Self-Published: my journey

Sorry about that, Old Hack. I had that link saved as "acceptable for AW" but I must've saved it wrong. It's now below 400. Cheers.

Old Hack said:

I took a look and it wasn't "below 400": it was 400px × 638px, which is far too big and, I think, the size it was before I asked you to resize it.

As you said you had it saved, I've deleted it from your post. You're welcome to re-edit your post to add in an image in a size which is "below 400", but please make sure it's not too big before you try. I don't want to have to edit your post again. Thanks.

Click to expand...

Hmm, sorry about that. I used photobucket and set the largest of the size to 350, it said it was 350 X 216. I'm obviously doing something wrong. I'll make sure I stay smaller than even that in the future.

I am having a giveaway of my latest title: DISRUPTION. you just have to head over to my website and enter the Rafflecopter thingy. One day left in the giveaway

In other news, on the 16th of this month I hit the one year mark of self publishing. I have been planning to update this thread but not entirely sure what information to include. But I am working on a post so probably just outlining the things I've done that have worked for me.


Cheers!

Norman D Gutter said:

Anxious to get your one-year report, profen4. At least give us the sales stats, please. You started out really strong with sales in the one title. Now that you have other titles, it would be nice to know how your sales are.

NDG

Click to expand...

Hi Norman - Thanks for touching base Recently on another forum a discussion turned to sales and although the discussion was totally civil, I was later trolled by a few people and some friends (non-writer friends) of mine were also trolled. So I was going to distance myself a bit from things, but AW has been a tremendous help to me over the years so I'll say the following:

These are things that made a difference to ME. Emphasis on ME. I'm not telling anyone else how to do things. Will they work for you too? I don't know. Take the suggestions below with a grain of salt.

1. Meta Data: open a publisher account with Bowker (free). Register titles with Library Archives (if you’re Canadian, or the equivalent body in your own country—i.e. Library of Congress, British Library…etc etc etc). Get Cataloging-in-publication data if you can (some countries make this harder than others—I am Canadian, it’s pretty easy here.).


2. Cover art. Make sure it's something appropriate, and on target for the audience. Make sure it could sit beside the other covers that are top in your genre/market and not look out of place. Understand the difference between RBG and CMYK. That last one would have saved me $100 in fees associated with uploading and re-uploading to LSI.

3. Editing. Understand the different levels of editing. Execute those levels in your work. Strive for zero errors. Things that will help you reduce the costs of your editing:
- Create and use a style sheet. Send it along to your editors so they have it as reference while they edit. It makes their job easier.
- Create an outline (this is specifically for me – it made all the difference in the world when I started REALLY outlining.

4. Know 5 books that your book would be comparable to. Books book buyers would know so they have an idea what your book is about and the market you’re targeting (Again, I write MG/YA action/adventure, so maybe it’s easier for that market. I have no idea if this advice translates to other markets). Actually read those books and understand how they're similar.



Don’t say "My book's unlike anything else on the market." Or “The target audience is kids and adults.” It makes you look like you’re not very familiar with books in the genre you’re writing. Understand that it's all been done—you can put new spins on things, of course. You can do it differently, but it’s been done. Understand that. Embrace it. It's not a bad thing. Basically, just know exactly where your book would be shelved in a store or in a library.

5. Target the locations your readers generally discover books (sometimes this means actual readers, sometimes it does not mean actual readers. Again, understand that I write for kids. I had to look where kids get books and focus my efforts there.).

6. It's almost not worth going after library sales until you have 2+ books in your list. The ROI is much better after 2 books, better still after 3… etc. If I did it over, I wouldn’t even try to approach librarians for sales until I had 2-3 titles out, unless your cost of acquiring them as customers is pennies (but it’s not).


7. Learn everything you can about the publishing industry. Don’t focus on self-publishing, but don’t neglect it either. Look at what trade publishers do. Understand why they do it. I was lucky enough to work for a couple small trade publishers the experience was invaluable.

8. A good agent is a god-send. I kid you not. They can help you. Don’t discount them because that’s the general meme of the day in the SP world. A bad agent, of course, can drain the creative energy and you should sever ties as soon as possible. But a good one… gold. I know many writers feel agents aren't necessary, but that has not been my experience. Take my opinion on that with as much salt as you like.

10. Strategies for one market (i.e. Romance) does not necessarily translate into a strategy for another (i.e. MG Adventure). Seek out people who are killing it in your market, and approach them professionally to ask for advice.


11. Only enter contests that mainstream publishers enter. Contests are an excellent tool for getting interest from book buyers, but they only care about contests they know about. Mainstream publishers have teams that research what contests buyers respond to. Look at past winners – if they’re all self-published authors, I’d probably suggest avoiding those contests. Again, depending on what your goal is.

12. Find new startup publishing houses that are being run by people with experience. Not newbies. Real experience. Follow those publishers. Watch how they market their titles. New publishers don't always step into bookstores. They often have to get traction first. Watch how they do it. Many of the strategies they employ can work for you. What marketing materials do they make available for their books? Do you have the same stuff ready? Book buyers will ask you for a media sheet or a tip sheet. Have one ready.



… As for sales… I’m happy to talk to people who contact me directly with their real names and with a link to where I can see who I’m talking to. As I mentioned before, I had a couple rather unfortunate experiences recently with trolls after I talked a bit about sales and have decided it’s just too draining. So I won’t post numbers on public forums. Contact me directly and we can totally chat. That said. I do think I'd be most helpful to people playing in my market (kidlit).



I hope this information helps, but if it doesn’t please disregard it. Take it with a grain of salt. I’m happy to discuss things. I have a lot to learn and am anxious to do so.

Thanks, Old Hack, I appreciate that. AW members have been great, but just the fact that I know people can see the post w/o logging in is why I hesitate.

Girlyswot & Celeste: Just putting a kid for a nap and will answer.

Re: agents and self-publishing.

I'll try not to make this long winded, and so I'll number my reply--it'll help keep me on point.

1. I wouldn't have my books in Overdrive if it weren't for the agency I'm with. And Overdrive = monthly checks I appreciate. ETA: Overdrive subscriptions have led to physical purchases as well.

2. I hate to even mention this one, b/c it's wayy too soon and nothing may come of this at all, but a handful of foreign presses have expressed an interest in my titles and the fact that I was able to hand the contacts over to the Rights Department at the agency is just such a relief.

3. The agency does the uploading to the various vendors. They do the book-keeping; eBook converting; they supply a list of editors they know who they'd recommend (for the author to contact if they so desire, or you're free to find your own). ETA: If you want to use their ISBN you can - it would save some people money. Being Canadian, I use my own b/c they're free (as they are in a few countries).

That's just what agents do from the the self-publishing side though (and that's assuming you've aligned yourself with an agency who happens to help their authors in that regard-- there are many that do).

For my goals (which are numerous, but generally aim towards becoming a professional, full time writer) I believe the 'hybrid' route (if that's a term) is the best option, and I think that's especially true for kidlit. The tide might change as new technology emerges, and self publishing books (successfully) for MG or lower YA might become easier, but if you look at the kidlit market right now, eBooks account for single digit market share. It is for that reason that I believe you need to have a very defined plan for how you're going to launch your titles. There are specific considerations you'd want to make.

Other publishers are taking strides towards a digital focus. I'll be very curious, for example, how Bloomsbury's Spark line does (though their titles tend to be YA). There are others too.

Oh, and I mentioned media sheet/tip sheet, and there are companies out there that will guide you through the creation of such things, and perhaps that would be helpful to many. But they are also very easy to find on publisher websites, and I found a dozen or so and modeled mine using a mixture of the format they had.

I would be happy to share mine with whoever wants to see it. But I'd still rec. doing more research (genre/market specific) just in case you notice something that might work better.

I've used mine predominantly for libraries.

girlyswot said:

Thanks for such a detailed answer.



There are plenty of places you can get these services for a fixed fee. I do it all myself, but if you prefer to hire someone, that doesn't have to mean giving up a %. Not to say you shouldn't, but just in case anyone else reading this thread thinks that's the only option.

Click to expand...

True. Thing is, if I did it on my own I'd totally use D2D to aggregate to vendors. D2D charges you 15%. That's what agencies take too.

girlyswot said:

Hybrid is usually used to mean both trade and self-published. Is that what you're talking about here? I think children's literature is probably one of the hardest genres for self-publishing, and not only because of the preference for physical books. There's a whole host of factors to do with schools/libraries/parents as gatekeepers to the actual readers.

Click to expand...

Yeah, that's what I meant by hybrid. I guess I don't really like the term for some reason.

It's true that schools/libraries/parents gate keep, but I think people would be surprised to see some of the authors who are really killing it with their sales. It's not like authors who are noteworthy in other genres like romance, but it's pretty incredible.

I think one of the issues to consider is production and costs (though I tend to think the two go hand-in-hand if you're not an artist or have worked in some kind of design job). Layout is something librarians notice. So too is editing. They're less forgiving than the average reader. That's one of the reasons it's so important to understand the levels of editing.

There are ways to do it on a budget, but I think it's the savvy author who can do that. Also, I said it before and I'll say it again, a style sheet will make an editor's job easier. If you are paying by the hour (which is generally how I prefer things) it helps. Plus, doing a style sheet will often help you spot a few more errors.

Literateparakeet said:

Thanks Profen, very helpful post!

Click to expand...

cwschizzy said:

Very helpful. I've learned a few things to apply to my own journey.

Click to expand...

Really glad you found some use for some of that.

I had a lot of people ask me about this one off the boards:

profen4 said:

12. Find new start-up publishing houses that are being run by people with experience. Not newbies. Real experience. Follow those publishers. Watch how they market their titles. New publishers don't always step into bookstores. They often have to get traction first. Watch how they do it. Many of the strategies they employ can work for you. What marketing materials do they make available for their books? Do you have the same stuff ready? Book buyers will ask you for a media sheet or a tip sheet. Have one ready.

Click to expand...

And I decided I'd just quickly expand here.

It doesn't necessarily even have to be 'new' publishers. If you're really attacking the digital market, look at e-Publishers. The ones who are selling truck loads of books. Look at where they're selling their books and find out if you can get your books there too.

Where are they marketing? What kind of aux. information is on the dedicated website for that title? Ask yourself why it's there.

I went kind of stalker-ish on this aspect. I found books like mine that were going to be released by new pubs hat didn't have established distribution or that were going digital first (but which were being run by people with big pub experience), and I set Google alerts for the title and author. I checked out every result and asked myself if I could do what they'd done.

I have a list of 'to do's' with my next title. Most of the publishers I followed early on now have distribution into stores, but not all of them do. Stores are not where my target is.

Anyway, that's part of what I was referring to....

The pages on the SP thread, and most of the pages in AW actually, are all about paying it forward. A writer I know recently did a blog post about the topic, and I thought I'd post a link here, if that's okay.

Recently (as I mentioned) I had a bit of a troll experience after talking about sales, and I had kind of decided no more sharing on public forums. This blog post reminded me why I try to be open about my experience. Anyway, it's about paying it forward. I'm referenced, which is flattering, but I couldn't pay anything forward if the people who helped me first hadn't done so first. And many of the people who gave me advice were right here on AW.

Cheers: Paying it Forward (http://rodneyssaga.com/2014/04/29/y...ust-the-first-step-guest-post-by-maggie-dana/)

Well, at long last book 3 in my Dean Curse Series, IMPACT is gearing up for release. eBook files have been converted, layout/typesetting is happening with the wonderful TAMMYDESIGN . This title hit so many little delays that I'm just very, very pleased it's nearly out.

Book 4--the last book in the series--is coming along well.

Was aiming for book 3 to be out by the first, and it was out in eBook, but print was delayed until this morning. One more book and that series is wrapped up.

I'm going to be curious to see how having three books out in the same series impacts sales.

I have book two in the series on NetGalley right now. I believe that Netgalley is one of the most effective tools I've used to help build sales. I highly recommend it, at least for kid-lit. I split one slot with another writer and 6 months a year is perfect for me. Next year I might take a whole slot just because the plan is to have 13 titles out by then.