#cora reilly edits

[vivilove-jonsa]

rlly thrilled to hear both of you are doing well with ur books. if u don't mind me asking: is it financially viable? Could u do something like that and support urself or is it more like pocket money? are there startup costs? (feel free to ignore this ask if this is something you don't want to talk about)

Hey Anon,

I don't know if you're the same anon but I'll post the link to the ask that sparked this question for any who are curious here.

The answer to all your questions can be yes (helpful, right?)

Details below the cut...

Is it financially viable?

In my opinion, yes but you and I may be at very different stages in our lives. Are you a student? A parent with young children? Are you struggling to pay the light bill? Do you have time and energy to throw into writing daily or nightly around real life? These things matter.

Could I live off what I'm earning since I started self-publishing nearly a year ago? Hell no. I have a very good full-time job with benefits and an excellent retirement package. My husband and I have both agreed I can't walk away from that for anything less than six-figure earnings but I can say our mortgage has been covered by my writing for the past six months. That's meaningful to us and worth my time and effort.

Does success happen? It does but I won't sugarcoat it. For every Lucy Score, Cora Reilly and T.L. Swan, self-published romance authors who are millionaires, there are thousands out there who are making much, much less. From $20 to $10,000 in a month, it varies widely! But there are things you can to do increase your chances of hitting it big.

Also, I should mention that Amy and I are Amazon exclusive, part of their Kindle Unlimited subscription service. The good part about that? We earn 70% of our sales versus 30% if we were classified as Wide authors (people who can publish elsewhere like Smashwords, etc). The not so good part, you're very dependent on Amazon. For now, it's worth it for us and the (very different) niches we chose do well in KU.

Startup costs -

KEEP IT MINIMAL! I would not throw tons of money into fancy formatting software or professional editing if you're looking to self-publish your first novel. Do the work yourself, take advantage of free resources, sites and tools and see a profit (hopefully). I published my first book May 31st last year and I had made up my initial startup costs by the time my second book was released in late July.

What you actually need..

Royalty free images to make covers - $40 and up, up, up

Catch deals from Deposit Photos. Twice a year they do a deal through appsumo where you can get 100 images for $40. It's a steal of a deal. GIMP is free software you can download to make covers. Find YouTube videos to show you how. It's all out there and free. But it takes effort. Sorry, no shortcuts there :)

Reader Services - $10/month

Many, many self-published authors use bonus stories or free stories as Reader Magnets to draw readers and future fans to their newsletters. You need a system to funnel those readers and collect emails. Bookfunnel is who I use. Some of their services are free but you pretty much need that $10/month to make use of the good stuff. They also offer author swaps and newsletter building promos if you want to grow your list of followers. StoryOrigin is an alternative site some people use.

Newsletter - $0

I use Mailerlite which is free up to 1k subscribers. There's also Mailchimp. You can have freebie landing sites from Mailerlite. I haven't bothered with a paid website domain yet but I know this is something I'll need to look into soon.

ARCs - $10 to $20/month

Booksprout is the one I use. There are probably others. I think it's about $10/month for the beginner subscription to get those reviewers. I'm using a mid-list author plan now ~ $190/year. Some niches make use of SM more for this.

Advertising - $0 to thousands

Don't bother until you've got a book or two out there (come ask me if you get to that point). I'd say the only advertising you should focus on to start with is your passive marketing - your blurb, your cover and the keywords you enter on Amazon that make your book discoverable. Beyond that, paid advertising can wait.

However, you can use Tiktok to get your book noticed. Amy is learning the ropes of this and we've both seen people whose sales have skyrocketed thanks to one or two good Tiktoks to draw readers. One person made $10k in a month off of ONE good Tiktok. Other SMs have their successes, too. This is not an area I excel at though. I'd need one of my kids to teach me more... lmao.

Finally, I'll say, I didn't go into this thinking it would make me rich and famous. I wrote 3 million words of Jonsa out of love over the course of five years. I've written 350k words of original fiction the past year and it's paying the mortgage. Thankfully, I love what I'm writing and I've set myself a five-year plan for my 'side hustle' to see how I feel in 2027. We'll see where I am then. Fingers crossed I can claim I'm a six-figure author!

But what you can achieve in self-publishing can be phenomenal if you're writing to market (giving romance readers those tropes they love and hitting the expected story beats) in a genre and niche that has hungry readers. Our discord has verified tiers so people who say they're making 50k in thirty days aren't just blowing smoke. They've proven it. Imagine making money like that and then, if you're at a point in your life where you want to try, GO FOR IT.

[literaredits]

━ kiara falcone headers

like/reblog if you save it. ©️ rosecalioway on twitter.

[concobalt]

my favourite books I read in 2020:

three little mistakes, nikki sloane. scandalous, l.j. shen. sweet temptation, cora reilly. act your age, eve dangerfield. my best friend's ex, meghan quinn. the simple wild, k.a. tucker. forbidden, tabatha suzuma. you deserve each other, sarah hogle. archer's voice, mia sheridan. the wall of winnipeg and me, mariana zapata. enemies, tijan. the unrequited, saffron a kent. nightfall, penelope douglas. the redemption, nikki sloane. the devil's crown (part one), monica james. the free, k. webster.

[babegroot]

sins of the fathers + the unholy trinity

NEVER SAW ONE

WITHOUT THE

OTHER,

DID YOU?

[kindledits]

♥︎ bound by honor headers

— like or reblog if save/use it;

— give credits to wrgkva on twitter;

[literatureaesthetic]

A moodboard I made based on the Born In Blood Mafia Chronicles by Cora Reilly!!

(One has a grain texture, the other doesn't)

[cleastuff]

Cindy Kimberly icons.

like or reblog if you save.

[someiconsx]

kiara falcone — headers.      ✧ like or reblog if you use/save.      ✧ @dearcardan on twitter.

[daniellerussells]

books read in 2020: bound by honor by cora reilly

Luca closed his eyes, looking almost resigned. “Love is a risk in our world, and a weakness a Capo can’t afford.”

“I know,” I said even as my throat corded up.

Luca’s eyes shot open, fierce and blazing with emotion. “But I don’t care because loving you is the only pure thing in my life.”

[ceaelin]

•credits to @natxlin on twitter

•like or reblog if you save

[glossynighttt]

Bound by hatred

[literaredits]

━ sweet temptation headers

like/reblog if you save it. ©️ rosecalioway on twitter.

[aelingalathys]

greta and nevio falcone aesthetic.

if you save, like this post or credit on twitter (judegalathys)

[marcellavitiello]

Header Kiara Falcone - Twisted Emotions and Twisted Bonds by Cora Reilly

*fav if u save

[softheadrs]

sweet temptation by cora reilly headers

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