What I've Learned After Six Months As a Published Author

This week marks a big moment for me: the six-monthanniversary of publishing my first novel, "A Soul to Steal."
I honestly had no idea what I was getting into.
It was, in retrospect, a last-minute decision. Themanuscript for the book had been sitting on a shelf for a few months after anagent told me the novel was excellent, but was going to have trouble finding amarket in the current environment.
After that experience, I had no idea what to do. Like a lotof others, I saw a New York Times story about Amanda Hocking's success and thought, "What the hell?" I had alwaysbeen convinced self-publishing was an act of desperation, the kind of thingthat would make you untouchable as a potential "real" novelist. But the world waschanging, and Amazon's platform seemed like a great way to get the book outthere without someone charging me thousands of dollars.
I did some prep work, making sure the book was clear oftypos (the novel had long been edited and proofed before I sent it to theagent, so this was a final check), asked a friend of a friend to make me acover and created a Facebook page.
That was about it. I had no blog, barely any Twitterpresence and no friggin clue how I was going to sell any books. I wasn't naïve—Iknew this was going to be tough—but I figured I could learn everything I neededto know on the fly.
What have I learned since that day? Here are a fewhighlights:
1)      Peopleare awesomeI had a lot of fears about puttingthe book out, the strongest of which was what you would expect: I worriedpeople would hate the novel. It didn't fit neatly in any genre, combiningelements of mystery, suspense, the paranormal and even urban fantasy (a genre Ididn't even know existed.) Would people get it? Was it any good? The response,I'm happy to say, has been overwhelmingly positive. Book bloggers were verypositive, readers have been kind and, in general, I've received a lot of nicecompliments on the book from people I've never met. They have also beenremarkably supportive, urging me to keep writing, offering comments on theblog, and filing reviews on the novel. My book now has an actual audience, andits fans are growing.
2)      Mynovel is not a Halloween bookSince my novel climaxes onHalloween night—and centers around the origins of the holiday itself—I wantedto publish it well before All Hallow's Eve. In theory, I thought I would sell alot of books in the lead-up to the holiday, and then watch my sales disappearright afterward. I was so convinced of this that I consoled myself on Halloweennight that I had a great run and would do even better next year. But do youknow what happened? Sales actually increased after Halloween. November wasbetter than October, and January ended up being better than November and Decembercombined. February, which started as my slowest month, was a new monthly salesrecord. My point? People want to read scary books regardless of the time ofyear.
3)      Thisis like a second jobI look back at the me from sixmonths ago and wonder – if I had known what I was getting into, would I have stilldone it? When I published, I thought I could query a few book bloggers, sitback and wait for sales to roll in. I didn't understand the time and energy Iwould invest in getting the book launched—and then maintaining it. I ended upquerying hundreds of bloggers, 30 of which agreed to review the book (and onlyhalf of which ever did). I spent hours perfecting Facebook ads and thenreaching out to various Facebook sites for books. I started a blog, joined Triberrand then KDP Select. I've read dozens, if not hundreds, of blog posts fromothers on how to maximize sales. I've also been working on a sequel every day.In short, novel writing has become another full-time job. So would I do it allover again? Yes, in a heartbeat. In the past six months, I've become a bonafidebestselling horror and suspense novelist. Just to watch my book ranked on theHorror bestseller list near Stephen King's excellent 11/22/63 was the thrill ofa lifetime. It didn't stay there forever, but it doesn't matter. I got a tasteof what success can feel like. And it felt pretty damn good.
I don't know what's in store forthe indie author community, the book industry or, for that matter, me. Butlooking at how many indie authors are on the Kindle bestseller lists, I can saythis: if you work hard at this game and produce quality novels witheye-catching covers, the future looks pretty damn bright.