going to be a
life-long journey anyway, so why wait when you could be self-publishing the
next Fifty Shades of Grey?
And you do
know what happened with that book, right? Yeah it’s sold tens of millions of
copies and has been made into a major motion picture. But, it also got slammed
(and continues to get slammed) for the writing.
Read
through some of the reviews on Amazon. You'll see what I mean.
Does niche
matter in romance writing?
It matters
a lot. Here's an example.
My first
romance was an African American love story. The second one I wrote was an
interracial love story, like my sister had done.
I wrote it
because one day she said to me, “Why don't you write an interracial romance and
see what happens?”
So I did,
for a few reasons:
1.
I
knew my writing wasn't bad. I'm not saying I'm the best writer, but I know I'm
not horrible either. In fact, I still think my first romance novella is one of
my best love stories.
2.
I
was in an interracial marriage (my ex-husband is an Argentine); and
3.
I
was genuinely curious as to what would happen. I didn't think the races of the
characters would make a difference, because love is love, no?
Wrong!
Wrong! Wrong! … At least when it comes to writing romance.
African
American romance sells very well. All you have to do is see the success of
author Brenda Jackson to prove that. But some niches are easier to break into
than others – and interracial romance is one of those niches.
So I wrote
my second romance novel, Trapped by Desire. Here's what happened …
I wrote
the same and marketed the same. The only difference was that I slapped a pic of
an interracial couple on the cover.
As the
sales show, niche matters — a lot.
How did
you get started as a romance novelist?
Oh boy,
this is a windy tale! It all started really by accident; it was not something I
planned on ever doing. So what happened is this …
I have two
sisters. One is a writer, like me. We both published non-fiction, how-to ebooks
primarily until 2013. What changed that year?
My sister
took a trip to Texas to visit her son, who's in the military. On that trip, she
said she was driving and an idea for a love story came to her. She said it
nagged at her, so when she got back home, she wrote it. It was a short (about
65 Kindle pages), interracial romance — which is how the characters presented
themselves to her.
This was
her first attempt at writing fiction.
Anyway,
after she wrote the story (Loving a Texan from New Orleans), she uploaded it to
Amazon (AMZ). We'd both been publishing our non-fiction books on Amazon since
2008, and we both come from a publishing background; having worked in NYC in
legal publishing for years.
Anyhoo,
she uploaded her little love story and promptly forgot about it; not really
expecting anything. But the next morning as she checked her AMZ stats (as she
did every morning), to her great surprise, she had sales … 8 copies, 13 copies,
22 copies, etc.
Throughout
the day she kept refreshing the screen and the numbers kept going up. We were
both shocked! Why?
Because
remember, we both published in the non-fiction sector. In that niche, sales
usually don't happen like that. It's more of a slower build — especially for
no-name authors like us.
So when
she saw sales climbing, we were both glued to the screen like, “What?!”
My sister
wound up selling over 500 copies of her first romance novel in one month —
earning around $1,100. She priced it at $2.99. On Amazon, you earn 70
percent of all items you price between $2.99 and $9.99. So she was earning
about $2.06 per book.
Not bad
for a first-time author, right? In fact, I thought it was pretty much like
hitting the friggin' lotto!
After
seeing my sister's success, of course I had to give it a try. So I wrote and
uploaded my first romance (3 Weeks til Forever) in May of 2013 … and it
promptly bombed.
I was
deflated, but shook it off and went back to writing and self-publishing my
how-to, non-fiction ebooks.
Since
2010, over half my earnings as a writer have come from my self-publishing
efforts. These days, I write almost exclusively for myself, eg, developing
ecourses, writing non-fiction (and fiction), blogging/affiliate marketing, etc.
It’s all
writing – which is why the mission of my site is: Make Money Writing … for
Yourself and/or for Others.
You see,
there are so many ways to make a living writing. And, that’s why I wasn’t too
disappointed when I thought the romance thing wasn’t going to work out. But
obviously, that wasn't the end of my romance writing career.
Tell us a
little about your e-course and how it can help others earn money writing
romance novels.
The course
teaches you …
1 – How
to write romance
This
section is very detailed, going from what you need to do before you actually
start writing (eg, building a character profile and creating an outline), to
actually writing the story.
2 – How
to market your novel
The course
covers how to practically ensure sales; there's a “formula,” if you will that
practically guarantees sales if you write characters that resonate with
readers.
It also
explains why you shouldn't spend so much time marketing in the beginning of
your romance writing career. In fact, sales should be the last thing on your
mind when you first start out.
In the
course, there's an actual formula that details what percentage of your time you
should spend marketing, and at what stage of your career. There's a point of
diminishing return, so you'll know when to “top out” on your marketing, so to
speak.
3 – How
to hire ghostwriters for writing help
This is a
really easy way to up your earnings quickly. But, it's not without its
drawbacks.
In this
section, I relay my experiences and give some guidelines to follow if you
decide to go this route.
4 –
Setting up your own publishing company (Optional)
There's a
step-by-step plan that tells you exactly how to set up your own publishing
company. FYI, it's not necessary, but if your romance writing career reaches a
certain point, you might consider it.
5 –
Distribution – Where to publish your romance novels
While
Amazon remains the behemoth, there are new outlets popping up all the time
where self-published authors can publish their works.
And this
is yet another reason I like writing romance, by the way. Once a book is
written, as new outlets open up, you just publish there and start earning.
In the
course, I cover where I publish; which earn me the most; and some outlets to
stay away from.
And much
more!
You can
see the entire course syllabus, and even get a free preview here.
In
Conclusion
One thing
I want to stress is that anyone who's willing to put in the writing time can
earn money writing romance novels.
It took me
exactly six months to hit the $2,000/month mark (I'd written 15 novellas at
that time). Again, this is with no previous fiction writing experience. And I'm
small, small potatoes.
There are
authors who earned over half a million dollars per year within three years, and
many more who earn $8,000; $10,000 and $20,000 per month — all within a few
years (or less) of starting to write romance.
Don’t
believe me? Google it and see for yourself.
With that
being said though, I want to stress that writing romance is NOT a
get-rich-quick scheme. Writing is hard work, and you must be disciplined about
it.
You must
constantly put out new titles, learn which genres work, find your audience, and
build your own mailing list.
The romance writing
course gives you all the tools you need, and if you put in the
work, the rewards are definitely there to be had. I've proven it, as have many
others. Is the next romance success story yours?
Get the
knowledge you need, and get started to find out.
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