Supplement your income with Kindle books

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Hello,
As most aspies are of at least above-average intelligence, I'd just like to recommend writing books on Kindle as a potential revenue source. If you work hard at marketing them (all doable by email, not in person) they can produce a nice revenue stream of at least a few hundred dollars extra a month. It's not a job, but it doesn't hurt to have extra money.

There are lots of guides online to writing various types of fiction. When I started three years ago (I write as LH Thomson) it took me six months to complete my first draft of my first book. Now, it takes three to six weeks. It's a puzzle of structure, creation and promotion that is completely apersonal -- you never really talk to anyone in person, come to think of it -- but which can be rewarding.

You're writing an entire book in three to six weeks? A quality book?

Starkid, that's not nice. Your last comment can also be interpreted as a putdown. Certain genres of fiction can be written quickly, with a sense of fun, and are intended for light reading, like romance novels. I don't read romance myself, but I know that for many, it is a form of escapism. Not all of us enjoy those heavier books.

I have a Kindle book out now as we speak. Online marketing isn't cheap, I'm finding out. There are free places to list your work, but I'm thinking if I went the book blog tour way, that'll add up fairly quickly.

So how does one go about writing a Kindle book please?
Can you give us a step by step procedure?
Do you write it first on your Computer than just post it to Amazon and say sell this book for us?

Sorry, that's a legitimate question and the answer is a resounding NO. There is nothing about the kind of disposable tripe you're referring to that is of any recognizable quality. My mother has been reading that garbage since I was a child and it's as mindless as a Kardashian. Literature thrown together on a template, like assembly-line food cannot be a "quality" product. There may be a market for it, among simple readers with low expectations, but that kind of mind would be just as engrossed by an Archie comic. Just because there's a market for something doesn't mean it's respectable.

I don't think there's anything wrong with self-publishing through places like Amazon, but I do not believe that a truly good story, well-written and with genuine imagination can be whipped out in the amount of time it should take just to edit a decent book. Stephen King seems to drop a new novel every time he scratches himself, but even he isn't turning them out every six weeks.

Okay, well, almost every reviewer on Earth disagrees with both of you and my books are nearly all rated over four stars on both Amazon and Goodreads ... but I guess attacking someone is easier than qualifying your statement with "oh, and by the way, everything that isn't lit fic is s**t to me."

Ignorant.

Okay, first of all I was a newspaper reporter for 23 years, so I have a lot of experience with turn-of-phrase. Additionally, as an Aspie I remember and mimic pattern behavior quite well, so I adopted a lot of other peoples' styles into creating one of my own.

A genre fiction book, when you come down to it, is a process like anything else. It helps if you've got all day to write, as I do, and can produce 2,500 plus words daily. But I start with the crime or conflict, then work backwards from how I'd like the novel to conclude, plotting each chapter thoroughly before I start. I respect my audience and the type of books they like, so I try to keep chapters to no more than 10 or 12 pages. I focus on dialogue and character interaction; I'm getting better at overarching character development as I go. My books usually run 50,000 to 60,000 words, which is about 10,000 to 20,000 less than the average lit fic.

So before I start writing, I have a plan for the whole book. Additionally, I designed newspaper pages for years at work, so I have some design knowledge and can create (adequate) covers for my books. Kindle has a full step-by-step guide on the Kindle Direct Publishing (kdp) site showing how to format the book.

There are some industry "standards" in terms of pacing, although I don't really believe these are absolutes; one good rule, though, is to place a turning point or major conflict at even intervals through the book, which helps them conform with the standard beginning, middle, end structure.

Keep in mind again that genre writing isn't like lit fic; you're trying to entertain with style, not blow their minds with your reinterpretation of narrative structure or your unorthodox style. I would argue, also, that much of the perceived profundity in lit fic is attractive purely for their aesthetic, as the actual message -- I guarantee you -- has been said somewhere else before.

Thanks for the above Jioome.especially the line:- Kindle has a full step-by-step guide on the Kindle Direct Publishing (kdp) site showing how to format the book.which I Googled to find the step by step process.

What do you think about services such as the following site offers?:-


http://www.publishkindlebook.com/

I was just a simple Mechanic so do not have your background, if I submitted something directly to Amazon, would they even read it first never mind correct my poor grammar?

Iam not looking to write a work of fiction, just my life story purely because so many people have told me I should write it, and having read books such as "A Boy called It", can see why they would consider my experiences to be of more interest, providing the "read about poor me" genre is still in vogue?

Sorry, jloome. I meant to say that writing quickly does not determine the quality of what is being written. I myself could write an A grade essay in two or three days if I knew enough about what I was writing. I am jealous if you can write a book that fast. I have never written a book. Also, I don't read literary fiction. I read mainly nonfiction, but also science fiction, fantasy and mystery. I'm a librarian and I like a good plot, good facts, or both! I did not mean to offend.

Didn't see anything offensive in what you wrote! The other two were being elitist knobs, but I suppose we all are about some things.

No, it wasn't nice; it was completely neutral. I meant exactly what I asked, the question was completely legitimate, and anyone who reads anything else into it ought to not make assumptions, especially on a website dedicated to a condition known to cause those who have it to prefer literal communication.

Jloome, how do you get into a writing frame of mind? Do you write in the morning or evening? Do you do nanowrimo?

I write throughout the day. I try to start by 9 a.m., and usually write straight through til about noon or 1230, then take a break and do housework, walk the dogs, take out the trash etc. I try to write for at least a couple more hours in the afternoon, and maybe an hour at night. So probably six or eight hours a day. It comes in bursts, of course, so I'll usually complete between 2,000 and 8,000 words in that time, typically on the lower end.

My suggestion for most people would be to rise early and write before other issues in the day cloud creativity. But it's a personal thing, I think.

Jloome, thank you for posting this. You have emboldened me to resume my interest in writing.

A couple of years ago I had the idea of writing e-books. In typical fashion, I read about 15 books on how to do creative writing. I also found, purchased, and learned a bit about how to use the authoring application Scrivener. I came up with a story idea, laid-out the overall story arc, and so on. I then proceeded to write the backstories for the main characters. That was where things got interesting.

The more I wrote the antagonist's backstory, the more I found I was describing things about myself. And when creating backstories for the other characters, including their strengths and weaknesses, I discovered that I was drawing upon my past experiences of others, and trying to get inside their heads, and view the world through their eyes. So in short, the whole project turned into sort of a psychotherapy exercise, from which I benefited. But so much so that it got me so bogged down in self-examination that the writing project ground to a halt.

Over the last couple of days I have tossed around the idea of resuming the project; your post encourages me to do that. Thanks!

You're welcome. The self-analysis thing tends to pass with time, I think. I have a reasonable ground in how NTs really think -- not how they believe they function, but reality -- and once I understood that, I had fewer problems with myself.