I am relatively new to the self-publishing world - my debut novel was released in January of this year. But I have learned a few things along the way, and figured it couldn't hurt to share these tips with those who are thinking about self-publishing at some point.
1. Scrivener is the bomb!
I was reluctant to purchase the Scrivener at first (I am very comfortable with WORD), but I am glad I did. While I don't use many of the program's special features, I love being able to separate the manuscript into various "scenes" which can be easily rearranged. This was especially convenient for me since The Stewards of Reed contains several sub-plots intertwined into an overall story, and I often changed my mind about which "scene" should come next. All that cutting and pasting would have been a nightmare in WORD!I also appreciate the ease of which I am able to convert my manuscript into desired formats [e.g. WORD, PDF, Kindle (.mobi), Nook (.epub) etc]. I've seen too many posts where people shared their endless struggles to fix the interior formatting of their novel when trying to self-publish. Don't get me wrong...I had issues...but they were small, relatively painless issues that were easily fixed with a quick google search.
2. Get an Editor!
I know, this tip may seem strange considering one of my reasons for self-publishing was to avoid having an editor destroy my story...but there are different kinds of editing. At the very minimum, you should have your manuscript proofread by a professional (that's what I did). I know it costs money up front, but it will also save you money in lost sales/refunds down the road. The number one complaint I've read time and time again from people who like to read is that self-published works are too often filled with spelling and grammatical errors. It makes them reluctant to take a risk on another new (self-published) author. So when you fail to take the important step of having your work proofread, you are not only hurting yourself, you are hurting ALL self-published authors.3. Spend Money on the Cover Art!
People DO judge books by their covers, like it or not. I read somewhere that more than 235,000 books are now self-published in the US each year. You need something to help your book stand out from the crowd. Trust me, it's easy to see which books have professional covers and which ones do not. I nearly made this mistake, and it wasn't until I held the paperback proof of my book in my hands that I realized I needed to bite the bullet and have a professional work on my cover.There are plenty of talented graphic artists out there. I happened to use 99designs, but I must admit I struggled with the ethical issues of having multiple designers work on my cover but only having one get paid for it. For those not familiar, the site is set up like a contest between designers, and you get to select the winning designer. Only the winning designer gets paid for their efforts. I'm not sure I'll go that route again...
4. Double/Triple Check Before You Publish!
I published both in paperback (via CreateSpace) and ebook (via Kindle Direct Publishing). Using Scrivener (see Tip #1), it was very easy for me to create the appropriate PDF and .mobi files, and skip the awkward conversion. But that does not mean that I did not need to re-check everything. As it happened, the cover of my paperback did not print out correctly (part of the background design did not print). I also learned the hard way that one should re-read the interior (even if it was already looked at by an editor). Right before I went to publish, I decided to make a global name change (I changed all the days of the week to something different than Monday, Tuesday, etc). However, I neglected to check for the plural version of those names, and so the initial publication had a mixture of both types. Oops! Fortunately, it was an easy fix. Unfortunately, some people had already downloaded the original version. Sigh.5. Do NOT Price Too Low!
There was a time when $0.99 ebooks were all the rage. Now (thanks in large part to authors who neglected Tip #2) they are synonymous with cheap, crappy novels. Unfortunately, I did not know this when I first published. I figured, "Nobody knows who I am, I can't justify charging them more than $0.99 for my book." Oh boy was I wrong.
Turns out that having a higher price can actually help sales (with the perception that the higher the price, the higher the quality). Plus, you'd have to sell a crap load of books at $0.99 to ever make any real money. (Not that I'm making any real money now...but it's better than it would have been had I not upped my price). After reviewing several blog posts/forum posts about ebook pricing, I learned that many first-time authors were able to sell a similar amount of books whether their book was priced at $1.99 or $4.99. I, personally, opted for $3.99 as Amazon has a special list for books $3.99 and lower.
Setting the price too low at first also hurt my ranking on Amazon's Popularity lists (overall, and for my specific genre: fantasy). Amazon keeps its algorithms a secret, and they change them all the time, but indie-author Edward W. Robertson has been studying these for awhile and did a very nice job explaining his theory on why price matters for the popularity list here. Why is a better ranking important? The better the ranking, the more lists your novel ends up on, the more attention it receives. The more attention it receives, the more sales. The more sales, the better the ranking (and so on and so on).
6. DO Make Use of the KDP Select Free Promotion Program
You will find on many writer's forums that there is a big philosophical debate on this matter. Many authors refuse to "give away their work for free." I get their point, but I also think it is short-sided. As noted earlier, it is currently estimated that over 235,000 books are self-published each year in the US alone, not to mention the countless books put out by publishing houses. That's a lot of competition!The KDP Select Free Promotion Program (which allows you to set the price of your ebook to $0.00 for 5 days in a 90-day period), is a great way to have your book reach a much larger audience than you would probably ever reach on your own. Let's face it - everyone likes free stuff! And the more people who read (and like) your book, the more likely they are to spread the word to their friends, and the more sales you will likely see as a result. I did notice an upswing in sales following the end of my first free promotion...we'll have to see about the latest one.
To date, I have had over 1,000 people download my book from countries all over the world. True, my book will likely not be read by the vast majority of those people, but I know for a fact it was read by some. I now have 12 reviews, mostly positive, and I suspect most of the reviews came from people who downloaded my novel when it was free. And as we know, the more reviews a book has, the more attention it gets. The more attention it gets, the more likely you are to see additional sales, etc, etc...
I should note that you must "unpublish" your ebook from all other sites (B&N, etc) to participate in this promotion. For me, this was not a big deal. I didn't have much success (any success really) on sites other than Amazon. I should also note that many people suggest raising the price of your book prior to a free promotion so it appears the reader is getting a better deal. I tried this during my latest promotion (I raised the price to $4.99), but I can't say that it helped much. I've only had a handful of downloads today...
7. Keep Writing!
The best advice I came across when I began thinking about self-publishing was to KEEP WRITING. If people like your book, they will want to read more books written by you. And the more books you have, the more success you are likely to see in the self-published world.GOOD LUCK!
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