How I Did It

About two years ago I read an article in the Wall Street Journal that changed my life.

Here was the paragraph that got me:

"Mr. Locke (John Locke) earns 35 cents for every title he sells at 99 cents. Altogether, he says his publishing revenue amounted to $126,000 from Amazon in March alone. It costs him about $1,000 to have his book published digitally, complete with an original dust jacket image. He also hires an editor to work with him at additional expense."

At that point "The Fourth Awakening" (TFA) had been out for just under 2 years and was selling well enough to convince me to work on the follow up book "The Gathering Darkness" (TGD) in my spare time. TGD was nearly finished but it was so radically different from TFA I was afraid it might turn off the core audience so I wasn't pushing it.

After reading about Locke, I dust off an old idea. In the late 1980s I sold and had published 5 mass-market pulp men's action & adventure novels. They were incredibly hot at the time and they sold huge numbers of books. So many, that two decades later I still see them on the shelves of nearly every used bookstore I walk into. My "Devon's Way" series had ended abruptly when my NYC publishing house filed for bankruptcy. I had a plot for the 4th book in the series in the works where Devon had a grown daughter he hadn't known existed pop into his life. I updated it and three months later I had "Family Reunion (The First Charon Family Adventure). It was a very tongue in cheek spoof of modern spy/suspense books.

Like John Locke, I was able to get it online for under $1,000. I recouped my expenses in about 60 days. That was when I realized I had built a near rabid following for TFA -- the people who get it, REALLY get it. The rest write sad Amazon reviews showing how badly they didn't get it. I had fans that liked my writing style but only had one book to buy.

I decided to change all of that.

In June of 2011, I set a target date of Christmas 2012. I wanted to see how many titles I could get up on Amazon. My thinking was, if they buy one and like it, the reader would come back and buy all of the rest if they were priced reasonably. Having also worked as a Work-for-Hire ghostwriter for a division of Harlequin books for a while, I knew what it took to write a full length novel on a four month deadline and had proven I could do. I was off!

The Gathering Darkness came out a few month later, followed in rapid order by 3 more Charon Family Adventures. All were priced at 99 cents FOR THE EXPRESSED PURPOSE OF BUILDING A FOLLOWING!

In 2012, I sold well over 100,000 Kindle downloads of my books. That doesn't make me James Patterson or JK Rowling, but it certainly means I don't need to be pursuing a potential lucrative career in the fast-food industry either.

As the fall of 2012 approached, I decided to try something different. Instead of a full length novel, I wrote two short novellas. Like episodic TV, these are part of a bigger story using the characters from TFA. I planned to write six Episodes at 99 cents each then combine them into a single book. The jury is still out on that one. Some of my core audience is PISSED at me.

Despite this bump in the road, all of the elements of my plan were in place and just before Christmas, I pulled the trigger and raised my prices. TFA and the first Charon book are still 99 cents. These are my gateway books to try and get the bargain hunters hooked enough to come back and buy the next books in the series. The rest went to $2.99 and one $4.99.

Sales and rankings immediately fell BUT January and February 2013 revenue was higher than a really good month of December 2012. I was selling a third less books but making more money. It also has the added plus of getting me out of the "99 Cent" marketplace and into a nicer, more upscale neighborhood.

When I release Charon #5 in a few months I'm going to drop Charon #2 to 99 cents and lower the "Family Bundle" (I combined the first three Charons into an anthology and had CreateSpace publish it for me) will go to $3.99.

I would highly recommend you create your own plan then work it. There is a huge opportunity here which may not come along again in your lifetime. The jerks and hacks are already marketing things like "You can get rich on Kindle using our program which will do all the writing for you! Only $19.95. And if you buy now you also get...." When the vultures and jackals start circling, it is a sure sign this market is about to peak.

Hopefully Amazon will crack down of the conmen and crooks and not let them kill the goose that is laying all of the golden eggs.

In the meantime, catch the wave before it is too late.

Featured on Amazon.com

Spike Your Initial Ranking

In advance of the release of your book compile a list of people you can "gift" a copy to.

Your net costs to gift a 99 cent book is about 65 cents since you get 35% commission. However, it only cost 89 cents to gift a $2.99 Kindle. At a 70% commission rate you'll get back $2.10 for every $2.99 book you gift.

Find 100 - 200 people and over the first 3 days of release sent them a "gift". This will likely get you in to the top 10 of niche where others will notice you. Not a bad investment for under $200.

Use Price to Control Your Ranking

The Fourth Awakening spent over a year as #1 in its Kindle niche when it was priced at $4.95. When it started to slip and was at risk to lose the top spot, we lowered the price to $2.99 and stayed #1 for the next nine months. With the next book in the series about to come out and sales having leveled off we dropped the price to .99 cents.

All Hell broke loose. We went from 30-50 copies a day to 250 - 400 a day. The book actually briefly broke into the "Top 100" paid in both the US and the UK.  Since we made the final price drop in March of 2011 we've sold nearly 200,000 Kindle downloads.

PRICE MATTERS

Ask yourself would you rather have 35 cents of 100,000 copies (.99 cent price point) or $2.10 $2.99 price point) of 5,000 copies, or $3.50 ($4.95 PP) of 1,000 copies?

In addition to selling more books to build a fan base, the sales volume will keep your ranking high.  

PRICE MATTERS

Use “Keywords” to Get in the Right Niche

Amazon chooses the niche they will rank you in and exactly how they selected your niche is a closely guarded secret. However, you can influence, but not control, which niche you end up in with “keywords”.

When preparing your book for Kindle publication they offer to let you pick up to 7 keywords to describe your book.  Here you need to be cold and analytical. Don’t just throw in large categories like “mystery” or “Young Adult.”

Do you really want to be competing with James Patterson, E. L. James and JK Rowling for ranking?

On the left hand side of the Kindle Bestsellers page is a list of all of the available categories. Comb through it carefully and locate one that is less competitive.

This can be done by carefully going through the “sub-categories” and finding niches that have books with high rankings in the category but are nowhere near the coveted “Top 100” of all Bestsellers.  With The Fourth Awakening, we selected “Religion and Spirituality>New Age>Mysticism”.   

If you find a suitable niche, click on the top ranked book and scroll down to the ranking section:

TFA USA RANKING 10/21/2012

Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,328 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

• #1 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Religion & Spirituality > New Age > Mysticism
• #3 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > New Age > Mysticism
• #33 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Religion & Spirituality > Spirituality

TFA UK RANKING 10/21/2012

Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,328 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

• #1 in Books > Mind, Body & Spirit > Thought & Practice > Mysticism
• #2 in Kindle Store > Books > Nonfiction > Religion & Spirituality > New Age
• #3 in Kindle Store > Books > Fiction > Religious Fiction

This morning TFA was only the 5,328 of all books on Amazon but was still #1 in that Bestsellers niche.  Second place was well over 7,000 in all books.  Because we’re in this niche -- which is easy to dominate -- TFA has been a #1 Bestseller for over three straight years.  It was number one when the Kindle was selling for $4.99 and $2.99 and now when priced at 99 cents.    

When selecting your keywords, start backwards from your niche. “Mysticism, New Age, Religion & Spirituality.”

Distilled Joseph Campbell Applied to The Fourth Awakening

If you’ve read The Fourth Awakening, here is how it matches up to Joseph Campbell plot and pacing.

1. The Ordinary World  -- Penelope at the beginning
2. The Call to Adventure – Mark Hatchet Calls
3. The Reluctant Hero – Reluctantly agrees to meet Walker
4. The Wise Old Man – Meets Walker
5. Into the Special World – The First Threshold – Leaves with Walker
6. Tests, Allies & Enemies – The trip to the Compound
7. The Innermost Cave – Second Threshold – The Compound
8. The Supreme Ordeal – Loses herself
9. Seizing the Sword – Walker offers the way back
10. The Road Back – Comes back from the brink
11. Resurrection – the Third Threshold – Must convince Washington Post People
12. Returns with the Elixir – Becomes a reporter again 

Remember. It is not necessary to follow to follow this format exactly but it is also not wise to drift too far off the path.  

NEARLY EVERY SUCCESSFUL BOOK OR MOVIE IN THE LAST 40 YEARS -- FROM STAR WARS TO AVATAR TO HARRY POTTER HAS MORE OR LESS FOLLOWED THIS UNIVERSAL PATH!  

Tell a Universal Story

Learn how to craft a story that will resonate and strike a universal chord. Below is the famous Christopher Vogler memo which summarized Joseph Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces.

For those unfamiliar with Joseph Campbell’s work, he discusses the “campfire” story tellers who for thousands of years have told wild tales of adventure and daring. Campbell points out, that all of these timeless fables and parables share a similar format and pacing. And it doesn’t matter when or where the story is told. Stories, told in this way, resonate universally on a near primal level.

Read the Vogler memo. Then read it again. While this “coverage” was written for a motion picture studio head, the lessons here apply to novels as well. If you’re serious about wanting to write a successful novel this will be the most important few pages you will ever come across.

Without further ado….

A Practical Guide to

THE HERO WITH A THOUSAND FACES

by Joseph Campbell

(This is the “Coverage” written by Christopher Vogler that changed Hollywood)

In the long run, the most influential book of the 20th Century may turn out to be Joseph Campbell's, The Hero with a Thousand Faces. (note: This was later converted to a very readable book and very watchable PBS special, The Power of Myth. If you have Netflix, it is available instantly in the documentary section.)

 
It's certainly true that the book is having a major impact on writing and story-telling, but above all on movie-making. Aware or not, filmmakers like John Boorman, George Miller, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, and Francis Coppola owe their successes to the ageless pattern that Joseph Campbell identifies in the book.

The ideas in the book are an excellent set of analytical tools.

 With them you can compose a story to meet any situation, a story that will be dramatic, entertaining, and psychologically true.

 With them you can always determine what's wrong with a story that's floundering, and you can find a better solution to almost any story problem by examining the pattern laid out in the book.

 There's nothing new in the book. The ideas in it are older than the Pyramids, older than Stonehenge, older than the earliest cave painting.

 Campbell's contribution was to gather the ideas together, recognize them, articulate them, and name them. He exposed the pattern for the first time, the pattern that lies behind every story ever told.

 Campbell is a mythographer -- he writes about myths. What he discovered in his study of world myths is that THEY ARE ALL BASICALLY THE SAME STORY -- retold endlessly in infinite variation. He discovered that all story-telling, consciously or not, follows the ancient patterns of myth, and that all stories, from the crudest jokes to the highest flights of literature, can be understood in terms of the "HERO MYTH"; the "MONOMYTH" whose principles he lays out in the book.

 Campbell was a student of the Swiss psychologist Carl Jung, and the ideas in The Hero with a Thousand Faces are often described as Jungian.

The book is based on Jung's idea of the "Archetypes" constantly repeating characters who occur in the dreams of all people and the myths of all cultures.

 Jung believed that these archetypes are reflections of the human mind -- that our minds divide themselves into these characters to play out the drama of our lives.

 The repeating characters of the hero myth, such as the young hero, the wise old man, the shape-shifting woman, and the shadowy nemesis, are identical with the archetypes of the human mind, as shown in dreams. That's why myths, and stories constructed on the mythological model, are always psychologically true.

 Such stories are true models of the workings of the human mind, true maps of the psyche. They are psychologically valid and realistic even when they portray fantastic, impossible, unreal events.

 This accounts for the universal power of such stories. Stories built on the model of The Hero with a Thousand Faces have an appeal that can be felt by everyone, because they spring from a universal source in the collective unconscious, and because they reflect universal concerns. They deal with universal questions like "Why was I born?" "What happens when I die?" "How can I overcome my life problems and be happy?"

 The ideas in the book can be applied to understanding any human problem. They are a great key to life as well as being a major tool for dealing more effectively with a mass audience.

 Christ, Hitler, Mohammed, and Buddha all understood the principles in the book and applied them to influence millions.

 If you want to understand the ideas behind the HERO MYTH, there's no substitute for actually reading the book. It's an experience that has a way of changing people. It's also a good idea to read a lot of myths, but it amounts to the same thing since Campbell spends most of the book illustrating his point by re-telling old myths.

 Campbell gives a condensed version of the hero myth on p. 245. However, since he uses some specialized technical terms that require going back to his examples in earlier chapters to find out what he's talking about, I've taken the liberty of amending his outline slightly, re-telling the hero myth in my own way. Feel free to do the same. Every story-teller bends the myth to his own purpose. That's why The Hero has a Thousand Faces

The Stages of the HERO Are:

 1) THE HERO IS INTRODUCED IN HIS ORDINARY WORLD

 Most stories take place in a special world, a world that is new and alien to its hero. If you're going to tell a story about a fish out of his customary element, you first have to create a contrast by showing him in his mundane, ordinary world. In Witness you see both the Amish boy and the policeman in their ordinary worlds before they are thrust into alien worlds -- the farm boy into the city, and the city cop into the unfamiliar countryside. In Star Wars you see Luke Skywalker bored to death as a farm boy before he takes on the universe.

 2) THE CALL TO ADVENTURE

 The hero is presented with a problem, challenge, or adventure. Maybe the land is dying, as in the Arthur stories about the search for the Holy Grail. In Star Wars again, it's Princess Leia's holographic message to Obi Wan Kenobi, who asks Luke to join in the quest. In detective stories, it's the hero accepting a new case. In romantic comedies it could be the first sight of that special -- but annoying someone the hero or heroine will be pursuing/sparring with the remainder of the story.

 3) THE HERO IS RELUCTANT AT FIRST

 Often at this point, the hero balks at the threshold of adventure. After all, he or she is facing the greatest of all fears -- fear of the unknown. At this point Luke refuses Obi Wan's call to adventure, and returns to his aunt and uncle's farmhouse, only to find they have been barbequed by the Emperor's storm troopers. Suddenly Luke is no longer reluctant, and is eager to undertake the adventure. He is motivated.

 4) THE HERO IS ENCOURAGED BY THE WISE OLD MAN OR WOMAN

 By this time many stories will have introduced a Merlin-like character who is the hero's mentor. In JAWS it's the crusty Robert Shaw character who knows all about sharks; in the mythology of the Mary Tyler Moore Show, it's Lou Grant. The mentor gives advice and sometimes magical weapons. This is Obi Wan Kenobi giving Luke Skywalker his father's light sabre. 

The mentor can only go so far with the hero. Eventually the hero must face the unknown by himself. Sometimes the wise old man is required to give the hero a swift kick in the pants to get the adventure going.

 5) THE HERO PASSES THE FIRST THRESHOLD

 He fully enters the special world of his story for the first time. This is the moment at which the story takes off and the adventure gets going. The balloon goes up, the romance begins, the plane or spaceship blasts off, the wagon train gets rolling. Dorothy sets out on the Yellow Brick Road. The hero is now committed to his journey... and there's no turning back.

 6) THE HERO ENCOUNTERS TESTS AND HELPERS

 The hero is forced to make allies and enemies in the special world, and to pass certain tests and challenges that are part of his training. In Star Wars, the cantina is the setting for the forging of an important alliance with Han Solo, and the start of an important enmity with Jabba The Hut. In Casablanca, Rick's Cafe is the setting for the "alliances and enmities" phase, and in many westerns it's the saloon where these relationships are established.

 The tests and challenges phase is represented in Star Wars by the scene of Obi Wan teaching Luke about the Force, as Luke is made to learn by fighting blindfolded. The early laser battles with the Imperial Fighters are another test which Luke passes successfully.

 7) THE HERO REACHES THE INNERMOST CAVE

 The hero comes at last to a dangerous place, often deep underground, where the object of his quest is hidden. In the Arthurian stories the Chapel Perilous is the dangerous chamber where the seeker finds the Grail. In many myths the hero has to descend into hell to retrieve a loved one, or into a cave to fight a dragon and gain a treasure. It's Theseus going into the Labyrinth to face the Minotaur. In Star Wars it's Luke and company being sucked into the Death Star where they will rescue Princess Leia. Sometimes it's the hero entering the headquarters of his nemesis; and sometimes it's just the hero going into his or her own dream world to confront his or her worst fears... and overcome them.

 8) THE HERO ENDURES THE SUPREME ORDEAL

 This is the moment at which the hero touches bottom. He faces the possibility of death, brought to the brink in a fight with a mythical beast. For us, the audience standing outside the cave waiting for the victor to emerge, it's a black moment. In Star Wars, it's the harrowing moment in the bowels of the Death Star, where Luke, Leia and company are trapped in the giant trash-masher. Luke is pulled under by the tentacled monster that lives in the sewage, and is held down so long the audience begins to wonder if he's dead. E.T. momentarily appears to die on the operating table.

 This is a critical moment in any story, an ordeal in which the hero appears to die and is born again. It's a major source of the magic of the hero myth. What happens is that the audience has been led to identify with the hero. We are encouraged to experience the brink-of-death feeling with the hero. We are temporarily depressed, and then we are revived by the hero's return from death.

 This is the magic of any well-designed amusement park thrill ride. Space Mountain or The Great White Knuckler makes the passengers feel like they're going to die, and there's a great thrill that comes from surviving a moment like that. This is also the trick of rites of passage and rites of initiation into fraternities and secret societies. The initiate is forced to taste death and experience resurrection. You're never more alive than when you think you're going to die.

 9) THE HERO SEIZES THE SWORD

 Having survived death, beaten the dragon, slain the Minotaur, the hero now takes possession of the treasure he's come seeking. Sometimes it's a special weapon like a magic sword, or it may be a token like the Grail or some elixir which can heal the wounded land.

 Sometimes the "sword" is knowledge and experience that leads to greater understanding and reconciliation with hostile forces.

 The hero may settle a conflict with his father or with his shadowy nemesis. In Return of the Jedi, Luke is reconciled with both, as he discovers that the dying Darth Vader is his father and not such a bad guy after all.

 The hero may also be reconciled with a woman. Often she is the treasure he's come to win or rescue, and there is often a love scene or sacred marriage at this point. Women in these stories (or men if the hero is female) tend to be SHAPE-SHIFTERS. They appear to change in form or age, reflecting the confusing and constantly changing aspects of the opposite sex as seen from the hero's point of view. The hero's supreme ordeal may grant him a better understanding of women, leading to reconciliation with the opposite sex.

 10) THE ROAD BACK

 The hero's not out of the woods yet. Some of the best chase scenes come at this point, as the hero is pursued by the vengeful forces from whom he has stolen the elixir or the treasure. This is the chase as Luke and friends escape from the Death Star, with Princess Leia and the plans that will bring down Darth Vader.

 If the hero has not yet managed to reconcile with his father or the gods, they may come raging after him at this point. This is the moonlight bicycle flight of Elliott and E.T. as they escape from "Keys" (Peter Coyote), a force representing governmental authority. By the end of the movie, Keys and Elliott have been reconciled, and it even looks like Keys will end up as Elliott's father. (The script not the final cut, guys).

 11) RESURRECTION

 The hero emerges from the special world, transformed by his experience. There is often a replay here of the mock death-and-rebirth of stage 8, as the hero once again faces death and survives. Each ordeal wins him new command over the Force. He is transformed into a new being by his experience.

 12) RETURN WITH THE ELIXIR

 The hero comes back to his ordinary world, but his adventure would be meaningless unless he brought back the elixir, treasure, or some lesson from the special world. Sometimes it's just knowledge or experience, but unless he comes back with the elixir or some boon to mankind, he's doomed to repeat the adventure until he does. Many comedies use this ending, as a foolish character refuses to learn his lesson and embarks on the same folly that got him in trouble in the first place.

 Sometimes the boon is treasure won on the quest, or love, or just the knowledge that the special world exists and can be survived. Sometimes it's just coming home with a good story to tell.


 THE SHORT FORM OF THE HERO STORY:

 The hero is introduced in his ordinary world, where he receives the call to adventure. He is reluctant at first but is encouraged by the wise old man or woman to cross the first threshold, where he encounters tests and helpers. He reaches the innermost cave, where he endures the supreme ordeal. He seizes the sword or the treasure and is pursued on the road back to his world. He is resurrected and transformed by his experience. He returns to his ordinary world with a treasure, boon, or elixir to benefit his world.

 

###

 As with any formula, there are pitfalls to be avoided. Following the guidelines of myth too rigidly can lead to a stiff, unnatural structure, and there is danger of being too obvious.

 The HERO MYTH is a skeleton that should be masked with the details of the individual story, and the structure should not call attention to itself. The order of the hero's stages as given here is only one of many variations. The stages can be deleted, added to, and drastically reshuffled without losing their power.

 The values of the myth are what are important. The images of the basic version -- young heroes seeking magic swords from old wizards, fighting evil dragons in deep caves, etc., -- are just symbols, and can be changed infinitely to suit the story at hand.

 The myth is easily translated to contemporary dramas, comedies, romances, or action-adventures by substituting modern equivalents for the symbolic figures and props of the hero story. The Wise Old Man may be a real shaman or Wizard, but he can also be any kind of mentor or teacher, doctor or therapist, crusty but benign boss, tough but fair top sergeant, parent, grandfather, etc. Modern heroes may not be going into caves and labyrinths to fight their mythical beasts, but they do enter an innermost cave by going into space, to the bottom of the sea, into their own minds, or into the depths of a modern city.

 The myth can be used to tell the simplest comic book story or the most sophisticated drama. It grows and matures as new experiments are tried within its basic framework. Changing the sex and ages of the basic characters only makes it more interesting, and allows ever more complex webs of understanding to be spun among them. The basic characters can be combined, or divided into several figures to show different aspects of the same idea. The myth is infinitely flexible, capable of endless variation without sacrificing any of its magic.

 And it will outlive us all.

                      Adapted from coverage by Christopher Vogler

 Recommended books by Christopher Vogler

 
Memo from the Story Department: Secrets of Structure and Character
 

The Writers Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers