- Joined
- May 7, 2017
- Messages
- 28
- Reaction score
- 4
Though I just joined the club of self-published authors this April, I truly began my self-publishing journey in 2010, when I got a freelance gig working with a kindle review blog. At first, I was really excited because I thought I would be actually reviewing books, but that was not to be. Instead, the job was putting together list after list of whichever ebooks were free that day, without being expected to do more than skim the descriptions. It was certainly easier than I expected, but I hated it. So, I proposed that we begin contacting self-published authors for interviews, features, and a monthly state-of-self-publishing sort of post. I did this successfully for a few months, connecting with several brilliant and insightful authors, and being duped by a few manipulative others. I even did an interview with Hugh Howey, which was cool, because I am and was a fan. I learned a ton about publishing during this time and considered writing my own book--I already wrote for a living, right? Well, I didn't write fiction, so that learning curve has been steep. About seven years worth of steep.
Well, not actually seven years. The job paid virtually nothing and I had to eat, so I started seeking more technical, better paying freelance work. Since 2012, that's what I have been focused on.
About a year ago, I decided I wanted to get back into writing fiction. I dove right back in, though I should have taken it slower. I ended up poring several thousand words into a poorly developed, poorly thought out draft of a novel. It was bad. So, I worked on it and researched plotting and outlining and characterization. It got better, but after actually learned how to plan a novel, the old story felt wrong, so I set it aside.
I read through my old short story blog (which has since been purged) and various abandoned pieces I had worked on over the years. Although I had just decided to start a fresh project, a short story that I had labored over for a few months back in 2012 sparked my imagination. That short story makes up the first three chapters of my first self-published book.
It took a long time to get the plot sorted out and figure out where I really wanted the story to go. Between the snowflake method, Dan Harmon's story structure and other variations of the Hero's Journey, and reading a few stories and novels with a "writer's" eye, I managed to get it all sorted to a point that I was satisfied with. I still hadn't finished the proofreading, but it was pretty much complete.
So, I had to decide whether all the things, like whether the book should be in KDP and how much it should cost and so on, then try to market myself and my work. That intimidated the crap out of me, so I took a step back and thought about why I was self-publishing. You may know of a character called Kilgore Trout, created by Kurt Vonnegut. He is a prolific science fiction writer whose work is essentially used to fill in the blank spaces between porn (porns?). For some reason, as a fifteen year old girl, I felt a deep connection to Trout. I suppose you could work out some analogy about the erotica section of Amazon and my own publishing journey, but that's not what I'm going for here. What I always loved about Trout is that being a writer was not just a quintessential part of his character because it was his job or identity, but because he spent so much time writing so many stories that it was impossible to not associate him with his body of work. And that's who I wanted to be. Regardless of anything else I did or felt or represented, I wanted to write. And, honestly, I wanted to do it for myself.
So I started posting the book on Wattpad and set the price to free. I did do a bit of marketing. I cold emailed about a hundred reviewers, with minimal response. I also participated in newsletter exchanges via BookBub, which is pretty much the only marketing that I am actually still doing. With the free service, I check in every couple of weeks for exchanges. The other marketing I have done consists of participating in online communities, though that has not been with the intention of marketing and has produced little in the way of results. Oh, and it is also a featured story on Wattpad, which has helped get lots of views and push it up the Wattpad charts.
The book came out on April 1, 2017. It has been free the entire time. Since then, just over 2,700 copies have been downloaded.
I published via Pronoun, which made all the stuff like formatting way easier than I hear it can be. It also allowed me to put my work on Google Play, Amazon, iBooks, B&N, and Kobo, which is really nice. I should reiterate, though, my book is free, so I do not know how good Pronoun for payment processing and so on.
I have just announced the release date for the follow-up, which is July 7. I am fully done the first draft and am sticking to the timeline so far. I will begin posting the chapters of it on Wattpad and putting it up for pre-order on the same day. As the follow-up and finale to my first book, which was fully available for free, this book will also be up for free. I expect that I will be putting work up for $0.99, $2.99, and $4.99 eventually, but I think that building a back catalog is the best thing both promotionally and creatively for me to do right now.
Well, not actually seven years. The job paid virtually nothing and I had to eat, so I started seeking more technical, better paying freelance work. Since 2012, that's what I have been focused on.
About a year ago, I decided I wanted to get back into writing fiction. I dove right back in, though I should have taken it slower. I ended up poring several thousand words into a poorly developed, poorly thought out draft of a novel. It was bad. So, I worked on it and researched plotting and outlining and characterization. It got better, but after actually learned how to plan a novel, the old story felt wrong, so I set it aside.
I read through my old short story blog (which has since been purged) and various abandoned pieces I had worked on over the years. Although I had just decided to start a fresh project, a short story that I had labored over for a few months back in 2012 sparked my imagination. That short story makes up the first three chapters of my first self-published book.
It took a long time to get the plot sorted out and figure out where I really wanted the story to go. Between the snowflake method, Dan Harmon's story structure and other variations of the Hero's Journey, and reading a few stories and novels with a "writer's" eye, I managed to get it all sorted to a point that I was satisfied with. I still hadn't finished the proofreading, but it was pretty much complete.
So, I had to decide whether all the things, like whether the book should be in KDP and how much it should cost and so on, then try to market myself and my work. That intimidated the crap out of me, so I took a step back and thought about why I was self-publishing. You may know of a character called Kilgore Trout, created by Kurt Vonnegut. He is a prolific science fiction writer whose work is essentially used to fill in the blank spaces between porn (porns?). For some reason, as a fifteen year old girl, I felt a deep connection to Trout. I suppose you could work out some analogy about the erotica section of Amazon and my own publishing journey, but that's not what I'm going for here. What I always loved about Trout is that being a writer was not just a quintessential part of his character because it was his job or identity, but because he spent so much time writing so many stories that it was impossible to not associate him with his body of work. And that's who I wanted to be. Regardless of anything else I did or felt or represented, I wanted to write. And, honestly, I wanted to do it for myself.
So I started posting the book on Wattpad and set the price to free. I did do a bit of marketing. I cold emailed about a hundred reviewers, with minimal response. I also participated in newsletter exchanges via BookBub, which is pretty much the only marketing that I am actually still doing. With the free service, I check in every couple of weeks for exchanges. The other marketing I have done consists of participating in online communities, though that has not been with the intention of marketing and has produced little in the way of results. Oh, and it is also a featured story on Wattpad, which has helped get lots of views and push it up the Wattpad charts.
The book came out on April 1, 2017. It has been free the entire time. Since then, just over 2,700 copies have been downloaded.
I published via Pronoun, which made all the stuff like formatting way easier than I hear it can be. It also allowed me to put my work on Google Play, Amazon, iBooks, B&N, and Kobo, which is really nice. I should reiterate, though, my book is free, so I do not know how good Pronoun for payment processing and so on.
I have just announced the release date for the follow-up, which is July 7. I am fully done the first draft and am sticking to the timeline so far. I will begin posting the chapters of it on Wattpad and putting it up for pre-order on the same day. As the follow-up and finale to my first book, which was fully available for free, this book will also be up for free. I expect that I will be putting work up for $0.99, $2.99, and $4.99 eventually, but I think that building a back catalog is the best thing both promotionally and creatively for me to do right now.
