Why you should read Foolish Author and Who am I?
“With fifty dollars in my bank account and a lifelong dream of making a living as a writer, I decided to walk the road less traveled.”
Yours Truly
I used to be a traditionally published author and then I crossed the river to check the greenery on the other side. I’ll tell you in detail about my decision to cross over to indie- publishing.
But first, let me introduce myself properly.
My name is Chase Austin.
I’m a writer by passion and marketer by profession. Yes, I’m now a full-time writer but I used to have a day job, not so long ago.
I wrote my first book in 2009. It got published in 2010 by a traditional publisher. In fact, my first three books were trad-pubs.
Then I took a break for a couple of years since the publishing scene wasn’t enticing and I wasn’t writing what I wanted to write. My publisher was more interested in romance and I am the most unromantic person I’ve ever known in my life. You get the drift.
So, I took a break, and did my Master’s in marketing.
During this time, I was working on a story idea that my brother had suggested. I never finished the book because I had no incentive to. I knew no publisher would touch it. It was far too offbeat.
Apart from that one story, I nearly lost touch with writing, except during exams, when I concocted quite a few stories in my answer sheets.
Once the masters was done, I got busy with my job, learning the ropes.
It was 2017 when I finally finished the first draft of the story, I had been writing for the past four years.
I wanted to get it out at once for the world to read. It was a passion project and I felt this book would be a gamechanger for me.
But from past experience, I knew traditional publishing was a long game. If I went the traditional route and maybe found a new publisher for my work, I knew it would take one-and-a-half to two years to get the book out this way. I, on the other hand, wanted to get the book published ASAP.
I started to look around for other options.
One day, I read about the Amazon KDP platform, and a whole new world started to reveal itself to me.
So, I did what any eager person would have done. I took my book, slapped a cover on it, and published it in August 2017.
AND VOILA!
It bombed. Quite spectacularly.
I sold a total of 17 copies. Made some 11.87 dollars in revenue.
I was disappointed (well, that is an understatement), and tried to look for ways to pretend that it was somehow a success.
But it was a failure, and I couldn’t spin it otherwise despite my best efforts.
It took me two years, tons of education in terms of what and how other authors are doing it to find my rhythm.
In April 2019, I launched my now successful series – “Sam Wick Universe”. Fast-forward to today: With 7 books under my name. I have sold 10000+ copies (Not a huge eye-popping number but I don’t see any reason to inflate it considering how less I spend on marketing) and I’m now consistently earning four figures every month from my books.
One thing this is not a self-help book. This is the story of how I’m doing it and what three things I have achieved in the last 18 months.
Created a new stream of income in one and a half year
Did it my way
Had absolute fun doing it
Still, if you are looking for one key learning from my next articles then it should be - Why and how I bootstrapped my book publishing process apart from why having a different strategy from other authors is key to my bounce back from my failure.