Eight months post self-publishing--will I do it again? Should you?

If you are a writer like me, you wonder how another writer's books are really selling. Is self-publishing as good as some claim? Is it as bad?

My journey into self-publishing still makes me happy. Why is it important I'm happy? Because I wasn't last September when I almost gave up writing completely. I told myself last February when I took the plunge to self pub that I would stop when it was no longer fun. Today I can report that putting a book out there is still fun.

August was my best month so far. Overall, I've made almost as much money in the KENP program as I have selling e-books. So for now, that's where my books will remain.

How much have you made? you ask. Honestly, more than I did with my first book that was with a mid-sized publisher. I think that's because I have actively promoted and advertised The Bend more than I did The Mulligan. But since I'm doing it all my self online, I have more opportunities to set up the advertising, especially through Amazon.

Would I do it again? Of course. I hope to be much smarter about the next one--doing a low pre-promotional price, better book inside design, and being positive there is not one error in it as much as I can prevent. I will also choose better categories to set it up in, and start my Amazon advertising immediately rather than months later.

Already I am sharing the next cover and blurb and will heavily promote it as the time grows closer.
Honestly, selling is all about advertising. Who will find your book and buy it if you don't put it in front of them?

So my best advice to those who want to take a similar plunge? Write well, be brave, advertise and just do it. 

Self-publishing three months later

It's been awhile since I've written a blog post so I thought I would share what's been happening with my book and writing life in general. It seems blogs and reading them are so time-consuming anymore with all the other social media one has to keep up with.

On Memorial Day, I gave my book away, THE BEND, for free. One day. 1,000 readers took me up on my offer. Much more than I expected but I did it as a promotion. The next day my Amazon rating was much lower, Then I sold the highest number of  books on Tuesday. My page reads also increased significantly. All in all, the promotion did what I had hoped it would do--create more interest in my book. A few weeks ago, I did a Panera gift card giveaway and to enter the person only had to follow my Amazon page. I gained over 1400 followers who will be notified when my next book comes out next year.

All this promotion work isn't easy. But it is necessary or my book will never get out there. Posting a book on Amazon guarantees no sales at all. It's work. Hard work. I miss just writing but so far I have made more money doing the self-publishing route than I did in three years with a publisher.

I am also deep in checking out all these book promotion sites such as BookBub --but there are smaller more affordable ones I am using first. I have one set up for next Sunday for $15 and a free one the same day. I am using Amazon's promotions and will offer a reduced price on my book in August or Sept and combine it with one of these promo sites.

I consider this year with THE BEND the time to learn about book marketing to prepare for my next novel. Maybe I'll be better at it when I release the next one. Also doing work with setting up an audio version which can be done through Amazon as well. Got to take a deep breath to dive into that one as there is a learning curve there too.

Finally, I am editing with my CP's help my next book for the second time around. A chapter a week.

And my son-in-law wondered if I was bored at home all day.  Not A Chance.

Self-Publishing Insights

I thought it was time again to share about my experience with self-publishing. I sent The Bend into the world on Feb. 17. Recently I decided to go Amazon exclusive and take advantage of one of their giveaways. I priced my book free for four days, heavily pushing it on all my social media for two days and let it ride the other two days. I ended up giving away 1800 plus books.

Hopefully doing the giveaway will increase exposure and sales. What I've found so far: I still continue to sell books at full price. But mostly my pages with the KNEP program where I get paid approximately a half a cent a page has soared. I don't know what is normal but readers are borrowing my book through Kindle Unlimited. That usage translates into books sold, and my overall rating numbers improve.

What else do I wish I had done? Probably advertise my sale on a site where you pay a fee and they send the book to their list of people who like my genre--like BookBub--but I wanted to save $$ and see what happened with my own social media.

Also with 1800 people now having my book on their Kindle device--there is opportunity for increased reviews. And that's what all writers need for books to sell.

Because I don't want to be a nag, I have limited my subtle encouragement of posting a review on Amazon to a now-and-then gentle reminder and a little begging. I need at least 50 reviews to be considered serious. As of this writing, I sit at 28. A tough pull. Even a bad review is something but it's only been a week. I'll update you again in the future.

Next I played with my categories on Amazon--realizing The Bend is not Women's Fiction but more suspense and thriller. Changing categories to bigger categories can change your ranking but I feel it is better that future readers can find the book.

I'm enjoying my self-pub journey. I've made mistakes--and learned from them.My next book will come out stronger, with my marketing plan intact. In the meantime, I'm thankful for the reception of this book, the readers and friends who have encouraged me.