r/authors

I wrote, self edited and eventually self published a book about a year ago and I’m now regretting publishing it due to going back and finding many errors in my writing, formatting, continuity. I have sent unpublished that book. There are about 10 copies out here in the world three of which I personally purchased and gave to friends. The others were neighbors and other people who know me in real life. I have had a handful of people read some of my book on Kindle but nothing that I would call success. I am very disappointed in my first attempt and while I am currently working on a new project with a lot better understanding of what I am doing. I am still struggling with motivation due to this feeling of failure and regret. Anyone else out here struggle with similar issues or am I alone in this?

I have a book coming out in August, and I’m trying to figure out how to organize a small local launch event. My publisher is in another city, so I’ll already be doing a main launch there, but they’ve suggested I could also do a smaller event where I live.

I like the idea, but I’m not sure how people typically handle the logistics for something like this.

For example:

• Bookstores usually ask how many attendees to expect, but I have no good way of estimating that in advance.
• I’m unsure whether it’s appropriate to “gauge interest” by asking people directly (it feels like it could put pressure on them).
• And I know not everyone who attends necessarily buys a book, so knowing how many copies to order feels hard to estimate.

For people who have organized book launches: how do you usually estimate turnout and plan bookstore logistics without over- or under-shooting?

Hi all — Kelley here. I’m an indie author based in Atlanta, working on a romantic suspense/thriller series called Brenner Investigations. Book One is finished and currently published on Amazon as Kindle Select ebook, and I’m deep into drafting Book Three. This question is actually about a future book — tentatively Book Four — so I have some runway to figure this out, but I’d rather get ahead of it now.

I recently came across a firsthand account posted publicly on social media. The poster described a situation where homeless individuals were placed into housing by a city official, became ill, and died — and the building owner allegedly held life insurance policies on them without their knowledge. The person who shared it says it’s a true story.

I’m considering using the core premise as inspiration for a fictional thriller — not retelling the account directly, but using the underlying scenario as a jumping-off point for something of my own.

Before I start drafting, I’d love to hear from anyone who’s navigated something similar:

**•**	What are the general legal considerations when adapting a true account you found on social media into fiction?  
**•**	Do I have any obligations to the person who originally shared the story, or to any surviving individuals connected to it?  

• How do you protect yourself from defamation or invasion-of-privacy exposure when a story is “inspired by” real events, especially if someone could still recognize themselves or others in it?
• Is there anything you’d do — research, documentation, changes to the premise — before you even start writing, just to protect yourself down the line?

I’m planning to talk to an actual entertainment/media attorney before this gets anywhere near a final draft, but I’d genuinely love to hear how other authors here have handled this in practice. Thanks in advance!

Perhaps most professional writers have observed that in the real world, as well as on Internet forums, when writers ("would be" authors) ask for advice, they do not want advice: they want praise, or they want to "hear" that which is not reality.

One example: the subject of having one's self-published books sold in "brick and mortar" stores in many Reddit subreddits is mentioned often. The typical advice is to have an author ask book store owners to sell one's books on commission. There are a few issues regarding doing so, and when authors explain these issues, some people get upset at the facts.

It seems to me that it is pointless for authors to give advice to writers who wish to be authors. The same questions get asked by different people; the same answers are provided; the answers are almost always ignored by OP's; the planet rotates, orbits, and the universe gets older as the cycle repeats.

A friend of mine is an "A-List" writer of best-selling thrillers, and his books (along with his writing partner) almost always make the top-ten best-selling lists for hardcover thrillers. I discussed with him the issue of giving writers advice. His advice was, "David, my advice is to never give advice."

The blunt facts are, if writers wish to know the answers to questions regarding the book trade, they will study the trade; pay for advice; buy books about that which they wish to learn.

Authors tend to be kind and generous, and they tend to want to help writers. I suspect (I do not know) that eventually these authors cease doing so when they see little (if any) of their advice being acknowledged (let alone followed).

Shelf space is worth more than most of the books sitting on it. This is why remaindered books exist; this is why book store owners pay 35% to 45% of the list price for books, with contractual agreements that they may return unsold and "unsellable" books.

The chief way to get one's books on book store shelves is to sell several thousand copies of those books; have an established readership; have copies of one's other books in bookstores. The secondary way is to be a "celebrity," when one can write utter crap and still be praised, lauded, and paid for it.

When I observe authors in Reddit mentioning these facts to "would be authors," some times I also observe a few people have left replies that object to these facts, or object to the facts having been stated (usually by claiming it discourages writers). This utterly baffles me.

For writers who wish their books to be sold in book stores: you will sell far more books via print-on-demand, and via end-of-line retailers (the chief of which is amazon'com).

Amazon'com dominates the electronic book trade by over 80%. That is your market: not book stores. Amazon'com dominates printed book sales in North America by about 50%: that is your market, not book stores.