Hey Artist, Don´t Let The Dip Break You

I have been a full-time writer for over a year.

I decided to quit my full-time job when I earned over 8500 € in one month with my thrillers on Amazon.

Before that, I had already had several months with an income of 5000 €, and in the two months after that, it was over 7000 and then again more than 6000 €.

I thought that nothing bad could happen to me anymore if I just kept on doing what I was doing. Since then, I have continued to publish a new novel every two months and have further expanded my fan base.

Today I suddenly have difficulties to earn even close to 3000 €. My worst month in the last half-year was 1900 €

I have over 30 books on the market and know how to use Amazon and Facebook ads. My newsletter reaches almost 800 readers who also buy nearly all of my new books.

My last book climbed to number 47 in the overall German Amazon charts in January. And yet my income continues to fall. The book has since fallen to rank 510.

I also had to realize that my new books don't pull up the old books anymore when I publish. In the past, I could assume that a new book would also drive sales of my old books, but that seems to be over.

In between, I have also tried a book that is not part of any of my series. I have also tried to limit my losses by increasing the prices of my books. But this only made me sell less, and my books dropped massively in the ranking.

I had to realize that my career has reached the point that Seth Godin describes in his book "The Dip."

At some point, what was natural before suddenly becomes harder and harder. What worked yesterday no longer works today. You begin to doubt yourself and think about giving up, but when you give up, you have already lost.

Adapt and go new ways

Since I am not ready to do a regular job again and return to the hamster wheel, I will accept this phase of failure and not be put off.

If my old series don't make big money anymore, I will write a new series.

If Amazon alone is no longer enough to feed me, I will invest more time and energy in Medium.

If the dry spell lasts any longer, I will have to accept some commission work in between.

I will do everything I can to continue to make a living from writing, and it will work. It was this absolute belief in the possibility of success that finally brought me this far in the first place.

Before I earned over 8000 € in a month, I had to write many books, spend hundreds of hours on marketing, and kick my ass every day. For the first four years as an author, I earned almost nothing.

So I came out of nowhere and made it into the 150 most successful self-publishers in Germany.

Now I'm a long way from those successes, which were not so long ago. But I know that every successful artist reaches this point sooner or later. I will be one of those who will not be broken by it.

Are you in a dip too? Do you believe that nothing you do can bring back your past success? I beg you to hold on because I know that you also can get out of this hole.