Just published a book two weeks ago. Learned many lessons.
I just published my first book and, wow, it was a wild ride. I thought there were many things I could do myself and quickly realized it's worth spending the money on professionals. I wanted to note a few things that I learned with my self publishing journey with the hope it might help someone down the road.
Use Word. I tried Google docs, Pages, and ProWritingAid and none of them could keep up with me like Word. Processing wise Word handled a 300+ / 80,000 word document like a champ. Google Docs couldn't format for KDP, it didn't work well with my editor. Neither did Pages and ProWritingAid started to fail on me after about ten pages. Word was the most consistent, it meshed well with formatting, editing, versioning, and different export options.
I used ProWritingAid for grammer, spelling, structure, and a few other non-AI uses when it came to actual writing. They have a manuscript review feature, which was cool, but ultimately I didn't use any of the suggestions once I got an editor and had a few people read my book. Honestly, Word's built in tools were just as useful to me and in hindsight I wish I didn't spend the money on ProWritingAid.
Get an editor. Seriously, this is money well spent and made a huge difference between my book versions. I had an initial rough copy that I sent to people to see if my story had legs and we uncovered several plot holes and sticky sections. I modified that rough copy to first draft, sent that to an editor, then had two passes with it. The first pass was a deep line / copy edit, and my editor provided an overview of the story, areas I needed to address to move the plot along, a timeline of events, and overall critique. I addressed the comments, sent it for a second pass and had a polished manuscript that I could send to beta readers. I can't stress how incredibly helpful it was to use an editor. I initially used Readsy to get quotes but ultimately sent out emails to editors after searching around online and found someone that way. I would be happy to recommend my editor if anyone is interested. Total cost was around $1600 and it was world every freaking penny.
I wish I paid someone to format my manuscript. I did it myself and spent several frustrating hours splitting my book up into sections, figuring out KDP guidelines, reading rabbit hole documentation, and trying to figure out fonts and spacing and all the nonsense. It was about ten hours I wish I had spent in other areas... like sleep. I didn't realize how important this was until I submitted my book to KDP which then caused me to fight the e-reader version for another several hours.
I hired a cover artist. It was about $800 and I'm pretty happy with the outcome. It's nothing too special, but they met all my requirements and as I mentioned above, I didn't want to use AI for my art, because I like supporting artists. I used Ready for this and it was pretty smooth. I don't have any complaints, but I think in the future I will take more time to search around. Readsy is great because you can see the artists work and who they have worked with before, but I think it's a bit pricy. I got softcover and ebook formatted files as well as marketing material.
I wish I had all my files and edits completed before I selected a release day. Maybe this is typical, but I edited the manuscript up to the cutoff day for the release. This caused a great deal of stress and next time I will have a fully polished manuscript before I pick a release day. I had to change the name of a company in my book, literally last minute, because it was a real company and I didn't want to create any problems considering I interviewed with that company in a strange coincidence.
ARC Readers, the good and the bad. Oh, where do I begin with this. I was rejected by BookSirens and then used BookSprout then had to contend with AI bots. Out of 13 people who signed up for my ARC campaign three were AI, three left reviews, and the rest were no-shows. It was not money well spent and I feel like I just opened myself up for someone to steal my story (maybe that's a bit of paranoia, but hey... this is the world we live in). I got two five stars and a three star which I considered a success, but I don't really think it was worth the cost of BookSprout. I also tried reaching out to Instagram and it was a lot of work for a single review. I spent HOURS trying to engage people on Instagram. I attempted TikTok but never got of the ground because I'm not a marketer, I'm a writer and I'm not about to start the weird pointing videos, or dances, or whatever else people do there. Facebook is a disaster so I didn't try there, however, my followers on Facebook did do some heavy lifting for me and that has been an unexpected benefit. The primary reason I used BookSprout was to track who I sent ebook to, and in retrospect, I didn't need to do that.
I'm not a marketing expert and I don't know why I tried, but at least I increased my followers and engagement. I am about to hire someone to do marketing for me. This is another area of where do I spend my time and should I just hire someone to do the work for me so I can write another book? Should I spend hours trying to market myself, learning how it all works, diving into the massive documentation around amazon ads and KDP, and making dozens of images and posts fo Instagram and TikTok? I know budgets are a thing to be aware of but honestly, this is something I'm adjusting for. Which leads me to-
Budget money for a book. Sure you can do it all yourself. Sure I might have tried to do it all myself. I asked myself why I'm publishing my book. Is it for me? To say I could do it? Or am I trying to make money from it? I set a budget of $4000, which I don't think is much. I'm working a full time job, saving where I can, spacing out the spending where I can. Readsy allows you to split payment which is helpful. My editor split payments, which helped as well. So it's not $4000 all up front. I figured if I'm spending money on things I don't need which I can reallocate to things I want so, ultimately, I justified the funding of self-publishing a book. I want to be competitive in the market so I want my book to look like others in it's genra. If I break even on what I spent then I consider it a success.
Amazon ads: wait a month before creating a campaign. I started an amazon ad campaign a week into my book launch and it resulted in no sales because my book wasn't even indexed and I had three official Amazon reviews. This was a mistake. I wish I waited a bit and kicked off an Ad alongside a "sale". Of course this was also learned in hindsight and I didn't know of this strategy until yesterday. Which leads me to-
Join writers groups, but vet those involved. Follow other writers, ask to be a part of their communities, follow podcasters and listen to advice, ask all the questions. I joined a group on Facebook and quickly jumped ship when I realized I was talking to AI book creators and bots. Thankfully, I didn't share any important information. The group gave me a massive ick feeling and I couldn't leave fast enough, but the damage was done. I get calls, texts, and follows from obvious bots and scams many times a day. I've joined groups on Instagram from following other writers and artists and it's be INCREDIBLY helpful and uplifting. I learned more being a part of a writers group than I did reading documentaion and blog posts. Having a real conversation with another "real" individual just hits different.
Don't look at stats or reviews, just exists with your creation. Lord, I try not to look at stats every moment. I don't let reviews bother me because as someone said in my writers group, "reviews are for readers, not the author". A three star review actualy led to someone purchasing my book because the reviewer noted a troupe that purchaser loved. Stats will drive you crazy. I made a pact with myself to only look at stats twice a week, each time I get paid, that way I can reward myself with a treat when I have success or figure out how to get more engagement. Learning how to exist with the monumental task of completing and publishing a book is hard. We want to baby it, and push it forward, but I can tell you, just sitting for a couple weeks with your hard earned success is so worth it.
Lastly, keep going. Dont' stop. Most authors don't make a killing on their first book. It's book four or five before they have decent income. I don't plan on stopping. I acutally have learned how to create a story bible and timeline that helps me keep my ducks in a row. I learned how to format on the go, so I don't have a headache at the end of everything. I bounce ideas off my writers group, I support others on Instagram, I take breath every now and then to appreciate life and the opportunity I have in front of me. I could go on forever about every little thing I have learned, but the most important lesson I learned is that I'm far more capable than I think I am, and so are you.
I apologize for the long post, but hopefully this helps in some way. I'm sitting at around 30 units sold and about 2000 pages read after publishing on September 22nd, so I think I'm doing okay. Best of luck to you all out there and don't give up.