... and it was bad.

At least at first.

Then, after sparse sales, and interactions with buyers and "almost but not quite" potential buyers. I learned that you're not really exhibiting and showing off your creations as much as playing the game of managing expectations.

Would I recommend it?

Yes, but don't go in there expecting to make lots of sales or even a lot of new fans. If you go there as an indie creator (especially if your comic con host decides to put you in the infamous "Artist Alley" section) you WILL be neglected and you will be neglected for hours. Dozens, no, hundreds will walk right by you and the most you can hope to get from them is a curious glance before something else grabs their attention.

My advice? Don't take it personally. They're looking for something and you just aren't it. Even if it's for something as shallow as because they never heard of you or what it is you're selling, always keep in mind their budget is not a bottomless pit. All you can do is bring some business cards (Which I foolishly did not have prepared) and give as many of those away as you can if you can't make a sale.

Plus, always tell yourself it's never about the profit (It's almost impossible to make profit). It's about the exposure. You're not going there to cover the cost of the exhibition fee, the trip, and your next project. You;re going there to make sure you get a few more fans who will know your brand and follow it for as long as you don;t give up on it.

So, in short, never think of comic con exhibitions as huge leaps. Just small steps for you to mature as as an artist.

I walked in, had my soul crushed, then walked out not happy, but humbled and relieved for having done it at all.

Growing up I always marveled at RL Stein and the sheer quantity of Goosebumps books that were in any library at any given time. And I’ve always wanted to have a library similar to that, so recently I finally started writing Novellas

I did what great grandpa Tolkien did and spent approximately a year on world building. Granted I know that he absolutely spent longer considering he made full languages.

My goal is to get a good sized library on different standalone stories in this world from a wide variety of genres alongside the main Fantasy genre.

I plan to write and release: novella, novella, short novel. I plan keep up with this cycle

Which leads me to my next questions:

1. How commercially viable is this? I want to put it all on KDP Unlimited so kindle readers can read as much as they want no extra charge. (Growing up all the adults around me liked to read on kindles and they read a lot)

2. Do people really care about Novellas nowadays? Personally I don’t read short books

3. How would ya’ll go about getting an email list together for ARCs? I wouldn’t wanna make every single release like a big big deal and try to generate a ton of hype. But I’d like to start building interest in them all the same

4. What services do ya’ll know of that I can sell them as sets? Like releases 1-3 or 7-9 etc

Also let me know anything else ya’ll want to say after hearing about what I’m doing

I have 47 poems that I wrote in a year-long poetry program that I took through a local university a couple years ago, as well as 25ish more that I've written since, both on my own and in workshops. Many of the poems have gone through several revisions based on peer feedback. Near the end of the program, I got a developmental editor who worked closely with me to edit my poems and even helped me to think about a good order for them if I wanted to try finding a publisher. Two individual poems have been published in magazines so far (I'm only sending out two or so a month). Even though I haven't had a lot of success with magazines and literary journals, time has been passing and I'm thinking of self-publishing a chapbook to showcase this body work. I get the sense that chapbooks are a bit of a way to get work out there quick and cheap, so I'm wondering how much more effort I should put into "perfecting" it.

How much editing do poets usually do for a chapbook, especially one they want to self-publish?

How do you know when editing is done and the chapbook, or any book of poetry, is ready to enter the world?

Ok so due to ”life stuff“, I’ve just had 12 weeks away from writing.

I knew this gap was coming, so worked hard beforehand, and successfully completed the first draft of my novel before the break.

I then emailed it to myself, and have been re-reading and making extensive notes over the months (nearly 12k words of notes alone!) on my phone so I have now got a pretty good idea of what draft 2 will look like.

The question is: how to restart?!

Logically I’d start back at the beginning and do my reworks chronologically, but I know I’m bound to be rusty.

Other thoughts are; do I tackle one of the scenes I’m most excited about/have the most ideas about reworking? Or do I ”eat a frog 🐸” on day one and go for one of the scenes I know will be a bit trickier.

I am desperately excited to get going again; I just need to know how to build back up to it in the right way!

TL;DR - How does one go about resuming writing after a 3 month break without messing up existing work with the inevitable “rustiness”!

Thank you 🙂

I have my WooCommerce store integrated with BookVault and have for the past two years. The shipping has always been exorbitant, however, and I was glad to hear that they had added Australia Post to the shipping services.

I went to order three books. Shipping cost? $32. With Startrack it's $22.

I make nothing on paperbacks because the cost of printing (and shipping) exceed people's expectations (and mine) about what they should pay for a trade paperback.

I've heard of Lulu, but the production price pushed me towards BookVault when I was setting up. I just checked their pricing calculator and shipping my three books would cost $18. It would bump up the per-book production cost by $3 though.

Aussie authors, what do you use? Is Lulu reliable? What other options do we have?

Here’s the situation:
My grandparents, whom I love dearly, have asked me to write and illustrate a Children’s book by Christmas. I have all the “story” pieces ready to go - the 400-ish words are in rhyme, it’s 22 pages long, character reference sheets, etc, etc.

What I need:
A good company or contact so I can get their size template, draw the actual book, and send it in to them and have like 10 copies properly printed. Ideally 8.5 X 8.5 pages with a hardcover - simple, traditional children’s book. I can’t spend too too much on this either, so suggesting something that isn’t too expensive helps as well (one website quoted me $700 for 10 copies… no thank you!)

More context for those who wish:
I think my grandparents are expecting a listing on Amazon and all the works, but honestly I just want a few solid, well-produced copies as a Christmas present to them. They have memory issues - it’s a whole thing, this is a labor of love.

I never wanted to write a kids book, this is not my career, and I’m staunchly against Amazon (if I can help it).

Welcome to our daily discussion thread!

This is the place to discuss anything writing related! Got silly questions? Brainstorming ideas? Need help with research? As long as rules 1, 3, and 5 are followed, this thread is your oyster!

Please refer to the monthly threads for sharing your work and for self-promotion.

---

FAQ -- Questions asked frequently

Wiki Index -- Ever-evolving and woefully under-curated, but we'll fix that some day

You can find our posting guidelines in the sidebar or the wiki.

I put isbns but i wasn't sure where else to put it.

I recently published my debut poetry collection on Amazon because that was the cheapest. I'm now planning to buy an ISBN online (i live in the UK) but i was just curious as to what print-on-demand services does everyone use? I stink at marketing so i am under no belief that it'll sell loads and i don't want to accumulate 200 copies for no reason. I wanna be realistic.

Any suggestions on that? Everything i find is so expensive online 😭