Anyone had success self publishing on Amazon?

[Hensintheskirting]

Just as the title says really. I've written for a while now and published a some short stories for free on a couple of websites, I'm wondering whether to give it a whirl on Amazon and try to make a little money from it.

Have any of you clever folk actually done this and if you have, any tips you'd care to share?

[themental]

I make a full time living publishing on amazon and am on track to make six figures this year (my first year publishing).

You'd be best joining a group like 20booksto50k on Facebook. They specialise in the business side of publishing and many people there are either making a living, or are trying to.

As for tips... it depends on your goals really, and what you write. Indie publishing tends to do well in niches that are underserved by traditional publishing. But whatever you're publishing the key things to focus on are cover, blurb, keywords, and story. In that order. You'll find a lot of practical help with those things in the group I mentioned above.

[Hensintheskirting]

Thanks so much themental that's really useful! It's inspiring to know it's possible - do you mind me asking what sort of thing (broad terms) you write?

[Witchend]

The "50 books to 20k" Fb page does itself no favours by having their initial spiel as:
"The page is about an author's who make money through writing and selling ebooks it only takes 15minutes to publish an ebook sounds simple doesn't it"

I wouldn't take their recommended proof-reader anyway.

[themental]

@Witchend that's because it's not that page? It's a separate group called 20 books to 50k run by some of the most successful authors in the business.

The page you're referring to appears to be a fake one, "20books50k" which I found by searching 50 books to 20k. If you search the correct term you will find the correct group.

[themental]

@Hensintheskirting I write genre fiction, specifically romance set in Scotland.

Big in the US 🙂

[Witchend]

Ah! That explains it. I was trying to decide if it was written tongue in cheek or not.

[FenellaVelour]

You need to have the time to market it as well as write it, it didn’t work for me as I didn’t have the time to do the legwork.

[MyBabyBoyBlue]

Could I shamelessly hijack this thread and ask if anyone else has had any success with Amazon publishing? I'm thinking about giving it a decent shot (I have the time to market the book as well) and wondered whether it really is a viable alternative to traditional publishing?

[Zilla1]

MyBaby,

Yes, self-publishing is viable though that means different things to different people. Some people make a success of traditional publishing - these are a small proportion of those who get deals which represents a small proportion of those whose get an agent which represents a small proportion of those who submit to agents.

Some people make a success of self-publishing - these are a small proportion of those who self-publish. Some self-publishers couldn't get a traditional publishing deal or didn't want one (Self-publishers retain a higher proportion of sales revenues) so for them, self-publishing is 'better' and also viable. Most self-publishers don't make a lot of sales or revenue and if someone pays for editing and a cover then I think most self-publishers don't make a positive return. But as there are no gatekeepers (agents and publishers) then someone can still get published as the barriers to self-publishing can be little or zero if they do the activities themselves for free (cover, blurb, editing, conversion, marketing themselves). Someone with a learning mindset will learn a lot from the process.

If you've got finished stories and don't want a traditional publishing deal or couldn't secure one then good luck.

[Zilla1]

Hi Coleo,

Regarding sales, I've seen advice that says the most important things for self-published sales are -

genre-appropriate cover that is still attractive when thumbnail-sized.
blurb/description
title
the story and it's writing
reviews
building a readership (email lists)
though except for the thumbnail-suitable genre-appropriate cover being most important, there's a debate over which order is correct and how best to improve these.

blog.reedsy.com/kindle-direct-publishing/

from what you said, perhaps the cover might benefit from improving unless your DC2 has hit the right note first time.

Successful self-published writers tend to see the marketing, learning and improving as a business in itself.

Regarding fiction/non-fiction, I'm not aware of hard data on relative self-publishing, I expect others will be able to provide.

I've seen some anecdote that self-published non-fiction might, in aggregate, rank second in total self-published sales after romance though that would cover non-fiction across all subjects so is not a fair comparison with fiction's individual genres. I expect individual segments of non-fiction will be smaller than the equivalent fiction genres.

From what I've read, non-fiction has a relative benefit as often non-fiction writers seem to treat the publication as a launching point into non-publication sales (business books almost as a loss leader for lectures and consulting) though fiction writers sometimes do the same.

Good news for non-fiction is that purchasers seem less price sensitive and tolerate higher price points than fiction buyers.

I've seen rankings for fiction genre relative sales along the lines of
romance
thriller
science fiction
fantasy

though I've not seen any analysis by sub-genre to help you target in the way you wanted. Again, I expect other posters will be able to tell you what you want (supernatural romance or medical romance ranking better?)

I tend to write what stories I want to tell rather than target sub-genres to sell best so am not the last person to ask.

Good luck.

[ScarletPower]

www.amazon.co.uk/Universe-Doesnt-Give-About-Your-ebook/dp/B07ZBM5Y2G/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&crid=EP2YV01T8PX&keywords=e%20rachael%20hardcastle&sprefix=rachael%20e%20hardcas%2Caps%2C172&qid=1588943787&sr=8-1&tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-21

Disclaimer: I haven't read it as I'm not a writer. A work colleague of mine wrote it as when she started self publishing she wished this book had been there to help her out. It might answer some of your questions, it might not. Good luck x

[Zilla1]

YA science fiction and adult thriller though I've lots of stories to tell across lots of genres (except romance). There's no single thing to avoid for me. I wasn't attracted to the fee-paying bureaus for self-publishers who seemed to get paid a lot to edit, format and submit to Kindle and I've seen lots of self-published authors regret using one (To be fair, some authors felt they wanted to use one as they didn't have the IT skills to edit and format themselves though most seemed disappointed with the results). Some of these bureaux seem close to the old vanity presses for me. I'm not saying there isn't a place for paying for help with individual steps like editing, covers, formatting and marketing though some of the firms operating looked like lots of money for not a lot of delivery to me.

I want to learn lots from the process from editing to editing to marketing. I've still got lots/most/everything to learn.

If you do self-publish, don't forget the audio book sales. Many authors find the audio sales are more lucrative than print though I've seen some signals there's been a slight drop relative to print - perhaps commuters tend towards audio books and lockdown gives more scope to read print, perhaps? The Audible and their ACX website www.acx.com has advice for authors looking to narrate their own stories or to pay an actor/professional to do that for them.

Some people set most store by a genre-appropriate cover, some by building an email list or readership. There's a vast pool of self-published authors who don't sell enough to cover their costs.

I've heard some authors say Mark Dowson had helpful advice - selfpublishingformula.com

I've heard good things about the 20booksto50k self-help group.

Finally, when you talk about 'avoiding paying out vast sums to agents and publishers', I wouldn't discount or be averse to the mechanics of traditional publishing if you can get and agent then a deal (Most authors seem more unhappy because they can't secure an agent rather than they don't want to have the publishers and agents take their percentages. I recognise some successful self-publishing authors are happy with the mechanics of retaining up-to-70% of Amazon sales compared to traditional publishing's royalty rates but most self-publishers don't sell much so it's a case of keeping 70% of not a lot of sales.

To me, it would be a success to have a reputable agent who earns their c15% commission as they only get paid when a traditional publisher contracts and pays (with hopefully an advance). In the UK, I understand no reputable agent would expect any upfront payment.

Good luck.

[themental]

@Coleoptera

Regarding your son, what genre does he write in?

Generally, unless your other son knows his way around photoshop and can create something which is essentially on-par with a professional cover design, that is probably what is hindering sales.

When it comes to selling books there are two key things to keep in mind.

Passive Marketing (the most important)

Active Marketing (not as important as passive but still important).

Passive Marketing is the things that will account for the majority of your sales. They come down to - Cover, Title, Blurb, Keywords. In that order. If you can nail all four of these components, you will sell books.

Active Marketing (facebook ads, amazon ads, newsletters, social media engagement etc) are almost always a waste of time if you haven't got your passive marketing nailed.

If you'd like to PM me the links / pen name I'd be happy to take a look and see if there is anything I can help with.

My question though is purely commercial: in your opinion and experience, which fiction genres are going to be selling best in the next couple of years?

I'd rather start by targeting a niche market immediately, that will be most likely to sell (obviously you need to be able to write but let's suppose I could do something decent enough). I know that romance, and thrillers always seem to do well but I'd like to focus on a very specific subgenre where self-publishing might be most likely to bring in an income. Any thoughts?

This is what I did when I started. I'm not snobby when it comes to writing, I'll write stories about whatever is selling and I write them extremely fast (50k novel written, self-edited, covered and published within 2 weeks).

Romance is the biggest selling indie genre.

Within that there are sub-genres, and then tropes.

A sub-genre would be paranormal, and a trope would be enemies to lovers.

There are two ways to get started quite quickly in romance and that is either "writing to market" or "writing to trend".

Writing to Market - You set out to create a product already knowing what readers want, and you do your best to give them exactly that. An example of this would be Western Romance. You'd probably have an alpha male, a woman maybe from a big city. He's tall, handsome and good with his hands with a wicked sense of humour. She's just been fired from her corporate job and moves to the sticks to look after her sick old auntie. She's a virgin, of course. The romance follows all of the beats (Read Gwen Hayes, Romancing the Beat), there is no cheating AT ALL, and it ends in a pregnancy.

You're giving readers exactly what they want and what they expect.

Writing to Trend - Harder to spot but if you can, there is lots of money to be made. Last year it was bully romance set in high schools / academies. Some misunderstanding causes the hero (usually an anti-hero) to bully the heroine. Girl fights back, hero falls in love, a whole lot of grovelling and redemption commences. Another popular trend was paranormal academy reverse harem. The thing with chasing trends is you need to be quick, and like writing to market you need to give readers what they want (sometimes without knowing what they actually want since the trend is still emerging. It's risky but if you do it correctly there is lots of money to be made.

If it's specifically romance you are interested in, then I suggest having a look around on Reddit r/eroticauthors

It's a sub for authors in Erotica and Romance genres. Check out the top posts. Emerge yourself in the community, and be prepared to spend a lot of time on Amazon checking out the charts, reading books, analysing the market, and reading reviews.

With all that said, sometimes the best way to do it is just to DO IT. This time last year I didn't know half the things I do now, and I still made more than my day job only 2 months in. As long as you're willing to work hard you really can learn as you go.

Hope that helps.

[user48675]

themental reading your post with interest. I am unable to message you at the moment but could you give me a bit more insight into targeting the American market because I think my book might appeal to them (possibly/hopefully). Where do you upload your books etc?

[BobbieDraper]

@themental

I'm hijacking the thread and being really cheeky to you in your process so feel free to tell me to go away!

If you're still reading, may I ask you some advice on cover art? Can you recommend anyone?

I'm conpletely new to this but since I'm going to self publish to begin with, the cover art is vital and I'm struggling.

[themental]

@BobbieDraper if you don't mind saying, what genre do you write? Lots of designers tend to specialise as they really have to know their market and keep up with trends / what's working.

If you let me know the genre I'll be able to rec better

[BobbieDraper]

@themental
Its young adult action and adventure (fantasy and mystery rolled into an explorer theme).

[themental]

@BobbieDraper check out Natasha Snow?

She's one of the few good all-rounders and does a lot of fantasy.

natashasnow.com/portfolio/

If it's YA Urban Fantasy (as opposed to High / Sword & Sorcery) then have a look at Book Covers and Designs by Juan on facebook (it's a group)

There is another group that is called Book Cover Gallery - a place for authors and artists. Also on facebook. Designers showcase their work there and you can sometimes find really good premades.

[BobbieDraper]

Thank you @themental. Those are great resources. The series is 5 books long, its complete but I'm editing which is a long job so plenty of time to start looking for cover designers and you've given me a boost with the suggestions! Thanks again.