I Published 18 Books in 2022. Here’s What I’ve Learned.

This year has been the most successful year of writing fiction to date. I published 18 short books under my pen name. 18! For reference, I published only 3 books last year. And before that? I hadn’t published since 2018.

In looking over the highlights of my year, I have narrowed them down to this:

1. I published 3 series of short books and one box set.
2. I have earned nearly $1,000 from one short story.
3. I made lobster this year, which means I made $500+ in a single month.

My year-over-year growth has been insane, too. Last year, I made about $350 total from KDP. This year? I’m on track to earn over $3,000. All this growth makes me even more excited for next year.

So what advice do I have? What are my biggest takeaways?

Well, plenty. There are strategies that worked and ones that did not. Also, the mindset of writing and publishing short romance books is much different than I expected. It has been a wild ride and I am happy to say it’s just beginning.

Find what works and keep writing that.

I wrote a successful series at the start of the year. It was a football romance series and it’s still selling well today.

Then, as a follow-up, I decided to switch categories. My next series was a series that was more contemporary, and less niched down. And these were my least successful so far.

This made me feel a little dejected if I am honest.

But then, I decided to pivot back to my original success. I created another football romance series and saw an instant swing back in the positive direction.

The lesson? Write what works and then keep creating from that place.

A short read needs to be just as well-written as a long one.

Of my 18 books, not every one is perfect. In fact, none of them are.

But the ones that were the worst reviewed were ones where:

1. I didn’t flesh out the characters enough to make my readers care about them.
2. I didn’t edit them very well.
3. I leaned to much on the sexy parts and forgot to really build the romance. (Which is funny because the sexy parts are less fun for me to actually write.)

Truth be told, I underestimated my readers for a period of time. I thought they wouldn’t care if the editing wasn’t there. I thought they didn’t mind suspending their disbelief about character-building for a one-hour read.

I was wrong.

The lesson? To write a successful short read, you need to bring the same care and thought to it that you would with a longer read.

Spend more time on writing than marketing. At least, to start.

When I first began writing these short reads, I tried to pour money that I wasn’t making yet into advertising. I really wish I could take that back.

Spending ad dollars on a shorter book doesn’t usually make financial sense, unless you are promoting the first book in a series and want to encourage them to read the rest of it.

Here is what has worked for me so far this year:

• Free promotional days — a perk of being in KDP — that are backed by a free book ad on a promotional site. This is usually around $35 per day.
• Posting on social media, but not pouring hours and hours into it
• Avoiding Amazon Ads. That just was not working for me in this space.

For me, publishing more frequently has worked really well. Amazon has become a marketer for me by pushing my new releases to previous readers.

The lesson? Be frugal about advertising to start. You can experiment more as you go along.

Avoid burnout whatever that looks like for you.

I’ll admit: I get burnt out. Writing and publishing 18 different stories could definitely get tiring and I can feel creatively drained.

My original idea was to publish at least 2 of these stories a month, but I fell short of that. I’d argue that taking breaks made me a better writer. It gave me a fresh look at my books and helped my stories to stay interesting and unique.

Don’t let your goals take away from your sanity.

The lesson? Take breaks when you need them.

I am so proud of myself and I cannot wait for next year.

I have always wanted to be a successful writer. And while part of me wishes that this success were not hiding behind a pen name, I have plans for next year to carry out this success to my own name.

I have not cemented my goals for next year, but once I do, I will make sure to create a post about it!

I hope that my writing posts this year have brought good advice to you and maybe inspired you to get writing, too. I have really enjoyed sharing this journey with you and am so grateful for everyone who has read along with me.

If you want to give me a Christmas gift, I would absolutely love it if you checked out my books on Amazon and followed me here! I can’t wait to share more insights as I keep writing.

Wait! Did you like this story? If you want to read more like it, you can sign up for a Medium Membership for only $5. It helps support me and other writers like me!

Jenny Bravo writes books and helps other writers through trial-and-error. She’s on Instagram (@jennybravobooks) and TikTok (@jennybravobooks). You can hang out at her website, www.jennybravobooks.com.

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