Starrystorm's self publishing journey

starrystorm

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Last month, June 20th to be exact, I published my first ever novel "The Door in My Hand." I chose to self-publish like many of you have already done. I have both print and ebooks, so I'll be talking about the sales of both.

So far, it's been an exciting few moths. I joined Instagram as my main social media platform (and currently my only although I do plan to get more). Then later I published my book.

Let's look at the numbers for this month: June 20th-30th

17 physical copies (including the one I purchased for myself.)

1 ebook.

Right away, I know several family members and family friends who have purchased the book so that leaves 12 to 11 unknown buyers. Exciting stuff but as this is the first month, I wonder if sales will drop after the initial release phase goes off. I have been traveling a lot so I didn't get to hold my book baby until the 30th. Within the first few awestruck moments, I found out that the last two lines of chapter fourteen were merged onto the top of fifteen (above the chapter headtitle.) Since I don't have the files on me (still on the other end of my country) it will take another three weeks before I can fix anything. It's so embarrassing and I made a public apology on my Instagram. I can't offer a refund, but I hope that my readers will understand.

Ebooks. A lot have asked me why I don't have ebooks. The thing is, I do. It just isn't on Amazon like my print (which means no Kindle edition). Somehow I managed a buy either way. My ebooks actually came out on preorder, but nobody bought them then.

This makes for a grand total of 18 books sold in the first ten days. I don't get paid until I sell $50 dollars worth of books (which doesn't mean the full price of the book but rather my own cut).
 

MercyMe

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How did you bring your ebook out if it's not on Kindle? I know it's possible, it just sounds like the opposite way around. Most people bring out the book on Kindle and then go wide.

Regardless, congratulations on the sales and here's to many more!!
 

starrystorm

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I'm back.

First off, sorry I didn't see your post MercyMe. I actually used Draft2Digital to publish my ebook. Basically they send request out to different ebook marketers. Kindle wasn't interested in mine. Although I do think it would have been better for me if Kindle had my book. However, D2D was serious about making sure you already didn't have an ebook on Amazon before you worked with them.

Sales For July

(Near the end of July I released version two of my book, fixing some issues with headers and misspelled words.)

Print: 34

Ebook: 0
 

CathleenT

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Hmmm, some misunderstandings here, I believe.

I've pubbed using D2D. You can upload to Kindle first.

Amazon is rarely interested in anyone's book. They'll still publish it. All you have to do is follow the steps correctly.

If you're wide, your best bet is to be everywhere you can. Leaving out Amazon is not usually a smart choice. YMMV.

Regardless, congrats on starting your publishing journey. And expect to make mistakes. The learning curve is very steep. : )
 
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starrystorm

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On D2D it makes you go through all these steps before you can get Amazon as a seller. My says it's still pending a review.

Is this wrong?
 
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CathleenT

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Probably not wrong. However, most people don't publish on Amazon/Kindle/kdp (I use them interchangeably) using D2D. My understanding is that D2D will take a percentage of your profits if you do. Whereas if you publish through kdp directly, Amazon will still take its cut, but D2D won't take another cut on top of that one.

Let's face it--very few of us get rich at this writing gig. So, we don't need to shoot ourselves in the foot stacking up middlemen between us and getting paid.

You can, however, use the D2D generated book files to submit to Amazon via kdp. I'd go with the mobi rather than the epub, since that's the format Amazon uses.

So, to sum up, most wide authors publish using both D2D and kdp.

Hope that helps. : )
 
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starrystorm

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Yes. This helps. Thanks.

I was just afraid I'd get in trouble if I put my ebook up somewhere else besides D2D.
 

Polenth

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Yes. This helps. Thanks. I was just afraid I'd get in trouble if I put my ebook up somewhere else besides D2D.

It's only going to be an issue if you submit multiple copies of the same book to one market. So you don't want to sign up for Kobo directly, then submit to Kobo through D2D, then also submit to Kobo through Smashwords. You pick one way of getting that book on Kobo.

The issue here is Amazon rarely takes books through places like D2D and Smashwords, so the best bet is to opt-out of submitting to Amazon through them. I don't know how you do that with D2D, but whatever setting you need to say that you don't want to distribute to Amazon. Then you sign up to Amazon and sort it out directly.
 

MercyMe

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Starry, did you publish your print edition through Amazon or through D2D?
 

starrystorm

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Starry, did you publish your print edition through Amazon or through D2D?

I published through Ingram Spark which did put my print book on Amazon. D2D's print is still a beta.
 

MercyMe

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Oh, I see. So as Cathleen and Polenth suggested, you can open a KDP publishing account and use your file from D2D to publish to Amazon directly. I believe they'll link the print and ebook editions on your author page even if Ingram Spark is your distributor, although I can't be sure about this.

Self publishing is a steep learning curve and it sounds like you're off to a solid start.
 
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starrystorm

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It's the end of August. And I sold zero books. :cry::cry::cry: Still no reviews either.

I just don't understand what I'm doing wrong. I'm hoping sometime this week I'll be able to upload my book to Kindle. Maybe then this book'll get back on its feet.
 

lizmonster

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Being on Amazon will help. But the biggest problem for all books, no matter how they are published, is discoverability. How are you finding your readers? How are you letting them know your book exists?

Also, hugs. Publishing is rough, always. Chin up, and keep going.
 

CathleenT

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starrystorm, once you get it up on Amazon as an ebook, then you can start promoting it. I was going to buy a copy and ran into paperback only. That was enough squash the sale.

But let me know when you've got it on Kindle, and I'll go pick up a copy then. : )
 

starrystorm

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Thanks to everyone who commented on this thread, I finally got around to putting my book on Kindle! :partyguy::PartySmil
 

sandree

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Congratulations, Starrystorm! Best of luck with your book. Just know that the mere fact that you wrote a full length novel and published it, is an event to be celebrated! Not many ever achieve that...
 

April Swanson

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Congratulations, starry - publishing a book is awesome.

Don't worry about no August sales or reviews. Seriously--don't worry! As lizmonster says, people simply won't know your book exists, so you have to decide how to get it in front of them. You can pay for marketing, use social media, do newsletter swaps, release frequently (new releases get brief visibility) ... There are loads of ways. Also, I don't know what your future plans are, but you might want to hang off paying for anything until you have a bigger catalogue. That's my plan anyway--put up with low sales until I have enough books to justify splashing cash on marketing. It's a long road but so is every road in publishing :)

Best of luck!
 

starrystorm

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Thanks everyone. I really need another social media platform besides Instagram, I think.
 

starrystorm

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Gah! September! What's happening to time?

Okay, so in September I sold two ebooks. (Thanks!)

Also, I ranted not here, but somewhere else that there was a problem with my book? Turns out not. Amazon just bought a bunch (30) of my first editions, so everything's good and I wasn't scammed. My second edition's fine, just need Amazon to flush out their current stock. (Not that I'm saying not to buy my book!)


This month I'm going to try getting some #yabookstagrammers to review my book. Also, might join facebook.