I'm fast approaching the end of my year's experiment with self-publishing. What have I learned???
A LOT!
1) I always knew word of mouth was the best advertising...but growing that word of mouth is challenging.
2) Pre-promotion is critical. Building the anticipation factor is critical. Someone sees an ad/mention (twitter)/posted link (facebook), and a host of other cyber sites a large number of times before they will buy your book.
3) Participation is crucial. If you aren't active...you are forgotten. I've had several months of ups and downs as far as my participation in blogs, interviews, chat sessions, forums, and assorted other things. The best laid plans are often side swiped...so it has been for me these past two months.
4) The best selling self-published authors made their marks in standard publishing first AND then moved on to e-publishing/self-publishing.
5) Sales can be exhilarating and disheartening at the same time. I've gone from nothing to almost 1,000 copies of my books in people's hands. Not a huge number by standard publishing scales, but not too shoddy for someone who went about this backwards.
6) Pre-write three or four of your books you want to self-publish BEFORE you publish the first one. You will feel less like you are behind the eight-ball.
I've made a lot of mistakes and had a mediocre to moderate success this year. Only mediocre effort was put forth not knowing the ropes prior. The main success comes in actually publishing again. I've had a long hiatus from publishing and missed it. I have more reader contact this way than the other. Not just fan mail, but actual interactions which is a change. I'm actually interacting with fellow writers more this year than I have in the thirty years prior which is fabulous.
More on this later. My computer is still iffy...9 more days and counting.
Keep writing and loving the Lord.
No comments:
Post a Comment
I love to hear from you! Agree, Disagree, Indifferent...no matter. Even if it's to say you were here.