Dear Reader,

I’m Eden Astrophel- an author with only one book to their pen name. Cheater Cheater Bunny Eater (click that link if you’d like to see my post about it). But in truth, I have written more under other pen names over the years- the caveat being that I didn’t write for profit. My beginnings, like most people’s, were humble.

I started by publishing on Wattpad. Even about ten years ago, Wattpad was perfectly capable of giving an aspiring 13 year old author a platform to get her works read. I just kept posting new ideas and riding them out- I had a couple of collaborations, helping another author as a developmental editor of sorts, and collaborating with another who wanted to translate one of my works into Spanish. (Still incredibly flattered.) Once, very excitingly, a novel I gave up on writing got pirated- I have never been so flattered. But I never expected much from my writing, I was just excited to have people read my work. I checked back into Wattpad five or so years later- one of my books ended up being a minor cult hit. So I polished it up and sold it on Amazon.

That book bought me a Hershey’s chocolate bar in profit. It was proof that I could, in theory, have a hobby that sustained itself. I didn’t think- and honestly, still doubt- that I could make lots of money, but I thought that there was real potential for my books to be able to pay for an authors website and their own advertising. The more research I did, the more I was convinced.

So I set about writing a new book- believe it or not, that book is not Cheater Cheater Bunny Eater. After seven years of trying to write the other novel, I wanted to prove to myself that I could finish a book- and that it didn’t need to take me years. When I saw that Amazon had a contest going on- Storyteller UK 2025- I realized that was the perfect arbitrary deadline. My brother and I had talked endlessly about the world of Unraveled Online, so, with his permission, I set about writing. He only had one condition- No AI cover. Fair enough. Ultimately, Cheater Cheater Bunny Eater was a novel/novella that I wrote over the course of six months- including brainstorming time. I plan to get much faster.

This post is about what I learned from these three early stages of my career- what I found actually helped me, what I was missing, and what it took to actually get that first book out into the world- without it becoming the last. (I have another book that I just need to finish formatting- keep an eye out for a post about my next book; “In The End You Were My Hero”, the first in a series. This would be the novel I spent seven years writing- I’ll explain why later.)

Lets go back to my Wattpad era for a moment- why did I get readers? This was the time I had the most readers. I had about 100k readers on my cult hit and 10k likes- I published that 50 page work week by week (honestly, it was probably more like whenever I felt like writing), without editing or grammar checks. I didn’t know where I was taking the novel, and once I wrote a chapter, it was what it was. I never went back to change chapters that had already happened or reorganize scenes.

Why did that mess get more views than the version I published on Amazon? Setting aside for a moment the time gap between when I had the most traction and when I published on Amazon, and the fact it was simultaneously available for free- those are obvious reasons for a difference in readers. Those aren’t the full picture. Another key aspect is discoverability- how different websites use information to get works in front of consumers.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with how recommendation algorithms work, I’ll use a bookstore as an example. A bookstore inherently filters visitors by brand name and location- if you go into a brand name location such as Barnes and Nobles, you expect a very different experience from a mom and pop store selling used books. The visitors tend to be people who live near the location. When it comes to advertising, the local bookstore would stick to advertising in the local area- if the bookstore is in New York, they don’t need to run ads on the streets of Ireland. Once the bookstore has a person enter the store, they tend to put the most asked about or most sold books up front and center. This is their magnet- the reason most people come to the store. It’s not personalized by the individual- at best, the bookstore could personalize by the preferences of the location or most common audience group.

Once you go online, the experience is much the same, with some key differences. The location may or may not be relevant (outside of indicating which country for tax and language purposes). The name brand becomes more important than ever- most of the time when people go online, they aren’t hitting the “I’m feeling lucky” button to go to a random webpage. They’re looking for something, probably something specific. They’re more likely to search “Barnes and Nobles” or “Amazon” than “Online Bookstore”. From there, the websites algorithm determines what to reccomend. Each website has their own algorithm- I will attempt to summarize in layman’s terms how the relevant algorithms (think complicated equation) work.

Wattpad uses an algorithm that analyzes story popularity, user engagement, trends, the relevance of story tags, and how recently the story was updated. This means a new story is more likely to be recommended than an older one- unless a lot of users liked an older story. The exact details are of course proprietary, but from my experience, consistent posting and clear tags were the best way to increase visibility, so those are likely weighted higher than other components of the equation. The more stories a user reads, the more Wattpad knows what kind of story to reccomend, so the experience becomes more and more personalized for long term readers. Wattpad has a vested interest in increasing the number of views on your novel- because their top criteria for success is engagement- you can tell from how their webpages are structured. Wattpad is more concerned with engagement than sales, and their customer base wants to find more things to read, so their discoverability is high.

The Amazon algorithm, on the other hand, is consumed by the need for sales. I will tell you now, as a business graduate, I don’t believe being a marketplace is the center of Amazon’s business model. I believe their business model centers around information first, second, and last. They are notorious for their ‘mind reading’ capabilities- in truth, they’re just the quickest to update their data. It’s clear in how the Amazon webpage works that they believe information = sales, and sales are their top priority. Amazon recommends books using algorithms that analyze customer data, such as purchase history, ratings, and viewed items, to identify similar customers and recommend other products they’ve enjoyed. Recommendations also incorporate “trending” factors- such as location, saved lists, and the sales performance of books, adapting in real-time to user behavior. what this all adds up to is: Amazon is terrible for discoverability. If you’re a new author, there are benefits to being on Amazon or having your book in the KDP Unlimited program, but discoverability is most likely not one of them. You will be fighting an uphill battle to get discovered.

So, I had a LOT of viewers on Wattpad because I was easily discovered. Amazon? Not so much. I’ll be experimenting with the algorithm- based on my research, to make it big in the world of ebooks- especially on Amazon- speed is king, quality is queen. In the future, I’ll post an update on how things are going after I have a few novels out so we can see how true that is.

After all this talk about discoverability, you might be surprised to hear that this information is not what I found most valuable to learn from posting on Wattpad. What I found most valuable was understanding discipline! You know that novel that took me seven years? There are several reasons I think caused the excessively long writing time. One of those reasons was I was writing in a void.

Passion is a wonderful tool for kicking off any journey, but to actually reach a destination, you need more than that. You need discipline. Back when I was writing for Wattpad, I started off purely on passion. Once I started having readers, I had accountability. Having someone who was looking forward to and expecting me to update my novels was, in hindsight, a game changer. I do not naturally have an excess of willpower. I do not naturally dedicate myself to something for more than six months at a time. Perhaps that’s my ADHD (Medication isn’t a good option for me, so I’m always running under caffiene and willpower) or perhaps that’s simply human nature. Either way, having written for Wattpad first and to the void second, I was able to learn that I cannot write for no audience. For me, being held accountable begets discipline. And being disciplined begets results.

I also learned that you learn the most from not allowing yourself to avoid, ignore, or delete mistakes. As an author, I improved leaps and bounds in how to structure a novel, develop a character, tie up loose ends, and more, when I made a concious decision to never delete my novels. Those cringey stories I wrote when I was thirteen are still up on the internet for all to see- though I will absolutely not tell you what pen names I wrote under. Having the guts to leave them up does not negate my sense of shame. Leaving those stories up there, I’m forced to remember them, learn from my experience writing them, and confront my skills for what they were- not what I wish they were. If I was perfect, I wouldn’t need to dedicate myself, and as a consequence, I would write less. There is no shame in the path you take to grow- nobody’s perfect. Again, doesn’t negate embarrassment for your starting skills, but I am not ashamed of the fact I had to start somewhere.

Writing the same novel for seven years taught me much. For one thing, writing a novel does not need to take seven years. This novel needed seven years. There are many reasons, but I believe it ultimately comes down to three things.

First, I was writing to a void- with no feedback, no readers, no accountability- I had neither motivation nor discipline. Second, I was writing concepts I didn’t have a full fleshed view of. This seven year novel, “In The End You Were My Hero”, is a romance. Now, I actually had a lot of romantic experience. I’ve been dating since I was like, five. But, looking back, I didn’t have personal experience in the sort of devoted relationship that the relationship I wanted to write requires- that kind of steadfast relationship where you love them as an action, where you show up and are present for them every day, and where they’re your friend first and your lover second. Over the course of those seven years, I came to understand that kind of love and become aware of how to write it without just mimicking the forms. The third and final cause of delays? The curse of perfectionism. I had to learn the hard way that perfection is the enemy of completion. The more I wrote, the more I rewrote, the more I needed all the effort I was putting in to be ‘worth it.’ I started taking the book as my masterpiece, and wouldn’t accept writing anything that didn’t feel right immediately.

When I wrote Cheater Cheater Bunny Eater, I confirmed for myself that I could complete a novel- I hadn’t lost the skill of writing a whole story after seven years of not completing one. Which meant there had to be a reason why “In The End You Were My Hero” was so hard to finish. I ultimately landed on the three reasons I spoke about above. My solution? Write faster. Instead of a deadline, I expect myself to sit myself down in front of the computer and write.

Each book published on Amazon has a momentum. The first thirty days is when Amazon puts the most effort into it’s visibility before it sharply drops off. By day 90, it’s momentum is all but locked in. This momentum contributes to the authors overall momentum and visibility for all of their books. All my research suggested that meant I had one method that would, in theory, guarantee some level of success as an author: Write and publish a high quality novel every month.

Yeah, it sounds crazy to me too.

I wouldn’t attempt this if it wasn’t for the fact that I’ve seen this method reliably work. One of the more well known examples is Chris Fox- he has a whole series on the subject. If you can write ~10k good quality words per week, know how to advertise yourself, know what site is the best fit for you, and are able to collect, interpret, and analyze data, there’s a lot of reasons to believe you can make a decent amount of money as an author. Nothing too crazy, but something.

Don’t believe anyone who tells you being an author can be ‘passive’ income. There’s nothing passive about the effort that will be required to get up to the level required to rely on already published works. Eventually, maybe. I haven’t gotten to the point to be able to confirm or deny what would happen after ten years of publishing.

So, knowing that I had at best 90 days to use my first book to generate momentum, I decided that I needed my next book ready in thirty days (Spoiler alert- I’m a little late to that deadline because I realized that I needed to do this, like, a week after publishing) and another ready within those following 60 days. I have book number two, “In The End You Were My Hero” ready for last touches and 10k words written for it’s sequel (I have a trilogy planned- and I expect that I’ll be able to publish them all within 3 months of each other at the rate I’m writing), and 10k words written for another stand alone novel.

I had a grand total of five readers in my first month of sales for Cheater Cheater Bunny Eater. I will never know their names or get to express my gratitude, but they mean so, so much to me. They are my accountability and one of the main reasons for my motivation. Because of them, I have some actual reason to believe in this hairbrained scheme of mine. Consequently, I have reason to be dedicated and disciplined. I have about 45 days left to publish “In The End You Were My Hero”, and 30 days from the moment I publish that to get another book out- I think I’ll space out series with each book coming out 60-90 days after the first one to give it the extra effort and polish it deserves.

I hope my experiences help you in your writing journey. I’m going to get back to writing now, but I’ll post as often as I have something relevant to share.

Love, Eden