Author Lessons: Indie Publishing, Burnout, Author Extras, Control, and Writing Project Grief

If you’ve stumbled onto this post without reading part one, Author Lessons: Writing Community, Social Media, Newsletters, and Support, you can find it here.

Part two covers the rest of the lessons I’ve learned in the last nine years. They are based on my own experiences and may be different from yours. I’m just sharing what I know in case it’s of help to any other writers traveling the same path.

Author LessonsIndie Publishing

Like most writers, I took my shot at traditional publication. I queried for several years, got rejections, 2 full requests, and even signed a small press contract.

In the end, all books published under my name so far have been indie published by me. There are many ways to do this, and a quick Google search will no doubt give you step-by-step blogs by more seasoned professionals.

As this post is about my author lessons, this is what my experiences in indie publishing have taught me.

Four years ago, I went with IngramSpark. Nowadays, good practice is using Ingram or Draft2Digital to go wide (all retailers but Amazon), while also publishing directly with Amazon.

I’ve recently heard rumblings you can now also go direct with Apple, and Barnes and Noble, etc, but I suspect that’s a US thing.

When I was researching publishers to go with, I did look at Draft2Digital, but they don’t have a printing facility where I live, and Ingram does. This means it only takes mere days to get physical copies of my books. I also found that the print quality of paperbacks is better with Ingram than Amazon, which is another reason I chose them.

Ingram used to charge to publish books. Now they don’t, but if you need to make changes, such as fixing typos or updating your book content, it will cost you. I have heard Amazon allows you to update your files without incurring a cost, but again, I currently have no personal experience with the inner workings of publishing through Amazon.

Another tick in the going with one publisher box was not wanting to check separate places for sales. Ingram has one dashboard, and it’s easy to run reports from.

Can you now guess where I sell most of my books? Yep, it’s Amazon. A place where I’d get higher royalties if I was going directly with them (and that’s on me). I also have one reader who has so far bought every ebook I’ve released on Kobo, and occasionally I’ll get an Apple Books ebook sale.

As an indie publisher, you’ll set the recommended retail price, but Amazon and others don’t have to stick to it, and they usually won’t.

Sometimes you’ll see your books on sale and be able to tell people who will hopefully take advantage. Other times, you’ll see it so ridiculously priced that even you wouldn’t buy it. No one else does either, and months will go by with no sales.

As for advertising your books and marketing, this is the hardest part of publishing and is a constant uphill battle. I’ve heard mixed things about doing paid ads, particularly Facebook ads, and it’s not something I’ve waded into (yet).

My first book release was at the start of the pandemic when everyone was reading and I reaped the benefits. I’ve also released two books at the end of the pandemic when no one was reading or spending money and suffered the consequences—just like every other author.

I’m in two minds about Amazon. They seem to punish writers who aren’t using them. More than one release day has been marred by people not being able to order my books because Amazon listed them as “Unavailable”—all because they’re coming from Ingram and not them.

I can tell you from firsthand experience that if readers can’t buy your book when they want to, or they see a message that it’s not in stock and there is no date for when it will be in stock, you’ve lost a sale.

I’ve also read recent horror stories on Threads of Amazon suspending writer accounts and canceling pre-orders, which are sales most indie authors won’t get back.

I’m also sure I’ve had some sales they have never been reported to Ingram. That’s not to say Ingram is fantastic either. If you contact either company about lost sales, incorrect listings, missing covers, or outrageous prices well above the RRP, they blame the other companies and say everything is out of their control, leaving you with very little control.

I’d love to sell my books directly from my website, but the cost of postage makes it impossible, even within my own country.

Lesson learned: no publishing place is perfect, and all will frustrate you. Weigh the pros and cons for yourself and go with the company that’ll work best for you. Maybe one day there will be better solutions, but for now, we can only work with what we’ve got access to.

Burnout

Posting on social media consistently, writing manuscript after manuscript, being in the query trenches or on submission, and just being in an endless loop of waiting to hear what others thought of your MS/pitch/query/submission pages, and checking if your last post got enough views/likes/comments or was swallowed in the social media void yet again, takes its toll.

Doing all of that, being in that constant state of waiting, plus the internal drive to get better in an industry where you’re only as good as the last piece of content posted or book published quickly leads to disillusionment, burnout, and self-doubt.

Lesson learned: remember that you got into this because you love to write, that you keep trying because you love to write and you want others to read what you wrote, to connect with it like you do. If you find everything else is robbing you of that love of writing, take a break. Reassess things and always go back to writing.

Author Extras

The trend at the moment for author extras seems to be character artwork (made by fellow artists, not AI) and if that is something you can afford and want to include, go for it.

I haven’t commissioned such work, so I can’t speak on it, but I can say the author extras I’ve spent money on have been bookmarks, enamel pins, a tarot card based on one featured in my series, tote bags, mugs, and chocolate bar wrappers (this post contains some pics if you’re curious). These were done as giveaways to beta readers, book launch comps, and book launch swag.

I’ve also invested in business cards, which I took to my first writing conference in 2017. They were left on a table, along with everyone else’s cards. I still have a box of them sitting in my desk drawer. There haven’t been too many other places to hand such things out as COVID killed off a lot of in-person conferences.

If you go to such events often, it is a good idea to have either a business card, bookmarks, or other swag you can hand out. I suggest using a QR code on them so you can keep the info updated. My business cards have an old domain on them (which still works) but it makes me hesitant to hand them out as I know it’s not the latest and easiest info.

Lesson learned: if you can afford to get some author swag, do it. If you can’t, don’t. As much as social media would like you to believe that a release that doesn’t include sprayed edges, limited edition hardcover copies, or a candle that can be included in a giveaway box means your book will fail is all wrong. Make the best book you can. That’s the priority.

If you want extras and can swing them, go ahead. They may garner attention, but if the book is bad, a sticker of the cover art will not improve its standing amongst readers.

Control

One big lesson I’ve learned is that you have control over what you initially write. And that’s it.

The book those first few drafts will become is something you have less control over as feedback from editors and beta readers will change the book’s shape. Then, when it’s released, you’ll never have control over how it’s received, how and when it’ll be reviewed, how much it’ll sell, if your promo posts work, or if it’ll be picked by readers, let alone a bookstagrammer that will make it go viral.

Lesson learned: all you can control is the words, the next book you’ll work on, and your reaction to everything. Focus on those things, and learn to let go of everything else.

Writing Project Grief

One surprising thing I’ve gone through when finishing a writing project is a grieving process. Wrapping up a book series that was a part of my daily thoughts and life for a good chunk of time (twenty-two years) hit harder than I expected.

Often, a work in progress that spans years becomes part of your life as you write it while trying to figure out who you are. When you finish that project, that part of you is now also gone. So are the hopes you once felt for this idea that bloomed into something so big.

Some books achieve what you want—getting written. Others almost hit that ultimate writing dream. You may have landed goals you never dreamed of, such as signing with an agent, a publisher requesting a full, getting all the way to an acquisitions meeting, and signing a contract. Or you could have watched all those things happen to others as the years and luck passed you by.

Sometimes, even when books achieve more than you dreamed, they still don’t hit the specific expectation you wanted, so you grieve that too.

That writing project isn’t the breakthrough you’d wished for, but now a backlist book you hope will eventually be discovered by others.

Lesson learned: your next book may not live up to your wildest dreams, or it may surpass them. Write the books of your heart, adjust your expectations to reality, but always keep a little sparkle of big-wish hope. It’ll keep you going.

And those are my author lessons. I hope you’ve gotten something from these two posts, and if you have questions about what’s been written, or want to ask more, let me know in the comments.

— K.M. Allan

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