We all know that with today’s print-on-demand and e-book options, connecting directly with readers has become easier than ever. Charles Dickens—who had the foresight to self-publish 200 years before it was trendy—would have loved it.
This past fall, I decided to join the ranks of hopeful writers using the new technologies to give my work wings. And to anyone thinking of doing the same, I’m happy to share a little bit about my own journey so far.
Mainly, I’d like to talk about setting expectations about what self-publishing can do for you—and what you can do to help it along.
Don’t worry if some things aren’t as simple as you believed
The purpose of this post isn’t to go into the details of every step of the self-publishing process; there are plenty of great how-to’s on that already.
But I did want to mention, there are two areas of prep work that can be sticky if you’re not familiar with them in advance. One is formatting the book for print; the other is creating the e-book version.
In both cases, there are for-fee services available to help you accomplish this nicely. So don’t abandon the dream, if you feel overwhelmed.
Formatting your Book
But if you plan to format the book as a self-service option, make sure you’re familiar with all that formatting entails. For instance, there are templates available through print-on-demand publishers like CreateSpace that can help guide your print formatting, but there are also a lot of little desktop publishing details it helps to know—subtleties from em-dashes to curly quotes—that help make a book look more professional. Analyze how traditionally published books are formatted and follow their example. The more polished your product, the more you’ll increase your credibility. Because readers do actually judge a book by its cover (and its entrails!).
Formatting your eBook
The same goes for e-book versions. Initially, transforming my book to e-book sounded so easy. But the more I read up on it, the more it turned out to be a multistep process that required more understanding of HTML than I currently have. I ended up hiring a company to convert my novel to Nook and Kindle. It was a minor cost in the great scheme of things, and it gave me peace of mind.
Set realistic goals for your sales
Oh, we hear about the guy who was rejected from every publisher around, only to find his audience through e-books and sell a million copies. It’s the kind of tale that makes an eager writer’s heart soar. But in reality, the average self-published book sells anywhere from 100 to 200 copies in its lifetime.* And the average traditionally published book?—Around 500 copies.** This is the stuff nobody much wants to talk about but it’s so important to know.
Right now I’m selling one to two copies of my book per day, on average. It’s a humorous sci-fi adventure—a niche market—and I recognize my audience is limited. But I’ve seen writers in forums say they get just a handful of sales in a month. And I’ve seen others say they average 1,000 downloads a day.
So what’s your baseline for sales? It’s different for every book based on genre, market, need, title, cover design, name recognition, marketing power—a million factors. But even if you only see a few sales a month at first, remember: it all adds up over time. Unlike a traditionally published book, which has only a few months to gain a foothold in a store, self-published books can enjoy life as long as you let them live it up. And it sure beats the size of the audience lurking in your desk drawer, where the manuscript would reside if you haven’t given it some breathing room.
And that leads me to…
You are your own best advertisement
As a self-published writer, you’re also your own marketing department. This means that if you don’t already have a name for yourself online, you’re going to have to work that much harder to get your book out there. (If you’re even thinking of self-publishing in the future, I suggest you take some steps toward having an online presence and building your community of people with common interests now. It’s never too soon.)
It can seem awkward at first to market your book to the masses. But try different social media platforms and see what works for you. Consider inexpensive advertising on book-related websites or through Google keywords. Take advantage of opportunities on credible sites that do book giveaways, like Goodreads. Contact book bloggers that read your genre and see what their review guidelines are, and whether they accept self-published books. No one can buy a book they’ve never heard of.
I try to balance my normal, chatty social media hanging-out (which I’ve been doing for a number of years as a result of blogging) with some book promotion. I know many authors automate things like Tweets, promoting their work to their followers a hundred times a day. Personally, I value the online relationships I’ve built and enjoy the banter; I don’t want to lose that. So I try to keep the promo Tweets to a minimum, and I do all the postings by hand. I think it really makes a difference when the online folks know you’re a human first and a writer with a book for sale second.
Which leads me to my last point…
Laugh in the face of hard times
While there’s no saying your book won’t sell that million copies, don’t be discouraged if it doesn’t take off right away, or you hit a sales lull here or there.
Back in early November, I’d reached a plateau where sales had dropped off for a week while I was running a giveaway. Each day, I’d check my stats and each day… nothing new. Knowing the stats about average sales, I thought, “Well, this is it. I’m done. Why bother? It’s a hell of a lot of work, if it’s not going anywhere.”
But I knew I had a book that could still entertain a few people more, and I wanted to see how far the book could go. So I continued promoting, arranging book reviews, sending out review copies, participating in giveaways. Then the Christmas shopping season hit and sales picked up. And with the new year came new e-reader purchases. Now, in 2012, the momentum is still there. I don’t know how long it will last, but I’m moving ahead with promotions, as well as writing my book’s sequel.
If I had given up when I did, I wouldn’t be less than 20 sales away from my next personal sales benchmark. Is it a million copies? Er, no.
But the joy of beating the averages, of sharing the story and characters with the world outside that desk drawer of mine—there’s nothing like it.
Our friend Mr. Dickens, I suspect, would agree.
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Jenn Thorson is an author, professional writer, and a compulsive weaver of fictions in the car, shower and other places she normally can’t find a pen. Her stories have been published in the Humor Press, the journal for the Lewis Carroll Society of North America, and Romantic Homes magazine. Her novel, There Goes the Galaxy, is available for Kindle and Nook, and in paperback. You can find it on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/There-Goes-the-Galaxy-ebook/dp/B005M2RRRA or check out Jenn’s web site at http://www.jennthorson.com
* About.com Publishing: http://publishing.about.com/od/SelfPublishingAndVanityPresses/a/Reasons-To-Self-Publish.htm And Sci-fi Fantasy Writers of America Organization: http://www.sfwa.org/for-authors/writer-beware/pod/
**Publishers Weekly, July 17, 2006
Related articles
- What today’s publishers could learn from Charles Dickens (teleread.com)
- Publishing on Kindle (stevebichard.com)
- Adventures in Self-Publishing: Selecting a Print on Demand Publisher (Part I) (consortiuminfo.org)
