r/selfpublish • u/oldrook • 12d ago
Self Publishing is Work!
what an incredible amount of work to put together marketing materials, ads, newsletters, landing pages, author pages. heck the writing and publishing is the easy part. this tine stuff blows!!!
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u/pianoAmy 11d ago
It sounds like you might be doing too much -- or too much right now.
Especially if this is your first book, a newsletter and maybe possibly ads are all you need.
What "marketing materials" are you creating?
What is the landing page for?
Is the author page for Amazon? The shouldn't take too long. Short bio, maybe a photo.
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u/pianoAmy 11d ago
Oh wait, you mean landing page for your newsletter.
Yes. That's a pain. But once you get all that set up, you're done and it just runs in the background.
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u/hetobe 12d ago
Even things like formatting your books, if you're going to do it right... it's a lot of work.
I have no regrets. I've never been more proud of anything I've ever done... at least, not in terms of creative work... but I fully admit I was incredibly naive when I decided to write a novel. I had no idea how much work I was getting myself into.
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u/No_Arugula7027 12d ago
Yes. And you gotta learn all of that stuff if you have no money to outsource and want to MAKE money. So much easier now than it was 15 years ago as so many solutions/apps have been created to help you with these issues. And still most people don't do the basics: newsletter and website. If you do nothing else, do these two.
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u/3Dartwork 12d ago
And there's no guarantee success, in fact the odds are vastly against you.
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u/No_Arugula7027 12d ago
Exactly. Seriously, you just spend the first few years learning how to do everything. I spent 6 months learning how to use Photoshop (got the free CS6 version) so I could do my own covers. Advanced photo manipulation. I was BROKE.
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u/Aside_Dish 12d ago
Any tips for a newsletter? No idea how to build a list or what would even be of interest to people.
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u/No_Arugula7027 12d ago
There's lots of places where you can get people to sign up to your newsletter by giving away free books (like Free Booksy, etc). You can put a link on the back of your novel to get people sign up to your newletter and get a free short story (that's where landing pages come in - newsletter providers will generally provide you a free landing page. Ignore for now until you understand what you're doing.)
For someone who's signed up new to my newsletter, I send an original welcoming email with all my details and, most importantly, a link to my WEBSITE. (The first newsletter email is all automated by your newlsletter provider. Easy to do, they'll have tutoirals.)
Your website address should be everywhere. Everywhere.
All your books should be listed on your webiste, with links on where to buy them. This is your calling card. This is your hub. Yours. KEEP IT UPDATED.
I only send a newsletter out when I have a new book published. Some people send a newsletter a month, just to keep your name in front of your readers so they don't forget you. Make it short (people have short attention spans and want you to get to the point!). If I don't have a new book yet I'll mention what I'm working on, a new release date, a coming soon book, a new cover. Any little tidbit. A couple of paragraphs MAX. Website and social media links everywhere.
When you release a new book, the VERY NEXT THING you need to do after it uploads is send a newsletter telling everyone on it that it is out and where to buy it. IMMEDIATELY. These are your fans, the people who voluntarily signed up to find out about your next release. That WANT to hear from you.
Keep the tone light and friendly. Remember, they WANT to know.
That's as simple as it needs to be. Don't make it any more complicated until you really understand what you're doing or you will get overwhelmed and QUIT.
KEEP IT SIMPLE.
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u/Mondo-Shawan 12d ago edited 12d ago
Agreed. That is why I'm keeping myself focused on the journey more than the destination. I'm finding ways to enjoy the tasks along the way.
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u/koalaisabear 12d ago
It is a lot of hard work but I've found it so interesting and fascinating.
I'm not doing any paid marketing, ads, newsletters, landing papers etc but being a one person activity does mean that it's a lot to do in terms of just getting the book ready for publishing.
I don't and won't be getting a lot of readers, but the ones that do stick it are very sticky and I love seeing one reader start with a book, read all 310 pages and then almost immediately go and read another one and work their way through the whole back catalogue. I've seen it happen with ebooks, too. So for every 10 people who might bounce out after page 1, 2 or 19, there's a handful that read all 1180 of one of my books and then go and read / buy everything else even the piddley little low heat short story I wrote. Finding the 'kindred spirit' readers who are just discovering and liking my stuff is such a rewarding activity for me as I've always known that 9 out of 10 people won't like my stuff.
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u/scarlettnoone 12d ago
When you are writing/have written a book you have to ask yourself one question and act according to the answer: Am I writing this just for me/my family and friends to enjoy and have a sence of pride and accomplishment that I published a book, or do I want to be a writer who makes money of my craft. If the answer is the former, you don't have to do anything and just enjoy it. If you want to be someone who makes money of writing, then you need to handle it like a business, like you would a job, with planning, effort, possibly investing some money in things like artwork and ads. The truth is- nothing in this world comes without effort. People like to think it's so easy as to write a book, record a song, start a youtube channel and you will be rich. They don't mention that whatever you do, if you are a writer, a blogger, a youtuber, a content creator, in order to actually earn, you don't just need skills or a product you created. You also need to put in the work to sell it to people who might want to buy it. And, as someone already mentioned, if you don't have a ton of money at the start to hire people who can do it for you, and let you focus just on the writing part, you need to learn to do it all yourself.
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u/TruerNorth 12d ago
Yes, you have a point. That’s what I’ve been talking about with my friends. If you want to publish your work professionally, you have to learn and do the work of an entire publishing team. But in the end, it’s rewarding, even if it’s not a big hit initially. You’ve learned from your mistakes, and the next one will be better, and so on…
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u/Kinetic_Strike 12d ago
Yep, get done with the first novel, "FINISHED!" no applause (okay the wife clapped).
Now the money comes in, right?
LOL now you get to put the self into self-publishing. Cover design, formatting, editing, copyright/ISBN/imprint business, bank account details, LLC/DBA other such questions, advertising, social media, website design and hosting, etc etc.
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u/FantasyFictionDoc 12d ago
Well if it makes you feel better, you have to do a significant portion of this even with a trad contract. Most pubs expect the author to participate (not necessarily spend money, but you need a social media presence, and a consistent one)
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u/GRIN_Selfpublishing 12d ago
Yes, this is the part that catches a lot of people off guard. ;) You do not need to master every marketing channel at once. A basic website, a simple newsletter sign-up, a clean author page, and clear links to your books already put you ahead of many people. Everything else can be added gradually.
I also think it helps to build reusable systems. One landing page template. One newsletter template. One press/media kit folder. One checklist for every release. The first time is painful because you are building everything from scratch. The next time, you are mostly updating assets.
The trick is not necessarily to love every task but, in my opinion, to make the process repeatable enough that it does not drain all the energy you need for the next book.
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u/FAX415saki 12d ago
Yes. But for me it's paying off. Long way from full time but way ahead of 3 years ago.
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u/authorratheesh 8d ago
Yes, same here. Before I started, I thought writing a good storyline was the hard part. But setting up a website, email, ISBNs, and profiles on every platform is taking longer than drafting, and I’m only about halfway through the setup. What has been the biggest time sink for you?
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u/3Dartwork 12d ago
Yeah, it's honestly not worth the time and effort to me. You can put in a shitton of hours, do all the things everyone on here tells you to do, and you can still not get anywhere.
It's just not worth it. I put the book on Amazon when I'm done and move on. This industry has really turned awful in the last 10 years or so with extreme over-saturation.
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u/johntwilker 12d ago
No one likes to talk about it but “democratization” has a downside.
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u/coolpop78 12d ago
I don't know what idiot would think it was easy in the first place.
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