What do you wish you knew about self publishing?

Hmm...there's a lot, and I'm still learning. But a small sample would include this:

First, I don't believe it's a good idea to "choose" a publisher. Most people who publish for self-publishers are vanity presses. They charge you a lot for what you can do yourself. If you can format a Word document, you can publish on Amazon and Smashwords yourself.

As far as formatting goes, even if you're not going to use Smashwords, I recommend going to their site and picking up their free ebook for self-publishers. It has a lot of technical know-how on the correct way to format your Word document for publishing.

The real trick, other than writing a good book (some of that's in the eye of the beholder, but at least don't write an embarrassingly bad one), is coming to grips with promotion and book reviews. What's your plan for succeeding in this area? If you don't have a plan, your book will probably sink like a rock, no matter how good it is. Okay, you might get lucky, but luck is not a business plan.

And if you're a self-published author, like it or not, you're in business for yourself. You'll have to come to grips with all the associated tax stuff that goes with that.

Promotion is particularly difficult because everyone seems to do it a bit differently. There are a lot of options, and it seems like everyone dials in their own mix. As a for-instance, I've found Pinterest to be particularly valuable. But I write fantasy, and fantasy fans traditionally have a keen interest in images associated with the genre--pics of dragons, unicorns, etc. If you were a thriller author, you wouldn't likely find Pinterest as useful as I do.

In a separate but related area, how will you get reviews? Books are easier to promote when you have them, and Amazon has recently changed their standards in this area again. Opinions will differ here, but I'd go for a soft launch--having the book technically for "sale" as a free ebook until you get enough reviews to make promotion worthwhile. But just being free won't get the job done by itself. Again, you need a plan here. I gave away three thousand copies of my book and netted seven spontaneous reviews out of it. I had to get proactive--contacting reviewers one by one. And these reviewers need to be targeted correctly. There's really no point in sending out my book to someone who only reads paranormal romance.

Other people will chime in with more, but figuring out how to get reviews and effectively promote seems to be the real trick. The book promotion subforum here is a good place to start. I've blogged a lot on this particular topic, as have many others here. Start wading through articles and try stuff you trust.

Be careful about spending money. I won't say not to spend any, but there are a lot of online "classes" out there--mostly just ebooks and videos--that'll charge you hundreds of dollars for this stuff. And a lot of it's already out there for free online, on blogs and youtube videos.

Hope this gives you some ideas of where to start.

I wish I'd known that my book covers would be worth more than my writing. I'd have started down the art route earlier if I'd realised. I don't think I've ever seen a self-publishing article that's been positive about the idea of authors doing their own covers. It's usually talked about as something never to be done. But my cover art on items has sold more than my books. I was also told by some reviewers that they didn't think my book was their thing, so they didn't want a copy, but they liked the cover.

Which comes down to control being the main thing you get from self-publishing. It's good to consider advice, but in the end, you're not publishing by committee. Sometimes you'll end up ignoring advice. If that was a mistake, you can correct it later. Other times, it won't be a mistake for your particular situation.

IllumismartArts said:

For those of you who are now self-published, what is something you wish you knew before you published your first book?

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The difference between writing for enjoyment and writing to market. If I had, I'd probably have launched my pen names a lot earlier.

That it requires way, way more patience and prudence than I'd figured it would. And I'm a patient and prudent guy!

Unless you manage lottery-winning odds, you're looking at years to gain traction, gain an audience, and make it self-sustaining.

But hell, what else are you doing? If you enjoy writing and you can write one book, you can write two, or four, or eight, or sixteen... over time, that's a lot of 'lottery tickets'. And they never expire. You get to play the odds over and over again.

So long as you don't quit or give up or throw a fit and remove your stuff from circulation, anyway. Just keep expectations dialed down and realize you're in it for the long haul, is what I'd tell myself from two years ago.

Polenth said:

I wish I'd known that my book covers would be worth more than my writing. I'd have started down the art route earlier if I'd realised. I don't think I've ever seen a self-publishing article that's been positive about the idea of authors doing their own covers. It's usually talked about as something never to be done. But my cover art on items has sold more than my books. I was also told by some reviewers that they didn't think my book was their thing, so they didn't want a copy, but they liked the cover.

Which comes down to control being the main thing you get from self-publishing. It's good to consider advice, but in the end, you're not publishing by committee. Sometimes you'll end up ignoring advice. If that was a mistake, you can correct it later. Other times, it won't be a mistake for your particular situation.

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I'm in a agreement with this, and was fortunate to have some people guide me along the way. My original cover was slapped down by a few people, as was my idea of going with an Amazon generated cover. I started researching best sellers in my genre and looked at a bunch of covers in a Barnes & Noble to see what jumped out at me, and what didn't. I got crystal clear on what I wanted, and got someone experienced to do the artwork (which was super simple actually). I think that, plus the fact that I have a catchy title that pretty much tells you exactly what the book is about - has been unbelievably helpful. My book cover is it's own ad. You see it, it catches your eye, and the title gets most people interested - gets some to crack half a grin. Oh yeah... and I'm selling books .

That most promotional sites and services, while not outright scams, are a waste of time and money. You're better off investing in a good cover design but otherwise spending little or no money on promoting your books.

mikemike said:

Wow. Based on everything I have seen, this sounds like the worst advice possible.

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1) Then you've been looking at the wrong things.

2) Please read the Newbie Guide right now, before you post anything else at AW. We are very serious about our one rule, and you're in danger of violating it.

Or... you can be like the author of "Wonder" who made the book lottery with a first-book-out-of-the-chute grand slam and has sold over 2 million in just a few years with a traditionally published novel geared for the heartstrings of every mother whose kids are in grade school. "Wonder" is soon to be released as a movie. Make no mistake, it is a lottery that she won, no different than your states lottery and you have as much chance of winning it as the you do the state lottery.

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It took a lot of hard work and dedication to make that book the success it was, and by reducing it to a lottery win you're dismissing that work and dedication. That's very disrespectful. Don't do it again. Thank you.

It's important to have a well-packaged product (good cover, cleanly written, an engaging story), but it's also necessary to find ways to get that product in front of potential readers. Some sites are a waste of money, but others are not. New writers need to find the places where people are discussing their promo results in detail (such as kboards) and then proceed accordingly. If you aren't writing to a hungry market, you won't sell without promo.

mikemike said:

it seems to be as much of a lottery winner as To kill a Mockingbird was.

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I'm not clear - are you saying now that the success of TKaM was down to luck?

Maybe you'd better stop digging before that hole gets too big...

J.T. Marsh said:

That most promotional sites and services, while not outright scams, are a waste of time and money. You're better off investing in a good cover design but otherwise spending little or no money on promoting your books.

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Partly agree and partly disagree. Yes, it's very important to have good cover design. And yes, many promotional sites aren't that useful.

But spending little or no money promoting your books is pretty much a way to guarantee they'll disappear into the void.

You just need to spend your advertising money wisely on things that work. Usually, those are the things that are trickier to master and you're more involved with. For example, FB ads have been a great way for many authors to build their email lists. That's quite different to paying a random promo site $100 to send out an email about your book and 20 others to people who've never heard of you.

Promotion won't work for a book that doesn't have an audience waiting. Others will have success with promotion methods that frequently fail, because it turned out the book was in an area with a lot of demand, so very little was needed to get the ball rolling. So it's not wrong to say promotion doesn't work or to say it does. It depends on the specific circumstances.

Which leads to a caution against assuming you can solve everyone's self-publishing problems because you read what a successful author did that one time and it must surely work for everyone. We all have different situations and what's best will vary. Advice needs to be tailored to the situation.

mikemike said:

Apologies for my wording that was a complete fail. No excuse on a writers forum. No disrespect was meant. But when a book like Wonder comes out and seriously strikes a nerve with so many people, and will continue to strike a nerve for a long time it seems to be as much of a lottery winner as To kill a Mockingbird was. It still strikes a nerve. The best writers in the world can write all their lives and still not hit that special nerve through no fault of their own. Hard work and dedication alone don't necessarily make a grand slam. If you read the account of how the author decided to write the book, it was just a matter events occurring at just the right moment for her. Additionally, the voice that it is written is in is so unique that one can't help but be affected by it. I was. Some people are born with voices that people are drawn to. Elvis, Mick Jagger, (name your favorite singer), etc. It is just the luck of the genetics dice toss. And yes, any book that sells millions has people behind it who work at getting it out to the reading world but the people getting it out to everyone have to believe in the book as well. It invariably comes down to the book itself. One of my favorite books, The Orchardist took ten years to make with serious hard work and dedication behind it and will probably never realize the success of Wonder. Its the luck of the draw whether all that work ends up being a hit. That was what I was trying to get across and unfortunately didn't. Apologies again.

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Mikemike, I made myself very clear:

Old Hack said:

It took a lot of hard work and dedication to make that book the success it was, and by reducing it to a lottery win you're dismissing that work and dedication. That's very disrespectful. Don't do it again. Thank you.

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And yet you have repeated your comment about lottery wins a few more times.

No, it is not true that "Its [sic] the luck of the draw whether all that work ends up being a hit". Yes, luck can play a part in a book's success. But mostly it's talent, hard work, and determination and if you knew much about publishing, whether trade or self publishing, you'd know this.

You're new here, so perhaps you really don't understand how serious we are about respecting your fellow writer. Understand it now. Next time I hear you dismissing anyone's hard work in this way I am going to give you a time-out.

Polenth said:

Promotion won't work for a book that doesn't have an audience waiting. Others will have success with promotion methods that frequently fail, because it turned out the book was in an area with a lot of demand, so very little was needed to get the ball rolling. So it's not wrong to say promotion doesn't work or to say it does. It depends on the specific circumstances.

Which leads to a caution against assuming you can solve everyone's self-publishing problems because you read what a successful author did that one time and it must surely work for everyone. We all have different situations and what's best will vary. Advice needs to be tailored to the situation.

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Agreed.

mikemike said:

Apologies for my wording that was a complete fail. No excuse on a writers forum. No disrespect was meant. But when a book like Wonder comes out and seriously strikes a nerve with so many people, and will continue to strike a nerve for a long time it seems to be as much of a lottery winner as To kill a Mockingbird was. It still strikes a nerve. The best writers in the world can write all their lives and still not hit that special nerve through no fault of their own. Hard work and dedication alone don't necessarily make a grand slam. If you read the account of how the author decided to write the book, it was just a matter events occurring at just the right moment for her. Additionally, the voice that it is written is in is so unique that one can't help but be affected by it. I was. Some people are born with voices that people are drawn to. Elvis, Mick Jagger, (name your favorite singer), etc. It is just the luck of the genetics dice toss. And yes, any book that sells millions has people behind it who work at getting it out to the reading world but the people getting it out to everyone have to believe in the book as well. It invariably comes down to the book itself. One of my favorite books, The Orchardist took ten years to make with serious hard work and dedication behind it and will probably never realize the success of Wonder. Its the luck of the draw whether all that work ends up being a hit. That was what I was trying to get across and unfortunately didn't. Apologies again.

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In addition to everything else, you're missing the marketing that's done to promote a book that comes from (especially) a big house. Yes, a big hit will generally be something that resonates with people, but it's also very often something released at the correct time, with the correct promotional and marketing plans, that get it positioned before the right people, in the right places, so that readers see it, hear about it, and pick it up.

cornflake said:

In addition to everything else

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Indeed. I wanted to suggest a quick read of Go Set A Watchman, but I didn't (because reasons).

J.T. Marsh said:

That most promotional sites and services, while not outright scams, are a waste of time and money. You're better off investing in a good cover design but otherwise spending little or no money on promoting your books.

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My two cents from another side of the biz is that this is particularly true with anyone who says they will get your self-pubbed book into stores. I've been contacted by 2 such people this week on behalf of authors. They are persistent, frustrating, and generally clueless and I am horrified that they are charging people for their so-called services. We do carry self-pubbed authors but only from a strict, local geographical area. Some stores just flat-out won't carry self-pubbed books, and those of us that do have systems and guidelines in place and dealing with a 3rd party only makes it harder and more time-consuming. I would rather deal directly with the author than with someone calling themselves a 'concierge' (I wish I were making that up).

Most of these folks not only don't understand how any of this works, they won't take no for an answer and are often unprofessional (e.g. links in their email sig. line for their 'other businesses' including a landscape company. Really?) I've had a 'book publicist' come in repping a local author who had no idea how distribution works. She'd never heard of Ingram. Another has contacted us repeatedly about 'local authors' who live 200+ miles away. I don't care if their intentions are good, the results are terrible and they are wasting the author's money and the bookseller's time.

(I kept this rant as short as possible. Don't ask me how I really feel unless you want a wall-o-text, lol)

If you do do a wall of text on this (and I think it's a good idea) see if it can be stickied. Prominently. Because this Pay-and-I'll-get-your-book-into-bookstores thing is deceitful and mean.

I selfpupped five titles before switching to traditional publishing.

I wished I had known the business before trying to do it myself. Basically, I wish I had been through the whole process with a traditional publisher, so that I knew the importance of an editor and how to pick a cover.

My stories becomes immensely better with a strict editor.


I really didn't know how much of a team effort a succesful novel is.

WormHeart

At this point, I wish I had known:

1. Self publishing is perfect for control freaks like me. As long as I don't bug my cover designer constantly, I can keep my control issues in check. Hey, at least I own my crazy.
2. You can be a hybrid self published/ traditional published author throughout your career. I really thought that choosing one immediately eliminated the other. I want to keep one foot in both throughout my career.

I publish historical fiction, which is just as long as sci-fi/ fantasy. At the beginning, I thought that in order to really make a living and attract a following, I would have to go with a major publisher. I really feared that I would never make my investment back as a self-published author. But I made my investment (web host, editors, cover design, membership to the Historical Novel Society, books for research) within a few months, so I know that being self published is really viable as long as I'm careful with how I spend my money.

Have you considered trying to find a commercial publisher for your book instead of publishing it yourself? As people here have indicated, self-publishing means that without a whole lot of promotion (and maybe even with it), your book will not be found or read among the millions of self-published works out there. With no reviews, no bookstore placement, no marketing team---yes, you can put the book out for friends and family, but will the larger world ever know it exists?

Which reminds me--if you do self-publish, watch out for companies who offer to do marketing, promotion, etc. I've seen a bunch of these, and invariably the products they offer sound great but are worthless.

I thought about what would have happened if Rowling had chosen to self-publish Harry Potter and wrote this post.

Barbara R. said:

I thought about what would have happened if Rowling had chosen to self-publish Harry Potter and wrote this post.

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I don't want to get all iffy about this, but I don't agree that that list of serious disadvantages is actually a list of serious disadvantages.

Yes, self published authors do need to work with good editors/designers/learn how to market. But why are those serious disadvantages? Those are just factors of the gig, in the same way that hiring an accountant/front of house staff/insurance policy is a factor in starting a business. Self publishers can (and should) replicate the traditional publishing process as closely as possible. It's eminently doable. I myself work with a guy who has designed book covers for Stephen King. And I'm just a no one.

As for distribution: yes, clearly self publishers are at a disadvantage with brick and mortar stores. But given the percentage of royalties one has to forgo (which really, you could argue makes those "free" services not free at all), and how quickly an author can fall off the shelves, never to return... I'm not entirely convinced they're all that valuable. I just had a holiday around Europe. Every airport, I went into the bookshop. Every bookshop had probably the same dozen authors. The George Martins, Stephen Kings, Peter Mays, and Rowlings. Granted, it would be sweet if you could get placement next to those guys in airports across the world, but that's quite unlikely. The nearest bookshop to me (which is a damn good one), has maybe two small shelves dedicated to my genre. Most of that is occupied by the giants of the genre. I don't see a lot of space for newbies on those shelves.

So, to answer your question, what if Rowling had updated her first draft to Kindle?

Frankly, who cares? It doesn't make a lot of sense to argue that her success is due to working with a publisher. She is (probably) the most successful author ever. The odds of her success (or any similar success) are so astronomically unlikely, that to imply it's her Bloomsbury editor is the magic ingredient... well, that doesn't really pass the sniff test. To be honest, I have trouble taking seriously any comparison that involves Rowling. She so utterly stands outside the norm for any author (or really, any person) that she's useless as an example to compare anyone with.

Personally, I don't think there is anything wrong with going with a trade publisher. Clearly, many authors have been enjoying success through this route for many, many years. But I suppose I just bristle at the idea that self published authors have to embrace a process with "serious disadvantages", or that it's about instant gratification. I'm sure there are folks who do want instant gratification, who just upload a bad first draft with no cover. But who cares about them? They're the same people who send in awful first drafts to slush piles.

Although I do agree that there are a lot of predatory BS services that self published authors would be wise to avoid.

Self publishers can (and should) replicate the traditional publishing process as closely as possible. It's eminently doable.

It would cost a fortune to really replicate it. You'd need not one editor but three: your main editor, the equivalent of an acquiring editor, who deals with big picture stuff; a copy editor, who vets the language and consistency of the story; and a proofreader, who catches mistakes introduced in type. All three overlap---it's their job to catch what others missed, which is why tasking a single editor with those jobs is not ideal. As a freelance editor, I get about $10 per page, which is typical for editors with my level of experience. Of course there are cheap editors, but in this field you get what you pay for. Imagine hiring someone like me and then two other editors to boot!

Then there's the cover. It's not just about hiring the artist. Covers also go through an editorial process. Typically the cover will go back and forth a bunch of times before everyone signs off on it; and by everyone I mean the art director, the editor and often the publisher, the writer and the writer's agent. Covers are a big part of the marketing campaign, and a lot of team work goes into them.

Granted, it would be sweet if you could get placement next to those guys in airports across the world, but that's quite unlikely.

It's unlikely because getting a deal with a major publisher is unlikely--it's downright rare and wonderful when it happens. And even then, as you say, there's no guarantee you'll get bookstore placement. But it's certainly possible. I did, with every book I wrote, and I am no Stephen King. My books were sold not only in bookstores but also in airports, Walmart, and Costco. That's serious exposure.

As for Rowling, I can answer my own question. There is zero chance she would have achieved her success and become the superstar writer you describe if she'd self-published. Too few people would have discovered it. In order for a book to become a viral hit, you need a certain threshold of sales. Then, if the book is really good, word of mouth will do the rest. But to get to that threshold takes marketing and exposure and reviews.

I could go on, but I pretty much laid out my argument in the post you quoted. I can understand why, as a s-p writer, you'd bristle at the post. But that doesn't make it wrong.

Glad we see eye to eye on those predatory services. I hate to see vampires feasting on writers.

It's a moot point, really.

Would Rowling have achieved superstar status with Harry Potter if she'd self-published? No, because all other things aside, self-publishing was much harder and less viable back in the early nineties. Of course going through a publisher was a better choice, back then. It was that or the horde of vanity presses, and we all know how that route turns out.

A better question for that scenario, and beyond the scope of this thread, is "Would Rowling have achieved success if Harry Potter had been published at a different time, or in a different decade?" That one's impossible to answer, really. Her works contributed to the zeitgeist, that infused the next decade and still persists today. Hard to tell how things would have turned out without Harry Potter.

In any case, the state of the business, both trade and self-publishing, is different today. Thank heavens!

Barbara R. said:

It would cost a fortune to really replicate it. You'd need not one editor but three: your main editor, the equivalent of an acquiring editor, who deals with big picture stuff; a copy editor, who vets the language and consistency of the story; and a proofreader, who catches mistakes introduced in type. All three overlap---it's their job to catch what others missed, which is why tasking a single editor with those jobs is not ideal. As a freelance editor, I get about $10 per page, which is typical for editors with my level of experience. Of course there are cheap editors, but in this field you get what you pay for. Imagine hiring someone like me and then two other editors to boot!

Then there's the cover. It's not just about hiring the artist. Covers also go through an editorial process. Typically the cover will go back and forth a bunch of times before everyone signs off on it; and by everyone I mean the art director, the editor and often the publisher, the writer and the writer's agent. Covers are a big part of the marketing campaign, and a lot of team work goes into them.

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Okay, fair enough. Going to that level of production would cost a bundle. But I follow plenty of indie authors who sell very well, and they make do with much less (ie a line editor, proof reader, single designer). I would definitely say replicating the process to an acceptable degree places a large onus on the author to have a better understanding of brand and the market, for sure.

As for Rowling, I can answer my own question. There is zero chance she would have achieved her success and become the superstar writer you describe if she'd self-published. Too few people would have discovered it. In order for a book to become a viral hit, you need a certain threshold of sales. Then, if the book is really good, word of mouth will do the rest. But to get to that threshold takes marketing and exposure and reviews.

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Indeed, you need a threshold of sales, and marketing, etc etc. A lot of SPers do that.

And yes, if Rowling had self published it's unlikely she would have been anywhere near as successful, or been successful at all. But she's such an extreme example that I just don't think she's a good example of anything. There hasn't been an author as successful certainly since she published Harry Potter, and that was 20 years ago. There probably won't be another literary sensation like that for 50 years. In that time there have been many, many, many trade published authors who have not attained the 0.0001% of her success. It's like saying "you should self publish because Wool and The Martian sold millions!" There are reasons to go trade publisher if you want, but JK Rowling's success just isn't one of them.

Glad we see eye to eye on those predatory services. I hate to see vampires feasting on writers.

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Indeed, whether they be flogging bogus marketing services to starry-eyed self publishers, or posing as legitimate agents or publishing houses.

RightHoJeeves said:

Self publishers can (and should) replicate the traditional publishing process as closely as possible. It's eminently doable. I myself work with a guy who has designed book covers for Stephen King. And I'm just a no one.

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If they can, then why don't they?

I think it's because they can't.

As Barbara has already said, when you're trade publishing you usually get three editors; you don't get just one cover desiger, you get a team of creative people dedicated to designing the inside of the book and the outside; you usually get a selection of mock-ups for the cover, which are then tweaked into the best cover you can have--all of which is often guided by studies into the psychology of book buying, which shows that different colours and shapes attract different readers, for example. Then you get typesetters, and printers, and proofs and arcs and teams of marketing, sales and publicity people. Trade publishing is a huge team effort, and the services I've seen offered by very competent publishing professionals have only ever offered a shadow of it. But people who have never worked with trade publishers think they're duplicating the processes of trade publishing by hiring a single editor, a single jacket designer... it's just not the same.

As for distribution: yes, clearly self publishers are at a disadvantage with brick and mortar stores. But given the percentage of royalties one has to forgo (which really, you could argue makes those "free" services not free at all), and how quickly an author can fall off the shelves, never to return... I'm not entirely convinced they're all that valuable.

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You don't "forgo" royalties when being trade published. You get paid royalties. Yes, your earnings per copy sold are usually a lot less than when self publishing but that's because you are not the publisher! When self publishing you get paid more per copy to cover the costs of editing, design and so on.

I just had a holiday around Europe. Every airport, I went into the bookshop. Every bookshop had probably the same dozen authors. The George Martins, Stephen Kings, Peter Mays, and Rowlings. Granted, it would be sweet if you could get placement next to those guys in airports across the world, but that's quite unlikely. The nearest bookshop to me (which is a damn good one), has maybe two small shelves dedicated to my genre. Most of that is occupied by the giants of the genre. I don't see a lot of space for newbies on those shelves.

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You probably saw those same authors everywhere because they had recently published books.

And of course there's space for newbies on those shelves. Everyone you named was a newbie once. If there was no room for them when they were first published, how did they get to be so popular now?

Right. I really don't want to have to thrash these arguments out again. I thought we were done with them years ago. All routes to publication are equally valid, I agree: but let's not pretend things are what they are not.

And let's not derail this thread any further. Thank you.