Self Publishing: the Do's and Don'ts

I recently saw a front-page newspaper article in my hometown about a sixteen-year-old girl who had her first book published. When I read more of the story I came to realize her book was self-published. Don't get me wrong. It's quite a feat for a teenage girl to finish writing a book, or anyone for that matter. It took me until I was over 50 years old to finish writing one. But being published is not an incredible feat anymore. Anyone can publish a book. If your reading this blog you can write something and have it up on Amazon for sale within a week. It's that easy. But there's a catch. Just because you wrote it, doesn't mean you can sell it. That's where so many authors sail their ships into the murky waters of  self-publishing and break apart on the reefs of disappointment when it comes to their hopes for their books. I've had writers contact me and ask how do you do it? How do you get readers to buy your books or write a review? I wish I had a magic formula I could give them, but I don't. I do know through experience three things your book is going to need to survive in the piranha-infested waters of the publishing world. These I will list below:

STORY: It sounds stupid to say this, but if you don't have a good story, you've shot yourself in the foot before you even enter the race as an author. Rightfully so, I might add. Your a writer so write something that someone wants to read. Hook the reader from the first paragraph.We live in an age with more distractions than ever to keep someone from reading your story. Netflix, Facebook, X Box, etc. they are all competing for your reader's time. Know your audience and give them something they want. Make them want to give up hours of their time to curl up with your book or sit in the glow of their electronic reader. How do you do that? I can't tell you. That's something your going to have to learn through experience and writing. However, I can suggest that you clearly define the genre your book falls under. If your novel is about ghosts, then make sure it is defined as such in its search keywords. It can be a radical new take on a ghost story and have very little to do with a haunting, but when the potential reader types "ghost story" in his search menu you want your book to come up. Wallah! A potential sale!

EDITING: This is where a lot of self-pub authors stub their toes and fall. You can't edit your work. Sorry. This is one thing that the Traditional publishing get's right. You got to have your work edited by a professional. Yes, it's expensive, but you are investing in yourself as a writer. If your not willing to make the investment then don't expect the reader to invest in you. If your work is riddled with typos you are going to hear it from your readers in the form a bad reviews and 1 Star ratings. This is the death-knell for self-published work. Kindle has a refund policy for their books. A reader can refund it up to one week after purchasing it. If your work is amateurish or poorly written it's going to reflect in your refunds. If you can't afford at least basic Copy Editing then send your book to a traditional publisher and try your luck. Too many self-published authors post their unedited crap online. It gives us all a bad name. Get your work edited. You'll love what a professional will do to make your prose shine. So will your readers.

COVER: This is another area where a lot of self-published authors fall short. They wrap their great story in a crappy cover. Nothing speaks amateur writer more then a poor cover. You can't judge a book by its cover, but readers do when searching for something to read. A good cover gets your foot in the door when convincing a reader to purchase your book.  Find you a professional to do your cover. It may run you a couple hundred dollars, but it is worth it. Again it is an investment in you as a book publisher, because that is what you are if you self publish. Make the cover rock!

You follow these three rules and you got a step up on all the floundering self-published authors drowning in a morass of poor sales and low readership. I hope this article helps you in your quest to be a better writer. It's a brave new world out there. The door is open for you to become a selling author like never before in history. The internet changed everything and there is unparallelled freedom for you to succeed. Now get out there and write something. 

Floating on the Amazon

I'm a self published author. There I said it. Five years ago when I published my first book 13 Nightmares it was akin to saying I'm a talentless hack. First of all this is not my first go around at self-publishing. In the early 90's I published my own role playing game system and marketed myself. I wasn't interested in letting anyone else publish my game. It was mine and I had control over it. Still do. When I jumped into publishing my first book I realized that self-publishing was the bastard stepchild of the publishing world. I heard nothing good about it. Published writers said I would be destroying my writing career. or that no one would buy my books. I've been to writer conferences where they didn't take self published authors seriously. There are sci-fi conventions where they refuse self published authors on panels and writing websites where they don't allow self-pubs into their little clique. The list goes on and on. Some of it is quite laughable. I've heard traditional publishers say we are the "maggots" of the written word or that self-pub is "literary masturbation". Things have changed in five years. That change can be summed up in one word: 

Amazon. 

Not only is Amazon by far the largest seller of books in the world, it is totally geared for self published authors. They charge nothing for you to format and upload your books on their website. The process is easy and quick. You get 70% royalty for your sales, which is unheard of in the traditional publishing world. You are in control over everything from marketing, pricing, and content. You know exactly how your books are selling and you get paid royalties straight into your bank account each month. I decided to skip my POD publisher and upload my zombie novel Undead Flesh straight to Kindle and CreateSpace. It was a smart decision. In one month I made almost a $1000 dollars in royalties while my other two books through the POD publisher did nothing. It was an eye opener for me. I've since taken control of 13 Nightmares and Ebon Moon and re-released under my imprint. Another smart move. Now all three books are working for me. I figured that my average royalty over the last six months is $281 per month and looks good for that number increasing at the end of this month now that I've added the other two books.  It's not bestseller money, but it is very nice supplemental income. I plan on having two more books on the site in the next few months and have them bringing in money as well. Books are money earners on Amazon and the more you have, the more you make in sales.

All this talk of money earned makes it sound like it is the reason why I write. It's not. But it is nice to have some funds coming in to fuel the cost of publishing and life as a part-time writer. I haven't quit my day job which provides me all the needed benefits of retirement, health coverage, dental, etc. The stigma of being a self-published writer isn't over, but its diminished greatly over the last five years. Fortunately, that stigma doesn't apply to readers. I never had one reader who cared if the book was self-published or not. Readers are mostly interested in what the story is about then who is the publisher or editor. I think that's where traditional publishers miss the mark. Traditional publishers are more focused on distribution and shelf-life of a book than who reads it. Self-pub authors appeal directly to the reader and build their readership over time.

Self publishing works for me, but that doesn't mean its for everyone. If you can find someone to publish your work by all means go for it. It's a sweet gig if you can get it. I never really tried.  To me it makes more sense for the Traditional publishing houses to look at authors who prove that they can write and sell books on their own. I think that times are changing and it may very well be a requisite for an author in the future. For me I'm going to continue to float down the Amazon river. I've painted a rosy picture for self-publishing with this blog post, but In my next post I'm going to talk about the problems and pitfalls of self-publishing. Talk to you then.