Self Publishing Work

Generra. J

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I have self published my work on Amazon. It is called The Johnson Files. My question is: how would an author go about getting their work out into the world once it is self published? Besides marketing tools, what other methods can I use? I have also tried Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, are there any other methods I can do? Thank you for your comments and advice. Anything would help, and thank you for your time.
 

cool pop

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Congrats on your new book and good luck. You'll get more information in the self-publishing section here on AW and you can also try forums for self-publishers such as Writers Cafe and Writers Sanctum for help.
 

Carrie in PA

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Aside from the other forums here that specifically deal with self-publishing, there's a hugely active Facebook group called 20 Books to 50k that is a wealth of information for self-publishing. HIGHLY recommend checking it out.

As far as social media -- are you active where you *readers* are? You'll need to know what your target market is, then do some market research on where they are likely to be online. If your market is YA, you'll likely need to be on Instagram, for instance. If your target market is females over 50, youtube is a complete waste of your time. Spend some time researching those demographics so you're not ignoring where your market is active, or wasting your time on a platform your readers simply don't use.
 

CathleenT

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Learn to advertise. Newsletter marketing, like BookBub, FreeBooksy, and Choosy Librarian is much easier, but ROI seems to be steadily decreasing. The other bullet to bite is pay-per-click, like Amazon, Facebook, and (again) BookBub, but that's a much harder skill set to acquire.

I'd look at what other successful self-publishers are doing now, not what worked in 2014. I wouldn't spend a whole lot of time on social media in 2019. It's mostly a time sink now. The hot platform to be on keeps moving, and the rules keep changing.
 
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lorna_w

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The other answers are good, but you also need to write the next book, and the next, and the next. Most people who make over six figures per year at writing have over 30 books out. Most people who make five figures per year have over six books out. Most people with one book make close to nothing. More books means more chances to build a fan base, more chances for someone to happen upon your book, and more income if someone likes one book and buys your whole back list. So think of the long game, and forget about promotions until at least one whole series is completed or six books. Otherwise, you are spending your time and money in the wrong place.

More books. It's the only possible answer for most writers wanting more readers.
 

CaoPaux

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LJD

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I wouldn't spend a whole lot of time on social media in 2019. It's mostly a time sink now.

tbh, I think Twitter has affected my sales more than anything else I've done. I can correlate spikes in sales with specific tweets or retweets, in one case getting about 120 pre-orders for my first self-pub book in 24 hours after a bigger romance author quote-tweeted my pinned tweet. (I'd had maybe 20-25 pre-orders in total before that happened.) I started self-publishing in 2018, so I am a new-ish self-publisher, but I've been on Twitter since 2014 or 2015, fyi. Of course, this depends on a lot of things, like your genre, etc. Also, if you're using Twitter just for promo, nothing else, nobody is going to be interested in following you...
 

Generra. J

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Thank you everyone for your time. I m going to put in more research about marketing my book and see where the readers are that I do want to reach. Oh, and if you are wondering about my book here is what it is:

The Johnson Files, it is a genre of adult romance and adventure. It is a realistic fiction book, and I have written ten books of it already. It is for a mature audience of 18 years and older because it has violence and sex scenes. And I am still writing the rest of the series because that is what I love to do. I like writing series books.

But again everyone thank you for your time, and I am going to try different places to get my books out there.

Sincerely,

Generra. J
 

LJD

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A quick search suggests you only have paperbacks on Amazon? I don't see any e-books...

That would be my first recommendation. I don't even have paperbacks of my self-published books yet because I expected 95%+ of my sales to be e-books, so that was my initial focus.
 

Generra. J

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To LJD

I have no idea on how to turn my books into an e-book, I have been researching the steps, but I only found converters. I am trying to do the steps myself. Also I do not have the money right now to pay for an ISBN number so I am doing things step by step. I know a lot of people in today's age use technology, but it was important to me personally to turn my books into paperbacks first because it was something that I grew up with. But I will keep researching on how to turn my books into e-books.
 

TheListener

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Great info. The suggestion of joining the 20BooksTo50K® was a good one. Thank you Carrie in PA for that. I joined. Hope they accept me.