Self-Publishing Support Thread

[APodPerson]

Hi all,

Following a number of other threads suggesting this, I thought I’d set up a support thread for us self-publishers (although traditionally published are welcome too of course).

The purpose would be for us all to support each other, share our books, tips and tricks that have worked, and anything else self-publishing related.

MNHQ have given us the go ahead, although of course we need to make sure we behave ourselves, and if it ends up being nothing but spam it'll get pulled.

So, Rule 1: No spam!

I suggest one post introducing yourself with a link to your books, and goodreads profile, twitter, fb page, website etc, but then no further links or any kind of self promo unless it is directly related to a question from another poster.

Thanks for that, Harriet. I'll get that done today. Lucky I took all the swearing out, eh!

Imperial - I printed them on Createspace. The quality is brilliant I have to say. I chose cream paper rather than white and a matt finish rather than glossy. You can choose the book size, so I went for the usual dimentions of a traditionally published book.

Thanks for that, helloeveryone. I'm just about to get it organised now.

Hi all,

Just to let you know that my book 'Swaying' is now on offer to 99p/99c on Amazon Kindle. Offer ends 5th Jan 2016.
UK www.amazon.co.uk/Swaying-Lucinda-Blanchard/dp/1512128937
US www.amazon.com/Swaying-Lucinda-Blanchard/dp/1512128937

HAPPY NEW YEAR to everyone. It's been lovely talking and swapping tips this year.
Lucinda Blanchard x

I just had my first bad/ish review - 3 stars. It's a bit annoying because she said it was well written and a fab debut, but she didn't like the subject for personal reasons.

Very annoying when people give poor reviews for reasons that have nothing to do with the work itself. Just have to hope that potential readers are smart enough to note the positive comments and discount what's irrelevant.

I once had someone leave a poor review - might have been a one star, can't be bothered to go and check - because the book is fiction and reviewer only likes nonfiction! Why read it then???

But the one that annoyed me most was on the Amazon US site. Reviewer didn't like the book, fair enough, but in the process of saying so gave a blow by blow recap of the story!

Generally, I don't keep track of reviews, but I do go and look at the 'also boughts' every so often and might notice if I've got a new one.

Happy writing in 2016, everyone!

hi there (helloeveryone)- I have a book that is ready for publication but am a little too nervous to start creating on createspace, can you fellow writer success stories tell me: was it stressful or quite an easy process?
Any tips-useful information would be appreciated!

Hi all,

Sorry to barge into your thread but we wanted to let you know that we have moved the Creative Writing topic into Books now instead of In The Club.

Hope you're all well?

MNHQ

How's it going for you, helloeveryone ? How did the festival go?

Hope the editing process is going well for you, imperial

Just checking in. So, KDP. Where to start? The forums are so full. Feel like I need so much time to work it all out, and as for the promotion once it's out there...not sure I have the strength. I guess it's great just to have the book out, whatever - there's so much talk of books sinking without trace, though, it seems very difficult indeed to get sales. How did people here manage to get sales going?

Hi, I used to be on a page like this, I recognise the name Imperial... but it seems to have gone? Usually I click on the 'I'm on' bit and it's not there now?

Oh, I'm on the right one, I don't know what happened there, but I managed to find it again.

Madhair - Christmas Book festival went well, over the weekend I sold 28 copies. This sat (6th Feb) I'm doing something similar but it's only 2 hours - that date is National Libraries Day so I'm going to be at my local library with my books, but I'm not expecting it to be anywhere near as sucessful and the Xmas one was.

How is everyone?

Well at the library my friend (who has also self published) and I sold 2 books each..... One to the library each which is good because it will be available to borrow.... And the other book sold was to the librarian haha! Oh well, we enjoyed ourselves anyway and had something to tweet and post about if nothing else!

hush have you created your account yet?

I'm writing a text book.

Hi Liney-yes i have created an account but not published anything yet! Im too nervous to just give it a go, but should probably just jump right in and swim!

Hello all, I have just about given up on the agent and traditional editor route after a lot of rejections (and a couple of full requests that were eventually rejected) so I've been reading this thread with interest. Seems like I have a lot to learn…

Oh don't give up, Alma! Did you get any feedback as to why they didn't want to take the book further? Were you submitting to the correct agents, who have a real love of your type of book?

Ah thanks, Imperial. Yes, some feedback that confirmed where my weak point is (plotting). I might go back to revise that novel at some point – I may even pay for a professional edit – but for now, onwards and onwards… I'm writing a new novel which I'm excited about, and for the first time, I'm considering self-publishing.

Hello Alma - I'm in a similar situation, though sadly no full ms requests. Come to the conclusion that this one is just not good enough or marketable, but might as well self publish it anyway - had v good feedback from beta readers at least. And then I'll concentrate on writing more books - as it's only my first I'm not worried really, we all have to start somewhere and KDP makes it possible.

Have been reading the kdp/create space forums - a lot to learn, as you say!

What do you all do about ISBN s? Do you buy your own or just get the one provided? And do you release on kdp and create space at the same time?

How's it going, imperial? :) would love to hear some of your self publishing tips from when you did yours....

Onwards and upwards!

Watching with interest, please for all those self published gorgeous babes out there, give us some more advice, some encouragement, it looks so daunting!

Hi everyone, just wondering if anyone would like to still chat on this thread..?
After reading the thread and getting so much good advice I published on Amazon..
But am absolutely terrified of marketing. Any advice or tips on publicity?
Its a book linked to a charity so anything at all would be helpful...
Here it is: www.amazon.com/Fish-Larue-Deluka/dp/0473387891/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=larue+deluka&tag=mumsnetforum-21&ie=UTF8&qid=1523845862&sr=8-1

hi everyone
hope it's all right to hop on an ask a question

Does anyone have any ideas about small print runs and how much they would cost per book - so for typesetting (do they still call it that?!) and printing, say, 1000 copies of a book that's about 200pp?

Thank you.