Self-Publishing and Me: by bearilou

It is after careful consideration, and in taking the advice of the wonderful mods of this room, I have decided to throw my hat into the 'Here's my Self-Publishing Story' arena.

Let me start off by saying that due to political sensitivities in the area I'm living, I chose to completely separate out my self-publishing endeavors, hopefully making it more difficult for the casual reader to suss out who I am in meatspace. To that end, my pseudonym will remain unknown as will the works that I'm selling. I will admit to it being erotica.

That means I will keep my name and titles vague because I want this thread to be about the self-publishing experience and not about self-promotion and marketing. It actually folds into what I'm doing as far as my self-publishing goes so there's really no worry about missed sales opportunities.

With that in mind, a bit of background to give the framework of what I'm doing:

1. Writing erotic short stories (3k-5k in length).
2. Starting with no platform, no social media weight behind the pseudonym.
3. No marketing plan.
4. Learning everything I need to make this successful from the very beginning and applying it as I go.

and why I chose self-publishing over query/submission and trade publishing route:

1. Self-publishing work at this time is at an exciting stage. I want to experience it.
2. The snake-oil salesman promises of making money off written short story erotica. I wanted, to be honest, to see if it could be done or if it's like all other self-publishing success stories, more the exception than the rule.
3. To see if self-publishing can be successful when starting from ground zero and no internet presence.
4. The debate surrounding whether aggressive marketing works or not is one that I watch with interest and so I'm going to put that to the test.
5. How will self-published erotic short story success compare to erotic novellas going through one of the epresses (another project I'm working toward).

Something to bear in mind. I'm not dusting off my fanfiction, scrubbing serial numbers, slapping on a cover and dumping it off on KDP and PubIt.

Just because it is short story erotica doesn't mean I am slacking as a writer. I am still putting as much time into each short as I put into writing on my fiction that will see the trade publishing route first. I have beta readers, I have input into cover design (until I can afford to have it done by someone much more knowledgeable than I am). This isn't a slap-dash endeavor. All my decisions are made after careful thought and weighty discussion with those I trust, here and in meatspace.

While it's experimental, while it's answering some questions I have and indulging my curiosity, it's still being approached with the utmost care and seriousness of a professional writing attitude. Crap sinks, cream rises to the top, right? I want to be on top. (eheheheh) I’m not going into this with the intention to fail even if the things I do (or don’t do) appear not to give me the best leg up.

So, there we go. That's my objective in doing this. I'll continue to discuss successes and failures of my experience. The pitfalls, the siren song that threatens to pull me off course, and the things I found work best. I’ll discuss the hype and the reality of it as it applies to me and what I’m doing. I suspect a lot of my experience will echo what has been said before me. I'm okay with that. I think those things need to be repeated and reinforced.

In either success or failure, what I will report back here will be honest numbers not inflated to make me look good (nor is that to be taken as an implication that anyone here at AW does that). It is my hope that my success under these conditions will speak for itself.

*final disclaimer: Yes, I’m writing erotica. Yes, I will keep the language clean for young eyes and polite-public sensibilities. Discussion of body parts isn’t necessary to get the gist of my point across concerning self-publishing. I have some links if you want more in-depth discussion on that front.

*crosses fingers and dives in*

Thanks everyone!

It's been a harrowing few days since I uploaded my first story. Already I hit two snags that need attention.

For some reason, I can't get my document to format like it's needed to be included in the Premium catalog at Smashwords. It may be some legacy data embedded in my file. Since it was my first story, I'm not going to worry overmuch about it but I need to investigate further so I don't hamstring my future efforts.

Second is with PubIt (I'm not going through Smashwords at this time). They said my account was pending with no further instructions of any kind. It was through sheer gut-and-muscle that I was able to figure out that they have flagged my information. Apparently, the SSN doesn't match the name I gave them with the the IRS information.

No problem. I probably left off my middle initial in the rush and heat of publishing and I'll just chan- what's this? I can't change that information? According to their 'help' I can change my name and my email addy and that's it. It's my account to sell on PubIt and I can't change my tax information?

Great. Just great. So now I have an email in to help get that resolved. I hope. Thankfully it's just the one title and it hasn't gone on sale yet so I'm not losing anything but time.

...and patience.

merrihiatt said:

When you say you're not going to worry about it, does that mean you're not going to fix it? If you don't fix it, your e-book won't be distributed to all the other sales channels Smashwords distributes to.

I'm not saying you have to fix it. I have one poetry e-book that I knew would only sell a copy or two a month and it didn't make it through to premium distribution because of my table of contents. Since Amazon and B&N are where I receive the most sales, I uploaded my e-book to B&N myself through PubIt! and never went back and fixed the table of contents at Smashwords. I did try twice to figure it out, but I'm doing something wrong.

I just wanted you to be aware that nothing goes out from Smashwords unless it is approved for premium status. It will be available at Smashwords, though.

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At this time (which I may change my mind) I'm not going to fix this particular story. I went through the style guide three times, doing just what they suggested and nothing worked. I still had an error. For stories going forward, I will.

Since I'm uploading directly to Kindle and PubIt (and not going through Smashwords for those two, although PubIt is proving to be problematic on its own), I'm not too worried about the other missed distribution channels for it. However, as I begin to build up my backlist I will certainly revisit it and hope to have it formatted right moving forward. At this point it was a matter of time spent trying to find the problem or time to concentrate on the next story to get it ready.

Mainly, the problem has to do with the autovet and it telling me Paragraph separation error, mixing first line indent with before/after space in paragraph style - You're using multiple, incompatible paragraph separation methods even though I followed the Style guide to the letter, or so I thought. I wanted my title and pen name centered before the story, but when using auto indent, it offsets the centering by that indent amount which I find ugly. :/

It looks fine in my separately formatted .mobi and .epub files (Guido's guide) but nothing I do using the style guide has fixed it to my satisfaction. So I need to decide if I want to go to block paragraphs, which I'm not really fond of, or try to figure out how I'm messing up using the style guide.

Uncle Jim and merri:

I was able to undo my ineptitude and it was finally uploaded with no problems!

However, now it's telling me that to be distributed to Apple, Kobo and Sony I need an ISBN.

Considering these stories will be fairly short (as I mentioned at the beginning, 3k-5k in length), should assigning the smashword only ISBN be a concern for me (distribution channel aside)? To be honest, I don't want to waste their free ISBNs on my wee little shorties.

It's the little things that make me happy right now.

So, got the first story through to the premium catalog. Now accepted.

It appears it will get distributed to all the other outlets today or tomorrow.

When I uploaded my second story, went through the meatgrinder with no hiccups or issues at all.

Waiting for the second story to get to premium catalog. *holds breath*

PubIt status has oozed from Pending Review to Processing with the first short. Not so much with the yay. They seem to be taking their sweet time with this.

Amazon continues to rock along at a fast clip.

I've sold three copies since I started last week. Not exactly scorching along with the sales, but I wasn't expecting that. I only had one short out and the second one hasn't been available long. In fact, on amazon, it's still not showing with a price so I know to give it a little time.

My only dithering points right now are Kobo and PubIt. I just am not really sure about uploading separately on Kobo or letting Smash distribute to them since I know almost nothing about Kobo. PubIt is just *makes strangling motions*. Sometimes I wonder if I shouldn't have let Smash distribute to PubIt instead of dealing directly with them.

I know, still early to determine but things I'm thinking about.

PulpDogg said:

How many stories are you planning on putting out? Have you written them all already and are now pubbing them one by one, or are you writing them as you go along?

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Right now, I'm planning on releasing one a week. That may change depending on a lot of things.

I have a small backlog of stories and I'm still writing to keep that buffer for times I can't get something written. Don't want there to be a space of time with nothing coming out at all. Especially considering the lag time of getting stuff beta'd/edited before moving to formatting. (I'm still slow as Christmas molasses with formatting. Takes me the better part of a day to get one story like I like it. Smashwords's meatgrinder can really harsh my zen.)

The number of stories? Right now, it's an ongoing thing. I don't have a limit or a final end goal at this time. Just one a week and tracking my progress and my pitfalls at least until the end of the year. From there, I'll re-evaluate and map out goals for 2013.

Katallina said:

I have a deep respect for anyone who can write a short story. I've never understood them, and I likely never will. (As a writer.)

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I won't lie. Short story writing was like a unicorn. Everyone else seemed to be able to see it except me.

I realize I'm still in my honeymoon period but doing this has really been what I needed to take my entire writing experience up a notch. Not just shorts, not just self-confidence (I have that moment of seizing up and thinking 'what the hell do I think I'm doing?' but then it passes), not just the writing....it's all of it and more. Of sticking to a deadline, of worrying about craft and presentation, of making sure I'm writing to the best of my ability, and really putting my own editing skills to the test. With every short I write, I learn a little more.

Sometimes experience really is the best teacher. It's sort of a micro-experience on my way to bigger things.

I need to bookmark this comment for when I hit that moment of thinking I'm made of pure suckitudiness.