Thanks for this post. I find myself in the crossroads and sometimes I still want the trad and other times I just want to self-pub and go wide. Right now, just focusing on increasing my substack and gaining a following for my stories.
You're welcome! I was at a similar place (and maybe still am) after releasing my second book. Sometimes it feels like I have to hand-sell every single copy of my book, while everything seems much easier for other authors. I just try to keep my head down, keep writing, keep learning, and keep reaching out to readers, even if it's one at a time.
Thanks John - I'd love to hear more about your attempts to crossover with Royal Road. Like how many people are reading the stories on Royal Road and do you think it has been worth your time to cross post your stories to Substack and Royal Road? Is the juice worth the squeeze? How have your experience been with selling your books on the Amazon platform versus direct? Have you looked into or thought about Kindle Vella? Thanks again and have a great 2024!
Great questions! Tbh my efforts on Royal Road have really only involved posting chapters over there. It doesn't take very long to post the chapters and queue them up for publication.
I can see stats on each chapter of RR but is hard to tell how many people are actually reading each chapter. I had a good cadence going as I posted book 1 and people were commenting a good amount. But now that I had a long gap in between posting book 1 and book 2, I haven't seen the same amount of interaction start up again. I think the authors who tend to do well there are posting multiple chapters every week, which I can't sustain.
I've found it much easier selling on Amazon than direct. Whenever I run ads directly to my online shop, they don't really convert, whereas the ads to the Amazon page convert much better. I'm hoping over time readers will get more used to buying direct and that will make things easier.
I looked at Kindle Vella but you are not allowed to post material elsewhere and make it free. So I couldn't post on Vella and make chapters available on Substack or Royal Road. So that's why I haven't published on Vella.
Interesting, I guess I never realized how much goes into self publishing. I knew you would get to keep more $ by doing it all yourself, but your're still doing alot of the work the publisher would be doing! Is it still posible to find a literary agent by going to writers conventions or somthing or the like? Do you have any regrets going the self publishing route?
Yes, it's definitely a trade-off, and the amount of things an indie author has to handle is a lot. However I think more and more of the marketing efforts are being put on authors who are with a traditional publisher, as marketing budgets shrink across the board.
I assume so re conventions, but I'm not sure. The most common way is researching agencies and seeing which agents are accepting new clients and which are looking for books/genres that match what you are writing.
I don't have any regrets about going the self-publishing route. I've learned so much along the way and met a lot of great indie authors in the process.
Thank you and keep writing.
Thanks!
Thanks for this post. I find myself in the crossroads and sometimes I still want the trad and other times I just want to self-pub and go wide. Right now, just focusing on increasing my substack and gaining a following for my stories.
You're welcome! I was at a similar place (and maybe still am) after releasing my second book. Sometimes it feels like I have to hand-sell every single copy of my book, while everything seems much easier for other authors. I just try to keep my head down, keep writing, keep learning, and keep reaching out to readers, even if it's one at a time.
Thanks John - I'd love to hear more about your attempts to crossover with Royal Road. Like how many people are reading the stories on Royal Road and do you think it has been worth your time to cross post your stories to Substack and Royal Road? Is the juice worth the squeeze? How have your experience been with selling your books on the Amazon platform versus direct? Have you looked into or thought about Kindle Vella? Thanks again and have a great 2024!
Great questions! Tbh my efforts on Royal Road have really only involved posting chapters over there. It doesn't take very long to post the chapters and queue them up for publication.
I can see stats on each chapter of RR but is hard to tell how many people are actually reading each chapter. I had a good cadence going as I posted book 1 and people were commenting a good amount. But now that I had a long gap in between posting book 1 and book 2, I haven't seen the same amount of interaction start up again. I think the authors who tend to do well there are posting multiple chapters every week, which I can't sustain.
I've found it much easier selling on Amazon than direct. Whenever I run ads directly to my online shop, they don't really convert, whereas the ads to the Amazon page convert much better. I'm hoping over time readers will get more used to buying direct and that will make things easier.
I looked at Kindle Vella but you are not allowed to post material elsewhere and make it free. So I couldn't post on Vella and make chapters available on Substack or Royal Road. So that's why I haven't published on Vella.
You're welcome and happy 2024!
That's all good to know. Excited to see what you do in 2024 with your stories and comics.
Interesting, I guess I never realized how much goes into self publishing. I knew you would get to keep more $ by doing it all yourself, but your're still doing alot of the work the publisher would be doing! Is it still posible to find a literary agent by going to writers conventions or somthing or the like? Do you have any regrets going the self publishing route?
Yes, it's definitely a trade-off, and the amount of things an indie author has to handle is a lot. However I think more and more of the marketing efforts are being put on authors who are with a traditional publisher, as marketing budgets shrink across the board.
I assume so re conventions, but I'm not sure. The most common way is researching agencies and seeing which agents are accepting new clients and which are looking for books/genres that match what you are writing.
I don't have any regrets about going the self-publishing route. I've learned so much along the way and met a lot of great indie authors in the process.