Self-pub first timer question

Two rejections and you are giving up already?

I'm not sure I get the reasoning. If you had a good reason before for wanting to self-publish, then go for it, but if it's because you got two rejections, particularly when one isn't even a real rejection but a statement that you're submitting to the wrong genre, I don't get it at all. If you want to be commercially published, it's worth sending out to many, many more than two people. You also don't say whether or not you were submitting to agents or publishers.

Something else makes me wonder. One, if you're calling your book the wrong genre, at least submit it to some people under the proper genre before you decide to give up. I mean, what you've done is essentially taken a pair of shoes to a dress store and then been told they don't want your shoes because they only sell dresses. It doesn't say anything at all about your product.

Second, it makes me wonder if you're marketing this project wrong, which is something to be concerned about whether your self-publishing or not. If you're calling something fantasy when it's really sci-fi, or calling something a thriller when it's really a fantasy, that sort of thing, then you're not going to find your audience. People looking at your book will be disappointed to find that it isn't what they expect.

Third, this could also be an indication that you need to do more research and learn more about the other books in your field before you move on. Is this the first book you've written? Are you writing something in a genre that you don't normally read? I've written a book that kind of fell in between the cracks and those are really difficult to classify, but if you can find some books similar to yours that you can compare to, then you can see what those are called and try to appeal to their audience.

Hope this helps some.

As for several at once, I've heard many people say that your numbers increase the more books you have out. I don't know enough about that to say whether or not you would be better off writing more in the series or writing different books. The difficulty is that if the first book doesn't sell well, people aren't likely to buy the others. On the other hand, if the first is a really great book, having several books for sale might give you some added credibility and make readers more likely to take a chance on you.

Just addressing the numbers question -- Bob Mayer has said that the best chance for getting sales rolling with a first book is to release is AT LEAST three books, more or less simultaneously. I remember reading it, but don't recall when -- you might check out his blog for more of his reasoning.

I've seen that sort of thing happen in the epublishing (with the existing epublishers) world -- mediocre sales for the first two books, then rising with the third and really getting rolling somewhere around book 7. With books 4, 5, 6, and 7 all coming out within a year or two of the first three.

It looks like readers are reluctant to try new authors until that author has a bit of a track record. It makes sense, in a way -- if I really love an author, I want to read ALL of her books, past and future. If she's only written one book, there's no backlist, and I can't be sure there will be a future list. If she's written three books, it's a good indication that she will write more books in the future, and, at a minimum, I have three books to read.

If nothing else, having several books available helps you to stand out from the pack of one-book self-publishers. And if you're going with just one book initially, don't expect any significant sales numbers, and make sure you write fast enough to have books 2, 3, 4 and 5 ready within a year or two.

c.m.n. said:

Shrugs. I knew that erotica without sex wouldn't sell to the publishers LOL

Click to expand...

So, I just had to say, even erotica WITH sex doesn't always get the label, because it's "I know it when I see it" and every editor is different.

I've written four novellas jam-packed with graphic sex. No euphemisms. No crazy props, no electric anal prods, just real people getting sweaty.

The first one got shelved as erotic romance and sold like hotcakes. The second got shelved as contemporary romance (and by the way, that was the right call) and sold like meh. The third one hasn't gone on sale yet, but may be shelved as cont. rom. even though it's the story of two strangers having a lot of extremely adventurous sex and eventually falling in love.

The fourth one I'm going selfpub (waiting for it to go live before I doink with my signature here), in part because I just don't feel like arguing about whether or not a book with anonymous phone sex, menage, and swinging is ER or CR.

/rant off

Anyway, knowing where to put it is actually more important as a self-pub person, because you're the one setting the categories and search terms.

I wouldn't worry so much about numbers, though. Initial sales will be low. But one of the brighter lights in self pub, whose name is escaping me, says "forever is a long time for people to find your book." You might as well start now instead of waiting until you've got three books finished, you know? Just keep your expectations low, and maybe skip the promo until you've got the whole series out.

Is there any way to edit them so that they fall more into the same category? For instance, upping the erotica in the first book, or cutting some of the graphic bits in the second?

I'm just thinking that as a series it might be better if they were both in the same category since the reading audience might be completely different for the two. I worry that you might risk alienating your audience when they expect one thing and get another. Or is it possible to market them as different categories that just happen to have the same characters and same world, rather than direct sequels? Do you think they stand alone enough?

I'm not sure how much of a problem this would really be, but it does seem worth looking into.

Sounds like urban fantasy to me. Maybe paranormal mystery? I think the vampires classify it, though.