#bootstrapper - No. 2 [@macchiata]

in The Ink Well4 years ago

So, Mac has this great idea, she wants to write a modern version of the Great Gatsby 2.0.

Turns out, she's studied Fitzgerald in school, sees a lot of similarities in our current cultures, and has a sort of premonition type outlook considering we're headed toward a major economic depression.

It also turns out that The Great Gatsby itself goes into Public Domain on January 1st '21, which I would assume will be a feeding grounds for novelists, television show producers, and perhaps @macchiata.

image.png
Painting by Alberto Vargas 1920.
*Note: I would suggest investigating if Vargas works are in the Public Domain, and then using a derivative image for the Gatsby 2.0 Cover and Promotional Art.

.:.

This is the second entry of #bootstrapper - A newsletter where I give unsolicited advice in the form of accomplish-able challenges to specific people, for specific projects.

Mac -

We're going to play a short game here:

Pretend you want to make some money on a timeline.

  • 1/1/2021 you want to release The Great Gatsby 2.0. on Kindle Unlimited.

This means we have 7 months.

You've already come up with a story idea, and you've done author research, and you've got a pre-existing target audiences:

Lastly, I would encourage you to pick one additional genre to place this story within. It will obviously be a romance, but it can also be something else. For further publishing information and assistance in the process of selecting a genre to place your work within, You can also read through this genre fiction post.

Much of that information will apply, though this is a uniquely advantageous project because of its Public Domain Focus.

.:.

[Back to the Timeline:]

7 Months.

Let's assume 1000 words a day // 30,000 words a month.

Target for First Novel: Rough Draft Completed by August 1st.

1000 word chapters.

60 Chapters total.

Each chapter posted in rough draft format on HIVE.

First book is one of these:

image.png

  • Flappers and Philosophers 2.0
  • The Beautiful and the Damned 2.0
  • This Side of Paradise 2.0

Your objective, is to write a series of explorations of these works, in novel format, for release on Kindle Unlimited, while you maintain accountability by posting a chapter a day on HIVE of your rough draft.

Feel free to #POSH your work, by sharing a link of your draft for that day on social media, or on a Fitzgerald Fanclub / subreddit / goodreads / etc.

When you #POSH, you will be attracting an insiders group of audience members who will aggregate around your Homebase / Project Blog.

These people will be able to follow / comment on your work, and provide you with some vital firsthand responses to your work. Like a secret club, just for your books, where people can see what goes into them, and even try to catch your ear with a suggestion.

RULES:

  1. Do not be a perfectionist.
  2. Get your first book rough draft done by the deadline [August 1st]
  3. Do not break pace or procrastinate -- 1000 words a day. One Chapter a Day.
  4. Give yourself until June 1st to come up with an outline with a proper Character / Story ARC -- some romantic tensions / sexuality, some Dramatic Trials and Tribulations - and a Happily For Now Ending. Explicit Sex Scenes are acceptable -- No non-con.
  5. Do not waste a bunch of time doing excessive #POSH outreach, a steady production schedule will be more valuable.
  6. All of your blogs must use a code name for the project, and indicate that it is a "Rough Draft / Work In Progress, and that the Final Edited Version will Only Be Available on Kindle Unlimited."
  7. Your Cover on Kindle Must look like it belongs with the others in the category you selected, and must not have nudity.
  8. Your book must be both genre specific -- as in it must belong in the top 100 of whatever genre category you write it for -- and it must be Fitzgerald Public Domain Inspired -- apart from that you have creative freedom.

It turns out Kindle Unlimited is a very profitable way to publish ebooks, but they are picky about their exclusivity. This is why you go rough and collaborative and sloppy on HIVE, and if people want to read the final they can do so on Kindle Unlimited - Amazon.

TOOLS:

  1. Buy Scrivener

The trial lasts 30 days, and the cost is $50.

REWARDS:

I will give you $50 worth of HIVE if you have 30,000 words of rough draft completed by July 1st.

I will make you a cover for publishing if you complete the 60,000 word rough draft by August 1st.

I will give you a follow up publish and release plan blog if you have a Final Draft ready to publish on KDP by August 15th.

.:.

When the 60k rough draft has completed on Aug 1st, you will have no more than 2 weeks to edit the project, and 2 weeks to publish your final draft on Kindle and promote your work in its release format.

.:.

In order to accept this challenge you need to make a project announcement with the tag #bootstrapper, and a plot structure + elevator pitch + project synopsis, and link this blog post.

You also need to tag five people you look up to on HIVE, and state your intention to reach your Final Draft Milestone of 60k Edited, ready to Publish by August 15th. -- Ask them for a HIVE reward if you make your goal. Let them decide what they will offer you if you succeed.

Once you have met your milestones, you will repeat the process until you have written and published your very own Tetralogy:

  • Flappers and Philosophers 2.0 [Published By Aug 30th '20]
  • The Beautiful and the Damned 2.0 [Published By Nov 30th '20]
  • This Side of Paradise 2.0 [Published by Feb 28th '21]
  • The Great Gatsby 2.0 [Published by May 30th '21]

If you want to re-order them so you have the Great Gatsby to release on Jan 1st, you can do that one second. There will be some slight online hulabaloo about the Great Gatsby around that time, and you might capitalize off of it.

Maybe do The Great Gatsby 3rd, but arrange the timing so you have a 60 day Kickstarter Launch on Jan 1st, where you find a way to write the book in a way that is inclusive of your audience members, and bring them onto HIVE for that process.

Then you can finish it by the schedule listed above, and just deduct the Kickstarter project organization from your marketing time for that project.

.:.

This way your self-publishing business goals align your financial incentives on HIVE and with HIVE's onboarding incentives -- improving the value of HIVE, and also your own personal wealth by your participation within these project cycles.

.:.

Monetization:

Kindle Unlimited Royalties - USD
HIVE Upvotes and Support Pledges for hitting your milestones - HIVE
Kickstarter Backers - USD
NFT Covers - ETH [Artist Split 50/50]

.:.

For Bonus Community Leadership Points -- @macchiata can lead this challenge for others in The Ink Well Community, participants can have a small co-op cluster / accountability circle.

This will help bring in and share audiences, and help fortify the Ink Well Community with audiences, HIVE votes, and external monetization.

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This is such a great advice! I am haunted by that idea and it's pretty much resonating with the current thesis I have on the life of Fitzgerald. I keep getting ideas and I need to start taking them seriously :D

Just a challenge. It's hard work, but this is how I would do it, if I wanted to do something like that.

I really like this idea! I'm really interested to see if @macchita takes it.

I think she is a fine candidate for this project. She is open, honest, articulate and disciplined. Just the sort to work out of an aggressive time line such as this.

It's no joke man. 1k word chapters each day, rough draft quality is most definitely aggressive.

But I think feasible if you're working from an outline, and you have some form of external accountability / incentive.

It may be possible to hit 1k words in an hour or two of work, but the hard part is the discipline to make it happen each day.

For sure Fitzgerald didn't write all of his books in a year, but I think taking project iterations seriously is a useful practice, and this has the potential to be more profitable for her in the long term than taking up ghostwriting, etc.

I agree utterly. I think (know) that 1k per day is seriously do-able. I really like the idea that she'll have people that stay with her (me included). I very much hope she says yes.

disciplined

I keep struggling with this one and been trying to find a hack. It turns out, you can't !

I think you ARE disciplined enough. You taught yourself to live on air, for crying out loud. That's discipline.

mhh boobs

Huh. The pic makes it look like you're looking for male authors.

Ok... now I know why.

Nope. Just a blog challenge for Mac.

Though the actual final ought to be written for women, and ought to have a handsome Gatsby on the cover, etc.

Yes, one of those hot guys on erotica novels cover !!!

Exactly. Make it look like it blends in with all of the top 100 in whatever category / genre you decide to place it within.

An interesting proposition.

All of your blogs must use a code name for the project, and indicate that it is a "Rough Draft / Work In Progress, and that the Final Edited Version will Only Be Available on Kindle Unlimited.

This disclaimer will be sufficient to avoid the problem of previously published works?

Do you receive any affiliate benefits for Scrivener or Kindle Unlimited? If so, please disclose them in your post (and for any other referral/affiliate links).

I'm not from Kindle, so I don't know exactly what their deal is for previously published versions and how they define 'exclusivity'.

I would suggest that there be an arguable distinction between the rough draft, and the final, and I would suggest that the Final not be available anywhere but Kindle Unlimited.

Then, maybe you can have your cake and eat it too?

Again, I'm not the one who decides that -- KDP does.

And no, I don't have any affiliate benefits for Scrivener, or Kindle Unlimited.

This is just a method for Mac to publish a novel, and a way for your community to step up its game and bring in readers onto HIVE and draw monetization in USD from one of the largest self-publishing hubs that exists.

Here's what it says:

Screenshot 191.png

I would suggest it's a thin line.

Look forward to your fiction contributions :)

I'm not suggesting that Mac re-publish the existing Public Domain work. I'm suggesting that she rewrite it, in her own way.

In rewriting the public domain work as Mac has suggested elsewhere, there will be sufficient differentiation.

As for my contributions to inkwell - I never said I would be contributing fiction.

I am a graphic novelist now, and I focus on art and comics.

These suggestions for Mac, and for your community are ways that you can grow individually as self-published novelists, and as a community on HIVE.

These are marketing and business ideas based on my personal experience and explorations, so the people in your community can make more money, and attract more readers -- and they are specifically targeted toward Mac, because I think outright telling you to do something, or challenging your community in general would be a waste of time, whereas I think Mac may have sufficient motivation to execute them.

My hope is that if Mac is successful, the rest of you will understand how you can adapt or integrate outside resources in order to increase the value of HIVE by strengthening your own businesses, and growing audiences within your own communities via external sources.

Nice painting! Love it

That's not mine - it's Vargas, link is in the post just below the image.

It's great though.

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