Make money writing romance novels

Tied with affiliate income, writing books is my next favorite way to earn passive income. In my case, I publish both fiction and non-fiction digital books. For this podcast episode, I thought I would speak with Brooklyn Knight, a self-published author who is rocking the self-publishing game. We talk about how to make money writing romance books and the different approaches that Brooklyn uses to sell her books and get in fron to f her readers. Feel free to make money writing romance novels my books on Amazon. If you have Kindle Unlimited subscription, you can read the books for free. Like Yoga, happy hour, and cool people who want you to win with your money? Check out the retreat details at: michelleismoneyhungry. I love blogging!

What types of novels sell well?

I worked in publishing in New York City for a decade and have been a freelance writer since In , I started self-publishing my own line of ebooks. All of the books I published then were non-fiction, how-to ebooks — mostly about some aspect of freelance writing or starting an online business. Nothing could have prepared me for the roller coaster ride that is writing and self-publishing romance. But you know what? The money — and you can make very good money writing romance — is almost a secondary benefit. Like I said above, in , I wrote my first romance. I did it because one of my sisters, who is also a writer, wrote one, self-published it and sold over copies in just three weeks on Amazon. My sister had never written a romance novel either. But she went on a trip to Texas once, and the idea for the novel came to her. So she wrote the page story in about a week.

2. Choose love story ideas and themes that allow character development

She titled it Loving a Texan from New Orleans. When she uploaded it the book, she had no expectations for it. But to her surprise and mine! We had both self-published non-fiction books on Amazon, but we had never seen sales like that for those books. Within a week or so, I completed my book and uploaded it. The writing had gone smoother than I ever could have dreamed. I anxiously awaited sales, hitting refresh throughout the day the first day my book went live on Amazon … and crickets. I sold fewer than ten copies that first month.

Get Paid to Write Romance Novels: A Tip

New here? Be sure to attend our FREE workshop for new proofreaders. Register now! Text is the 1 way we communicate, and having good writing skills will set you wayyyy apart from the crowd. People who can write well can make bank — plain and simple. Take my good friend, Yuwanda Black.

Reader Interactions

Avoid writing bad sex scenes unless part of your story 7. New here? People who can write well can make bank — plain and simple. And luckily, romance readers are prolific readers. Take my good friend, Yuwanda Black. This is possible, but it is a lot of hard work. I love appearing here! While there are many, many variables involved in how much a writer makes when his or her novel is published, a good rule of thumb for estimating your profits is a dollar a book. Not making the main characters the only agents of their entanglement and separation adds greater breadth and realism than if they were simply inseperable from first meeting. And keep in mind that the best part of this career is that you can get started with zero dollars. Reading widely within your genre gives you an overview of what stories, plots and character types the romance market is already saturated. Whether the novel gets made into a movie or not, the novelist gets paid a certain. They want to sell hundreds of thousands of copies, and they are going to stick with the writers they think will deliver them those numbers.

The basics

There are no educational or social requirements to becoming a novelist. Education helps you develop writing skills and get involved in the community of writing, but it is not a requirement for success. The main requirement is that you write a novel. The better written and more marketable your novel is, the better your chances. In the end, the elements that lead to the successful marketing of a novel have little to do with educational or social background.

Genre novels tend to be the easiest to market. There is a built-in audience for genres such as romance, horror, children, mystery, science fiction, fantasy and thriller. There are many small and mid-sized publishers who are open to new writers. Typically they will publish a print run of about books and try to sell those before they print more copies. Your chances of getting published with a smaller publisher is better though you are still competing against many other novelists but few of them can bring you the royalties required to make a living.

Major publishers are the ones that can bring you big sales. Typically a writer is represented by a literary agent. An agent is someone who has read your book and believes that the book is marketable enough for them to sell it to a publisher. They take advantage of whatever connections they have in the publishing industry to get your book read by acquiring editors, who decide what books their publishing company should publish. The acquiring editor then makes a proposal to their board of editors or whoever else has final authority and if all goes well you get your book published.

Here is where you run into trouble. While there are many, many variables involved in how much a writer makes when his or her novel is published, a good rule of thumb for estimating your profits is a dollar a book. That means that you would have to sell 50, books a year in order to earn a solid living.

While there are some people who publish multiple books a year, the typical novelist manages to produce a single book a year, so you would have to sell 50, copies of each book you publish, assuming that you find a publisher for your books.

While the Stephen Kings and J. Rowlings of this world have no trouble selling millions of books, the typical novel sells about to 10, copies. Less than ten percent of published novelists manage to sell 50, copies or more of their book, and selling 50, copies of a book in no way guarantees that you will find a publisher for your next book. Major publishers are looking for big wins.

They want to sell hundreds of thousands of copies, and they are going to stick with the writers they think will deliver them those numbers. Keep in mind as well, that the delay between having a book accepted for publication and getting that book published is generally about two years and often longer.

That is a long time to wait to see profits from a book. Many novelists hold full-time jobs in publishing or education. These jobs provide their main income. A novel can also get sold to a movie studio. Whether the novel gets made into a movie or not, the novelist gets paid a certain. If the novel becomes a successful movie, the novelist is usually in a much better position to get their next novel published. Self-publishing is an option for people who want to get their novel read, but the option seldom leads to substantial profits.

The upside of self-publishing is that you can make much more per book than if someone else publishes your work. The downside is that all of the risks and all of the expenses are on your shoulders. That means that you have to find a way to sell enough copies of your book to make back your initial investment and then to make a profit.

This is possible, but it is a lot of hard work. Keep in mind that the time you spend trying to publish and sell your novel must be subtracted from the amount of time you have available to write your next novel.

A few people even manage to get quite wealthy. I recommend that you write novels if it is something you enjoy doing and if you want to produce something you can be proud of. Those are excellent reasons to write novels. By all means, once you produce a novel you are proud of, send it out into the world and try to find a publisher. When I write fictional stories, I am looking at that world in living color. It is if I am in that world. Am I the only person who writes fictional by this method?

When I see my story world the colors are so vibrant. I see the characters living and moving and breathing. They have their own personalities and they almost seem real to me. Its fun has hell and exciting hopefully when its finished i can get it sold lol. Not something that inspires confidence but thank you nonetheless haha, realistic opinions are the only ones that help. Homepage Writing Can you make money writing novels? Can anyone write novels?

What types of novels sell well? How do I find a publisher? How many novels do I have to sell to make money? Are there other ways for novelists to make money? Can I self publish? Older Post. Newer Post. And making a living from writing a novel is a dream. Love writing. Pingback: Cassandra Clare writing advice copied from her official website … Enchanted Nevey. I am writing academic book for school children see what will happen.

Top 10 Tips For Writing Romance

Can anyone write novels?

Today, I have a great article from Yuwanda Black. She has an interesting side hustle making extra money writing romance novels. You see, my first romance novella had been an African American love story; my sister had written an interracial romance. Maybe I could earn more if I experimented with pricing more, but as I have a lot of books out now, I rely more on volume than anything else to make sales.

What is your business?

Join the free email course and f inally learn how to manage your money better, pay off debt, save more money, and reach financial freedom. Get our newsletter and get access to the freebie:. Michelle is the founder of Making Sense of Centsa blog about personal finance and traveling. She discusses how her business has evolved in her side income series.