I've been asked several times about why I have so many FREE books (of course, I've also been asked why I don't have ENOUGH books that are free, but that's another story :D).
Anyway, what I'm about to share is nothing new at all. You can check out other veteran indie authors' blog posts and they'll tell you the same thing (and probably even more). I've also discussed this a few times in the past, I think, but in any case, I just thought I should write my own in-depth post about the power of free to show how free books as a marketing tool can also work for Filipino authors like you and me. 
Please note: 
All screenshots below were taken around around 3 to 4AM EST, May 7.
All screenshots are based on Kindle (Amazon) sales. If I can find some free time again, I'll try to share graphs based on B&N and iBooks sales.

Now, here's what happened to Book 1 Dear Greek Billionaire when the prequel went free. You'll notice that sales started climbing up May 5. 

And then Book 2 Love, Your Greek Billionaire...

Now, Book 3 Forever & Ever, My Greek Billionaire also went out May 6. We can say, for the sake of argument, it may be the fact that the series is complete that drove sales to Books 1 and 2. 
But that's not the case at all. When I look at my graphs, I saw that my first-day-sales for Books 1 to 3 are virtually the same. If Book 3 is the reason that I have new readers snapping up Books 1 and 2, there should also be a significant increase in the sales of Book 3 (I should also note that, because of the length of my books, a reader can finish all three (or four, including the prequel) in one day).
If I have enough time, I'll try to post another set of screenshots to show the effect of free books on sales past May 6. But for now, I hope we can at least agree that free books CAN drive sales.  

Doing paid marketing for free books is optional. When my book went free on May 4, there were already people who downloaded the prequel without me doing any marketing, enough to get the book to Top 500 overall for free books on Amazon. But I still like paying for advertising because - at this point - I feel my time is better spent writing than doing marketing. But I have done my own marketing in the beginning, with good results, so it can be done. 
Now, because I did pay for advertising, some of you may question whether I was able to recoup the money I spent on advertising. (PREPARE YOURSELF. CALCULATIONS ARE COMING)

Step 1: I calculated the average number of copies sold per day between April 27 to May 3 (last 7 days of sales before the prequel went free on May 4) for DEAR GREEK BILLIONAIRE and got THIS NUMBER.

Step 2: I then calculated returns that can be attributed to the prequel going free.
May 6 Royalties - (THIS NUMBER x Royalty Per Book) = Profit #1.

Step 3: Repeat steps 1 and 2 for LOVE, YOUR GREEK BILLIONAIRE.
May 6 Royalties - (THIS NUMBER x Royalty Per Book) = Profit #2.

Step 4: Calculate how much I still need to earn to recoup my advertising expenses.
Advertising Expenses - (Profit #1 + Profit #2) = Balance

Based on my calculations, I already earned back 57.90% of what I spent on advertising on May 6. 
Based on past experience, I think I need about 2 to 4 days more to earn the back the rest. 
Everything is pure profit after that. :D

One thing I should spell out is that, obviously, all these books are under ROMANCE. Not sure how the numbers would differ for other genres but if you check out Russell Blake and J.A. Konrath's blogs, I think it's safe to say that free books helped them a lot, too. 
Also, it definitely took longer for me to recoup paid advertising expenses in the past. I was a newer author, I had fewer books, and I made a couple of rookie mistakes. So...bottom line, YMMV. 
However, I believe you can improve results on setting your book free with the following:

• If you have a series / serial, set Book 1 or the prequel free.
• Cliffhangers can get you lots of love and hate. I personally love writing them, and though you could get a lot of flak of it, there's also nothing like a cliffhanger that gets readers to one-click faster). In my part, I try to give readers a heads up in advance about it. For The Greek Billionaire and His Secretary, I warned readers that there's heartbreak ahead (they rightfully equated this to cliffhangers) and it will be so until the last book.
• Set the book free once you've completed the entire trilogy (especially if all the books revolve around one couple) or you've written at least 80% of your series (say, Part 4 in a 5-part serial). I learned this from Liliana Rhodes, by the way.
• Make sure you have all the links available in your front and back matter before setting the book free.
• Experiment with covers and blurbs for Book 1. 
• Do marketing (paid or free). There are all sorts of things you can do, and you may have to experiment with each (a.k.a. trial by error) until you find out what works for you.
• If you're writing a series of standalones, you can switch it up. Let's say Book 1's free for a year. You can get it back to paid then make Book 2 free. I learned this from Cora Seton, although I forgot if it was from an article or podcast.
• Some authors give readers an added incentive for clicking the sequel by pricing Book 2 at $.99 then the rest at $2.99 or whatever their regular price is. I haven't done this yet, but I heard from other authors that it worked for them so I thought I should share this tip as well.
• Have it available on as many retailers and websites as possible.

And that's it. I hope this helped! :)

So first of all - this is my anniversary post. Almost two months late, I know. I didn't get to write one right away because I couldn't think of any new information to share with you guys then. But now, I do, thanks to the new trilogy I recently started (and which is also about to end).

The Art of Trusting a Greek Billionaire (Book 2 in my six-part serial) was released in December 2013. Average word count for the books was 20k to 25k although Book 5 (the longest) was about twice as long, if I remember correctly. 
When you do serials on Amazon, expect a lot of low-star reviews hating on the length (or lack thereof) of the book. Ranking doesn't have that much staying power either although there are exceptions to the rule. (Case in point, my super fave Whitney Gracia Williams). 
On the other hand, you can also see from the chart that Apple users don't give an eff about the length serials. On Amazon, my biggest selling books for each month are the newest releases. On Apple, my newest release also takes the #1 spot but the second spot ALMOST ALWAYS goes to - yes, you got it - The Art of Trusting a Greek Billionaire, which is one of my oldest self-published books.
My takeaway: If you like writing short (and steamy), Apple is your BEST (but not your only) friend. Just be sure to have a permafree to keep sales steady. I really want to encourage Filipino authors to write serials since we grew up on serials and cliffhangers - I mean, hello, our telenovelas are rife with them and if you do them right, they can make a reader more invested in a book. Personally, as an author, nothing makes ME more invested in my own books than the heartbreak my characters are experiencing. The more painful it is, the more invested I am in their stories.

Now, one of the reasons why Trusting continues to sell well (based on my fairly low standards :D) on Apple is because Book 1 is permafree and drives sales for Book 2. Recently, I started a new trilogy, which is set in the same world as my first Greek billionaire serial. The only difference is that the new trilogy has NO PERMAFREE to boost sales for the second book. My prequel, The Greek Billionaire and His Secretary, was released at $.99c. Dear Greek Billionaire, Book 1 in the trilogy, was released a couple days after it.

This was an eye-opener for me. Huge eye opener, which is why I'm rewriting a part of Book 2 and use it as a permafree to boost sales on Apple. BN sales as shown in the chart are normal for a $2.99 release - although the chart makes my earnings from BN miniscule, you have to remember that BN's market is also a lot smaller compared to Amazon's. 
My Apple sales usually outpace BN sales with a permafree but obviously that's not happening with DGB.

ALL MY SELF-PUBLISHED SERIES start with Book 1 as free. Old ones like The Werewolf Prince and I don't count because they're not self-pubbed. Even my Silver and Lace series will have  either a free prequel or short story of sorts to promote the series. But with my new trilogy (Stavros and Willow), I tried something different. I didn't set the prequel free but instead priced it at $.99 since it was only 44 pages long or about 10k words. I had super low expectations that it would sell since I figured people were used to me making Book 1 free. But THIS happened. 

My ratio for Amazon / BN sales are never like that. NEVER.  But for the first few days, BN sales actually outpaced sales in Amazon and honestly, if I were to base it on market size, I think TGBHS was able to sell at the same pace on both Amazon and BN for more than a week. I've NEVER sold this well on BN before so I'm thinking that it's a combination of a good strategic title and a $.99c price point. Obviously, it's just mostly conjecture at this point, I know I need more hard data, but even so, I have a good feeling it has to do with those two things.
Anyway, because sales of TGBHS were so spectacularly curious, I wondered how effective it was at driving sales to the next book, which is DGB. I compared this to the sales of Burn, which was preceded by Book 1 (Swish) being in a USAT/NYT bestselling boxed set (Wild Rides). 

Obviously, not that huge a difference. But there are a couple things to note. 

• DGB went live only a few days after TGBHS. Burn went out THREE MONTHS after. 
  
• Swish was part of a boxed set that made it to Top 50 on Amazon and even Top 20 on B&N. My $.99c prequel made it as far as Top 500 on Amazon and Top 100 on BN.

Again, I still need more data to make certain conclusions, but for now, I'm thinking $.99c releases for Book 1 is a good way to go and ESPECIALLY IF you release the next book right after. 
I also noticed that Dear Greek Billionaire "seems" to be reaching more new readers compared to Burn as you'll see in the graph below. I'm thinking that Burn's decline on Day 16 was because I had reached virtually all of my old readers in the first fifteen days. Day 16 onwards, mostly new readers were the ones buying (and obviously they're not that many). 
With DGB on the other hand, weekend sales account for the spikes (Day 9, 10, and Day 16, 17) but other than that they're selling more steadily.  Again, I'll need more data to back this up but that's what I feel about it for now at least.

Sales for DGB are parallel with sales for TGBHS by the way (too lazy to create another graph for this, sorry) but when you consider that, then one way to interpret it is that TGBHS is still doing its job at driving sales for the next book.

Same thing's happened with Books 1 to 5 for Damen and Mairi although not in the same scale. I'm thinking new readers were more inclined to one-click The Greek Billionaire and I because it's a standalone.
My takeaway: Amazon and BN readers may be feeling so overwhelmed by the number of permafrees available that they've taken to checking out $.99 releases and using it to decide which series to follow. Obviously, the opposite's the case with Apple. For now, though, I'm thinking I'll stick with $.99 releases for Book 1 of my serials and see how things will continue to work out.
Another thing I want to emphasize on is TIME. If you feel you don't write fast enough then consider writing your entire series in advance before releasing them simultaneously. I know from firsthand experience that readers' interest in your books tends to wane the longer you make them wait. So either work on writing fast enough OR release the entire series in one go. ANOTHER alternative - which I'm still working on - is to have SPECIFIC release dates you can stick to (my greatest weakness alas) and maybe even set preorders up for sequels. That's one way you can be sure to get them hooked until the end.

If you've been following my blog, you'd know that I love, love, love talking about niches - probably as much as I love to talk about outlining. Now, one thing I've noticed is how sales for a particular book seems to be greater on one retailer than the other. 

A few facts about Meant to Be Yours:

• Released in October 2014
• Book 2 in a two-part serial
• Book 1 published in February 2013, was part of USAT bestselling New Adult Romance bundle in January 2014 and was set free when MTBY went live
• Categories / sub-genres: New adult / college age characters, contemporary romance with BDSM theme

First, here's a look at the number of copies it sells on Amazon, BN, and Apple.

At first glance, it may seem like Amazon is once again outpacing sales (slightly) on BN. But remember - BN has a smaller market than Amazon. When you take that into account, you'll know that MTBY has a larger market share on BN compared to how it's doing on Amazon (and Apple). This, by the way, is my ONLY BDSM-themed story (Jason & Keanne does touch upon this issue a little) so I'm thinking it's because of that it's still been selling steadily. 
And just to show you how well MTBY is doing on BN compared to my other books, here's a chart comparing sales of MTBY to Burn (Aug. 2014), This Round I'm Yours (Feb. 2015) and The Art of Trusting a Greek Billionaire (Dec. 2013).

Before my Greek books, I used to be more known for writing werewolf romances. Late last year, I finished a werewolf trilogy - it didn't rank as well as my first werewolf books (owned by my former publisher) and I think one reason was because the latter was initially priced at $.99 while my trilogy were priced at $2.99 for Books 2 and 3 (Book 1 is permafree though).
Another thing I've noticed is that shifter romance doesn't really sell that well outside Amazon (refer to graph). Initially, it did well on BN and Apple but afterwards, sales just kept declining until they reached a certain (low) plateau.
My takeaway: Every retail site seems to have its unique share of popular niches. Up to you to find out what it is and see which one you'd like to write more. Pricing may also have to be adjusted according to which niche you're in and, lastly, it may pay to be exclusive with Amazon, depending - again - on your niche.

Anyway, that's it for now and I hope even just a little bit of what I've shared is able to help you figure out your next step in self-publishing. Nothing I've shared is ground-breaking for most indie writers but for those in the Philippines, I thought it would be a good thing if I summarized everything here, in case some of you guys were wondering about the same things. 
Some of you may also be wondering why I haven't discussed KU. To be honest, I just don't have enough data because KU seems to work better for new SERIES and as of now, I haven't any to speak of. Next month, though, I'm hoping to be done with another shifter romance trilogy so maybe I'll have figures then. It depends.

Note: Everything here is BASED ON MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE. You aren't obliged to follow my advice or even think that I'm right. All I want is to give back and have more Filipino authors earning enough from self-publishing to be able to write full time. Is all.

So...last Friday, Lulu.com shared this infographic.

Indie authors generally agree with it, I think, but there were also those who went, 'not so fast...' Like the piece on Dear Author, for instance.
Both have good points, and I've got no plans to disagree with either of them. What I do care about is making sure that the problems the DA article pointed out are addressed so that Filipino writers like you and me continue to survive (or even thrive) in today's publishing scene. 

First of all, yes, there are a couple of unavoidable expenses - if you want your book to be good then yes, you need to pay for certain services.
Cover Art 
I know a couple of authors who do their own covers and really great ones at those. I can't remember, though, if the fact that they do their own covers is something they acknowledge in public so I won't name names. But the fact is, they do exist and so it IS possible that you don't have to pay for your own covers. But the question is, CAN YOU DO YOUR OWN COVERS?
If you can't trust yourself to be honest then look for someone artistic and someone you trust to be honest with you. Ask his or her opinion about your cover. If they think it sucks then it sucks. 
Remember, though, that you don't have to spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars on your first cover. A lot of cover artists today offer pre-made covers and these are always cheaper than customized ones but NOT NECESSARILY uglier or cheap-looking. My cover artists are Kellie of Book Cover by Design (from UK) and Clarise of CT Cover Creations (who's Filipino-Chinese like me). Both of them offer affordable ebook cover designs. 
Please take note I specified ebook cover designs. I suggest that you don't focus on looking for a paperback cover just yet. That's an added and unnecessary expense for now.
When getting someone to do you covers, just make sure you decide early on what your branding is. I learned about this a little too late so I had to redo a lot of my covers. By branding, I mean that people take one look at a cover and they immediately know it's YOUR book and even what SERIES it is. If you check my Greek billionaire romance series, you'll notice that I'm using the same font for GREEK. You'll also notice that I always use the same font and style for my author name for all of my books, whether they be contemporary or paranormal.
PROOFREADING AND EDITING
You absolutely must pay for this. I won't even go to explaining why. You must. My editor is Wendy, a.k.a. The Passionate Proofreader. Like Clarise and me, she's Filipino-Chinese and like Clarise, virtually 99% of her clients are from the US.
MARKETING
Some types of ebook marketing are free but still effective.

• Reach out to reviewers. Word of mouth always helps. If they can post their reviews on multiple sites, so much the better. Don't just limit yourself to Filipino readers. You want readers from the US and other countries, too, because with ebooks, the entire WORLD is your market.
• Give away a free ebook or create a free sampler of your work. It's not as effective as before but it will still get you readers.
• Make use of the "free days" promotion and Kindle Unlimited service available from Amazon's Kindle Select program. Just remember that when you do this, your book can't be available OUTSIDE Amazon.
• List your new releases with websites that offer free promotions. I recommend WTRAFSOG (Jamie McGuire herself mentioned it in one of her interviews) and other similar pages on Facebook.
• Use hashtags when posting or tweeting about your book. Every little bit of strategic marketing counts.
• Create a newsletter and get your readers to subscribe FROM DAY ONE. This is important. EXTREMELY important. I cannot emphasize it enough.

Now, what you do have to pay for---

• Blog tours. It's a hit or miss, but when they work, they REALLY work.
• Paid ads (such as Facebook and Bargain Booksy). They won't cost you as much money as you fear as long as you've targeted the right audience for your ad and you have a compelling image for your ad. Make sure you use an affiliate link to track clicks.

Ebook formatting
Most of the authors I know format their own ebooks. They say it's easy to do and I believe them. The only reason I don't format my own books is because it's covered by my publisher. Money saved is still money saved so please take the time to learn this skill. It should serve you well.
Paperback cover design and formatting
As mentioned earlier on, I don't recommend focusing on this if you're new and you mean to focus on selling ebooks. If you have other priorities then sure, it's up to you. But if you want to be smart and practical and you don't have any existing readership base who'd buy your paperbacks, why spend time and money on it? 
Website
The only thing I paid for is my domain name. The rest, I did myself. I use Weebly as my web host (it's very beginner-friendly and considerate of tech-challenged peeps like me) but a lot of people say Blogspot and WordPress are great, too.
Print and offline advertising
Not at this point. 'Nuff said.

I've been struggling to write this particular scene for a book of mine. I know what I want to happen - I just can't seem to find the right approach to it. Whenever this happens, what I usually do is stop writing and find inspiration. But lately, what I think of doing is to just write something else. In this case, write a post that may be of help to other Filipino writers and hopefully God will see fit to inspire me after.

One of my current reads is Bo Sanchez' The Abundance Formula. I'm familiar with the concept since my dad faithfully follows it. Basically, your 100% income would be divided to 10/20/70. 10% is your tithe - something that goes directly back to God, the source of everything you have in this world, and that includes your life. 20% for investment, and 70% for your day-to-day stuff. That's the most simplified way of explaining it, by the way. 

Anyway, let's get back to the topic. In one of the chapters, Mr. S teaches his readers how to come up with a "mega catch" sort of like what the apostles received when Jesus helped them fish (John 21). Apply this to our writing careers, and I interpret it as being able to write a book that sells. 

To come up with this miraculous catch (read: bestseller or at least a book that you're proud of and at the same time earns you a stupendous amount of moolah), Mr. S outlines three core ingredients (I will not be sharing how he explained these core ingredients as I may end up giving away too much of the book. I suggest you guys buy it instead. It's a great and inspiring read. P.P.S. I am not earning anything from recommending his book.):

1. Determination
If your first book is a flop, so be it. Just keep writing. If writing is your passion, don't give up on it. Even if it means sacrificing a full-time job that already and actually pays, if you feel that you need to take a certain risk in order for your writing to work, so be it. Keep writing. 

I think it was last August or September that I quit writing articles and decided to go all-in with self-publishing. It was a terrifying decision to make, but I was thankful that I had my partner's support. He basically footed all the bills while I gave everything I got to writing and marketing a book that would eventually be a part of a multi-author boxed set that would stay at the USA Today's bestselling list for 3 weeks and the New York Times bestselling list for 2 weeks (and even one week on the combined list for print and ebooks!).

I totally had NO idea that would happen though. All I had going for me was my gut instinct that it was now or never. I prayed to God constantly for guidance. And you know what? The rewards were more than I could ever imagine.

2. Differentiation
According to this report, there had been 3,500 books pubbed EACH DAY in the US. That number does not include the thousands of titles self-pubbed as ebooks without ISBNs. So basically, each day, a reader is faced with thousands of NEW books to read. Why should and would they pick YOURS?

That's when differentiation kicks in. From an author's perspective, I define this core ingredient in two ways.

• Niche

This is very important, which is why it's probably my most favorite topic to write about when sharing tips and talking about my road to publication. I used to be confused - so, so terribly confused - about what my niche is. When a super respected literary agent told me she loved my query letter for YA horror but preferred I ditch the romantic aspect of it, I was so blown away with what she said that I decided to follow her advice to the letter. Even though writing romance is a passion of mine, I thought the agent knew better and so focused on writing just YA horror. But - here's the thing. While I do love writing horror, it's not something I can do every day. If I do it every day, I'd end up driving myself crazy with stress. It would feel like work. 
Thankfully I gradually found myself back to writing romance. The eye-opener and life-defining moment for me was when I started reading reviews and everyone kept saying that my books were a public hazard because it got them to laugh out loud. Also, when I checked the most highlighted passages in The Werewolf Prince and I, I was so stunned when they turned out to be a fairly popular local joke that I translated in English. That's when I knew I was meant to write rom-coms. Once you've found your niche, differentiating your books from other people's works won't be a chore. It will come to you naturally and it won't be something you even have to consciously think of doing. It will be a result of everything that you are as a person and a writer. 

• Strategy

Differentiation for me also means about finding the right strategy.

• I really, really wanted to write a book with Asian characters. So I wrote DRAWN, which has a Japanese-Russian hero. That spelled HOT to me. Unfortunately, it did not spell hot to most of my readers. It was one of my poorest-selling books. That was a painful setback, but I didn't let it get me down. I rewrote my other book, Park and Violet. Originally, Park (my hero) was 100% Korean. What I did was make Park look like a European hottie BUT adopted by Korean parents. I also decided not to change the setting, which was in Japan. The result: PNV shot up to Amazon's Top 500 in its first month of release. At that time, it was one of my highest-ranking books and I was really, really surprised at how well it did. The lesson: sometimes, you just need the right strategy to make things happen.
• I have NEVER written a steamy book before I started having my books out on Amazon. But my publisher requested it of me and though I felt really conscious about it, I decided to do it even though I felt like I wasn't really good at it since I'm Filipino and you know how conservative we are, etc, etc. But anyway, long story short, it ended up becoming one of the main selling points of my books. This is not to say that I write porn. =/ I hope you don't think that. I know my readers don't think that. Most of the time, my steamy scenes are also LOL moments. For me, this part of a couple's relationship is fascinating because it's when barriers are broken down and a person's real self is allowed to come out. I always see it as an act of love between couples, which is why my girls only have such experiences with the men they're meant to marry and live happily ever after. Anyway, the lesson: don't tell yourself you "can't" do something without trying. 

3. Delegation
This is also something I constantly talk about because I'm a big believer of it, and I was really happy when I read about it as being a core ingredient of success in Bo Sanchez' book. There will come a point in time when you have to delegate and not to do so will only end up preventing you from your full potential.
Delegation means two things for me, too.

• Outsource what others can do better for you. For me, this means cover design, editing and proofreading, and certain types of marketing. 
• Mr. S emphasizes the need to delegate both work and wealth. I believe in this wholeheartedly, too, which is why I pay more than fair rates for the people who help me with my work. I've also no problems referring other clients to them because I'm genuinely happy if they're able to grow in their chosen fields. Also, I get to reap the benefits every time the people around me grow. The more experience they have in their line of work, the better the results of their work would be, which is good news for me, too.

So basically that's it for now. :) Until the next time!

I once made a promise to myself to blog or share advice about writing every time I've hit a particular milestone. I did that when I released Greek 5 but for the life of me, I just couldn't figure out what to share...until now.

A writer I look up to once tweeted (and I'm just paraphrasing this because I can't recall what she said word for word) that something she learned from her 15 years in this business was not to read reviews that would only make her feel sad. And I totally agree.

Another author I consider a role model also saw unfavorable reviews as results of her books getting in the wrong hands. Definitely agree with this, too. In fact, there's this review for my Fangirl book that I often use as an example for this. The reviewers explained how my book would appeal to certain types of readers but did not appeal to them because the book wasn't to their taste and they explained the reasons why. I did NOT feel sad at all about the review because the reviewers weren't just nice. They also understood and appreciated the fact that just because they didn't like the book didn't mean the book was bad. It just wasn't to their taste. 

Because I write and publish for an international market, there are automatically more chances of my books getting in the wrong hands and I've learned to accept this. I've learned to EXPECT it. Why?
One reason why people won't "get" my books is because of what I believe in.

• Some readers think my heroines are criminally naive and innocent. I totally understand that, but I won't change it because for me, I just consider those qualities as being "optimistic". They're selfless and giving because they choose to be so. 
• Some readers think my heroines are too forgiving. I totally get that, too, but here's the thing. I'm a fairly religious person. I'm far from being perfect but I try to be a good Catholic and part of it is being forgiving. To err is human, to forgive divine. And remember how Jesus said you should forgive people seventy times seven? So, yes, these beliefs of mine are reflected in my stories and they will stay that way.
• When Drawn was first released, I received a few emails and reviews that said I was being a racist because my characters used the word "Japs". Apparently, in the US this was a racist term - something similar to "nigga" I suppose. This is NEWS to me because I live in the Philippines and we Filipinos love to abbreviate. We even call ourselves "Pinoy" rather than Filipino. I'm Filipino-Chinese and I don't mind being called "Chinoy", "Intsik" "Tsek-wa". It is what it is.  When I learned about this term, I made the decision NOT to edit the book. I believe that the best way to defeat bullies and racists is to take away the negativity from their actions. I hope that with my books, "Jap" becomes a cool term. That way, in the future if a real-life racist uses "Jap", it wouldn't amount to anything because we've destroyed the negative power behind it. So screw you, racists! 

Another reason why people won't "get" my books is because of my own reading preferences. I'm bad at remembering sources of quotes but there's another one who said that authors are compelled to write the kind of stories that they want to read but can't seem to find. I consider this a universal truth, which is also why I don't mind when some readers don't like my books. It only means we don't have the same taste in books. 

• Some readers think my books are too steamy. I like it that way because I believe physical attraction plays a huge part in relationships and I think physical intimacy is one of the purer no-bullshit ways for couples to communicate.
• Some readers think my books are unrealistic. For me, love at first right or "insta-love" is real. It happens. So yes, the way my characters meet and fall in love can seem unlikely to happen to some and I totally get that. 

The moral of this lesson is not to prevent you from reading unfavorable reviews. If you have found it to be productive, good for you. I myself have found some of them extremely helpful. I have long-time readers who take the time to give me honest feedback and those I truly appreciate because I know their words come from the heart. But as a rule, I don't intentionally seek them out. I don't go out of my way to read unfavorable reviews and for me this is okay because---

• Writers are their own worst critics. If you write, you know this to be true. No one can be harsher than you are with your own writing. However, we can also be willfully blind and this is what you need to get rid of. You must understand and accept that your book is NOT and will NEVER be perfect. 
• Those reviews are usually drive-by one-stars. They are NOT your regular readers. Aim to please them and you might end up displeasing your core readership - the readers who have been with you from the very start and appreciate you being true to who you are and how you really want to write.
• Those reviews may "pressure" you to write a certain way. Trust me - I learned this the hard way. I tried to win my critics' approval before - I tried to do it their way, mistakenly believed that their validation meant everything and you know what? The result was a book with sucky sales, sucky reviews, and a book that I'm just not proud of. I don't regret this part of my life because it's taught me a valuable lesson but I definitely do NOT wish the same for other writers. 
• I strive to keep learning. I still buy and read guides / manuals / how-tos for writing fiction, and these books naturally help improve my writing.
• I keep reading - and I try to learn from what I'm reading.  When I admire how a certain author tackles a particular plot or how another author writes a certain way, I take note of it so that I can do something similar with my next book.

If you genuinely love your work and you constantly strive to be good at it, bad or unfavorable reviews won't ever kill you. In rare cases, it can kill your "author name" but that's the great thing about digital publishing. You can always start fresh with a brand new pen name and this time emerge as a stronger, better, and more experienced author.

So I've got a confession to make. Once upon a time, I read a review and what she said made me want to impress her - made me want to make her realize that I don't write formulaic and cliched rom-coms...
Yeah, well, big mistake. 
I ended up not being true to myself when I wrote my next book and - well, long story short, it wasn't my best book. So...lesson learned. I won't ever do that again. 

P.S. And no - just in case you're wondering...I'm not talking about my only horror book (for now) Death Loves Me Not. It's not that, honest to God. :)

DON'T GO WIDE BUT GO DEEP.
I was watching another local business show on TV when I heard the guest expert, who was being interviewed about his ability to multitask and manage multiple businesses, give that advice to viewers. He says that if you want to succeed and manage multiple businesses, then you need to GO DEEP. 

In hindsight, I realize how that same quote can apply to writing. Does this mean you shouldn't write different genres? NOT AT ALL. Actually, the guest expert on the show was the owner of a diverse variety of businesses (he was in the restaurant industry, automotive, manufacturing, etc...oh, and he was enrolled in a post-grad class, too). What he meant about going deep rather than going wide was finding your core skills and then finding businesses you were passionate about and could utilize your core skills.

I think it's the same with writing. You can write in different genres, and your books will appeal to your readers for as long as you can maintain your unique style of writing in all those genres. Part of your writing style also has to do with the way you craft your plot, and sometimes this could make readers and reviewers remark how predictable your books are. 

But here's the thing - in genres like romance, there is almost always a HAPPY EVER AFTER. Actually, I'd go as far as to say an HEA is expected. If your romance doesn't have a happy-ever-after or even a happy-for-now ending, then I think your book is better suited for chick lit, general fiction and literary fiction. If you don't agree with me, that's fine. But that's how I see it. That's how I personally define romance. 

Now, the way you reach an HEA in romance, that's where the differences lie. For some authors - and please include me in this category - their characters' relationships start with insta-love. With others, it's a long and hard road. And then there's the friends-to-love trope.  

A lot of authors - and again, you can include me in this group - have a favorite kind of trope and they stick to it throughout their careers not because they're too lazy to think of anything else. They stick to it because they just love those tropes that much. 

If you're like me and you have a favorite kind of trope and even a favorite way of developing such tropes, then you may be worried about being accused of writing formulaic and cliched plots. Some may have already accused you of such. If so, DON'T MIND THEM. Write what you love. Write what you want to write. Books are like bridges that allow soul mates (readers: authors) to meet and the people who don't like your books aren't bad (even if they can be very rude as they diss about your book). It only means that they're not your soul mates.

The readers who are your soul mates, the readers who do fall in love with your books over and over - you'll be surprised at how much they love the same elements that those other readers profess to hate. 

Because you see, readers aren't and won't ever be faithful to you because your writing is versatile or because you keep changing styles. It's the exact opposite. 


To give you an example, here's what I expect from my favorite authors as one of their most fangirly devoted readers.

• When I read a Stephen King book, I  expect good old-fashioned horror, a moral lesson in the end (which is why the movie version of The Mist frustrated me sooooo much), and a lot of profanity (more so compared to when you'd be reading something by, say, Dean Koontz).
• When I read Christine Feehan's books, I expect a strong heroine and an even stronger alpha hero as well as lots of action and steamy scenes. No heartbreaking climax but it's still a wild and enjoyable adventurous ride nonetheless.
• When I read Judith McNaught, I expect one of the MCs to do something really unforgivable (usually it's the hero) and I definitely expect a heartbreaking climax near the very end. 
• When I read a Marion Chesney Regency romance, I know there won't be any graphic lovemaking but the word "breast" may be mentioned. I know that comedy would unfold. I know that romance would take a long time to develop, and I know that even though the hero and heroine would fall in love about the same time, a misunderstanding would prevent them from realizing each other's feelings until the very end.
  

The thing is, I can predict the major plot points of my favorite authors' books, but you know what? I don't mind. I actually like the fact that I know what to expect because those major plot points are the very same reasons why I love reading their books.

So next time someone tells you you're being formulaic, cheer up - it just means you're going deep. And to end this on a positive note, here's a favorite quote of mine from the writer behind popular Korean TV dramas like Boys Over Flowers, Secret Garden and my most recent favorite The Heirs (which, yes, I marathon-watched and finished in 24 hours). 

When my publisher in the Philippines relaunched my indie career last December 2012, I did not pay attention at all to self-publishing advice. After all, I didn't have anything to worry about. I write, get paid by my publisher, and then I move on to the next book. And yes - that means no royalties.

Last October 2013, I finished my first self-pubbed book, The Art of Catching a Greek Billionaire, which debuted on the Billionaire Bad Boys of Romance Boxed Set, the bundle that completely changed my life.  Being a self-pubbing newbie, I was incredibly nervous and frightened for my future. You see, I quit my day job and took a risk on self-publishing. It was a write-or-die kind of situation. I didn't want to be the typical Filipino-Chinese who worked in business - family-owned or otherwise. I wanted to do what I love - or die trying.

Thankfully, I didn't die. 

When I started self-pubbing, my greatest worry was the "competition". How the hell can I compete with other authors when, for one thing, they were all native English speakers and I wasn't? How the hell can I compete when I'm from the Philippines and have no long-time experience and exposure to the actual day-to-day life of Westerners? 

I researched like hell, but what really helped me was networking - I'm lucky to have been able to ask advice from several powerhouse indie authors and they gave me excellent tips. One of the greatest advice I learned from them was the 1,000 True Fans theory.  Networking and the aforementioned theory both drove in one home truth: OTHER AUTHORS ARE NOT YOUR COMPETITION.

Now, before I continue I want to warn you again ----

• I'm NOT forcing anyone to take my advice. Take it as you will.
• THIS advice is based on what worked for ME. Take it as you will.

As long as we're clear on that, then if you're still interested to read the rest of what I have to say, great. :) I really do hope I'm able to help you.  :)

According to the 1,000 True Fans theory, any artist will be able to carve a comfortable living for himself as long as he effectively applies a price-volume strategy.

For this to work for self-publishers, you need to determine the following:

• How much ideally would you like to earn each month?
• Who are your readers?
• How much would your readers be willing to spend on your books per month?
• How many books do you have to sell per month to meet your income goal?
• How many books can you WRITE per month?

Think about those questions, and you'll see for yourself that you do NOT need to hit any bestselling lists in order to make self-publishing your main source of income. As long as you have 1,000 true fans, you only need to write X amount of books priced at Y and sell Z copies and you are set!

Example: Say you want to earn $500 per month. Here's the computation for it ---

• You write a book that's priced at $.99. Royalties for a $.99 book is about $.35.
• $.35 times 1,000 is $350. 
• Write another book and price it at $.99. Your same 1,000 readers will buy this new book.
• Your monthly total is now $700 - you're well beyond your minimum income target for the month!

However, the aforementioned scenario will only work if you're able to write 2 books per month. If not, then you need to increase your book's price. However, you also need to consider whether your readers would be willing to pay an increased price for a single book. Also, that equation doesn't factor in fixed and necessary expenses like editing, cover art designing, and marketing. You need to sell enough copies to make up for those, too.

As you can see, self-publishing decisions rely on lots of calculations. Self-publishing is a business after all, and it would be hard for you to earn if you focus only on the art and craft of writing and ignore the numbers.

Now, ssuming that you've found the ideal pricing-volume strategy, your next question should be --- HOW do you come up with 1,000 true fans? 
Here's what worked for me, but again - take it as you will.

• Figure out your niche. Mine is steamy rom-com. What's yours?
• What do your readers want the most? Can you satisfy their desires? You should. It's your niche.
• Be professional about your work - spend money on editing, proofreading, cover design and marketing. DON'T turn your readers into a mob and do NOT bash other authors. Don't do it as yourself or even anonymously. You NEVER need to do that. Trust me. Even if others are doing the same things to you, let it go. Focus on your books and your readers. And pray. Do your best and let God take care of the rest. Now, assuming that you did something not-so-good before - that's okay. You can still turn your back and start anew. It's never too late.
• Build your brand - it's not just about identifying your niche. It's also about distinguishing yourself from other authors in your niche. Like I said earlier, you should NOT think of other authors as your competition. Readers don't think that way. YOU don't think that way when you're browsing for books as a reader. For instance, one of my fave books to read are vampire books. So every time there's a new release from Mary Janice Davidson, Chloe Neill, or Jeaniene Frost or Anne Rice (OMG Prince Lestat! October can't come soon enough!), I buy it. All new releases from my fave authors. I do not think I'm being disloyal to one by buying another author's new release. Your readers are the same. We are all the same so when you think about it that way, how can you see other authors as competition? Wouldn't it be better to think of them as potential collaborators for future projects? Authors need to work together and with each other, NOT AGAINST EACH OTHER.
• Be approachable to your readers - NEVER take them for granted. NEVER be rude to them. Take the TIME to chat with them. THEY will be the ones determining whether you'll be able to do what you love for a living. Also, if you'd like to target native English speakers, then it goes without saying that you do social networking in English, too. At all times. Filipino readers can read your English posts so you're not alienating them. However, native English speakers won't be able to understand a word you're saying if you're speaking in Tagalog so unfortunately you'd be alienating them that way. You want to make your readers feel important because they are important and making them feel like you're talking to a select number of readers won't do it. Make them one big happy family instead by posting, tweeting, and just writing in English whenever you have to communicate with your readers.
• Find a way to stay in contact with them. The best way to do so is to set up a newsletter and get them to subscribe. This way, you can email them every time you have a new release out or when you do a cover reveal or giveaway. I can't emphasize this enough. My first-day rankings are ALWAYS due to my newsletter sales. 

Honestly, most of the tips above are something I've been saying over and over again but it does bear repeating. 
Secondly, please keep in mind that what I did is based on a HIGH-VOLUME strategy, and it's NOT for every self-publisher. However, if you write fast enough then this could work for you. And just to be clear, writing fast does not mean poor writing. But hey, to each his own and if you don't think so, then let's just agree to disagree. If you want to know more about why prolific writers are more likely to earn from self-publishing then you should find this article about the three types of readers that make up the market quite interesting.

Lastly, remember that you don't need to do everything on your own. Finding your 1,000 true fans requires marketing - you need to get readers to read your book first. If you don't have time to do marketing or you're not inclined to do it, then you could look for a publisher who's willing to market your book in exchange of a fair share of royalties. They'll find your 1,000 true fans for you.

So that's it. Hope this helps and if you have any questions, feel free to comment below or email me. I might not be able to respond right away, but I always do.

P.S. If you're intimidated by the idea of finding one thousand true fans, don't be. I'm too lazy to grab figures but I'm pretty sure hundreds of thousands of ebooks or even millions of ebooks are sold each day. If you think about it, one thousand is just the tiniest slice of the market. The real battle is finding that 1,000 who'd love your books enough to be your true fans. 

So I was thinking of a way to pay it forward and I thought that for Valentines Day, I'd write some sort of Q&A post about self-publishing for Filipino writers. I need to emphasize the Filipino part since I'm Filipino myself. As such, I'm in a better position to share info, insights and stuff about self-publishing from the Philippines. 

On the other hand, I don't think I'm in a position to offer advice about self-publishing to authors outside the Philippines. Plus, a lot of more experienced authors have already offered really good advice about this so I don't think I'd have anything much to offer.

Anyway, if you've only stumbled upon my site or post and you don't read my books or you don't know anything about me, here's a very brief summary of my writing career so far---

• I worked as an online content provider / Internet writer for about 8 years. One of my articles was republished by Yahoo! Small Business (content syndication) and another by MarketingProfs.com
• I once had a literary agent in US but it didn't work out. 
• I have been rejected too many times to count by numerous literary agents and local publishing companies. 
• I write steamy romantic comedies. And YA horror when I have time. Oh, and children's stories, too, under my real name.
• I made the deliberate choice of rejecting certain golden rules about writing (e.g. head-hopping POVs, use of adverbs) when I started self-pubbing. 
• I get my share of one-star reviews. Most of it have to do with the fact that my heroines are so naive (but hey that's because I tend to be naive IRL too and I keep forgetting to take off my rose-colored glasses) and my heroes are jerks (what can I say? I also believe that reformed rakes make the best husbands). Oh, and that I have too much sex in my stories (errr...no comment. :D).  Lastly, there would occasionally be reviews that say my stories - ex: The Werewolf Prince and I & How Not to be Seduced by Billionaires - are Fifty Shades copycats. However, that's not true and my long-time readers over at Girltalk (a forum on Female Network, owned by Summit Media) will be the first to tell you that my stories were completed way before FSOG became viral.
• I know for a fact that I have more US and non-Filipino readers than readers here in PH. 
• I currently have almost 2000 subscribers in my mailing list.
• I have one traditionally pubbed book here in PH - a chick-lit novella pubbed by PSICOM. This was back in 2007 or 2008 I think. Can't remember now.
• I now have almost 20 books available on Amazon and other e-retailers. 
• My best ranking books are The Werewolf Prince & I (Top 250 on Amazon US) and Nick & Lilac (Top 220 on Amazon US and Top 200 on Amazon UK)
• I became a NYT bestselling author when the Billionaire Bad Boys of Romance Boxed Set (multi-author anthology) hit the COMBINED LIST OF BESTSELLING EBOOKS AND PAPERBACKS on its first week. The boxed set made it to NYT for two weeks.
• Two of the boxed sets I'm a part of made it to the USA Today - Billionaire Bad Boys of Romance (3 weeks) and Tangled: New Adult Romance Boxed Set (1 week).

If you want something more extensive, I have my Road to Publication story posted here somewhere. 

So basically, that's it. If you think I can answer questions you have about self-publishing then you can post it here as a comment OR if you want to ask anonymously, then you can email me at authormariantee@gmail.com with SELF-PUBLISHING QUESTION as subject line. Feel free to ask anything that concerns you as a self-publisher (e.g. marketing your books, connecting with an international audience, royalties, etc. - anything goes!).

I'll also go through my older emails and share relevant questions (and answers) asked by Filipino readers. 

Expect the post to be up on V-Day. :) 

So you announced the release date and a) you got sick b) you broke up with your cat c) a meteor crashed in your backyard ---- bottom line: you can't meet your release date!!! What then???