PeterGermany
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Crowd Sourcing

Crowd Sourcing

Jan 15, 2021

I've had this account for a good year now, and haven't done enough with it. I can get distracted and forgetful at times, but also a little self-conscious. I'm asking for people to give me their hard earn't money and not offering much in return. I've got to get better at that. I've got to look at giving the reader more, much more than is available from my blog at petergermany.com and make it worth their while looking at my Buy Me A Coffee page. So I will be trying to get my head into this more and exploring what I can and am comfortable offering here.

Here's a little about what I'm looking to do in terms of putting money towards writing in the next few months.

I'm going to be searching for more anthologies to submit to this year than I have done in the past. In my personal life I have important things that will need money for so I'm reluctant to put too much money from my day job into writing, well not as much as I've been able to the last couple of months anyway. The personal life things need that money more and not putting as much into writing won't stop me from writing or self-publishing, it'll just slow it up.

Which is why I want to find paying markets to submit to while also mentioning Buy Me A Coffee more and doing better to post and offer content that is exclusively for Buy Me A Coffee supporters.

I'm not going to be aggressive in promoting this page, I don't believe in ramming something like this down someones throat. I also understand it's a long term project. I don't have unrealistic expectations of earning bucket loads of cash from here. It's a slow burn while I build up my readership. A following is important and when you've got fans you will have ones who are really passionate about supporting your work. Those are the folks that are worth their weight in gold.

I don't expect people to give me their money, but when they do I am grateful for each and every penny. From here on out money from here and any paying markets I'm am successful in subscribing to will be going straight into the account I've got set aside for writing. Cover art, editing, .com costs, ink cartridges, formatting (although I'd really like to learn that myself at some point), advertising.

To give you an idea or how much it costs to self-publish a 25,000 word novella I've worked it out to about £200-£250, and I think that is ridiculously cheep! The cover artist I've hired is fantastic! I've seen his work before, spoken to writers he's worked with and have had the pleasure of meeting him at cons. When I finally decided to get out of my own way he was the only person I wanted to do this artwork.

The editing is costing a similar amount, and again, the editor I'm going to send it too is fantastic! I've worked with her before. She has accepted my stories for anthologies in the past, and she knows her stuff! As with the artist I know her, she lives near me and is in the same writing groups I am.

The formatting is being done by friends whose books I've read both paperback and ebook and they know how to format a book!

I won't break down the costs individually but that's roughly what it'll cost to publish my zombie novella. The money for that is set aside already. I can pay it all out immediately.

What I need to do now is build up a marketing fund. I've got a package from The Bold Mom which was gifted to me a few years ago, which is going to be a good start but I need to find out how much a couple of podcasts I like charge as I know they've got a good reach.

Then after that I start again for the next one.

I won't break even on this first book. I've listened to enough podcasts where authors are talking and when indies publish their first book it never breaks even. I'm prepared for that. I know this writing career that has chosen me is one where I might never break even. It's not going to stop me though. I will push to earn money from it, but even if I don't I'm still going to write and put my words out there.

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