u/tvchannelmiser

I’m going to be a Gender-bent Alice from Alice in Wonderland for my girlfriend’s birthday party. She’s planning on being the Mad Hatter! This is my first cosplay gender bending.

My first novel debuted last week on Amazon and I've had some really interesting results so I thought I'd share them.

Short blurb:
John Nero was raised in a mafia family. He escaped that life and spent the past six years cleaning his image, becoming a CIA auditor. But when his father dies, he leaves his criminal empire to his last surviving child. John doesn't want that life...but the chance is too good for his handlers to pass up.

Thrown into a game of cat and mouse with his siblings, John is made a field agent with the task of winning the game - a way to take down his family's mafia empire from the inside. And a mysterious thief named Mango may hold the key to bringing the criminal syndicate crumbling down.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GX322HR1

Now that that's out the way, I'm a debut author who basically has no idea what they're doing. Last year I posted a story on Royal Road that got 150 followers. When I checked up on it this year, I saw that it had grew to 250 so I decided to put it on Amazon. However, I work two jobs. I don't have the time or the money to really do any expensive marketing.

Prior to launch I did try BookSiren. Nothing. Booksprout? Also dead in the water. A lot of people told me to stay away from Netgalley. Many people warned me because the site is known for harsh critiques. Figured one review was better than none, so I paid someone on Fivverr 85 dollars to put it up for a week, 3 weeks prior to launch.

For the next three weeks, I got reviews on Bookbub, Goodreads and Netgalley. For the first three weeks, they were all 5 stars which I found surprising. As the rest poured in, I did get 2 three stars. Looking at the review history of those reviewers, they usually give out three star reviews or lower.

For those who aren't familiar, you can chose who to give your book to on Netgalley. Because I went through Fiverr, there person didn't check if the reviewers were prone to just give negative reviews and she accepted everyone.

This taught me mainly three things:

Netgalley is really effective for actually getting your book out there.

Be careful who you give an ARC to for reviews.

Do marketing more than a few weeks in advance for launch. It's honestly my biggest regret.

It's been about a week and I've sold only about a copy a day. I have way more reads on KU and I can see how KU can make up most of your income as an indie author.

The fact that I basically just posted it without a following, serious socials push or Amazon ads at first hurt my launch.

One of the Netgalley readers was a librarian from Atlanta. I reached out to them and they're interested in carrying it! I'd think it'd be really cool to have my book in a library, so I tried to order some copies from Ingram, but they had some sort of internal error and took forever to get back to me, so I just ordered them off Lulu and they came out really well (I can give price numbers if anyone cares).

Selling the book in person seems to work pretty well. I've sold over 20 so far just talking to people at one of my jobs. But they only want paperback, so I took an advanced payment and their books are coming in the mail. I think I'm going to explore selling paperback more.

It's a very slow start, but I'm happy it's there at all.

Chapter 1 - Back In Gear

Hey everyone! I'm the writer of You Only Kiss Twice, a Spy LitRPG. Today, I'm finally able to start dropping Vol 2, Cold Under The Collar.

In Vol 2:
Ex–mafia prince turned CIA operative, John Nero, thought vengeance would cool his blood. While chasing a lead to find his evil sister in Miami, he discovers a pile of Brazilian money in an aquarium. While returning the money to Brazil, a bomb made of ice shatters a celebration and pushes two countries to go to war.

Smack dab in the middle of a global conspiracy, Nero must navigate a deadly web of spies, scientists, and ghosts from his own family’s past. As Nero hunts the truth behind the weapon, his only lead is Natasha, a seductive Interpol agent. She may be his greatest ally or his next betrayal. As he falls deeper for Natasha, every secret she hides could be the one that kills him.

He'll have to rely on his highly experimental, military-grade neural AI chip called a F.O.C.U.S. The Field Operative Cybernetic Uplink System isn't just some radio, it's a progression engine.

In the series:

To level the playing field, the CIA implants him with a Suddenly, John’s brain is literally adapting to survive. Every secret he steals, every rival he takes down, and every piece of territory he reclaims feeds data to the chip, allowing him to actively upgrade his own nervous system.

What to Expect:

• Real-World Progression: No VR capsules or magic systems. Tangible, sci-fi progression driven by an integrated AI chip.
• Tactical Skill Trees: Earn experience through espionage, combat, and mission completion to unlock highly specific, upgradeable spy abilities.
• Underworld Turf Wars: High-stakes territory control as John fights his family for syndicate assets.
• High-Octane Action: Fast-paced, cinematic thriller combat combined with satisfying LitRPG crunch.