Self Publishing: Learning the Game
What a timely prompt!
I was thinking today that I wanted to post about my publishing journey thus far. Talk about a HEADACHE! I keep thinking I'll just wait until I'm "successful" because who wants to hear from a beginner? Then I realized I needed to share what I'm learning as I go, because there is so much information!
First off, before anything else gets done, there is the anxiety induced headache of self doubt, worry and then the brain fatigue from trying to figure out how to even do the basics of creating an ebook!
In my case, I wanted to reassure myself that I could actually figure out the technical aspects on my own. I took an idea I had for a compilation book/set about "My First Time" or "Her First Time" kind of stories and I put part one on amazon as an ebook. This was kind of my 'Proof of Concept' thing.
My word, that process was horribly stressful for me. I'm not a technical sort, I hate all things techie, so I think I freaked myself out more than anything else! In the end, it really wasn't all that difficult. Kindle create made it easy to format the ebook how it needed to be and soon I was all set.
I enjoy making graphics and although I'm still REALLY new to graphic design, I like the artsy side of it, so designing my own cover was actually fun. I already find myself wanting to second guess and change it, but I"m going to leave it for now and learn to accept and grow and move on!
I could keep going back a million times and never move forward if I let myself do it!
ANYWAY, after I got my first 99 cent book published, I realized I had NO idea how to properly market a book. I left that book sitting on amazon and I started to delve into learning about publishing and marketing. I don't want to JUST write and publish. I want to make MONEY at it! I want people to read my books!
Fuck me sideways, that was a HUGE undertaking. I felt like every piece of information I found led to an AVALANCHE of information that I still needed to learn! I've been feeling buried alive with all of the things I need to learn for months now.
It is just NOW starting to make some sort of sense to me!
There goes the timer! freewrite prompt headache
I plan to release my next book by the end of this month!
I may do the extra work involved to have it available for paperback as well as ebook, but I'm not sure if anyone even buys paperbacks anymore, especially erotica! Thoughts on that?
Crossposted to my Wordpress Blog
Uncomplicated article. I learned a lot of interesting and cognitive. I'm screwed up with you, I'll be glad to reciprocal subscription))
Hi @eroticabian, a real life friend of mine is a self published author. He gets paperback books printed in runs of 100 at a time and markets them mainly on Facebook and through networking. He is scifi but i guess same principles apply. Would you like me to hit him up for some info on the process to self publish and market a paperback.
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I wouldn't want to be a bother, but I would like to know where he gets his printing done and the cost involved. Any tips that he doesn't mind sharing are always welcome. I'll take all of the knowledge I can get. That would be awesome!
No bother, and i won't hassle him. I'll see what I can find out and if it would be relevant to you. Are you on discord, i could private message you there when I know more. My username is the same as here.
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Yes, I don't get on it too often, but my username is the same as here as well. Thank you, I appreciate the help!
No worries. I'll get back to you next week with any info I can gather.
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Huh, I know the struggle :/ I never even thought about marketing before and now, it seems to be everything. :O however, I remind myself it's not. I am a writer, even when I suck at marketing - and that's worth remembering.;)
That's true. I just find that the more I write, the more I look into the possibilities, the more I want to do with it. I started just wanting to see a book on the amazon page. To be honest, I was nervous that I couldn't even do THAT! But I proved that I could.
Now I just want to take the time to learn more with each one I publish so that I can actually make this my job someday. I'm not going to worry about knowing how to do it all at once, but I do want to improve each time. I am really not good at 'selling' anything, much less myself, but I have to try.