Suggested Reading for Indie Authors
If you're an indie publisher, I can almost guarantee you've searched Amazon for books about the wonderful world of indie publishing. That search certainly produced books with very promising titles, encouraging book descriptions and there might have been a mention of authors like Hugh Howey or other indie authors that made it HUGE in the self-publishing world.
I've run the same search, read the same headlines and felt the same twinge of expectant hope after leaning more about what is possible.
I bought the books, read them and implemented many of the suggestions contained in the pages. And guess what?
Over two years after publishing my first novel, Heartless, I'm still running the search, reading the headlines and feeling a somewhat muted twinge of expectant hope.
As with everything in the world, some things work and some don't.
To date, I've read fifteen books on self-publishing, self-promoting, self-marketing, self-ad nauseam. Some of these fifteen were pretty horrible: Reformatted versions of one another, complete with different spins of the exact same advice. Some stressed the importance of social media while others downplayed the role and importance of social media.
A few said books sale success is "All about your cover and book blurb," while at the same time directing me to Fiverr where, for $5, I can get a custom made eBook cover! (Nothing against Fiverr. I have worked with a designer and got great results. But I believe you get what you pay for and will stick with designers deserving of a much higher rate.)
In the end, after reading these fifteen then reviewing the notes I had taken, I find myself with a bit more clarity of direction but saddled with even more questions.
That said, there are a couple books I would recommend and a bunch I would not. I have no interest in putting any author's work down, so I will only post links to those books I am confident about.
Before I do exactly that, a quick update on this blog and my February goals;
Seems since switching the theme of this blog from random postings about my thoughts to an honest sharing of my journey through the world of Indie publishing, more readers are showing an interest. To date, blog visits climbed from seven (you read that right) to 200! Okay, I'll keep seeing where this goes.Book Sales - In January, I sold 221 books, averaged a bit over 500 KDP read per day and averaged 217 free downloads per day. In February, I'm on track to sell 227 books (short of my goal of 250), am averaging 557 KDP pages read per day and am tracking to "give away" close to 8,800 copies of my perma-free book, Heartless.Suggested Books on Self Publishing
Let's Get Visible by David Gaughran - The author bounces around a bit too much in this book but only due to the fact that the book is full of links and resources. Strangely enough, despite the version I have suggesting a recent update, some links jump to another part in the book that suggests an even better resource. I guess it doesn't matter. As long as I'm not wasting time following links to content that have been lapped by the competition, no bother.
Give this one a serious look. Highly rated and is darn good.
How to Market a Book by Joanna Penn - Stay in the indie world long enough and you are certain to hear about Joanna Penn. And for good reason; She's a successful indie author who has an amazingly helpful blog and a damn good book on Marketing.
How I Sold 30,000 eBooks on Amazon's Kindle by Martin Crosbie - I've never met this author but he just seems like the type of dude I'd like to have a beer with. Down to earth and very realistic. I read this book right after I finished another book whose title claimed an author's success at selling a much greater number of books. That book sucked, but this one was rock solid.
That's it for now. If you have a suggestion, please comment below. And hey, yours might very well be the first comment on this blog. I believe there should be a prize for that. Not sure, however. Maybe a free ebook of mine.
Time to write.
T Patrick Phelps
I've run the same search, read the same headlines and felt the same twinge of expectant hope after leaning more about what is possible.
I bought the books, read them and implemented many of the suggestions contained in the pages. And guess what?
Over two years after publishing my first novel, Heartless, I'm still running the search, reading the headlines and feeling a somewhat muted twinge of expectant hope.
As with everything in the world, some things work and some don't.
To date, I've read fifteen books on self-publishing, self-promoting, self-marketing, self-ad nauseam. Some of these fifteen were pretty horrible: Reformatted versions of one another, complete with different spins of the exact same advice. Some stressed the importance of social media while others downplayed the role and importance of social media.
A few said books sale success is "All about your cover and book blurb," while at the same time directing me to Fiverr where, for $5, I can get a custom made eBook cover! (Nothing against Fiverr. I have worked with a designer and got great results. But I believe you get what you pay for and will stick with designers deserving of a much higher rate.)
In the end, after reading these fifteen then reviewing the notes I had taken, I find myself with a bit more clarity of direction but saddled with even more questions.
That said, there are a couple books I would recommend and a bunch I would not. I have no interest in putting any author's work down, so I will only post links to those books I am confident about.
Before I do exactly that, a quick update on this blog and my February goals;
Seems since switching the theme of this blog from random postings about my thoughts to an honest sharing of my journey through the world of Indie publishing, more readers are showing an interest. To date, blog visits climbed from seven (you read that right) to 200! Okay, I'll keep seeing where this goes.Book Sales - In January, I sold 221 books, averaged a bit over 500 KDP read per day and averaged 217 free downloads per day. In February, I'm on track to sell 227 books (short of my goal of 250), am averaging 557 KDP pages read per day and am tracking to "give away" close to 8,800 copies of my perma-free book, Heartless.Suggested Books on Self Publishing
Let's Get Visible by David Gaughran - The author bounces around a bit too much in this book but only due to the fact that the book is full of links and resources. Strangely enough, despite the version I have suggesting a recent update, some links jump to another part in the book that suggests an even better resource. I guess it doesn't matter. As long as I'm not wasting time following links to content that have been lapped by the competition, no bother.
Give this one a serious look. Highly rated and is darn good.
How to Market a Book by Joanna Penn - Stay in the indie world long enough and you are certain to hear about Joanna Penn. And for good reason; She's a successful indie author who has an amazingly helpful blog and a damn good book on Marketing.
How I Sold 30,000 eBooks on Amazon's Kindle by Martin Crosbie - I've never met this author but he just seems like the type of dude I'd like to have a beer with. Down to earth and very realistic. I read this book right after I finished another book whose title claimed an author's success at selling a much greater number of books. That book sucked, but this one was rock solid.
That's it for now. If you have a suggestion, please comment below. And hey, yours might very well be the first comment on this blog. I believe there should be a prize for that. Not sure, however. Maybe a free ebook of mine.
Time to write.
T Patrick Phelps
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