self publishing - going well!

[Pinkmoondust]

so ive self publishing my first children's book and its going really well! Sold over 80 copies in the first week on amazon! I am new to all this but I am really pleased to get it out there.

sorry meant to put self published.

Oh wow! That’s amazing! Can you post a link? Or PM me if it’s against the rules.

That's great news! I am waiting to self publish. I have finished my novel and it is all set up to go but I want to develop a website, so waiting to do this first. It is lovely to hear some positivity about self publishing.

@Daphnesmate04 I have just set up a new website through Go Daddy. It’s was so easy! They have all these inbuilt templates you can use. I have moved from Shopify and I am so glad I did.

How did you manage to get that number of sales?
And how hard did you find the self-publication process? Did it take you a long time to get the book ready to publish? Did it cost much?
I'm looking into this atm. I gather that most people sell very very few books!

buckerrucker

I am waiting to hear the answer to your question too.

Although I haven't published yet, I spent around £600 I think having a cover produced and copy edited/proof read. I expect I will never see that money back again but for me, the book has great sentimental value as it deals with a theme close to my heart. To see it at the best it can be, to hold the (near) finished article in my hand was worth the money to me as it was never a commercial venture but something I am very proud of achieving. I have very few hobbies/indulgencies and after spending around 5 years working on my book, I felt justified in spending the money. If you are technically adept and proficient with grammar/punctuation etc. you might not need to out source this. However, it is very, very useful to have another pair of eyes upon your work (more if you can, I also have a friend who is very hot on proof reading and she helped too). I have just finished reading a traditionally published book and have noticed at least 3 obvious mistakes (words transposed) and I can't help but feel this should have been picked up. However the author is quite prolific and this book is one of about a dozen.

I approached one of those companies that seem to do it all in house and from memory it was well over £1000, too much for me but by sourcing individuals through reviews I was able to outsource the work for at least half the amount. Copy edit/proof reader I was about 80% pleased with. Cover designer 90% so I don't think I could have gained much more by paying at least twice the amount.

I lost count of the number of edits I performed "I'm working on about the 50 billionth edit," I joked to a writer friend...obviously not true but it certainly felt this way.

I think I'm going to do the editing myself, as I am actually v good at grammar, etc. Anything to do with technology is more of an issue for me, including formatting, and the thought of trying to upload onto Amazon...

Thankfully, copy editor also made it Amazon ready (formatted) as I would have probably struggled with this but the actual uploading was fairly simple.

@Pinkmoondust

so ive self publishing my first children's book and its going really well! Sold over 80 copies in the first week on amazon! I am new to all this but I am really pleased to get it out there.

Well done. You must have done a lot of promotional work for it to sell so well. I know a few people who self publish and I know what hard work it is.

Thanks all! I spread the word online and was on my local radio station talking about my book. I also sent out press releases and have been published in local media talking about why I wrote the book. I find self publishing on amazon really straight forward. I'm lucky that my husband is a copywriter and helped with editing, a friend did the illustrations in black and white. we wanted to get the book out there asap as it was to help young children cope with lockdown so it was very timely. ill add a link
thehullhub.co.uk/hull-mum-pens-her-first-childrens-book-to-support-parents-and-their-children-in-lockdown/