Do you need help to figure it out?




How to get better: part one of 3682 or more.

I suffer from a disease called ICFIO. 
I blame my grandparents. 
It's not a genetic disease, since my grandfather was a step, but an inherited one none the less. 
They were children of the depression, and double whammy, poor farming children of the depression. 
They had to either make due, or make it happen. 
There were no other options at the time.

My grandfather grew up farming, and when that failed, went to work at a papermill in Pine Bluff, the largest town in southern Arkansas. 
Imagine going from a population of twelve to ten thousand in a weekend. 
Now it's easy. 
Just move to NYC or LA, or some other metro area, but he told me that on their farm growing up, you could go a week without seeing a new person.
He got injured at the mill, and let go. 
This was in the late forties, a time when injured workers didn't get special compensation. 
He had to learn a new trade or find new work to support my grandmother and her three children. 
He became a carpenter.

Back then, it was as simple as getting a hammer, saw and measuring tape, then finding work. 
He was moderately successful at it, enough that he bought land, and then built houses on the land, and rented them out.

He got together with a group of like minded men who started a church up the street from where they lived. 
He built the church and became a deacon, led scout troops and camp outs. 
He built houses and learned to plumb, run electric, frame, landscape. 
His hobby was working on cars, and engines, and he tinkered with race cars, dragsters mostly, large powerful engines designed to go short distances.

By the time I knew him, I thought he could do anything.

He told me from a very young age, "Even if you don't know, you can figure it out."

I Can Figure It Out.
ICFIO.

I carried that creedo and ethic with me into adulthood where I have been at different times, a carpenter, a manager, a Corporate Director, a filmmaker, a screenwriter, a bartender, a ditchdigger, a day laborer, pool cleaner and small business owner.

I never worried about what might happen because I always had a secret weapon. 

I could figure it out.

If someone offered an interesting opportunity, I could figure it out.

If someone was successful before me, I knew they designed a roadmap to follow.

I just had to know how to figure it out.

Why such a long post when all we want is data?

Figure it out.

Just kidding.  If you've bothered to read this far you need to know one thing.  I came into this biz at the same time as Michael Anderele thinking I could figure it out. 

Because while I wore many hats over my adult life, I was always a writer.
We both started in Nov of 2015.

And though I had read the rules of being successful from people who pioneered before me, I ignored them.  To my great detriment.

I jumped genres.  I made covers. I thought a large body of work with no cohesive timeline would work. I published a ton of non-fiction, and just a few fiction pieces.

Then in Nov, I decided to buckle down and finish at least 1 of the 4 series I had started.

I published Battlefield Z on Nov 4.  I published the sequel on Nov 16.  Books 3, 4 and 5 followed so that I had 5 books in 90 Days.

Covers still sucked.  No money to play with them.  Not much to buy ads with.

Blurbs good though, and the women who read the post apocalyptic series loved it. 
Men, not so much. (I know why, the book is about a Dad hunting for his children after a zombie plague, and it's got a ton of feeling, but the title says Battlefield and male readers expect more gore and guts. 
Female readers like the honesty from a Dad who's not quite okay with being a parent every other weekend.)

Alright, now for the data.

But before I get there, let me share this: I should have written these faster, but a darn stupid other idea popped in my head and demanded attention so I had to write it in January, then outline books 2 and 3. 
Then another series came along and dragged me with it, so I knocked out another short book on it.

That is to say, even though I KNOW what to do, I don't always do it.  Like exercising and eating right.  
We all KNOW what we're supposed to do, but chocolate chip cookies and beer are delicious. 
Sometimes even together.

In the 4 months I've put out the 5 books in the series, it's carried me from under $1000 a month to double that in 90 Days. 

Although Feb is slower and lower, my page reads across the titles have been consistent with no outside marketing except for Twitter and using Free Days on KDP.

Book 6 is underway and out in March.

Along with two books in a UF series and the publication of the book I wrote in January. (a passion piece about US Marshal's in Fort Smith. working for the hanging Judge, Isaac Parker.)

What is the key takeaway?

I thought I Could Figure It Out. 
I tried on my own, and I did start to FIO in Nov. 
I discovered this group in January, which confirmed what I should have been doing.

Here's the magic pill.

Find 1 Genre you like. 
Sci Fi, Post Apoc, Paranormal, UF, or Romance.
You can combine elements in those genres.

Write 6 - 10 books in that series.  Write them as fast as you can.

Put them in KU.

Get awesome covers.  (this is where I am in the formula.  Working on getting better covers.)

Write your blurb and test it here. 
Ask for help. 
Don't try to Figure it out on your own.

Publish every 3 weeks or 4 weeks for 6 months.

Join in newsletter swaps, and promote other authors in your genre.

Now I could go on with a ton of other tips, but you guys reading this far have as much as you need right now to be successful.

If you write well, if you tell great stories, if your covers attract attention, and your blurbs make people want to read the book, you have all the tools you need.

Do the work. 
Don't waste a year suffering from ICFIO.

Even now it flares up on me. 
I try to avoid the distraction, focus on the 6 - 10 books in the series and getting them done. 
But there are so many stories I want to tell, and dang it, read.  Today I'm hit with an idea for an action adventure thriller started by a Lithuanian book smuggler. 
Or the first book in a 7 part series on the race to reach the new EXOPLANETS. 
Or just to finish the other books I've started in the other 3 series, all different genres from the one I'm having small success in.

Sigh.  What's the phrase?  No rest for the Wicked. 

There's an easy answer to get it all done.

Ass in Seat.  Fingers on Keys.  Ready, Set, Write.

Take the pill folks.  It's easy to swallow.







I post on Blogger and Medium where you can read for free, including an epic sci fi novel in progress.

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JAKE BURBANK -MYSTERY THRILLER SERIES

DRINKS AFTER WORK
TWO FINGERS OF JUSTICE
DEEP END OF A DIVE BAR
HONKY TONK AVENUE
HONKY TONK CRAZY

SHADOWBOXER SERIES

ASSET – a Brill Winger Thriller
OPERATIVE – a Brill Winger Thriller
SIDEWAYS – a Brill Winger Thriller
CHOKEPOINT – a Brill Winger Thriller
DECREED - a Brill Winger Thriller
IN THE DARK – a Brill Winger Thriller
TRUE NATURE
DEEP STATE
DISAVOWED
CREDIBLE THREAT

Tin Trooper – a Brill Winger story
Nazi Nukes
- a Brill Winger story

Webb of Lies – An action thriller


Sci-Fi Comedy

All Jacked Up – The Dipole Series
Good Eats Café – The Dipole Series
Whiskey Bent – The Dipole Series
Love Machine – The Dipole Series
Lunar Hustle- The Dipole Series
The Dipole Shield - The Dipole Series
Planet 9 - The Dipole Series
Planet 10 – The Dipole Series
Half Cocked – The Dipole Series
Berserker Brigade – The Dipole Series
Apogee – The Dipole Series
Apex – The Dipole Series


Sci Fi Western

Backwoods Station – Bootleg
Backwoods Station – Martian Roulette



Sci Fi Dystopian- Alien Invasion

Phalanx - Invasion Earth

Pyrrhic - Invasion Earth

Beachhead - Invasion Earth
Bridgehead - Invasion Earth
Lodgement – Invasion Earth
Ultima Thule – Invasion Earth
Infiltrate – Invasion Earth
Dustoff – Invasion Earth
Riki Tik- Invasion Earth
Snakebit – Invasion Earth
Defilade – Invasion Earth


SITUATION NORMAL - INVASION EARTH


FUBAR
GEAR ADRIFT
HMFIC
2IC
BOHICA



Science Fiction Adventure

Moon Men
Epoch - The Future Templar
Eon- The Future Templar
Era - The Future Templar

Super Secret Space Mission

The Herd Shot Round the World
High Steaks

Star Squad – Frag
Star Squad – Nanowarriors
Star Squad – Pogue



BATTLEFIELD Z SERIES
Grab your copy of the sci fi comedy about a dad hunting for his kids in a post apocalyptic wasteland where zombies aren’t the worst thing to survive.

Flyover Zombie - the Battlefield Z series
Headshots - the Battlefield Z series
Overland Zombie
Lone Star Zombie
The Pass Zombie
Dust Devil Zombie
Terminal Zombie
Ronin Zombie




Urban Fantasy

GUNS AND MAGIC - a Marshal of Magic story
WITCH BLUES - a Marshal of Magic story
BIG EASY WITCH - a Marshal of Magic story
VIVA WITCH VEGAS – a Marshal of Magic Tale
The Marshal of Magic – Hail Fellow
The Marshal of Magic – The Devil You Know
The Marshal of Magic - Small Medium at Large
The Marshal of Magic - Low Elf Esteem
The Marshal of Magic - Big Trouble

CRESCENT CITY COVEN SERIES

Release the Cats of War
Kitten Murder Mittens




Historical Fantasy

The Holy War – Blood Bound


Western

Fort Smith - Carried by Six
Fort Smith – Texas Cakewalk
Fort Smith – Dead Shot




Evasion - Destruction Earth

Omnibus Collections







Sanctioned – Shadowboxer Files
Unsanctioned – Shadowboxer Files


DISAVOWED – Free book

Pod – a sci fi thriller
Evasion – a post apoc short






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