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.

Just popping in to recommend a book I've been reading on marketing ebooks - More Books [[http://www.amazon.co.uk/Books-Marketing-Publishing-Profile-Authors-ebook/dp/B0052U7F06/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1422292477&sr=8-10&keywords=sell+more+books]].

It's got good realistic advice for those of us who are starting out but he's also lovely and optimistic about it all.

aargh, link fail. Try again.

Sell More Books

marking place. Am writing a non-fiction book, kind of education/self help about pelvic floors. It's called "Gusset Grippers", is supposed to be factual and funny.

So far it's a dreadful anatomy chapter and a giant plastic box of papers, notes, scribbles and doodles. So, not really awfully book-like yet.

I've had a publisher say they are interested in seeing a couple of chapters, of course, that means actually writing the thing.

Must get a move on. I'm nervous of putting it together - thought about it for so long that moving to the next stage is kind of intimidating!

How are you getting on, Gussie? It sounds like you need deadlines and targets, if you're feeling intimidated!

My book is open for pre-orders now

I've held off doing my 'introductory' post even though I've been on here for months, because I wanted to wait till I had an Amazon link so I had everything together in one place, so here it is:

Five Wounds on Amazon

Me on Goodreads

Me on Facebook

Me on Twitter

My blog

Feel free to like me, friend me, follow me, mark me 'to read', etc etc...

Blinking flip though, this social media business is time consuming for writers these days

Just read your extract, REALLY like it! Tremendous.

Thanks Guilianna!

Yesterday was mad - it is the #1 hot new release in YA and children's historical fiction, and #1 bestseller in its category (YA historical, Renaissance), as well as getting to #5 overall in YA historical

I wasn't expecting anything like that, but,

Now, realistically, YA historical is not a big selling area, hence the difficulty of finding bricks-and-mortar publishers willing to take a punt, so we're not talking hundreds of sales in order to get to those positions, but I couldn't have hoped for a better start. I suppose, basically, this is the flip side of it being hard to find a publisher - it's easier to get visibility as a new author in the field.

It even has a little '#1 bestseller' banner

Countess that is awesome! So inspiring!I am marking my place as due to get to the self-publishing moment shortly…Can you give us any tips about how to negotiate Amazon. I have had a quick look and it all seems a tad confusing….

Thanks, Umbrellabird!

(I had a panic today because I thought they'd taken away my little yellow banner, but it turned out it was because people are now buying the paperback so if you search the title without specifying what sort of book it shows you that, and it's the Kindle book that has the banner.)

Re Amazon, I haven't had to do it directly because my agent is doing it for me (it's a long story...) but there are lots of amazingly helpful blogs that explain things properly and have screenshots of every stage. Always check the date of what you're reading, though, because they change things quite often.
Based on my experience in the last few days I would say the most important things are choosing the categories carefully, and getting the best cover you can afford (which doesn't have to be expensive, but it is worth looking around and spending a bit).
The Goodreads forums look pretty helpful, too.

Great thank you Countess! I will keep you posted.

Here is my book (it's the first time I've ever linked to anything on MN so wish me luck...!):

book

And my Twitter page (for what it's worth. 94 followers woo hoo!):

twitter

I write what I hope is feisty, funny chick lit.

Also, I've just had the cover for my next book (they did the first one as well) designed by pixelstudio at fiverr which cost me the princely sum of $16!

You send them sample covers you like, which stock photos you need (these cost $5 each, the basic gig is $5), tell them what colours you like and they do the rest. They also did two sets of modifications for me at no extra charge!

Lovely people and highly recommended.

That's a bargain, DonkeysYears! Your cover is nice - I would never have guessed it was that cheap

I am always amazed by some of the really poor home-made covers out there, especially when they go with really pretty good books, given how cheaply good ones can be. (I'm currently reading a YA historical where the quality of the writing was a complete surprise to me because the cover was so home-made.) I wonder if sometimes it's because a friend or relative has designed it and the author can't tell them it's not good enough. A few years ago there weren't all these options for cheap covers so you could see someone being grateful for help and then not being wanting to explain that the bar has risen.

Thank you countess! They are really good and seem to really 'get' what I want.

Love a bargain!

How is everyone?

Just in case anyone doesn't know, MN now has a topic called The Plughole where we can plug our books legitimately and without being deleted!

There have been some technical problems with threads disappearing from there but they're on the case now.

Hello everyone.

This is my first post in this topic. I have been lurking for a while, ever since CountessofFitzdotterel suggested that I should visit the Creative Writing topic.

So many tips and ideas here. I am very impressed, and grateful to you all.

So, let me introduce myself:

I write middle grade (for pre-teens).

I have self-published, but I have done so in collaboration with another Mumsnetter. A sort of self-publishing collective.

My first book, an adventure set in Greece

I do also have a blog, but it is on an entirely different topic, and will, in fact, be the topic of a future book. You can take a look if you like and tell me whether you think it would be interesting! Etymology blog

Hi, I thought I would introduce myself. I have written a novel and have sent it to various agents, but have had no luck with it being taken on. My next step will be to self publish. If you publish on KDP I think (correct me if I'm wrong) that it is just an e book - but if you do it on create space (also part of Amazon) then you have have print on demand physical book and it automatically goes on as an e book too? That's what I've heard. So it seems to me that my first port of call is create space. Someone also said that you have to register yourself as self-employed because they need your tax code on Amazon?

Also cover designs - I need to look into that!

This is a great thread.

Hi
I'm Gen and after 5 years on the 'get published' trail I decided to self publish. My book is on bullying and Aspergers.
Helloeveryone. I've published on Amazon but not their select programme as I also want to increase exposure via Smashwords. I'm not going down the createspace at the moment though as I'm feeling my way. I know a physical book will always be more popular with kids, but for me it's not the right route at the moment so I can't advice on tax issues. My book is priced at 99p so I do know that, after tax I'll be earning 24p for each sale - not really worth it unless money isn't your sole reason for publishing lol

Hi Gen12,

On the select programme - does that mean that you can't go on Smashwords? Is it that you are stuck with only Amazon for 6 months before you can use other routes too? It's all so confusing. Also I don't have my own ISBN number - do you? I have been fiddling around with Createspace and trying to upload my book to it, to see how it looks. I think I've just about mastered it. But next I need to sort out a cover. Good luck with your book. x

Yes, you're exclusive to Amazon on Select.

I have mixed feelings about it tbh. When I've done Goodreads read-to-review giveaways, I've offered a choice of formats and the majority of readers have requested pdfs, a few epubs and only a minority Kindle files, which tells me I am missing out on readers by only having the Kindle file for sale.
But most people say the vast majority of their sales are via Amazon, so I can well believe that the benefits of the possibility of Amazon promotions outweigh the missed sales.

When you say exclusive, do you mean for 3 months/6 months or for as long as you are on Amazon for?

Just for the period you're signed up to Select, so 3 or 6 months or whatever the minimum was. After that you can sell the book where you want.
I'm quite keen to be available elsewhere just on the principle of not letting Amazon be the monopoly, but for now all my eggs are in the Amazon basket.

Hi Countess and others who have self published. Can I ask a question about typesetting? Do you get someone professional to help set it out like a book or is that done for you at Amazon-Create Space etc..I agree its all so confusing!

You do the typesetting yourself for CreateSpace. You can download the Word templates from them for the size of book you want. It took me a few hours which was mostly messing about with margins and font size, checking for widows and orphans, etc.

That said, the typesetting is the aspect of my book I am least happy with. I paid a very good professional designer for the cover, and the quality of the book production is fine, but inside it just indefinably doesn't look quite perfect to me.

No-one has complained or mentioned it in a review (and I've had about 20 reviews so far for the print edition) - the only person who has commented negatively is my wonderful brother, who is a print geek, and has offered to help with an improved edition and has sent me a book about typesetting to improve my skillz . When I have time I'm definitely going to take him up on it because having made the words as good as I possibly can it's annoying not to have done the same with the typesetting.

So, what I would say is: it's easy to do an acceptable job but hard to do a perfect job, so if you are a perfectionist you will either need to put some effort into learning about it, or else get help/pay someone else to typeset it for you. It depends what your aims for the book are, really, and of course your budget!

Thanks so much Countess. Your tips are brilliant.