My 3 Reasons for Self-Pubbing & Sales Updates on Print & Ebooks

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Ann Joyce

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A bit of background: Having finished my debut novel, which included the input of 6 beta readers; a proof reader; and extensive editing; I set out to find an agent.

After 15 snail-mail queries with a sample of my writing, and 15 rejections plus 3 more without a writing sample, I decided to put the little bugger over in query letter hell (for those uninitiated, it has that title for good reason) to see if anyone could tell me where I was going wrong. That little exercise didn’t work out too well for me. *grins* Bottom line: I was advised to give myself some time off (among other things), rewrite it, and resubmit.

Why I self published:

#1 reason – The title of my novel

Several of the people in QLH, for various reasons, didn't think I would do well to use the title I'd chosen for my novel. However, with all due respect to each one that took the time to respond to my admittedly awful query, the title of my novel had already lived in my own heart for 13 years before publishing. This story is, and will always be “Heart Song’. Anyone reading it would understand why.

#2 reason – The cover

I read over and over that I wouldn’t be given any input on the cover; that the cover decision would be up to the publishing house. Apparently, or so it would seem, that’s just the way it is in trade publishing (not dissing trade publishing; I have utmost respect for it). However, I also wanted control over my cover, which I pictured as a photo of the ocean with a couple of sandpipers on the beach.

#3 reason – Age and health

In the summer of 2010, I was bitten by a spider. My doctor told me she thought I had leukemia; I had 0 white blood cells; and that a common cold could kill me. GET THEE TO THE HOSPITAL. And so I did. Five days later, after extracting what seemed like gallons of blood and putting me through every test they could think of, they still didn’t know what was wrong with me. It would be lengthy and tedious to explain all that went on, so I’ll just say, there was a long season where I couldn’t even lift the sheet on my bed. I lived from bed to chair to couch, even needing assistance to get there. My darling husband did everything for me, and I thank God for him every day. The good news is, I don’t have leukemia.

Long story short, I decided to self-pub because I’m not getting any younger; none of us know where we’ll be tomorrow; and I need all my loose ends tied up. I needed to have my first born published and I wasn’t willing to wait around for an agent to give me the coveted nod.

I found a good printing company; a fabulous photo of the ocean with a couple of sandpipers on the beach (taken by a friend) for the cover; made a quick sketch of how I wanted said cover to look; wrote a copyright page; an acknowledgement page; a dedication page; wrote a blurb for the back of the book; and we were rolling. My printer sent the CD with the cover shot to her designer, who did a fabulous job, capturing my vision to a tee. I had 300 copies printed, and after 2 weeks, have sold 60 copies of “Heart Song” (heehee…just love that name), and am expecting about 10 orders to come in next week. I think that’s a pretty good start. What say you?

If anyone's interested, I would be happy to share the way I went about selling that first 60.



 
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Tienci

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Good luck to you Ann! And congratulations for getting your baby out there (and your first wave of sales). :)

I look forward to watching your progress.
 

Parametric

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I'm glad you're enjoying self-publishing, but I do feel a little bad for the members here who replied in good faith to your request for help in Query Hell, not knowing they would end up starring in a thread about how "laughable" their comments were. :(
 

fadeaccompli

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I'm glad you're enjoying self-publishing, but I do feel a little bad for the members here who replied in good faith to your request for help in Query Hell, not knowing they would end up starring in a thread about how "laughable" their comments were. :(

Yeah. I'm being reminded of why I end up avoiding any QLH threads where authors want to argue against feedback. The high chance of showing up in some other thread as an example of Those Fools Who Don't Understand My Genius.
 

Ann Joyce

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Tienci - thank you so much...I really appreciate the support!

Parametric - I guess your comment is why I lurked so many years before posting. It's so hard to misconstrue what someone is saying when you can't hear them speaking. I promise you, I in no way meant any disrespect to anyone, which is why I didn't use names. I appreciate all that I've learned on these threads. I meant no harm, but I guess only meant to say the words have been around a long time; the little boy didn't coin them. If I can, I'll remove what you find so offensive from my post.

fadeaccompli - I certainly do not consider myself a genious by any stretch of the imagination. I am simply an older author trying to share my baby steps on self publishing with those that might have an interest.

Again, my apologies to any that find offense in my post. I would never deliberately cause bad feelings.
 

merrihiatt

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Congratulations on self-publishing your novel, Ann. You have been through the wringer as far as your health issues. Glad to hear you don't have Leukemia.

Rather than buying 300 copies, did you consider print on demand through CreateSpace or Lulu? I'm interested in how you sold your first sixty copies.

One thing about Query Letter Hell is that people take the time and energy to respond to be helpful. This may mean disagreements occur. I think if we can get past our feeling of attachment to our words, we can learn and grow as writers. I hope you were able to see that people were trying to help. It feels disrespectful to me to read the section of your post quoting their responses. Simply stating that you posted your work in QLH and disagreed with some of the comments and decided to venture out into a new area would have better served your purpose in sharing the information, IMHO.
 

Ann Joyce

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Tienci, I just took a look inside your novel. I think I might have to buy a Kindle. I like your cover too...Alice certainly looks emancipated. I also went over to Amazon to check out what genre you write in. Mine is Women's fiction too. Do you have a thread anywhere telling of your self-pub journey?
 

Tienci

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Thanks Ann--really appreciate the input.
I just started a thread actually--just decided to go this route within the past 2 weeks or so, researched like hell, then put pieces up a few days ago! :)
 

Ann Joyce

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Merrihiatt, I appreciate your comments very much. I have been watching your posts and watching your success, and have great respect for you. I hope you don't quit writing; it seems you were created for the craft.

Yes, I did learn alot in QLH, as well as from many other threads here. Thank you, and I would have no problem editing my post a bit. As I said above, I have no desire to cause harm or offense to anyone. After I do that, I'll come right back and tell you why I bought the 300 and what I did to sell those first 60.
 

Ann Joyce

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Okay, Merrihiatt, I hope I've edited that to everyone's satisfaction.

Why I printed 300 right off the bat: First of all, I've had some funds set aside for the possibility of self-publishing for a number of years.

Secondly, to determine how many to print (besides price consideration) I made a list of potential buyers (friends, relatives, etc. to start with) and added in the gift books I needed. That brought me close to 200. The cost difference beween printing 200 or 300 also influenced my decision. I already had a plan to launch my debut novel, which required the immediate availability of books.

My plan was to introduce my firstborn with a book signing open house in my home, so I wrote a letter announcing the publication of Heart Song, added an invite with OH details into the body of the announcement, and sent that to about 50 people; a few neighbors; a few relatives; and the friends I thought would like to come.

The particulars: I put a lovely tablecloth on the dining table; made an attractive display of books on one end, scattering a few shells (relevant to the story) around them to complete the vignette. I sat at the other end with more of the books when I was signing.

I served appetizers, dessert, coffee and punch. Dessert, coffee, and punch alone would be just as nice. A girlfriend and my daughter were the hostesses, freeing me to sign books and mingle when I was able. They also helped to prepare food and wore any hat that was needed, including taking photos of people that were there. I later posted the album on Facebook, which has also generated interest.

The result: Twenty six people came, purchasing 42 books between them (several bought mutiple copies). I would be lying to say the sales meant nothing to me, but it was frosting on the cake compared to the celebration we shared. Lets just say I spent a good portion of the day with leaky eyes.

I had presold 9 to people around my neighborhood in various businesses, all of whom were strangers, just by mentioning the book when it seemed appropriate. Of course, I was happy to hand-deliver those.

In addition, I sent out a different letter without the OH info to the other friends on my list. People have begun to order, both from that letter and from Facebook, bringing me to a total of 60 thus far. Of course, like`all of you, I want to sell more books to people that have no connection with me. I'm hoping that word of mouth from these first sales will get that ball rolling too.
 
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veinglory

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FYI #2 is a tad off base. I may not have final say, but I have always had extensive input to my covers with trade publishers. All but 1, out of 20, are exactly what I asked for
 

Ann Joyce

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That's really cool, veinglory. It was just my take from many, many threads I've read. That's good to know though, and I'm glad you've managed to keep your control.
 

merrihiatt

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Ann, I really appreciate your willingness to modify your post. It still gets the message across clearly and gives respect to those who reviewed and commented on your post in QLH.

I'm sure your friends, family, neighbors and acquaintances will enjoy your book. Is it available online, as well? I wonder if you have considered making it available as an e-book. It costs zero to do this and may lead to sales of the e-book and the paperback book. Just a thought.

I wish you continued sales and good health.

P.S. I will never quit writing. I've been doing it in one form or another for the past thirty years!
 

Norman D Gutter

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Good luck with your self-publishing, Ann. I hope your sales exceed all expectations. I'll be following this thread.

NDG
 

Ann Joyce

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Merri, I didn't mind modifying my post in the in the least.

Yes, my next step is to publish it as an e-book. Most of what I do on the computer is self-taught and frankly, I'm terrified. Even though I've read quite a bit on formatting it for KDP, for instance, I still have no clue about how to get it done. Every one on here keeps saying how easy it is, still... My printer has offered to help me figure it out, so I'm probably going to have to take her up on that.

Thanks for the well wishes and I'm glad about your writing. With all you have to offer, I can't imagine you stopping.
 

Ann Joyce

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Thank you, Norman. I've been following your journey as well.
 

merrihiatt

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Merri, I didn't mind modifying my post in the in the least.

Yes, my next step is to publish it as an e-book. Most of what I do on the computer is self-taught and frankly, I'm terrified. Even though I've read quite a bit on formatting it for KDP, for instance, I still have no clue about how to get it done. Every one on here keeps saying how easy it is, still... My printer has offered to help me figure it out, so I'm probably going to have to take her up on that.

Thanks for the well wishes and I'm glad about your writing. With all you have to offer, I can't imagine you stopping.

The best guide I've found is Smashwords' FREE Style Guide. You basically want to strip out pretty much all the formatting and reduce it to a no frills version. Size 12 font in Times New Roman or Arial. Use Word's indent feature, no tabs. If you need space between paragraphs, use Word's before and after paragraph line spacing. Otherwise, it's normal one inch margins all around, make sure you have a copyright page and a link to your website and avoid text boxes like the plague (they are nigh on to impossible to get rid of without copy/pasting the whole document into rtf format and starting anew with ALL your formatting). I had to do it with my first book and it taught me a really great lesson. Less formatting is better.

I know it sounds scary, but once you've done it, it gets easier. There are also people who will format it for you if you're willing to pay about $50.
 

Ann Joyce

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Merri, Thanks for your quick response as well as the instruction. I'm pretty sure I'll get my courage up enough to give it a try next week, or at the very least, partner with my printer so figure it out.

I have the last craft show I'm ever going to do next Saturday; after that I'll have more time to ding with it.

I'd like to get it on KDP before the Holidays. If nothing else, I'd be willing to pay the $50. if need be. Happy Monday!
 

Ann Joyce

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Thanks Ava...I sure appreciate the support on these threads.
 

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Good luck, Ann. I'm glad your health recovered.
 

aibrean

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I definitely feel your #1 and #2 (and most especially #2 as I'm a designer and often have a specific idea in mind for cover art). I also self-published because of content length. It would probably be near impossible to get an agent to look at a 114k word YA fantasy and certainly not a novella.

Now as for certain other work, I'm trying to get an agent.
 

Ann Joyce

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Thanks, April, for your comments. I think a designer would especially understand what I was trying to convey in those first two points.

I too, have an artistic bent - painting in oil and acrylic with a bit of water color thrown in, and have a calligraphy line as well (although I've laid it all down to pursue writing). Maybe that's why there's such a drive in me to have complete control over the final product. *sigh*

I wish you much success in your self publishing and in finding an agent for your other work. I love that we have opportunity to make our own choices, for whatever reason, in this field of writing.
 

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Congrats on self-publishing and your sales. I wish you continued success!
 
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