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November 14, 2023 will be the 10 year anniversary of the November 14, 2013 murder of my 8 month old infant son, at BugLight Lighthouse Art Studio of Southern Maine Community College in South Portland, Maine. If you have any information about who his killer is, please call FBI Agent Andy Drewer at 207-774-9322

NEVER FORGET:

My Son Was Murdered, The Killer Walks Free, Your Child Could Be Next!

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FAQ: What are the most visited pages on this website and how many visits do they get?

Several years ago, I wrote an article on how to write different types of magic uses, or rather how I personally write various types of magic users within the context of my Quaraun books. Today that page is one of my top ten most visited articles. It gets 50 to 500 views/reads/hits/visits per day depending on the time of the years and has had over 200k visits total since it was published.

Amphibious Aliens: Debunking The Atwater Family's Alien Abduction Hoax with more then 30MILLION reads since 2007 and The GoldenEagle: Debunking Stephen King's World's Most Haunted Car Hoax with over tenMILLION reads since 2007 still rank as the two most visited articles on my website, but, neither of those are writing related.

Writing Medieval Servants is my most visited writing related article with over 7MILLION reads.

This website was started in 1996 and has 1 to 3 new articles (all written by me, I am the only writer on this site) published almost daily. In 2017 we crossed ten thousand articles published. As of 2023, EACH article gets MINIMUM 10 to 70 reads PER DAY, with the high traffic articles getting 500+ reads per day.

And since December 2019, my website now gets three hundred thousand to 7 million reads per month - well over ONE HUNDRED MILLION PAGE READS PER YEAR, making it not only the single most trafficked site in the State of Maine, but also one of the most visited websites in ALL OF NEW ENGLAND!

{{{HUGS}}} Thank you to all my readers for making this possible!

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 TRIGGERED! I'm a Straight Cis Woman, but I am deemed Too Gay For Old Orchard Beach, Are you too gay for the bigoted, minority harassing, white power, gay hating psychos of The Old Orchard Beach Town Hall Too? 

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Does Anyone Ever Succeed at Self-Publishing?

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How do you know a story (a series or stand alone) would be successful? And if it succeeds or flops, would you continue writing related stories or move on to something else? 

I have a bit of a dilemma.

I wrote this urban fantasy trilogy inspired by manga (and related books) which sold over 100 copies combined. So I'm thinking of continuing the trilogy by creating spinoffs, sequels, and so forth. But the problem is that I have mixed reactions (reviews) that make me doubt whether I should continue writing.

Probably the mistake I should have realized is that I should have tested the idea first. I should have tested the idea on social media and websites like Wattpad by posting the first chapter to see any possible reaction. If it did, then I moved forward (the idea isn't mine but from another author who suggests to post many 1st chapters to see which gets the most reaction.)

So I want to know if I can continue writing further stories in the series or cut my loses and move on to something else? And even if I did, I'm not sure which story would be successful. I don't want to spend months or years of my life writing a series that nobody wants to read. I have tons of story ideas that I want to write but I don't want to risk time writing the wrong story.

My books aren't written in the typical manner that readers of most genres expect. Because of this, it's difficult to put them in a category without upsetting readers who regularly consume said books.

I came up with 100 sold copies as a ballpark from the recent royalty check I received from Amazon (almost $100). I had the first book free while the second was 99 cents while the third costs $2.99. Plus, I have a short story supplement at 99 cents too.

At this point, I simply want to build my reader base.

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Alright... first off, you’ve asked a lot of things that trigger some red flags. I’ll explain that as we go along. Expect some bitchiness, because I tend to come off as super bitchy when those red flags show up.

That said...

You’ve published a trilogy. That’s great! You are already leaps and bounds ahead of millions of writers who sit around day dreaming and never write a full chapter let alone publish a story.

You’ve also published a short story. That’s good too. That means you can diversify. This also puts you ahead of many others.

Most authors are good at only ONE type of writing.

Novels. Novellas. Short stories. Short-Shorts. Plays. And that’s just non-fiction. Each one has a unique style and often an author who is good at one is terrible at the others. Most who write Short Stories are never able to master the art of writing novels. Most novelists will never successfully write a stage play. Novella writers often can’t write Short Stories or Novels.

There is nothing wrong with sticking to one format. Most do.

But there is also nothing wrong with working in 2 or more formats either.

That you are publishing multiple formats, means you are able to cater to multiple audiences, which opens you up to reaching a wider group of readers.

That said, this can also work against you.

Some readers ONLY want to read novels and will NEVER read a short story even if it’s written by their favourite author and part of their favourite series.

Likewise many people who read short stories will never read a novel.

Well, when you write BOTH novels and short stories you end up with 3 audiences.

* One group will read ONLY your novels.

* One group will read ONLY your short stories.

* One group will read BOTH your novels and your short stories.

Now at first this MAY seem good, BUT... comments, reviews, and social media messages will soon show you that this can result in a VERY HIGH RATE of 1 star reviews.

Why?

* The group who read ONLY your novels, will lash out with vehement, hate filled, self-righteous indigence on every short story. The same people who leave the glowing 5 star reviews on your novels will be the people leaving the most scathing hate filled 1 star reviews on your short stories.

* The group who read ONLY your short stories, will lash out with vehement, hate filled, self-righteous indigence on every novel. The same people who leave the glowing 5 star reviews on your short stories will be the people leaving the most scathing hate filled 1 star reviews on your novels.

This means if you write 2 novels, sell 100 copies, you’ll get 50 good reviews and 50 bad reviews.

This means if you write 2 short stories, sell 100 copies, you’ll get 50 good reviews and 50 bad reviews.

BUT... this means if you write 2 novels AND 2 short stories, sell 100 copies, you’ll get 100 good reviews and 100 bad reviews.

YES... same amount of sales, but twice as many reviews.

Why?

Because Amazon does not require the book to be purchased, for a person to write a review.

So, everyone who left good reviews after buying your novel, will leave bad reviews on your short story with out ever buying or reading it.

So, everyone who left good reviews after buying your shot story, will leave bad reviews on your novel with out ever buying or reading it.

Unfair?

Yes.

But it’s what people do.

It means: if you write 1 novel and 100 short stories, you’ll get 1 novel sale, 1 good review on the novel, and zero short story sales but 100 bad reviews 1 on each short story, without ever selling a single short story.

Yes.

This happens... ALL THE TIME.

It has happened to tens of hundreds of thousands of authors.

And THIS is WHY most every full time career author spends so much time telling newbie authors to not even bother reading reviews at all.

This is also WHY so many full time career authors also tell newbies that if they want to write both shorts and novels to use a different penname for each.

Okay, let’s do a line by line answer of your question.

>>>How do you know a story (a series or stand alone) would be successful?

There is no way to know and you are foolish if you think you can try to figure it out. And anyone who tells you otherwise is just a scam artist trying to sell you something.

 Years ago, I would have told you to research the market, see what is selling best for others, and decide if you want to write that type of story. Now I say, fuck that and write whatever the hell you want to write.

Why the change?

Is it bad advice?

No.

Researching the market is still good advice.

But, in my 4 decades of publishing lots and lots and lots of things, and telling others to research the market that entire time, I’ve seen far too many others who got hung up on researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching and researching...

...and than after 10 or 20 years of researching they came back to me and said researching was bad advice, because they never found anything to publish, and blamed me for being the reason why they spent 20 years researching and never once published a thing.

Uhm...

Yeah.

If you are a lazy ass procrastinator who is incapable of motivating yourself to publish anything, and waste 20 years doing nothing but “researching”, well that ain’t my problem. That’s a you problem, not a me problem.

I wish this was a rare event, but, I get 200 or 300 emails EVERY MONTH that are nothing but “I’m not published and it’s all your fault because you wrote an article telling to research the market and I’ve been researching the market and I never had time to publish anything and it’s all your fault.”

I never told people to research the market 24/7 and never lift a finger to do anything else.

Sheesh.

How retarded can you get?

What I said was to look and see what others are currently writing and see if that’s something you are interested in writing too.

Are vampires popular this year? Well, than maybe you should write a vampire story or two.

Don’t like vampires? No worries. Look around at what else is selling.

Are grey eyed billionaires named Grey the in thing this month? Well, maybe you should write a story about those. Don’t like them? Well than write about what you do like.

I don’t understand why it is so difficult to understand what researching the market means. It doesn’t mean to spend weeks, months, years studying trends. Yes, you can do that, to get long term projections over time. Sure. But that isn’t going to help you decide if the book you want to write this week and publish next week will sell the week after.

>>>How do you know a story (a series or stand alone) would be successful?

You don’t.

You make an educated guess based on what others are publishing right now this week.

And if you are not someone who can write a first draft in a week or less, than it’s pointless to watch what it currently selling, because market trends CHANGE EVERY WEEK!

So if you spend 20 years researching the market... that’s 52 weeks times 20 equals 1,040 trends you missed out on writing about and publishing.

And THAT is why I no longer say to research the market to see what others are writing right now.

The problem with following trends (and why I never do it) is that it implies your book is only going to be relevant for 1 week/month/year.

It implies your book will never be a classic that people will still be reading 100 years from now.

I don’t know about you, but I’d rather be like Charles Dickens or Edgar Allan Poe... still relevant and readable 200 years later.

How many New York Time’s Bestsellers can you name? How many have you read? Will you remember any of them next year? Will you even remember them next week?

I feel that if you count your success based on how many people write you glowing 5 star reviews, than you are cutting yourself short.

If no one will remember you 200 years after you are dead, were you really that successful at all?

If you publish by ebook only and never have a physical book, you won’t be remembered next year let alone 200 years from now.

Clearly you and I see success differently, because I see simpering for good reviews as a sign of weakness, an author with no self confidence, an author who writes only to get attention, and not a real author at all, but rather a whinny brat who will do anything for views, reviews, reads... you are no different than the tittie streamers who bounce their boobs for views. You have no morals, no standards, no foundation. You do whatever, whenever to hear the crowd cheer.

Authors like you make me sick.

Any dead fish can float with the flow, only a live fish has the strength to swim upstream.

You flounder to the whims of reader reviews and that makes you weak.

That said...

Your use of grammar is none standard and a bit confusing, so I’m having difficulty understanding what exactly you are trying to convey, and this definitely could be contributing to the bad reviews.

People who read, tend to be college graduates and have a full working knowledge of advantaged college level English grammar and are not going to be very forgiven of an author who is too incompetent to at least try to use correct grammar.

If your grammar is this messed up in just a simple emailed question, I’d hate to see how messed up it is in your books.

Know-nothing teens who can’t tell a comma from a period will not notice the lack of good grammar and will gush love for your story, but adults will struggle to get past a single page if your grammar is bad.

You should definitely consider taking some remedial Adult Ed classes in English Grammar, or even consider getting a degree in English Literature, Creative Writing, Journalism, Grammar, Teaching High School Literature, or something similar.

Gaining a good working grasp on the English language is a REQUIREMENT to have a successful writing career.

Sure you can sell a few books here and a few books there without any education at all, but if you have your heart set on successful sales and a high rate of good reviews, which is what you’ve said you want, than you MUST have the best, most pristine use of grammar possible. You NEED to get at LEAST an Associates Degree in English Literature, Creative Writing, Journalism, Grammar, Teaching High School Literature, or something similar.

The better the degree, the better your ability to write on a “successful” level.

Remember the more you study and practice your art, the better you will get at it.

* An Associates Degree is 2 years of studying English grammar.

* A Bachelors Degree is 4 years of studying English grammar.

* A Masters Degree is 8 years of studying English grammar.

* A PhD is 12 years of studying English grammar.

Think about it.

A 10 year old boy can play football and be the best on his team, but he won’t win the Super Bowl until he goes to college and trains for years and years and years and years and just keeps practising and practising and improving.

Now sure, he COULD train on his own and be the best football player in his town, but, without a coach he won’t see his own flaws and he’ll keep making those same mistakes over and over.

Sure all that practice in the back yard has made him good, but it has also made him blind to seeing his flaws as well.

When he goes to college and trains with others, he has his coach and team mates there to point out his errors and help him fix those mistakes so that he STOPS MAKING ERRORS and starts to play the CORRECTLY in the PROPER manner.

Once he sees his errors and follows his coach’s instructions to fix them, he becomes even better at his craft, and starts winning the big college games, and soon he’s playing in the pros, and before long he’s playing at the Super Bowl.

But he never would have made it to the Super Bowl if he continued practising on his own in the back yard.

Writing and publishing is just like football.

Sure you can do it on your own, self publish, do your own editing, make your own covers.

Nothing wrong with that. Lots of writers do it. I do it myself. It’s great. It’s fun. BUT... if you want to be “successful” you need to train.

Yes, practice makes perfect, but if you practice by yourself, you won’t ever see your own flaws and you’ll just keep practising the same mistakes and instead of becoming a better writer, you’ll just become very good at repeating the same mistakes you always made.

In order to become a big time successful writer, you NEED to go to college and train with others. Have a writing coach (professor) who can see your flaws, point them out to you, and show you how to fix them.

And when you learn to write clean copy in pristine perfect correct and proper grammar, you’ll suddenly see yourself go from selling 100 copies a month to 1,000 copies a day, and instead of receiving mostly bad reviews, you’ll start receiving mostly good reviews.

That said...

Back to what I was saying...

Your use of grammar is none standard and a bit confusing, so I’m having difficulty understanding what exactly you are trying to convey, and this definitely could be contributing to the bad reviews... but I’m having trouble understanding how many sales you have.

You say 100 books sold.

You mention a trilogy and a short story.

You say you made $100 from selling them at .99c.

Uhm...

None of this adds up.

Either your grammar is worse than an illiterate drunk’s grammar or you are worse at Maths than I am or you’ve missed telling me everything.

I’m not sure how to translate what you have said in regards to how many books your written/published vs how many books you have sold.

I’ll get into this in more detail in a minute, because if you are selling your books for .99c and you made $100, than means you sold 300 books, not 100 books.

I’ll do the math in a minute and get you the exact numbers, but first...

Wither it’s 100 books sold or 300 books sold, the fact remains, that you have said you just published and your first month’s pay is $100.

That’s good.

That’s very good.

And you don’t seem to realize just how good that really is.

MOST self published authors will got 3 or 4 or more years before seeing their first $100 check. So for you to get a $100 within your first month, that’s astoundingly way above and beyond what the average self-pubbed author can ever dream of achieving.

You, my friend, are WAY more successful than you realize.

MOST self-pubbed authors would kill to be in your shoes.

You need a reality check.

You are all upset, thinking of giving up, because you ONLY made $100 your first month and you got a lot of bad reviews.

Honey, thank your lucky stars that you got any reviews at all. The bulk of self-pubbed books on Amazon sit for decades without ever receiving one single, solitary review.

AND the average self-pubbed book sells fewer than 10 copies per year... the average is for 1 sale once every other month. Those numbers come from Amazon’s IRS tax records.

From the numbers you gave, you’ve sold around 300 copies of your books the first month of release, which insanely good numbers, and you are bitching and moaning about giving up?

Damn! I’d hate to see the level of morbidity you take if you were in the average and only sold 1 copy per month!

You are doing so much BETTER than MOST of the self pubbed authors on Amazon. You really don’t have any grounds or justification for this pity party you are having.

You plan to give up on a series, because it ONLY sold 100 copies?

Honey, open your eyes.

Your series IS a success and you should be writing MORE in it, not giving up on it.

Do you realize that by selling 100 copies, you are at MY level of success.

Yes.

I’m one of the world’s top selling self published authors and most of my books have sold fewer than 1,000 copies TOTAL per volume in 42+ years.

Stop and think about that.

You contacted me, asking me for advice, and you have better sales average than I do.

Honey, has it sunk in yet, you insanely good your sales are?

You published 3 novels and 1 short story a month ago and already you have sold 300 copies.

With numbers like that, you really are one of the top selling self pubbed authors on Amazon this month.

Harsh reality that a lot of newbies don’t want to face, but there it is.

You are a LOT more successful than you think.

Yes, there are millions of blog posts and articles from authors “CLAIMING” to have millions of sales and $millions of earnings, BUT... one only has to look at the sales numbers Amazon posts on EVERY book’s sale’s page, so see the truth and Amazon is a public company, meaning you can buy stock shares, and because of that Amazon is REQUIRED BY LAW to publicly post their detailed itemized IRS tax records.

The itemized tax records lists WHO Amazon paid and HOW MUCH Amazon paid the.

This means the full REAL name (and email, phone number, and home address) of EVERY Kindle author is on the list. The list shows under their name, ALL of their pennames, lists how many copies of each book (and pages read) was sold that year, and how much money in royalties Amazon paid them.

One has only to look at Amazon’s itemized tax records to see that a good 80%+ Kindle authors are LYING about both their sales totals and their income earned.

Amazon lists 3... THREE ... ONLY 3 authors whom have earned a $million in Kindle book sales.

Amazon lists over 9 million Kindle authors whom have NEVER received a penny AT ALL – EVER.

According to Amazon’s own public release of their IRS tax records, fewer than 1,000 Kindle published authors earn more than $5,000 a year, while more than 3MILLION Kindle published authors earn only $100 once every 5 years, and fewer than 30 Kindle published authors have ever earned more than $100,000 TOTAL since 2010 and only 3 (three) Kindle published authors have ever reached earning $1million dollars.

And looking at Amazon’s 3 Kindle Millionaires:

* one of them publishes 12 novels a year – 1 per month, and has done so since 2013; - he writes Western Murder Mysteries (think Cowboys and Indians meets Sherlock Holmes) – yes, he IS the one who scammed Amazon out of millions with his fake review scam, yes, you do remember him from such TV shows as Lost and Survivor, yes, he did go to prison for IRS tax fraud, yes, he IS still writing/publishing new volumes from his prison cell – Amazon’s top selling self published Kindle author will one day get to spend his money, decades from now when he finally gets out of prison

* one publishes weekly novellas – 52 books published per year, and has done so since 2011; - she writes Lycan Erotica (Monster Porn focused on knotting sex with wolf men – more than half her books were banned by Amazon for featuring bestiality and are now available on SmashWords instead – she sells more books and makes more money than her sister in law who was the author of 50 Shades of Grey)

* and the other one publishes 6 to 8 novels a year, one book every other month, and has done so since 2010. - she writes Emo Teen Vampire Romance, yep, that one, no, not Twilight, the Diary one, yep – those are self published - and her books have been made into 8 movies and 3 TV shows – yes the Diary series sells more copies and earns more money than the Twilight series

All 3 of them have well over 500 books up for sale on their Amazon author pages.

Think about that for a minute.

Amazon’s 3 Kindle Millionaires (yes there are ONLY 3 Kindle Millionaires) had to be publishing books either weekly or monthly for 5+ years BEFORE they earned enough money to live on, long before they earned $1million.

Far too many new writers expect to publish one novel and be a millionaire next week. They have no clue how very little authors actually earn and how very much authors have to publish to earn a liveable income.

Most weeks, my Kindle income averages around $11 a week, jumping to $100+ only the week/month of a new release, and that puts me in Amazon’s list of being one of their top 1,000 bestselling Kindle authors.

THINK ABOUT THAT, next time you feel like saying $100 a month is NOT successful.

By making $100 a month, you make more than me, and I’m listed on Amazon’s top 1,000 list.

You are WAY more successful than you think you are.

You sold 300 copies your first month.

You made $100 your first month.

You are doing great!

You are doing above average!

You are doing better than me, and I’m in the top 1,000 and that means YOU are in the top 1,000 too.

Open your eyes.

Take a reality check.

Far too many scam artists glamorize sales numbers and income figures.

And if you pay attention to the ones making the big number claims... they do it on posts that end by asking you to buy their book on how to be the next Kindle millionaire. They ain’t making big sales and big money on novels, they are scamming you with fake ass numbers – numbers that can be PROVEN fake by looking at Amazon’s IRS tax release records – to trick you into buying a book that they couldn’t sell otherwise.

When you look at the REAL numbers and not the fake ass glorified numbers, self pubbed authors are not making as much money as rumours say, nor do they have as big sales as many claim.

Sad fact of the matter is, many authors believe that the only way to get sales is if they already have sales, so they brag about fake sales, to try to get real sales. But their claims are easy to prove false, if you just pay attention to the REAL numbers posted right on Amazon’s website, for everyone to see.

Most people don’t know the numbers are there so they don’t know to look for them, and just believe the fake numbers that authors spout off on their blogs and social media.

Funny thing is, MOST of the authors who do this, are also unaware that if you scroll to the bottom of their book’s sales page, Amazon lists a sales rank number, one for over all sales against all books, and one for sales in just the book’s genre/category. Any idiot can find this number. Every book has one and it changes every 30 minutes, so it’s always accurate.

The IRS tax records number is more difficult to find. Head to the Help section of Amazon, and keep searching around until you find the FAQs section about taxes. A bit more searching will bring you to the tax form. It’s huge, spanning thousands of pages if printed up.

But once you see the ACTUAL numbers, look at YOUR numbers compared to the numbers of the authors who brag they make millions and sell millions... you’ll see how much higher ranked you are from them, and that’s when you’ll really see how good you are doing at 300 sales and $100 earned your first month.

>>>And if it succeeds or flops, would you continue writing related stories or move on to something else?

I have written 138 novels and 2,000+ short stories, for a series that most volumes sold fewer than 1,000 copies, many selling fewer than 100 copies, having not even ten volumes to sell more than 10,000 copies, and having only 2 volumes ever reach “best seller” status, both reaching #1 placement in various “best seller” charts, though neither reaching anything close to the “1 million copies sold in under 6 months of first publication” that is required to be a New York Times Bestseller.

The series is largely considered a flop by most publishing standards, and is often seen as the laughing stock by many “best seller” authors who are quick to lash out frightful bullying and hateful comments any time their own sales flop and they feel the need to make themselves feel better by hurting other authors.

The difference between you and me is the motivation behind why we write.

You write because you love hearing praise.

I write because I love my characters and would rather spend time with them, than Humans.

You desire Humans to kiss your ass.

I desire for Humans to die.

You can't exit without Humans glorifying you.

The longer I exist, the more I desire to kill every Human I meet.

You think humans are great and seek their approval.

I've yet to meet a good, kind, loving, moral, or decent Human. I've been beaten, raped, tortured, mutilated, crippled, starved, and caged by Humans.

You want Humans to put you on a pedestal.

I want Humans to die.

You bend to the whims of Human demands.

I fight back and shatter the teeth out of Humans with the very same bricks they used to break my jaw.

You live to be praised by Humans.

My family was murdered by Humans.

You are blind to the true nature of Humanity.

I've seen Humans for the vile creatures they really are.

You think Humans will love you.

I know Humans are completely incapable of love.

You write about Humans and their relationships in hopes of winning human praises.

I write Elves who eat Humans.

You write to gain human glory.

I write to have someone to talk to, even if it is just a fictional Elf and his equally fictional unicorn.

You desire humans to acknowledge you.

I know Humans aren't worth the feces they shit out.

Success or flop has never been a motivating factor for me.

Success via sales or money or good reviews, is dependant upon humans and humans are vile, despicable creatures whom I loath.

I don’t write for Humans.

I write for me.

When I was 8 years old, Humans locked me in a cage. I was beaten daily with a brick. A foundation nail was driven through my hip. I received one salt herring once every 12 days, I was considered “mute” because my jaw and teeth were shattered so badly that I could talk. When the FBI raid rescued me and let me out of the cage I was 31 years old and barely weighed 70lbs, had to be talk how to walk, bath, brush hair and teeth, and I was 42 years old when it was discovered that I was NOT mute, but rather needed surgery to reconstruct my jaw and suddenly I could talk.

Things like school, doctors, friends, kindness, hugs, TV, these were things I had never heard of and knew nothing about.

I was 37 years old the first time anyone ever told me I was a Human, and even now, I do not believe it.

Unlike Humans, I feel love and pain. I feel pity and compassion. And because of this, I KNOW I am not Humans, because Humans are incapable of feeling love. Humans are incapable of being kind. Humans are evil.

When I was put in a cage at 8 years old, I was told it was because I was a Demon, a Changeling. My uncles convinced my mother, herself a child, closer in age to me than most sisters are to each other, that her real child had been taken by Satan and killed and me, the Demon left in it’s place.

Teams of hundreds of psychiatrists and psychologists from all around the world gathered to study me. The feral child, the caged child, the child whom had never been hugged, the child who was never loved,

The news reporters called it The Worst Child Abuse Case In American History.

That child was me.

I write, because I have no friends and don’t fool myself into think there exists out there a Human capable of ever loving me enough to want to be friends with me.

And so I write about Elves. Lives who kill Humans. Elves who are my friends, because I have no one else. I write long conversations with the Elves, because I’ve no one else to talk to or with.

This is the difference between you and I.

You lust for human approval.

I vomit in disgust at the very thought of human existence.

You are a fool who await humans to love you.

I know Humans are incapable of any such thing.

You seek the glory and praise of reviews written by humans.

Humans have only praise and glory to themselves. Humans are selfish. Humans are evil. Humans are the bringers of pain. Humans exist only to kill, steal, and destroy. 

Humans will never love you.

Humans will only ever hurt you.

And so long as you are bound by your desire for Human praise, human glory, human written reviews, you will forever be their slave. You will never have freedom. You will always be looking to the next pat on the back, the next whisper of ego, and you'll never be free to write what you desire to write, because you'll always be groveling at human fee, waiting for their pitiful scraps.

I don’t care about genre.

I don’t care about marketing.

I don’t care about sales.

I don’t care about money.

I don’t care about praise.

I don’t care about reviews.

I don’t care if any one reads it.

None of these things motivates me.

All of those things are bonuses if they happen, but as they rely on Humans to happen, I do not expect them.

Even publication does not motivate me to write.

My motivation has come and gone long before the story is even published.

Companionship is my motivation.

I have no one to talk to.

I have no one to spend time with.

I have no one to love.

I am incredibly, unimaginably lonely.

I desire to have someone to talk to.

I desire to have someone to spend time with me.

I desire someone to love.

But I am unloved. Unwanted. Alone.

No human accepts me as part of their society.

No human has ever been my friend.

No human has ever wanted to talk to me.

I am motivated to write, friends.

I can find no one like me.

I live in a world filled with vile, evil, hateful Humans.

I appear to either be the last of my kind or the only one of my kind that ever was.

I am alone and surrounded by billions of Humans who hate every fibre of my soul and seek only to kill every pet I have, to destroy everything I own, Humans do nothing but kill, steal, and destroy, and so as they have hated me, so too do I now hate them.

I write, to create others like myself.

I write, to create friends to talk to.

I do not write to cater to readers.

I do not write to fit into a genre.

I write because I have no one to talk to.

I write to create someone who is willing to be my friend.

I write to create someone who is willing to talk to me.

This is why my novels are near entirely dialogue with almost no narration at all.

This is why my novels have no definable genre.

This is why my novels contain no action. No adventure. Just one character talking for 500 pages.

Most volumes I write fall into what many would call failures while very few have ever reached anything close to what most would call success. And this does not bother me, because those things neither motivate nor demotivate me.

I know every Human hates me and therefore I am never motivated by anything humans do.

Success in any has never spurred me to write more like it, while failures have never inspired me to not write more like it.

Success in any has never spurred me to write more like it, while failures have never inspired me to not write more like it.

The thing is, I’ve never been inspired by blowing to the will of others.

And what MOST people classify as success, I classify as you being castrated, stripped of your balls and your dignity, forced to grovel in hopes of favor from another.

What are you?

A man?

Or a dog?

I find myself utterly disgusted by what most people think of as success, and by what you clearly see as success.

Why do you need the approval of others to move forward?

Because you have no self worth.

You lack confidence in yourself so you rely on others to pat you on the back.

Is that REALLY success?

To me, that’s nothing but failure on the truest and purest of levels.

You fail at existing, because you can not exist on your own.

You need a crutch.

You need someone to lead you along and show you the way.

You are too much of a weak willed pussy to be able to stand up on your own two feet. And because of this, I see you as a failure.

You are a failure.

You are a failure because you are incapable of making your own decisions.

You are a failure because you are incapable of making your own choices.

You are a failure because you can only move forward if others pander to your selfish ego.

You are a failure because you are willing to give up when not enough people like you.

My advice?

Give up writing.

This career is not for you.

You’ll NEVER succeed, because there will always be haters. There will always be negative 1 star reviews. There will always be critics.

You can’t please everyone, and if you don’t even have the ability to please yourself, than give up now, because there is no point in you even trying to go forward.

You don’t have the mental strength, the emotional stamina, or the self worth for this business.

Millions dip their toes into the writing career, but rare is the person with the mental and emotional strength to succeed.

You MUST be able to stand on your own to succeed in this career.

You MUST be able to write what YOU want to write, without bending to the whims and wills of the market.

If you change what you write every time you get a bad review, you are doomed to fail before you even get started.

I want you to succeed, but I’m not sure you can. Just go back and re-read your question. Read it carefully. Perhaps you will than understand why I can not see any publishing success in your future.

If you are to succeed at this, or anything else in life, you NEED to change your attitude.

You NEED to have a strong self worth.

I can’t help you with that.

No one can.

That’s something you have to build up on your own.

>>>I wrote this urban fantasy trilogy inspired by manga (and related books) which sold over 100 copies combined. So I'm thinking of continuing the trilogy by creating spinoffs, sequels, and so forth.

First, this is completely irrelevant to the question you have asked.

If you are asking for advice on the genre, than telling what you write would be relevant.

If you were asking what sells, well, EVERYTHING sells, it’s just a matter of letting the people who read what you right know how to find your work, but again, this isn’t relevant to the rest of the question.

But than...

>>>I wrote this urban fantasy trilogy inspired by manga (and related books) which sold over 100 copies combined. So I'm thinking of continuing the trilogy by creating spinoffs, sequels, and so forth.

The words “inspired by manga (and related books)” concern me greatly.

Why?

I own a publishing house and was the editor in chief of 2 fiction based literary magazines for 16 years, and 90% of the manuscripts sent to us was “inspired by” something, and turned out to be, less than inspired and nothing short of outright plagiarism.

It is very rare for any manuscript to truly be ACTUALLY INSPIRED BY, as most writers have no clue how to use words correctly and don’t know the difference between inspiration and plagiarism.

I find much of your question very troubling.

I’m really not convinced you have what it takes to be a writer, let along an author.

And yes, a writer and an author are 2 separate things, and if you didn’t know that, well, that’s even more cause for concern.

>>>I wrote this urban fantasy trilogy ... which sold over 100 copies combined.

Are you aware that MOST self published authors NEVER sell even 10 copies total and would kill to be in your place with 100 sales from 3 books.

There are MILLIONS who dream of being as successful as you.

Yes, I understand the desire to be even more successful, but you need to put on some reality glasses and look at your writing with the perspective from other self publishers, NOT the perspective of readers.

But also, just stop caring about what other people think.

Do what is best for you. Not them.

Do your readers REALLY care about you?

If they ACTUALLY cared, they’d be their for you. They’d go shopping with you, eat out with you, attend your grammy’s funeral with you, walk their dog with you and your dog. Do, they do that? No! They don’t give a shit about you and you have no reason to give a shit about them.

Don’t fool yourself into thinking they write reviews FOR YOU. They don’t. They write reviews for themselves. They write reviews to gain clot on their accounts. They don’t care about you. And they never will.

And you should NEVER change your career just to satisfy some faceless username who bullied you online.

Stop caring about what reviewers think, because what they think DOES NOT MATTER!

>>>I'm thinking of continuing the trilogy by creating spinoffs, sequels, and so forth.

This is a good idea.

In fact, this is a great idea.

The more you write, the more you publish. The more you publish, the more chances there are for people to find you.

>>>I'm thinking of continuing the trilogy by creating spinoffs, sequels, and so forth. But the problem is that I have mixed reactions (reviews) that make me doubt whether I should continue writing

This is where the good idea goes bad.

You started out with a good idea and then you went: “Wait a minute, people are watching, what will people think, I better bow and grovel and bend and break. I better not follow my heart, I have to follow the crowd.”

Fuck that.

If your reviewers told you to go kill yourself are you gonna do that too?

Believe me, sooner or later you’ll get reviews saying: “You’re book sucks, go kill yourself.” Every author does. Some sooner than others, but sooner or later ever author gets them.

What will you do than?

Kill yourself?

You’re type who probably would.

Why do I say this?

Because you are so upset right now, bout getting bad reviews, that you are considering do EXACTLY what the bad review writers are telling you to do.

So, what are you going to do when you reviews saying: “You’re book sucks, go kill yourself.” Will you grow some balls and tell them to go fuck themselves? Or will you break down and kill yourself, just because a reader told you to?

You had a good idea, but you’re willing to throw it away, just to kiss some reader’s ass. What does that say about your ability to stand tall and believe in yourself?

If you don’t believe in your work, why would you expect your readers to believe in it either?

If you want people to believe in you, you need to first believe in yourself.

If you want people to love your stories, you must first love your stories.

>>>But the problem is that I have mixed reactions (reviews) that make me doubt whether I should continue writing.

I have a question: Why are you reading reviews?

No reputable book reviewer writes a review expecting the author to read it.

Book reviews are intended to help readers decide if the book is something they might like.

The only people who write reviews expecting the author to read it, are small minded self published authors who think reviews are an excuse to hurt the competition. Authors like that never last long.

You want READERS not authors reviewing your work.

ALL book reviews written by authors are pointless and should never be read.

And, if you are on Amazon or GoodReads... authors are not allowed to leave reviews and Amazon WILL delete their account and their books.

There once was an author who was jealous of my “success” (success in this case being that my novel was published – it had only sold 12 copies in over a year) and decided to create 52 Amazon accounts so she could leave 52 one star reviews on the book. Than in the comments under each of the 52 one star reviews, she ad a huge conversation with each of her 52 accounts.

I didn’t know about it until one of my friends on FaceBook sent me a message asking if I had seen the wild 1 star review spam that was plastering one of my books. They knew I never read reviews on my books, so they knew I had not seen it.

It was a fascinating popcorn worthy read, with the following line, being copy and pasted more than 500 times:

“A retarded story, about a retarded character, written by a retarded author.”

I was somewhere into the thousand comment when suddenly they all vanished.

I was rather disappointed that they had been deleted. It was some of the funniest shit I’ve ever read.

A few hours later Amazon sent me an email explaining that a self-published author had created 52 fake accounts to spam my books with 1 star reviews, and they banned her and deleted the reviews.

That’s how Kendra Silvermander and all of her 52 accounts got banned by Amazon. She’s not allowed to publish books on Amazon now because of this.

It was the only time I’ve ever read any review on any of my books.

Reviews are their to help readers decide what to buy.

You are the author, you don’t need to buy your own book, you already wrote it, so you have no business bothering to read reviews.

Reviews are NOT there for you!

Get that through your head!

Good reviews. Bad reviews. Who cares!

I’ve seen far too many self pubbed authors get hung up on obsessing over reviews and not be able to write because of it and you are clearly following down that path.

STOP IT!

JUST STOP IT!

You don’t need that mental crap in your life. You really don’t.

You are the author. You are in control of what you write.

Don’t let people bully you into not following your heart and writing what you want to write.

Bullies exist.

CRUSH THEM!

Bullies don’t deserve the life God gave them.

Bullies are nothing but trash.

And what do you do with trash? You toss it in the garbage where it belongs.

Stop worrying about the bullies who try to manipulate you with reviews.

You are the author.

You are the leader.

Readers follow the leader. Not the other way around.

A leader demands respect, not cowers the first time a hater shouts negativity.

A leader crushes the opposition, not becomes it’s slave.

Author’s lead. Readers follow.

Don’t let bullies stop you from writing.

Are you willing to lose your identity for them?

Will give up everything that make you different? Unique? And become just another cog in the wheel? A carbon copy of them?

If you have so many ideas to write, than why don't you just write them?

Why do you need permission from strangers?

Readers are not your mommy dearest.

If you can't decide for yourself what to write, than run back to your momma's boob. Clearly you are not yet weened from the tit and are still firmly tied to the apron strings.

You are unique. Why do you wish to throw that away?

Stop trying to please every body.

Stop worrying about the numbers.

Look back and try to remember why you started writing.

What was your original goal?

Why did you leave it behind?

Peer pressure.

That's your problem.

You're worried to much about others.

You care to much what others think.

You are not staying true to you.

You are putty in their hands.

They shape you and mold you, than toss you aside. Abandon you, and move on to something else.

And where are you than?

Tossed in the gutter. No longer you. Just the deformed lump they twisted you into.

Be true to you.

Stop trying to please every body.

Stop chasing numbers.

Go back and remember why you started writing.

Flow with your original goal.

Look at the mental anguish you are suffering through.

For what purpose?

To please others?

There was never a more stupid goal. 

Why do so many people do this? Authors. YouTubers. Twitch Streamers. Why? Why are you people all s stupid? Why can none of you do anything for yourself? Why do you all have to put on a fake ass show and vie for the most views and reviews?

Why can't you just be YOU?

Why can't you just be true to who you are?

Do what you love.

Write what you love.

Where is your passion?

Are you really going to waste your life, slaving for the love of strangers?

They'll never love you.

And you'll follow the fate of millions of writers before you.

You'll never succeed, no matter what you do, no matter how high your numbers go. 100 sales today. A million sales tomorrow. Either way, you'll never be satisfied. 

You'll never get to the top number.

No writer does.

Why?

Because if you set your goal at 10, when you reach 10, you'll say, "I don't yet feel successful. 10 isn't enough. 100. That's where's it's at. I'll feel successful at 100."

And when you reach 100, you'll say, "I don't yet feel successful. 100 isn't enough. 1,000. That's where's it's at. I'll feel successful at 1,000."

But then you reach 1,000, you'll say, "I don't yet feel successful. 1,000 isn't enough. 10,000. That's where's it's at. I'll feel successful at 10,000."

And it never ends.

You'll just keep grasping ever at numbers always just out of reach.

And you'll never be satisfied.

So long as you look to others, to outside sources, you'll NEVER feel successful, no matter what you do. Not even with a million glowing 5 star reviews and 10 million sales.

Why?

Because success is inside you.

Success doesn't come from outside.

It doesn't come from others.

It's all about who you are, to YOU.

What you achieve, for YOU.

So long as you look to others and their opinions of you, you will NEVER feel successful in ANYTHING you do.

And I can't help you with that.

I can teach you how to write better, publish smarter, but I can't teach you how to change your outlook of your own self worth.

You have to learn to love yourself.

You have to learn to believe in yourself.

You have to learn to know you are worthy.

Stop waiting for others to love you and learn to love yourself.

Stop waiting for others to enjoy your writing, and read your books to yourself for your own pleasure of reading what you wrote.

Stop waiting for others to believe in you and learn to believe in yourself.

Stop waiting for others to say you are worthy and tell yourself you are worthy.

Humans are incapable of love, they will never love you, learn to love yourself.

Humans are self and care only about themselves, they will never care about you, you must learn to believe in yourself, because no human is ever going to believe in you.

Humans have nothing in them but hate for everyone ad everything, they will never see you as worthy, you have to learn to know you are worthy.

So long as you look to humans and their opinions of you, you will never feel successful.

>>>Probably the mistake I should have realized is that I should have tested the idea first. I should have tested the idea on social media and websites like Wattpad by posting the first chapter to see any possible reaction. If it did, then I moved forward (the idea isn't mine but from another author who suggests to post many 1st chapters to see which gets the most reaction.)

Wattpad? You mean that site created for college students to post essays for sale to other college students, that is the largest plagiarism database source on the internet? Why the fuck would you post your work there? 3 decades of the lowest gutter scum hive on the internet, a dredge pot of plagiarised essays to help you cheat your way through school. Are you suggesting Wattpad has become a reputable site after decades of dodging federal investigations and being the #1 website to send the most college students to prison for plagiarising college papers?

Even if Wattpad has tried to clean up it’s act, even considering posting a single chapter there is going to completely kill your chances of ever getting published traditionally.

And the way you are overly hung up on success, I would think you would be looking into traditional publishing.

If you put anything up on Wattpad you can kiss any hope of trade publishing good-bye, along with any hope of getting into grad-school.

You are very young, I can tell by the fact that you don't know what Wattpad is or what the primary use and purpose of the website it. Wattpad was founded by college students for the goal of sharing essays, so that you could cheat in class. It is the sites original purpose, and remains to this day 30 years later, still it's primary function.

Just because teens use the site to post fiction, doesn't mean that most people on the site are doing that or that that is what the site's primary purpose is.

For the last 30 years Wattpad has been the #1 go to site for college students who want to buy plagiarized essays.

Wattpad is the #1 way to get expelled from school, university, or college.

It's also the #1 way to get denied entry into Ivy league schools like Harvard or Yale.

Wattpad is also the #1 way to ensure that you are NEVER published by a traditional mainstream big house publisher.

Schools and publishing houses DO check Wattpad to see if you are on there and if you are, you can kiss both grad school and your dreams of getting published good-bye forever.

If you never plan to go to college and you never plan to get published, than Wattpad is fine.

But big universities and big publishing houses DO blacklist anyone who has ever posted on or created an account with Wattpad, and have done so since 1996, and THIS is why so many authors tell you to stay away.

It's not that these authors look down on or hate Wattpad, but rather, these authors simply want to help you in your writing career, and they know that sooner or later you'll either want to get published or want to get a writing degree, and they know that if you, as a reckless teen posted on Wattpad, than you won't be able to do either goals. They aren't hating on Wattpad, they are just trying to save you the heartache of throwing away any chances of getting a degree or getting published, that's all.

>>>Probably the mistake I should have realized is that I should have tested the idea first. I should have tested the idea on social media and websites like Wattpad by posting the first chapter to see any possible reaction. If it did, then I moved forward (the idea isn't mine but from another author who suggests to post many 1st chapters to see which gets the most reaction.)

Beyond Wattpad though, back to your question.

Centuries of authors have found success without "testing first".

The internet celebrated it's 35th anniversary in 2020.

Social media has yet to reach it's 25th anniversary.

Mainstream public has been using social media for less than 10 years.

The bulk of the world only found out about social media in 2018, 4 years ago.

More then 90% of people using social media in 2021, only started using social media in 2020, less than a year ago.

Carefully consider those facts.

Still think using social media is a good test?

It is not, no matter what any one says.

REAL authors don't use social media for success and they never have. So it is foolish to think that using social media to test the success of a book is the norm.

But let's look at the question again:

>>>Probably the mistake I should have realized is that I should have tested the idea first. I should have tested the idea on social media and websites like Wattpad by posting the first chapter to see any possible reaction. If it did, then I moved forward (the idea isn't mine but from another author who suggests to post many 1st chapters to see which gets the most reaction.)

Who are you going to test the idea on?

Your target audience who will love your characters for decades to come? Or a bunch of snot nosed teenaged brats who don't give 2 shits about you and will toss you aside when the next shinny comes along 2 seconds later?

>>>So I want to know if I can continue writing further stories in the series or cut my loses and move on to something else?

You are asking me, a random stranger, who knows nothing about you beyond what you’ve written here, for permission to keep writing?

If you are an author, than you should know how to properly use words.

Either you are using words incorrectly or you suffer from a serious need to grow some balls.

Did you READ what you wrote before you sent it to me?

No?

Let me refresh you as to what you just said.

>>>So I want to know if I can continue writing further stories in the series or cut my loses and move on to something else?

Did you see it?

No?

Let me focus right in on it.

>>>I want to know if I can continue writing further stories

WHY do you think you need my permission to continue to write?

I don’t know you from Adam.

I don’t give 2 shits about you or your stories, so I don’t care if you write them or not. It makes no difference to me.

If you want advice, my advice is this:

GROW SOME BALLS AND MAKE YOUR OWN DECISIONS FOR ONCE IN YOUR LIFE!

Stop relying on what OTHERS think you should do and just do what you want.

What the fuck!

Be a man, not a mouse.

You know, I really hate people who can’t decide things for themselves. People like you piss me off.

>>>And even if I did, I'm not sure which story would be successful.

Does this matter?

Why are you so hung up on success?

I don’t think your writing is the problem.

The problem is your attitude.

From what you say, people ARE reading your stories and you re upset that they are not ALSO grovelling at your feet, licking your shoes, and kissing your ass.

Sorry, but, you might want to take a step back and rethink this pity party you are having here, because from what you have said, you are a lot more successful that the majority of self-published authors out there.

What is you definition of being successful?

I think that may be the problem here. Redefine what success means and you will be able to see how successful you already are.

>>>I don't want to spend months or years of my life writing a series that nobody wants to read.

If you wanted to write it, is it ever really a waste?

I find your mindset puzzling.

Are you not a person?

Did you not read your own story?

Did you not enjoy reading it after you published it?

If you enjoy reading what you wrote, than that is NOT nobody wanting to read it, because one person wants to read it: you.

Did you know that The Night of the Screaming Unicorn is one of my all time favourite novels, to the point that I reread it at least once or twice a month. I love reading and rereading that novel. Yes. I wrote that novel. And I not only enjoyed writing it, but I also fully enjoy reading it.

BoomFuzzy is another novel that I read and reread over and over because I love it so much. And yes, I wrote that novel too.

>>>I don't want to spend months or years of my life writing a series that nobody wants to read.

I am so confused.

Are you suggesting that no one, not even you enjoys reading what you wrote?

>>>I don't want to spend months or years of my life writing a series that nobody wants to read.

Are you telling me that you do not enjoy reading your own stories?

Why ever did you write them if not even you, yourself enjoys reading them?

Are you so fully dependant on what others think that you can not stand on your own two feet?

>>>I have tons of story ideas that I want to write but I don't want to risk time writing the wrong story.

If you try to please everyone, you’ll end up pleasing no one.

You simply can not please every one, so you might as well please yourself.

Write what you are most passionate about, the story you have the most desire and drive to write. And when you are finished with that story, move on to writing the next story which fills your heart with the burning desire to write it.

This is what I believe in. And it is more than what I preach, it is also what I practice.

So with this in mind, you can see that I do not feel there is such a thing as writing the “wrong” story.

I believe that whatever story your heart desires to write, that is the best story for you to write at that moment.

>>>My books aren't written in the typical manner that readers of most genres expect. Because of this, it's difficult to put them in a category without upsetting readers who regularly consume said books.

Ah!

Yes.

That’ll do it.

This is definitely the best way to get a lot of bad reviews.

This is an issue I know all too well.

I don’t write typical genres.

I find it best to have an author website and put info about the books on the website.

>>>I came up with 100 sold copies as a ballpark from the recent royalty check I received from Amazon (almost $100). I had the first book free while the second was 99 cents while the third costs $2.99. Plus, I have a short story supplement at 99 cents too.

I do not agree with this pricing method.

The free to price increase method USED TO work back in 2010 when Stephen King started the trend and nearly every Kindle book was sold this way (even big house traditionally published books). But it only worked because Stephen King invented the method for Perfect Storm, and once Stephen King stopped doing it with his own ebooks, this method stopped working for everyone else.

By 2013 this method had lost favour and was being frowned upon.

People who still use this method in 2021, generally do so only because they are new to self publishing and are reading very old and outdated articles and blog posts.

Check the publication dates of the articles you read. The publishing industry is a constantly evolving beast and things that worked just 6 months ago are often already obsolete, and things recommend 3, 5, or 10 years ago are rarely advisable now.

Think about how paperbacks are published.

Is volume 1 of Harry Potter .99c, volume 2 $1.99, volume 3 $2.99, and so on?

No.

Also, I firmly believe that no novel (stories 80k to 200k words) should EVER be listed at under $4.99 for the ebook edition and $9.99 for the paperback edition and $29.99 for the hardcover edition, and ONLY short stories under 10,000 words should ever be priced at .99c, with short stories of 10k to 30k words at $1.99+ and novellas of 30k to 75k at $2.99+ while epic novels (200k to 500k words) should be $7.99+ in ebook format.

And NO, 50k words is NOT a novel. It’s barely a novella. Short children’s mysteries like Nancy Drew are 75k, light novels like Harlequin Romances are 180k, fill novels like Harry Potter are 230k, and Epic Fantasies like Lord of the Rings are 500k+

Children’s Easy Readers, like Baby Sitter Club and Bailey School Kids are 25k to 50k long.

Yeah.

Every fool claiming 50k words is a novel, doesn't know his ass from a hole in a ground and obviously has never read a novel to know how big a novel is.

Don’t sell yourself short, by pricing too low.

You’re supposed to be trying to earn an income, not seeing who can race to the bottom first.

I will never understand why so many self published authors try to race to the bottom while so few try to race to the top.

If you have no confidence in your work, your readers won’t either.

While there are people who hoard up .99c Kindle books, most will never leave reviews and even more will never read the book at all.

If you want people to read your book, than you want people to BUY your book.

People will toss a .99 book aside unread, but they’ll think twice before spend $5.

The people willing to spend $5 are also going to read the book.

People who read the book, are the ones who leave good reviews.

Price with confidence.

NEVER price your ebook under $4.99.

You’re short story should be listed at AT LEAST $1.99 and if it’s over 10k words AT LEAST $2.99.

Each novel in your series should be the same price as each other novel in your series.

Each of you’re novels should be listed at AT LEAST $4.99 and if it’s over 200k words AT LEAST $7.99.

>>>At this point, I simply want to build my reader base.

Let me repeat what I just said:

While there are people who hoard up .99c Kindle books, most will never leave reviews and even more will never read the book at all.

If you want people to read your book, than you want people to BUY your book.

People will toss a .99 book aside unread, but they’ll think twice before spend $5.

The people willing to spend $5 are also going to read the book.

People who read the book, are the ones who leave good reviews.

Price with confidence.

NEVER price your ebook under $4.99.

Reader psychology is a thing. Look it up. Research it.

Readers will respect a book that has a respectable price.

If they see your book as Dollar Store Bargain Bin trash, they’ll buy it, toss it aside, and never read it. Because it’s only .99c, they won’t even bother to read the description.

If they see your book as an investment, they will think twice, ask themselves “Will I read this?” and be more likely to both read it and review it.

People will think nothing of spend $100 on 100 books at .99c and than never read any of them, but they’ll think twice about buying a $4.99 book.

.99c books have a long and proven history of high rates of downloads, low rates of 4 or 5 star reviews, high rates of 1 star reviews, and near 0% pages read rate.

$4.99 books have a long and proven history of mid-range rates of downloads, high rates of 4 or 5 star reviews, low rates of 1 star reviews, and near 80% pages read rate.

$12.99 books have a long and proven history of low rates of downloads, low rates of 4 or 5 star reviews, low rates of 1 star reviews, high rates of 2 and 3 star reviews, and near 100% pages read rate.

The higher you price your book, the higher your read rate is.

There is a too low and a too high range. Right now your books are priced in the too low range.

Also... if your books are priced at .99c and you made $100 than you had WAY more than 100 books sold... closer to 300 copies were sold.

Just because the book SELLS for .99c does NOT mean you EARN .99c

You earn 35% on .99c sales and 70% on $4.99 sales.

This means you earned .35c per book sold.

If you made $100 and you sell your books for .99c, than you actually sold 286 copies.

Now let’s see how much you would have earned had you priced your books at $4.99 instead.

You earn $3.49 on a $4.99 book, instead of .35c on a .99c book.

286 copies were sold at .99c x 35% = $100 earned

BUT...

Had 286 copies been sold at $4.99 x 70% you WOULD have earned $998.14 instead.

So, by selling your books at .99c you earn $100 a month, when you could have been earning $1,000 per month instead by selling them at $4.99.

Plus, not only would you be making more money, but you would actually be selling to people who ACTUALLY READ your book, not the ,99c ebook hoarders who will never read your book.

Congratulations!

You have found one of the articles written before my family was murdered, before my farm was razed, when I still had a house and before the GoldenEagle was cut in half.

NOTE: The following originally appeared on Squidoo in 2006 and has not been updated since 2006.

This was written BEFORE the bomb blew up my house on October 16, 2006.

You will notice a difference in how I talked, before psycho stalker Kendra Silvermander entered my life.

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What Is Success?

What Is Success?

Ranked #97,026 in Entertainment, #1,251,157 overall

How Do You Define Success?

What is success?

How do you describe the word success?

What would it take for you to feel successful?

I thought it would be interesting to see what everyone thinks on this.

"There is only one success: to be able to spend your life in your own way."

- Christopher Lasch

What Is Success?

Of course it would help get the discussion moving if I posted my feelings on it, so here I go...I've known several people who thought that they weren't successful until they earned so much money a year, owned a certain make car (Jaguar or BMW for instance), owned a vacation home, or a big boat. I always looked at these guys and asked them why they thought that money and items were success and they really didn't have an answer. That always bothered me. It made me sad and I felt like they were missing out on the joys of real success.

I live on a beach, where lots of millionaires vacation each year, and I see these so called successful people every day. They have a lot of money coming in, they have the second house on the beach, they have the boat, they have the car, and they look around and say they still want more, but than they also have the mortgages, the bank loans, the lease, and the sky rocketing property taxes. They have the "things" but they also have the debt and stress that comes with them. They tell people that at last they are successful, but than they are sad and depressed and end up with counseling bills on top of everything else, cause they need counseling to find out, why if they are so "successful" why than are they not also happy?

These same summer folks often look at me and my family...5 people and 200+ pets, living in a cabin just under 700 square feet, on an income of less than $20,000 a year, and with a car that gets towed home several times a year cause it's so old and beat up. They often ask us, how we can live like this and be happy. Why aren't we stressed out like they are? Why aren't we striving to be "successful" like them?

My answer is always the same.

What is success?

Is it money?

No.

Is it big houses and fancy cars?

No.

It is a family that loves you.

It is having a job that allows you to stay home with your family, even if it doesn't make you rich.

It is taking care of animals that were abandoned by their previous owners and knowing that they are now happy and safe.

It is being able to walk to the beach each day and see the sunrise or the sunset, even if our house is the smallest one in town.

It's going to the movies with our children and talking about why we liked it on the drive home. It's the weekly pizza nights, when we sit around talking and laughing in a tiny local pizza parlor, where we are so regular that they save our seats and know what to order without our seeing the menu.

No, success can not be counted in dollars and cents; success is counted in hours and minutes, laughter and tears...success in when you have a family that loves you, that you enjoy spending time with, and no amount of money can ever buy that.

Success Is...

"Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm."

- Winston Churchill

• The Happiness Club Headquarters
• The Happiness Club The Happiness Club is a group seeking lenses to help you bring laughter and joy into your life. On one of my other lenses I was talkin...

You Can Succeed!

"My will shall shape the future. Whether I fail or succeed shall be no man's doing but my own. I am the force; I can clear any obstacle before me or I can be lost in the maze. My choice; my responsibility; win or lose, only I hold the key to my destiny."

- Elaine Maxwell

What Are The Secrets To Success? My Top 5 Answers

What do you feel is the reason for success in your life?

It could be personal success or business success.

I think personal and business success go and in hand, because if one is failing than the other will soon follow.

For me, I'd have to say my top 5 would be:

• #1) Family. Always putting family first helps keep your business in perspective and makes for a happy life.
• #2) Passion. Do what you love. Love what you do. If it doesn't make you happy, don't do it.
• #3) Knowledge. Know how to do everything yourself, even if you have someone else to do it. A boss who doesn't know the business will not be the boss for long!
• #4) Lack of greed. Love of money is the root of all evil. If you start putting money first in your life, you'll start losing your personal happiness. Seek happiness first, the rest will follow.
• #5) Kindness. Be kind to everyone and never let the sun set on your anger. Forgive, forget, and seek not revenge. Always treat everyone as you would want them to treat you.

I think that the way you spend your time determines wither you succeed or flop too. I mean, how can you be successful if you just sit around in front of the flat screen tv all day? You got to get out there and actually DO something in order to succeed.

Life isn't about making money, it is about what you do with it. All the money in the world is not worth a thing if you aren't happy and making others around you happy too. Happiness first, money later. Even though time is money, no amount of money can buy back time wasted, either.

The Way To Success...

"It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something."

- Franklin D. Roosevelt

What Do You Say Success Is? What is Success?

I say...

This is what success means to me... asdf says:

it is the satisfaction of doing something right

abcd says:

success is a state of mind.

melanie dsouza says:

i feel success is a desire of every person . a person from his birth to death run towards success but success comes when a person really puts his best efforts.

Ann says:

Success is a (feeling) of accomplishment. Its a feeling.(Opinion)

SAURABH DUSEJA says:

Successs is able to do things with happiness and stability irrespective how bleak are the circumstances. Success is ability to understand feelings and emotions of other person , it lies in giving happiness to other . Greed , Lust , Anger , expectations are the enemies of happiness and SUCCESS.

cherry may says:

for me success is a way of achieving it through your goal in your life that you finish it through in your own.

quest says:

success is the result of the sacrifices you have already and being happy with who you are

lady says:

Success is watching your children sleep.

Strike Pineda says:

success is nothing TANGa!!!!!!!

-ELMA REMOTO- says:

SUCCESS is the result of sacrifices,trials and challenges.

I am successful because... Reader Feedback

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What do you want to become? 
What did you do today to step closer to that goal?
Whatever you do, be your best at it!
And remember to have yourself a great and wonderfully glorious day!

~EK
EelKat.com
pinterest.com/eelkat/

By EelKat Wendy C Allen

If you ever made fun of or had any part in the destruction of my farm, and the illegal selling of half of my land to Colliard, you shall lose your land.

If you ever made fun of or had any part in my being homeless since 2006 - YES, I AM still homeless in 2023, you shall become homeless.

If you ever made fun of or had any part in the backhoe driving over my house, you shall lose your house.

If you ever made fun of or had any part in my car being cut in half, you shall lose your car.

If you ever made fun of or had any part in my becoming crippled, you shall lose your health.

If you ever made fun of or had any part in the murder of my son, your child shall die an equally horrible death.

Evil men go out of their way to try to drive a person to suicide.

Are you an evil man?

Are you sure you're not?

How many people have YOUR hate filled words killed?

Next time you go to do a mean thing to a fellow human, stop and really think about the consequences of your actions.

Did you ever notice how every one has a story to tell about me, yet not one of them ever speaks the truth?

What lies has YOUR gossiping tongue spread about me?

Did you know...

October 16, 2006, bomb blew up my house because of YOUR lies.

August 8, 2013, the house which replaced the one the bomb blew up, was driven over by a backhoe.

November 14, 2013, my 8 month old infant son was murdered because of your lies.

November 14, 2013, I was beaten up, paralized for 5 months, spent 18 weeks relearning to walk, I'm now crippled for the rest of my life, because of YOUR lies.

Are you proud of what you have done?

Enjoy your eternity in Hell. You earned it. You've certainly worked hard for it.

~EelKat

If you have any information about any of these events, please call FBI Agent Andy Drewer at 207-774-9322