Eva Sandor asked Jim Webster:

I JUST started the ball rolling today by push my final files to IngramSpark and Amazon. I have my ISBNs, started my author page and am shooting for a Sept 30 launch date. Learning as I go! Do you have any spare gems of wisdom you can share about this process? I was telling my husband it is just so "chicken and egg". You need readers to get readers!

Jim Webster No real wisdom, I long ago came to the conclusion that a previous generation were correct and the only thing that sells books is personal recommendation. If your mate Fergie likes a book and really raves about it, you're likely to read it. If yet another advert flashes across your facebook page you'll probably barely notice it.
The trouble is this is long and slow and takes a long time to achieve anything. As you say it needs readers to produce readers.
I decided I'd start blogging seriously, so have two blogs

https://jandbvwebster.wordpress.com/

Which is about life and stuff

and

https://tallissteelyard.wordpress.com/

Which is basically a collection of Tallis Steelyard anecdotes/short stories.
So people have a chance to read my writing and see if they like it.
But waste not, want not, I bundle up the first blog to produce collections like these

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...

Which actually sell as well as anything I've done

and the Tallis Steelyard stories get bundled into novella sized offerings like this
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...

These don't sell as well but then they cost me nothing :-)

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