- Krys Rayne
What I learned NOT to do as an author
Today I thought I'd share the biggest mistake I made as a writer. A lot of us beginning authors make mistakes, right? Well, I did that when I published my very first book, Crush: A Supermarket Romance. This was a really short novel, a novelette actually. It's only around 50 pages in print.
While I was looking for editors, I was trying to find something I could afford and asked advice in a group. Someone posted not to use an editor because it's a short story and I wouldn't make it up in sales. So, instead, I found a line/copy editor. It was one of the cheapest routes to go so I took it. The editor was very nice and my story shined bright. However, she did mention before she started her editing, she told me something along the lines of the story could be developed into something a little longer. I kind of blew it off as not important because I had the thoughts that I would just rewrite it later.
So after the story was completely edited, and all shiny, I got my cover which was beautiful, and the book was formatted, I published everywhere.
I made a few sales here and there but nothing spectacular. At the end of the year, I only maybe $10 through Amazon. In word of mouth I made around $100. But that's because one of my relatives bought 15 copies for me and handed them out to friends and family.
I was hoping for more but I also only had a couple reviews across the board. At the time of publishing Crush, I was still working on Forget Me Not. So I advertised for Crush though not as much as I probably should have.
So long story short, I'm not cutting corners anymore. In fact, I'm in the middle of rewriting Crush. The story changed slightly. A little more angst, a little more sexy (on the erotic side- sexual exploration for my heroine if you will ;)), and it's a modern day Cinderella retelling with a suspenseful twist. And it's much, much longer. As of right now, it's around 20k words and I don't even think I've reached the middle of the story yet. I am working on the first draft so that may change.
However, if any of you are curious about Crush, it is still in KU until March 28th.