LJD's Self-Publishing Thread

LJD

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I can't believe I'm starting one of these :)

Even a year ago, I said I'd never self-publish, but here we are.

As Laura Jardine, I have a number of romances with a few different e-publishers, but for various reasons, I decided about 6 months ago that I wanted to self-publish under a new name (Jackie Lau) and focus on diverse romantic comedy. Here is my website.

I have four books I plan to release this year in May, July, September, and November. There are two two-book series, but the books are standalone. ie, each involves a different couple and has an HEA. Book 2 is with my editor. Book 3 is with beta readers. Book 4 is written and has been revised once. All are short ("category-length") novels in the 45-65k word range. I hired a cover artist to do the covers for Book 1 and 2. She also did a few promo things for me, and a logo and newsletter banner. Will get her to do the other covers soon-ish.

Book 1 is called Grumpy Fake Boyfriend and will be released on May 22. I put it up for pre-order this week. I formatted it myself in D2D, and used D2D to upload to Barnes & Noble, iTunes, Tolino. I uploaded to Amazon and Kobo directly. E-book only (for now), $2.99 USD. Here is my cover:


grumpy-fake-boyfriend-200x300.jpg


And here are the links: Amazon | Kobo | B&N | iTunes | Goodreads

I've sent out a number of review copies, some to people who reviewed by Laura Jardine books in the past. I've had a bunch of pre-orders and have managed to generate a little buzz on Twitter in the romance community. I am focusing on the tropes (this book is very trope-y) and the fact that it's an #ownvoices romantic comedy with an Asian heroine. People seem to like the title.

I hope to make my money back this year, but that might be a bit ambitious. Majority of money I've spent is on editing, some on cover and other graphics, and I also paid for the premium package at wordpress.com. I hope to be able to put out 3-5 books a year and build an extensive backlist. Not running any ads yet, but hope to run some Facebook ads in a few months.

I refused to consider self-publishing for the longest time because I thought it might be disastrous for my mental health, and it has been a little...difficult. Hopefully subsequent books will be easier, once I know (sort of) what I'm doing. The money I've invested in it is also a little scary, especially since none of my books with e-publishers have sold well at all. And now that my book is up for pre-order and I've sent out copies...I'm starting to freak out and worry that nobody will like it. Plus I have time to write now, but I'm lacking ideas...

In 2019 I hope to start off with releasing my affectionate romance parody that I wrote a couple years back. I got to acquisitions at one significant independent publisher, and I had a number of editors and agents tell me it was hilarious, but they had no idea how to market it. Not sure what else I'll put out in 2019 yet.

So...we'll see how this goes :)
 

WriterBN

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Congratulations on your new adventure! I know at least a couple of self-published romance authors who are doing extremely well, so it sounds like you've made the right decision.
 

StoryofWoe

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Best of luck to you, Laura! I remember your thread in QLH for the affectionate romantic parody. I'm glad you're planning to release it because it sounded fun. Congrats re: the pre-orders! :)
 

Marissa D

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Welcome to the wonderful world of hybrid authordom!

I actually found that doing some self-publishing on the side (with my agent's blessing) has been helpful to my mental health, because it's given me a bit more of a feeling of control over my career. I hope that kicks in for you. Good luck!
 

ASeiple

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Welcome aboard!

Good art, funny title, and you knew to hire an editor... yeah, those are all good signs! Don't know how the romcom market goes, but I'd be surprised if you didn't earn back what you put into it in a reasonable time, at least.

Sounds like you've got a decent strategy in place. Here's hoping the market goes for it!
 

rwm4768

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Hope it goes well. It's an adventure, but it can work out well for you. Anything under the umbrella of romance is always in demand.
 

LJD

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Thanks, everyone!

There are many self-published romance writers who do well, but the market also seems oversaturated now so...we'll see. I'm not sure this is the greatest time to be starting self-publishing in romance, but I wasn't ready to do it before. I can write pretty fast now, though, so hopefully putting out a book every 2-3 months will help.

I actually found that doing some self-publishing on the side (with my agent's blessing) has been helpful to my mental health, because it's given me a bit more of a feeling of control over my career. I hope that kicks in for you.

Actually, when I decided I'd self-publish, but before I had to start worrying about getting a editor and cover artist and formatting the book, I felt like I was more in control, after having some bad experiences with a publisher last year. I felt free to write whatever I wanted and I was very productive...and the stuff I wrote was good (I think? I hope?) Now that I have to focus more on the business side, it's a bit tougher, and the romance world has been a bit of a shit show for the past week or two. Hopefully it'll get better soon.
 

andiwrite

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I'm happy for you. I'm only one book into the self-publishing experience, but I'm really loving it so far! Writing is more fun knowing you can put your finished product out there yourself without having to worry about query letters. I wish you all the abundant self-publishing goodness and lots of money. :hooray:
 

cool pop

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Good luck and welcome to the dark side (as one of my indie friends told me when I first started self-publishing, lol). I've followed your posts on here for years as a lurker and it's been nice seeing your journey with publishers. I was the same way as you, I said I'd never self-publish too but after years of being with publishers, I can say I love self-publishing ten times more. It is so fun and I've learned SO much. I can't even stress how much I've learned about the industry and the business since going indie. I've always been one who believed that authors should know as much about the business as possible no matter how they are published. I started learning about self-publishing years before I did it. It wasn't that I'd planned to do it back then, but I just wanted to be in the know in case the time came. Well, in 2015 the time came. It was just the right choice for me and though I was a little scared, I felt so free. One thing I love about self-publishing is it took the anxiety away from me I had when dealing with publishers. What I always hated was waiting to hear from my publisher or having to sub to another publisher or whatever and wondering if they would like the story or whatever or if they would give me another contract, etc. It was so nerve-wracking. Now, I am more relaxed and positive when writing my work because I know that no matter what happens, it will be published. The waiting game between contracts and not knowing what the publishers would say or do regarding future work really got to me at times and that is one huge thing I don't have to worry about anymore.

There are pros and cons to trade and self-publishing but with self-publishing the key is to continue learning as you go. You'll make mistakes here and there but always be open to learning and trying new things. At least now, you can have comfort in writing stories you really want whether or not they are "marketable" or whatever. The beauty with self-publishing is you can put out those labor of love books that a publisher might have felt wasn't profitable or didn't fit a certain market, etc. You no longer have to shelve anything. There are some books writers just need to create for themselves and not have to always worry about the money side of it. Having that option is another thing I love about being on my own.

Best of luck to you on your new journey!
 
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LJD

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So...I kind of went viral on Twitter yesterday, following a brief rant about my experiences with being a WOC writing romance. See thread here. Courtney Milan retweeted my pinned promo tweet, as did a bunch of other big romance authors, and a whole bunch of people pre-ordered it. Many said they loved the title and tropes. Currently in the top 100 for Multicultural & Interracial Romance on Amazon. I have 139 pre-orders on Amazon, more than 100 of those in the past 24 hours. Doing well on Kobo, too.

Now I just hope the book lives up to expectations :)
 
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Polenth

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So...I kind of went viral on Twitter yesterday, following a brief rant about my experiences with being a WOC writing romance. See thread here. Courtney Milan retweeted my pinned promo tweet, as did a bunch of other big romance authors, and a whole bunch of people pre-ordered it. Many said they loved the title and tropes. Currently in the top 100 for Multicultural & Interracial Romance on Amazon. I have 139 pre-orders on Amazon, more than 100 of those in the past 24 hours. Doing well on Kobo, too.

I've seen a lot of stuff going down about the romance issues on Twitter. It's good to see some people putting their money behind their words.
 

LJD

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One month to release day! Now at 207 pre-orders on Amazon.

On Friday, I was interviewed (on camera! eek!) for a piece that will air on CBC's The National about romance novels in the era of #metoo and Trump. I don't know when it will air yet but possibly the first week in May, which is pretty good timing for me. They found me because my name is on the "published authors" list on the website for my local RWA chapter. I answered a few questions by email last month, and I guess they liked my answers.
 

LJD

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Grumpy Fake Boyfriend is already out in some places, but it's still a couple hours to release day where I live. I have 324 pre-orders on Amazon.

Interview clip aired on The National on May 11. The article (which includes the video segment) is here. The main thing the interview did was get me a little attention in the romance world and "out" my second career to my husband's family, but it had little direct impact on pre-orders.

My book appeared on a bunch of "most anticipated romances for May" lists around May 1--like on Smart Bitches Trashy Books--and that did more to boost sales.

Am happy with pre-order numbers but nervous about sales and response once the book is out in the world.
 

LJD

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It's been out a week. Current sales numbers:

Amazon: 614
Kobo: 41
D2D (BN, iBooks, etc): 184

I know these are peanuts compared to some romance authors, but it has already outsold all 12 of my books from e-publishers and was in the top 100 for multicultural/interracial romance on Amazon for a few days. So...I've already easily made my money back, and I'm pretty happy about that. It's been reviewed at the big romance review sites (SBTB, Dear Author) and gotten a bit of attention on Twitter. I even got my first "fan email" on the weekend :)

I have 52 pre-orders on Amazon for Mr. Hotshot CEO, the next book in the series, and I'll be sending out ARCs this week. Release date: July 10.
 

LJD

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It's been out for three weeks, and I've sold a little over a 1000 books! Which is peanuts compared to what some people sell, but much better than any of my other 12 books did. (Under my first pen name, four different publishers.)

Amazon: 746
Kobo: 47
D2D (BN, iBooks, etc): 222
 

M. H. Lee

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It's been out for three weeks, and I've sold a little over a 1000 books! Which is peanuts compared to what some people sell, but much better than any of my other 12 books did. (Under my first pen name, four different publishers.)

Amazon: 746
Kobo: 47
D2D (BN, iBooks, etc): 222

It's easy to look at the really big romance authors and think that anything short of making $40,000 per release is somehow a failure, but selling 1000 copies of a book that isn't even in KU in the first three weeks is actually a tremendous accomplishment.
 

ASeiple

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1000 books in a week is pretty damn awesome. Especially for your first book!

You've done well. Please keep us in the loop as time goes on!