How to Begin?

[OJ Connell]

Hello! I'm currently putting the finishing touches on three short horror novels and I plan to make them available through the Kindle store in the near future. These three books are the first in a series.

I was wondering how I ought to release them. If I were to release them all on the same day, it would provide me with a larger body of work, which I've been told is really the best way of building a platform through self-publishing. Would it be a good thing for me to release them all at once, or should I release them one at a time, with some distance in-between?

[Nimram]

Originally Posted by OJ Connell

Would it be a good thing for me to release them all at once, or should I release them one at a time, with some distance in-between?

I didn't published anything yet so I have no idea what I'm talking about.
(Assuming your books are really ready for the reader) I see the release as an event you have to promote on whatever channels you're using. If you do it all at once it's one event, if you're doing one at a time there are three. In a very simplistic way, let's say you have one blogger who really likes your books and wants to talk about them. All at once release means one blog post and one at a time means three.

From a reader's point of view. When I pick up a new author I don't go and buy a second book until I finished the first.
If I love the book maybe will look for other books and info about the writer while reading the first. For me, it would be enough to have the first one and find something about the release of the next on your profile.

[eternalised]

I completely agree with Nimram.

Sit back, relax. Don't worry. Rome wasn't conquered in one day, and neither will the book publishing world.

Start thinking about free ways or cheap ways you can gain publicity for your titles. Make a list. Start contacting book bloggers. Put your book on Goodreads, and indicate the date it will be released. If you haven't already, make a website and start blogging. Make a Facebook page for your book. Gain followers.Send review copies to reviewers. Put your book in the spotlight. Organize a release day party for your book. Try to have a bunch of other blogs participating.

And now, repeat for your other books. You don't want to hurry into this. Take it one step at a time. Even if the key to becoming a successful self-publisher is a large backlist, you don't want to make that backlist overnight.

[FOTSGreg]

Okay, you've got 3 short novels ready to go and you're chomping at the bit to get them out on the street selling themselves like the good little hookers they are.

First, don't do it immediately unless you're absolutely committed to self-publishing.

Why not take the time and send them out on the submission trail first? In the meantime, you can get cracking on your next novel. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?

Second, set everything aside for at least a week. Do not even look at these books in that time. When the week (or three) is over, look at the first one again. Give it a good going-over. Hand it to a disinterested beta-reader and have them read it too. Hand it to someone who's willing to edit it for you. Do this with each successive book. In the meantime, keep writing your next book.

Third, unless you know GIMP or PhotoShop or some other image manipulation tool, hire someone to do a good cover for your books. Prepare that cover to be used when you upload your first book. You'll need it immediately.

Fourth, when and if you decide to self-publish your books, after you've done everything outlined above, and I do mean everything, space your releases out over a few weeks to a few months. One book a month is good. It will allow your readers to finish one book and decide if they want to read the next one when it's released. There's nothing wrong with building a little reader anticipation. This kind of release schedule also allows you to write a few shirt stories as "filler", work on your next book, and do some marketing.

Last, have a plan. Decide what you want to do with your writing. Are these 3 books it or do you have short stories and more books in you as well? With these 3 done, if you have more, you need to get working on the next right away. But, in addition to this, you need to figure out what you really, really want to do and build a plan for your future. As a self-publisher you are now a business. Businesses need to have business plans in place. Those plans change, but at least next year at this time you can compare where you are then to where you are right now and see where you want to be the year after that.

I've been doing the self-publishing thing myself on Amazon for just over a year now. My other experience extends back better than 30 years in various aspects ranging from newspapers to desktop publishing to self-publishing gaming products. My advice is "Do as I say, not as I do."

Whatever you decide, you'll have questions. That's what the AW community is for. Use it and listen to it. There are a lot of real experts here (I ain't one of them).

[merrihiatt]

I have three trilogies available as e-books and have found that having all three books available at the same time means I can use the first book as a loss leader, making a higher profit on the other two books.

I was reading a forum post a few weeks ago, not here at AW, where a reader was quite upset with a self-published author because she wrote two books in a trilogy, they didn't sell very well, so she never finished the trilogy. It never occurred to me that an author might not finish a series or trilogy and leave the reader hanging. There is an assurance in knowing the other two books are available before buying the first.

I tend to buy all the books in a series, even if that means waiting until they are all published before buying them.

[J. Tanner]

A lot of authors like to think of their book release as an event, the way traditional publishers handle book releases.

In my experience, for a newbie entering self-publishing there are so many books being released that it's not really an event anymore regardless of what the author thinks. It's just another ebook.

So you can try to build up a big release but unless you've got some pre-existing large network or platform to build on it's unlikely to mean much of anything. I'd just put them up and let them mostly stand on their own merits then for the most part get back to writing--you can still send out review copies and such and try to line up guest blogs but it'll be a little here and a little there rather than a release-month blitz.

[AnnikaHTDC]

Originally Posted by J. Tanner

.

In my experience, for a newbie entering self-publishing there are so many books being released that it's not really an event anymore regardless of what the author thinks. It's just another ebook.

That's an interesting point. I've been fretting over trying to get some sort of momentum going for my release in a few months, but perhaps I've been thinking the wrong way.

[OJ Connell]

Thank you all for your input!

[Carmy]

I'd say one at a time, agreeing with Nimram.

And why are you just thinking Kindle? Take a look at Smashwords. I sell far more there than on Amazon Kindle. But you'd need something like PayPal to receive royalties.

[mpclemens]

Originally Posted by Carmy

[...]Take a look at Smashwords. I sell far more there than on Amazon Kindle. But you'd need something like PayPal to receive royalties.

"Something like PayPal" can also be a bank account that you supply to SmashWords. I set up a (free) savings account with my bank with a minimum deposit amount and am using that as my "royalties account." I feel better giving that to distributors than my real account. If I suddenly find this account burdened by large piles of cash, I can transfer it somewhere else with a few clicks via online banking. No need for PayPal/eBay to also get a chunk of my meager earnings...

[OJ Connell]

Originally Posted by mpclemens

"If I suddenly find this account burdened by large piles of cash, I can transfer it somewhere else with a few clicks via online banking.

Hahaha, that's the sort of burden I wouldn't mind dealing with!

[Carmy]

I wonder if that's because you are in the US. I'm in Canada and the only option seemed to be PayPal. I'll take another look to make sure.

[Saraz]

For ebook publishing, Mark Coker, founder of Smashwords, just put out a great, free ebook: The Secrets of Ebook Publishing . He also has a marketing guide that was out earlier.
I just finished both - they are fast reads - and very helpful, so I'm singing their praises wherever I can!

Best,
Sara

[BrianKittrell]

I would go against most of the advice here and say to release a book every few weeks and try to stretch the releases to fall within a 90-day period.

Most people make most of their money on Amazon. Amazon's hot new releases/new releases list last for 30-days (the main one). If you can have one doing well on there, you can release the next before it "falls off" the list, driving momentum into the second book. If you get the second one up there, it can drive momentum for the two, then the third comes along and drives even more.

I've heard of people doing this to great effect. Personally, I release every 4 months because I write, release, write, release, and so on. It keeps me doing something all the time, and I like the paced release schedule.

[Sarah Renee Crane]

First of all...congratulations on all that hard work! I'm sure it took you a long time to complete all three of those stories.

It sounds like you are very committed to doing your research and looking for advice. So I would say you already have a big advantage over some self publishers who go into it just because they want everything done "their way" and don't want to listen to anyone's advice.

I think that releasing your books at least a month apart is a good idea.

I think you will be successful as long as your books are well written and you put time and energy into marketing and research.

[scmitchell]

I was in about the same situation. Three books, almost ready to release (two in the same series, one stand alone). I released the stand alone one first (in February) and did the 5 days free thing that you get by choosing to go KDP Select, and had pretty good results.

I just released my second book today (The first in the series). I plan to wait and do the 5 days free promotion when I release the next book to help push the series.

Anyway, I have no idea how this will work, but it's something you could try also. Put your first book up for a week or two, then put it up for free for 5 days to promote the release of your second...and so on.

Just a thought.

[OJ Connell]

Thanks again for all of the responses. I've decided to publish them about a month apart, as was suggested by many upthread. I released the first one yesterday. It's pretty exciting! I'll make certain that the others are ready and release them in the months to come.

Time to start working on the next one!