Journey to Self-Publishing 02

Another week of stolen time and sneaky reading on self-publishing I’m beginning to separate the facts from the fallacies, the strategy from the tactics, the ideals from the possibles.

It’s easy to be seduced by the talk of multi-million sales online (Looking at recent stats from the latest Author Earnings report (See links section below), the wave of self-published authors working hard at turning their passion into a business, but one key factor in all of this is to know ourselves. Apart from actually being able to write, we also need to cultivate the ability to sustain our efforts and motivation over a long period.

Why do we do it?

Firstly, we have to identify our reason for writing, and be honest to ourselves at least. To a certain extent we all dream of selling thousands of copies, being lauded for our success, but is that what really drives you? For some, just being published is enough, for others it’s the critical attention that matters, the review in the New York Times, the acknowledgement of achievement, for others it’s a means to an end, an accumulation of wealth. I know some non-fiction writers who identify an Amazon category, and write around that, specifically as they know they can market and target around it.

Why do I do it?

Well, all the reading over the last couple of weeks (which is really just a more focused version of what I read anyway) has helped focus my own purpose. I love writing but I’m very busy with a day job and family. Fame is not only not interesting, but to be avoided, and I have no desire to stand up in front of people to say how fabulous my writing is. I have many other consuming interests, so at some point the writing has to deliver, preferably as a means of income, and to keep the brain active in the long term!

Actions

Returning to the recurring structure of last week’s article:

Reading. Pocket continues to be an ever-present friend, bookmarking the various blogposts I don’t have time to read the instant I stumble over them (whatever happened to Stumbleupon? I used to love that). See the links below for some pretty helpful posts.Editing and beta-reading. No more progress on this, but need to crack on with finding more editors. Jane Friedman will be helpful with this.Covers. I think I’ve settled on the series look for this, and am considering using PickFu for cover testing. it’s good to have unbiased feedback, although at a cost.Marketing. Back on Twitter, listening and learning. Need to sort out Goodreads and Facebook. Also, need to think about the bigger picture, engage more, build into a sustainable community of friends, contacts and influencers (well, that’s what everyone says…)Sales channels. The more I read on this, the most effective strategy as a newbie seems to narrow on exclusivity with KDP for 90 days, see how the sales go, then either add other sales channels through Smashwords, Lulu, BookBaby or Draft2Digital, or allow it roll it over. I’ve not set a publication date yet, so there’s time to think more on this.Writing, drafting. Ah, well, not writing except this blog, but I’m sorting out two manuscripts to show a beta-reader, so I suppose that counts. Just.



The Wrap

Thanks for reading this, I hope the links below are useful too. Let me know if you have any comments, or email me on jake@thesefantasticworlds.

This week’s Self-Publishing Links



Author Earnings report for 2017. A year out-of date but still packed with useful and motivational information.Book Design Templates is pretty useful as a short cut if you have no idea about design and just want to focus on the writing. Here’s Catherine Hamrick’s excellent distillation about the different types of editor. You can find her on Twitter @ChamrickWriter Plenty of stuff on the internet about whether to go for advice about distribution, including the Amazon or the Amazon + options, on the Jane Friedman website. This is a great contribution from author Robert Kroese.The first article in this series of self-publishing posts on These Fantastic Worlds appears here.



Self-Publishing Standard Links




Nick Stephenson’s thought-provoking current pitchMark Dawson is great at sharing his experiencesThe ever-excellent Joanna PennBook Baby has a useful set of articles: https://www.bookbaby.com/Orna Ross’ ALLi is a hotbed of advice and encouragement.An ex-HarperCollins senior exec and former publisher of Writer’s Digest Jane Friedman has turned herself into an online author guru. Her website is a fantastic one-stop shop for advice on all aspects of publishing.

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