u/RealLifeIsAnRPG

Happy Sunday everybody! First time actually publishing a book (printed & distributed 7 zines & a small newspaper for a few months), but I've been speaking to friends who've published, and diving deep into the reddit subs for a couple months now.

So, the one thing I keep waffling back & forth on is the idea of going wide versus going with the exclusive KU setup for the e-book. I keep seeing some people talking about how most of their revenue comes from reads on Kindle, but then some of the most popular promo tools don't work unless you're going wide. The charts sure make it look like Amazon has 90+% of the market's eyeballs... but how true is that? And does my audience fall into that other 10%?

My preference is definitely going wide - I don't like the idea of an exclusivity deal.

I'm also going to be putting in a lot of legwork tabling & speaking at events, visiting book stores & libraries, hitting podcasts and doing written interviews, etc. Not to mention using various marketing tools I've learned of, and having all the usual socials going.

Between knowing all that and the genre(s) of my book being part self-help, part memoir, part philosophy/spirituality, all written for geeks, gamers, and nerds (by a lifelong gamer geek), I'd love feedback from any of you experienced folks in the space.

Hey everybody!

As the title says, I finally finished my first draft of my book, and a full run-through of editing myself, and it's now been off to my ~40 Beta Readers since last week! To say that it's been exciting getting that big step of the book itself finished is the understatement of the year.

Now, I've been creating all the socials (I have been offline for years), have an artist working on my cover and another creating a couple dozen interior art pieces, and I'm locking in my year-long book tour plans for 2027.

I've also started doing a deep dive into marketing, other authors' stories; seeing what's worked and what hasn't. I'm on the fence about using any of the ARC programs or other paid marketing schemes - seems like a LOT of them have wildly varying reviews out there. Part of what I've been doing is digging through all the blogs, podcasts, and sites that cater to my target audience, and putting together a spreadsheet of all their advertising costs, CPM, etc.

It has felt good seeing so many folks getting decent sales numbers without any real legwork being done in terms of marketing, and it definitely makes me feel more confident with how my book will do, since I will be speaking at many events, tabling at dozens, and already have a global network of friends & supporters (been an activist, organizer, producer, and educator for a long time)

One of the things that's been interesting is seeing just how much of the author space is full of "romance" writers, with SciFi/Horror/Fantasy coming in behind that... I'm very curious to see how much translates to my own experience, with a non-fiction book, that nevertheless is written for geeks, nerds, and gamers.

I don't think I had a particular point here, just wanted to stop lurking and say hello to all of you awesome people!

Hope you're having a great weekend everybody!

Hey everybody!

As the title says, I finally finished my first draft of my book, and a full run-through of editing myself, and it's now been off to my ~40 Beta Readers since last week! To say that it's been exciting getting that big step of the book itself finished is the understatement of the year.

Now, I've been creating all the socials (I have been offline for years), have an artist working on my cover and another creating a couple dozen interior art pieces, and I'm locking in my year-long book tour plans for 2027.

I've also started doing a deep dive into marketing, other authors' stories; seeing what's worked and what hasn't. I'm on the fence about using any of the ARC programs or other paid marketing schemes - seems like a LOT of them have wildly varying reviews out there. Part of what I've been doing is digging through all the blogs, podcasts, and sites that cater to my target audience, and putting together a spreadsheet of all their advertising costs, CPM, etc.

It has felt good seeing so many folks getting decent sales numbers without any real legwork being done in terms of marketing, and it definitely makes me feel more confident with how my book will do, since I will be speaking at many events, tabling at dozens, and already have a global network of friends & supporters (been an activist, organizer, producer, and educator for a long time)

One of the things that's been interesting is seeing just how much of the author space is full of "romance" writers, with SciFi/Horror/Fantasy coming in behind that... I'm very curious to see how much translates to my own experience, with a non-fiction book, that nevertheless is written for geeks, nerds, and gamers.

I don't think I had a particular point here, just wanted to stop lurking and say hello to all of you awesome people!

Hope you're having a great weekend everybody!