u/MazeCreator

Hi, my name is Ethan Scott, and I’m the author of Requiem! A new horror novel I self-published, Requiem is the story of Jean Deschamps, a French friar, during the Plague of 1348.

Sent by The Church to the town of Weymouth, Dorset to investigate the beginnings of The Black Plague, Requiem follows Jean as he interviews the families victimized by The Plague, meets new acquaintances, makes new friends, and as he uncovers darker secrets than the history of the outbreak’s mysterious appearance.

Romance, monsters, mystery, and horror await in this brand new story: available on Amazon in E-Book and paperback formats!

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.

I just hit $2,000 in royalties publishing through KDP, and I thought I'd share some things that worked for me if anyone is interested. I published my first novel in March of this year and my second (unrelated to the first) in July. I published a novella in November of last year as my first, but it didn't make much money (which I expected-it was for fun and I knew absolutely nothing about publishing). The novels are paranormal (vampire) romances.

Facebook reels have gotten me the most readers by far. I was making slow progress (I was lucky to get a couple of readers a day at the start despite posting on Tiktok and Instagram and having a decent following on both), but I had a few Facebook reels go semi-viral, and my page read and sales exploded. I went from a couple of hundred page reads a day to 10,000+ at its peak. It's a constant grind, since you need to keep making viral videos if you want to keep the success (views still trickle in, but they slow down considerably). The algorithm is hit or miss; I've had the exact same content get 100 views and 100,000 views with seemingly no rhyme or reason.

I also post multiple trial reels a day on Instagram, and one went viral and got me a nice spike in readership, but most only get ~200 views with pretty disappointing results. Regardless, they are risk-free, so I keep posting them (it's low effort since I just need to change the b-roll).

I only post content about my books maybe once or twice a week max on my Tiktok and Instagram, and the rest of my content is normal reader/bookish content (what I'm reading, posts celebrating release days for other authors, etc), since I don't want to risk annoying my followers into unfollowing me (it gets old seeing the same content over and over again when authors post about nothing but their books).

KU has been great. It doesn't give you much per page read, but I still think it's absolutely worth it (at least for my genre; different genres have different success rates). I've gotten 350k page reads so far, and 78% of my revenue was from KU.

Ads were kind of lackluster for me. I ran a couple of meta ads ($5-$10 a day for a week or two at a time to test). The Amazon attribution link I set up didn't seem to properly track, since it vastly under reported the number of page reads I should have been getting from the ad, so I have no way to see which reads were from the ads vs which ones were from my marketing. I was getting a great click-through rate (~12%), so I wish it tracked so I could accurately assess cost vs profit. I know I did make more than I spent for 2/3 of my campaigns, at least. I spent $290 on ads total, and for now I'm focusing on marketing instead, but I'll likely give them another shot. I might wait until I have another book out, especially if I finish the sequel to my first book.

Just a tip for publishing in general: ARC readers can be super helpful. It was really beneficial to have reviews, and some of my ARC readers went above and beyond and posted about my books on social media (basically becoming an unofficial street team), and I think that really helped with exposure. Now that I know more, I think my next release will do even better (at least I hope).

I know this doesn't make me a bestseller or anything (and there are plenty of authors on here who are far more successful than me), but I just wanted to share the tips I learned through trial and error in case it might help anyone. I'd be happy to answer any questions I can. :)

Hello all, I'm publishing my very first science fiction novel (via Kickstarter) in the next month or two. One of the problems I have (there are so many) is that the art work that I have for the cover is AI-generated. While I don't mind using some of that art work for advertising, I think I'd be more comfortable with having something that is NOT AI-generated. I do see a lot of websites where you can pick an already-made book cover. I see other websites where you can order a custom-made book cover... I'm wondering what people's experiences are? Are the book covers that I'm seeing for sale online AI-generated themselves? Am I making a mistake trying to "buy" a NON-AI-generated book cover? Would like to get people's opinions.

In short, what I need is: paperback cover, hardback cover, digital download cover. I have each of these but they are AI-generated. I love the art - but would rather a human being actually did the work. Can I show them the art and have them "base" their art on what I already have? As you can plainly see, I don't know what to do.

Thanks!

I wrote a book, and then I actually published it. I’ve never done anything like this before, so it still feels a little strange! In a good way. It started when a friend of mine told me they didn't like my idea of an RPG character and my girlfriend told me just to write the story instead!

It’s called Auriel. I’m proud of myself for sticking with it and getting it all the way to a finished book. I still can't believe you can just 'start' writing a book on google docs and go through the whole process to publishing it after many rounds of editing! Now I'm hooked!

It’s a fantasy story about Auriel, an exiled celestial trying to find a way home, and Pip, a whimsical jackrabbit navigator who joins her on the journey. Along the way, they meet some unique characters who provide guidance and assistance might offer Auriel answers to why she was sent here. There's also a ruthless mercenary named Kord. Just to throw that out there :)

If you want to take a look, here’s the link: https://a.co/d/0fWutvI7

I wrote my first novel at 70. I'm still not a bestselling author at 73.

The world did not throw a parade for book one. My daughter, who became my marketing manager somewhere between love and obligation, worked harder than I deserved. We got a Kirkus review. I celebrated until I realized most readers have never heard of Kirkus. 😂

Before the books, I spent four decades as a mime comedian and motivational speaker. 90 countries. More stories than I knew what to do with. Eventually I sat down and wrote one.

The algorithm stayed quiet. No bestseller list called. But slowly, readers found it. Real ones, who emailed to say they stayed up embarrassingly late, or that the Irish history hit somewhere unexpected, or that they immediately bought the next one.

Three books published now. A fourth being written.

Nobody handed me the title. No list, no algorithm, no industry gate opened and waved me through. I just kept going anyway. That turns out to be most of it.

If you wrote something and the world didn't notice, keep writing. The world is slow, and so am I, apparently. 😂

If you're curious, the first one is called The Key to Kells - a thriller built around a genetic mutation that lets people access their ancestors' actual memories, spanning Philadelphia, Ireland, and Jamaica.

Stories of First Contact is a collection of twenty-four imagined encounters between humanity and extraterrestrial intelligence.

At the center of them all stands Arthur Macmillan, a brilliant but socially awkward genius who repeatedly finds himself at the heart of first contact.

Each story offers a different vision of humanity's encounter with the unknown, exploring possibilities that range from hopeful to catastrophic.

Releasing September 1.

I hope there are people interested in this topic who will read my book.

You can find the details below:

- Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H46DG4SC

- Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/253153917-stories-of-first-contact

Wish me luck!