Catching up
My guess is that this has happened to more than one author before: you write a draft of a book and can’t seem to make it work, so you put it aside for another time. Well, this happened to me with my current work-in-progress, GHOST PAINTER, which is the second book in my Paranormal Activity Research Center (or PARC) series. But there’s a twist. You see, GHOST PAINTER was the first book I ever wrote in the PARC world. But because it was kind of clunky and needed so much work, I decided to write a completely different book to start the series. So now, the first book I wrote to create the series will become the second book in the actual series.
Writing a sequel is hard, period. There’s an expectation both for the writer and the reader that the new book will have the same voice and follow the same characters as the previous book or books. And that’s tough to do. Especially if it’s the second book, because you’ve only really just gotten started with the series and you’re probably not sure what you did to make the first book what it was. Plus there are a ton of continuity issues you have to deal with. In order to make it work, I’ve gone back to my first book, VODOU PRINCESS, and made a sort of Series Guidebook just for me that I can use to make sure I keep names, locations, clothing, personalities—all of that—consistent throughout the series.
Writing has its myriad challenges anyway (like just sitting down and doing the work). But I hope that by giving myself as many tools as possible, I can remove most of the obstacles in the way of finishing a book.
Opinion
As indie authors, we’re already well-versed in the digital world. We sell our books (often exclusively) as digital products, we share images, videos, audio, and other digital media online, and we interact with our readers using digital bridges like chat and email. But there’s a rapidly-developing technology that might change the game for indie authors in a huge way: NFTs.
An NFT, or Non-Fungible Token, is a unique digital item with a sole owner. It can be resold or given away, but because it is built on blockchain technology, it cannot be stolen or lost or deleted.
As indie authors we can turn our already-digital books into NFTs and sell them as limited edition products or create something new related to our work. The process is a little complicated, but like learning anything in the indie publishing world, it’s definitely figure-outable. Here are some simple steps you can take to create an NFT out of digital products related to your books.
Create a digital product that you want to turn into an NFT (like a limited edition eBook, author-read chapter audio file, or artwork jpeg).
Choose your blockchain—the most popular among artists is Ethereum.
Create cryptowallet and buy currency (I use CoinBase).
Pick an NFT marketplace, create your account and connect it to your cryptowallet (a great place to start is OpenSea).
Upload your file.
Pick a sales process (fixed price, timed auction, or unlimited auction).
Though it isn’t exactly simple, these six steps are all that it takes to create and sell an NFT. Be aware that there are a lot of hidden fees in an NFT transaction. Make sure you price your product appropriately. While eBooks sell on Amazon for as little as 99 cents and average out at around $5-6, an NFT will likely generate a couple hundred dollars in fees, so it needs to be priced above that if you don’t want to take a loss. In any case, it’s something to look into. The potential to make a lot of money as a writer increase exponentially when technology disruptions like this arise. Being an early adopter is a surefire way to make sure you maximize emerging technology’s earning potential. And as indie authors, that’s definitely a win.
A Reading
This week’s reading comes from THE SEA AT SUNRISE, which is available now on Amazon. I’m blown away by the book’s reception—it’s my first bestseller, and I’m absolutely shocked by how well it has done. If you haven’t read it yet, please get a copy and let me know what you think of it by leaving a review on Amazon. Check out the podcast to enjoy the reading.
Podcast: S1 E3