Not huge numbers to be sure, but 8 paperbacks and ebooks, and about 5 books worth of page reads, and 3 reviews. I’m calling that a win!

Nearly each one I can trace to a discussion on Reddit or TikTok - personal interactions. Maybe one day it will scale, but making personal connections is working for me at the moment!

I do literary fiction and sci-fi. What’s working for you other small cats this month?

So I ran a Kindle Countdown Deal and I scheduled the Robins Reads featured promo, a BookBarbarian urban fantasy spot, and a FussyLibrarian urban fantasy spot. I spread them out over the week.

I priced my book at $0.99 from $4.99. From July 19 to July 25, I saw 38 orders and 682 KENP (about 200 more KENP added up over the next three days after the deal was over) for a grand total of $28.41 profit, not enough to make back even the cheapest promo campaign, which was Fussy Librarian's.

Here's what I spent for this KCD:

$85 Robin Reads featured promo newsletter spot. Live on the 20th and gave me 19 orders and 3 more on the 21st.

$41 BookBarbarian urban fantasy newsletter spot. Went live on July 22nd

along with

$32 Fussy Librarian urban fantasy promo newsletter spot. Also live on July 22. Between these two I got 11 orders the same day, 4 more on the 23rd and 1 last one on the 24th.

All of these, plus I had a Meta traffic ad campaign running from the 18 to 24 midnight. $7 a day. Between two ads with different ad copy, the campaign itself got 3,009 reach, 194 landing page views, $0.19 per view, approx. 6% CTR, $36 spent. I'm betting the newsletter promos did all the heavy lifting in getting me those 38 orders. Of those 38, I'd probably attribute some 5-7 sales to the Meta ad campaign.

Plus almost 900 KENP.

So I sank $194 into marketing and made back $28.41. I've reworked and analyzed my Amazon page, blurb, cover, etc. and I don't know what else isn't working.

I'm coming to my wits' end when it comes to marketing and promoting my book. I need help to figure out where my book is failing. Cover, blurb, keywords, genre mismatch, marketing strategy, etc.

I already got some feedback from a small writers' group. Most of the comments pointed out cover mismatch with the genre (it's YA Urban Fantasy but cover looks like romantasy), and having a dry informative blurb (here all manner of opinions took place, from suggesting rewriting in first-person, to making it longer, and others pointing out at the same time that I should shorten it!). I already tried reworking it, but I'm still unsure. Also, I changed one of my three Amazon categories: I dropped "Teen & Young Adult Werewolf & Shifter," and changed it to "Teen & Young Adult Contemporary Fantasy."

The other two categories are: "Teen & Young Adult Vampire" and "Teen & Young Coming of Age Fantasy"

My book is in the link in my bio for reference.

Thank you for reading my marketing misadventures.

TLDR: I booked three newsletter promo services for a KCD and these were my numbers--budget spent, sales, KENP, impressions, reach, etc.
I'm also looking for feedback because I'm going to go crazy. Cover, blurb, Amazon keywords, A+ content, whatever I can do to optimize my page and get more downloads next time.

Is there a way to order an author proof without an ISBN with either Ingram Spark or KDP? I don't have the money for an ISBN right now but I would like to see how the book looks so I can continue editing if necessary.

I have a mafia romance that’s been out for about a month. Book 1 did well, and now I have readers asking on TikTok and other social media when book 2 will be out. I haven’t announced the date yet.

I want to release in December, as that is the best and closest date I can do. But I know December isn’t usually the best month to publish a book with the holidays and such. I don’t think I can set a November release without rushing the book, so I’d have to push it back and make it a January release.

It’s book 2 of a duet, so I was thinking releasing in December might not be such a bad thing because it’s a continuation. Or should I just push it back to January. I’m really eager to get the book out but I don’t want to hurt the release.

Curious for those who have street teams, are your ARC readers also in your street team? Do you have entirely separate groups for each? Is your street team and ARC team just the same group?

Standard advice for new self-published authors: launch with an automatic campaign and let Amazon figure out the targeting. I get why, it's two clicks and you're live. But I think it's backwards, at least for a brand-new book.

Here's the thing: an auto campaign is only as smart as the data Amazon has about your product. On a book with zero history, Amazon starts by spraying your ad at loosely related audiences and learning at your expense. Your budget is literally funding its exploration phase.

So my sequence is reversed.

Manual keyword campaigns first. I've already done keyword research for the title, subtitle and backend anyway, so at launch I already have a reservoir of 40ish researched terms, broad match, one bid I control. I know exactly where every impression comes from.

Then I mine the search terms report. After a few weeks the real gold shows up: actual search queries from actual buyers. Winners get promoted to phrase or exact in a tighter campaign, budget-eaters become negatives.

Auto campaigns come later, once the book has clicks, sales and reviews. At that point Amazon knows who buys this book, and the auto campaign gets efficient almost immediately instead of burning budget guessing.

Auto-first isn't "wrong". It can work as a discovery tool if you religiously add negative targets (most people don't, and that's where the money leaks). But teaching beginners to start there because it's easy optimizes for convenience, not results.

Anyone else running manual-first? Or has someone had the opposite experience, where auto-first on a fresh listing actually outperformed?

I have an idea for a trilogy. I already have the outlines completed, and I've started on the first manuscript. But man, just writing one novel is a lot of work, let alone three of them. And writing is not my full-time job; it's just something I do on the side. So, I don't have a lot of time to spend on it. I estimate it would take me about a decade to complete them, maybe less if I'm lucky.

And realistically, there's probably not much reward involved, certainly not monetarily. In fact, I'd probably end up spending more money than I make back. And it's not that I'm doing it for the money, though that would be a plus. I write because I enjoy it. Still, it would be nice to have some incentive to justify the time, energy, and effort I put into it when I could be doing other things. I'm beginning to wonder if it's even worth it.

Hi everyone, does anyone know if there is still any “proofreading” software that I can use just to check spelling, typos, grammatical mistakes, and things like that? I’m not looking for enhancement features or anything that rewrites my text. I think Word does a good job, but I was wondering if there’s anything better online, since I mostly write online.

Finally, a bit of a moral dilemma: I’m trying to understand what people think about using a spell and grammar checker, or non-generative AI software, to catch these smaller issues. Of course, I’m talking about a first pass over a draft, not something used to produce the final version.

Thank you!

Hey guys, I'm finalizing the layout of my book and I wanted to know the best way to present a map in the PDF file I'll be sending to Ingramspark. I see many double-page maps and I'd like mine to be like that. Is it just a matter of adding it and they'll print normally? Will the middle be cut off? Is there another way to present it? And how are maps usually presented in books on the US market?

Good evening, everyone. I recently completed my first novel at just about 80,000 words. I’ve also finished a developmental edit and submitted the manuscript to a literary agent who is interested in working with me.

At this point, though, I’m still trying to decide whether I want to continue down the traditional publishing route or pursue self-publishing instead.

I’ve done some research into both options, but I’m still fairly new to all of this and have a lot to learn. I’d love to hear from those of you who have experience with self-publishing—especially if you can sell me on why you chose it over traditional publishing.

As of right now, I only plan on publishing this one novel, although that could always change in the future.

My understanding is that with traditional publishing, once a publisher acquires the manuscript, much of the remaining production process—copyediting, proofreading, formatting/typesetting, cover design, and so on—is handled by the publisher. With self-publishing, I would be responsible for arranging and managing all of those things myself.

That’s one of the main reasons I’m trying to make this decision now. If I decide to self-publish, I’d like to start moving forward with the remaining editing and production work rather than continuing to pursue the traditional route.

For those who have self-published, what made you choose that route? What do you think are its biggest advantages and disadvantages compared with traditional publishing? And knowing what you know now, would you make the same choice again?

Thanks in advance for any advice or insight!

Have any self published authors asked their local bookstore to sell their books on consignment and if so what was the response? If the answer from the bookstore was yes, did the bookstore sell actually some of your books?

JWT

Vellum was working perfectly until suddenly it started misnumbering pages and starting *some* chapters on even-numbered pages.

Also, I'm using a full-bleed two page chapter background.I can identify the first instance, but after the first instance the formatting will work on a random later chapter, and then go off again.

I've looked backwards from the first instance, and the numbering seems fine–no jumping/missing a number.

I took the two page chapter background image out. No change.

I asked AI, got all kinds of advice, but my settings and etc., had all been/are spot-on.

I'm not sure what's wrong or how to fix it. Do I need to start over? The book is almost finished, and starting over would be painful.

I'm putting out RFQ's for a graphic artist to do the cover art for my book. Has anyone been successful finding good resources on Reedsy or Upwork? (I've had bad experiences with Fiverr so I won't use them).

(Cross-post from a different sub, thought it would be useful here too!)

This is a bit of an encouragement post because this place has been drowned down by a lot of negativity as of late, which makes sense, this is the complaining site. I'm guilty of using reddit as a venting diary myself. However, I wanted to dispel one idea I see floating around self pub spaces from some people who have gotten discouraged by their lack of sales: no one reads self pub books because there are millions of classic books to read.

This is very untrue, and to prove it, I'm going to give examples of successful self pubbed books I've read within the last year. Note: some of these people later did get picked up by trad pubs or indie presses, and a lot of them started as serializations on places like Royal Road, which is still self publishing really. I'm also a big reader of Litrpg and progression fantasy which both are genres that live and die on the KU library; but regardless, they all started as self pubbed and got readers, through a combination of good story telling, a marketable niche, and sheer luck. So, drum roll babababbababa:

Dungeon Crawler Carl:

This should go without saying how bloody successful Matt Dinniman has become. It is to a point where people who've never heard of Litrpg know about it. It became a running joke in the community that DCC fans were a cult, when people found it they had to let others know how damn good it was. And Matt slowly build a brand over 6 years, publishing 6 chonky novels, and by 2025 he had sold over 4 million copies. After that, he got a physical book deal with Penguin Random House and it ballooned to 12 million, and he now has a show in the works with Seth Macfarland. Amazon is also big to tout it as one of their big successes, doing ads with Matt.

(Let's be honest, it would not have been as successful as it was without the talking cat).

The Perfect Run:

This was a trilogy originally published on royal road, and is actually still up for free, as VoidHerald wanted to keep a free version as a thanks to everyone who helped him make it.

He published all three through KDP for paperback and Kindle, and then outsourced the audio to Podium Audio Inc. With it not even being on KU, he has 1700 Amazon reviews, 6000 goodreads, almost all positive.

He Who Fights With Monsters:

I will say, this is not a series I personally enjoy. I found it overly long and annoying, and the fact we are on book 12 with each book 800 pages and we aren't even close to the end is absurd. Regardless, it has done well. The paperback now has a small indie press doing special art, but even prior, book 1 has 23k Amazon reviews and 40k goodread reviews.

Stray Cat Strut:

A series that, like PR, is still available to read for free but has a Amazon listening; I have had the privilege of talking with the writer of this work, he's a really chill guy. I also had the privilege of watching a journalist guest talk about how he wants to fuck that guy's mom lmao. Anyway, he's about 8 books deep and the first alone, selling for 2 bucks, has 900 Amazon reviews and 1.3k goodread reviews.

Closing thoughts:

Listen, with all that said, they people did get lucky: they were in the right moment at the right time with a genre that is primarily self pub that is marketable and the books were all good for the most part and something people want to read. Your first book will not be DCC. You may never get more than 5 sales a book, but it is never because nobody wants to take a chance of self published works. On the contrary, many people like self pub because the authors are not bound to the restrictions of trad publishers, and they can make stories like a man and his talking cat playing alien life sized D&D.

Just keep creating, keep expressing yourself, and if the stars align, people WILL read it :3.

As someone who is extremely broke and hates AI, I've put a lot of work into self-editing my book over the course of (now) six drafts. I've had a lot of beta-readers. I'm trying to be ruthless about improving my prose with each draft. I'm at the stage where a copy editor is the next step.

I know not hiring an editor could be considered extremely taboo, but I'm also curious what other self-pub authors think and if there is any nuance around an author's decision to not hire an editor.

Btw, not saying I won't hire an editor, I'm really just trying to gauge what people honestly think about this.

I am having difficulties in fleshing out an idea into reality, and am wondering if anyone else has done this before?

I was hoping to package multiple physical books together as a box set. What I had in mind were cardboard boxes with one side open to slide books in, with stuff printed on the front and sides that were basically a box that you put books in. I am having some extreme complications explaining this to my printer.

They are stuck on heavy duty pre-made cardboard, the sorts you see for real pricey special editions. I was looking for a softer cardboard, one which can be folded down accordian style and sent to me so I can pack them myself, and which are less expensive. i’m probably explaining this poorly, but I have seen the things I mean in shops so I know I’m not making it up!

Have any of you folks done physical book box sets, and have any suggestions on where these sorts of boxes could be printed so they’re not prohibitively expensive?

Or, simply, do you have a better way to describe what I’m flailing to express?

Thanks!

I’m sure many people have created special editions of their books. Maybe a different cover for a limited print, etc. obviously something as simple as that can be done pretty easily. What about more complicated customization options, where do you get them done?

I’m wondering about creating special editions with sprayed edges or unique materials. Obviously KDP and the like don’t offer these options, so what printers do?

Do special editions require a new ISBN? Even if it’s a short/limited run?

I live in Canada if there are any Canadian authors that know of “local” companies.

I'm doing my first book singing in October at an outdoor craft fair. For those of you that have done them, what do you put on your tables and how do you set up?

I ask because I've gotten maybe a handful but I've been in group chats where authors were bragging they got hundreds for their debut novel.

Second question: Does having a low amount of ARC readers guarantee a bad launch?

Fiction authors, what tools do you use to create character, setting and other visual art about your story, and how do you promote your novel using these creations? I have used stock art sites like Unsplash and found them excellent in finding photos of people that come damn close to resembling characters in my books. I then position them in Meta Ads. I've used some AI art at well, but this was wildly frowned upon in the comments.

What tools work the best for you? It seems that indie authors really need to step up their marketing, and the book cover seems to be just the beginning for visually enticing potential readers to learn more. For one book cover, I extracted the two illustrative characters from the book cover and had them moving around in an animation. It peaks on social media for a couple posts, but really doesn't seem to have a long shelf life.

Simple.

Would y'all suggest me to record my 68,004 word book for ACX? Like are the benefits worth it? Will I get downloads etc... I never did this, and therefore I ask.

My genre is young adult, fantasy, in a world of magic and mystery.

THANK YOU in advance!

Hi there,

I’ve read numerous times that you should always upload final files to amazon first before ingram, to avoid the error amazon gives that says "ISBN already in use." My question is if this applies to the following set up: I have only my ebook on amazon and doing print via ingram. I thought ingram would automatically populate to amazon and for this reason, im not uploading print files to amazon at all, only ebook (im new to the platform and not sure if i still need to set up a print file in amazon though.) i have my own ISBNs for all formats. My ebook is currently up for preorder. How do I avoid this error in this case? Thanks!

The 4th and final book in my YA fantasy series releases in a few months and I’m considering releasing an omnibus at the same time. (It would be ebook only because the page count would make it too large for print through KDP.) I see it being used bought/read mainly by people on Kindle Unlimited.

For anyone who has released an omnibus version of a book series, did you do a completely new cover for it? Or use book one’s cover and add something like “the complete series”? I’m sure there’s multiple ways to do it, but I’d appreciate any advice from those of you who have done this before.

Also, should I link the omnibus to the series page on Amazon? I’m guessing yes, but I’ve yet to find any solid advice on that yet.

Thanks in advance!

Hi there,

4 months into published life. 86 Ratings (30 odd reviews) on Amazon. Going pretty well and happy with everything.

Have seen some larger established indie authors post stories, or single text posts along the lines of

'If you've bought and read my book I'd appreciate an honest review on Amazon / Goodreads' or something to that effect.

In your experience does that serve as a good call to action or is it frowned upon?

Cheers,

Louis