Today I had a font problem when transferring a Scrivener project from a mac onto a pc. This got the me thinking about what fonts other people use for actually writing, not for the final print or ebook file. I'm curious what everyone likes and why. At the moment I'm using Courier New
Hi everyone,
So I just self published my first book. I absolutely loved the whole process of writing it. I even enjoyed editing, formatting, making the cover, which involved learning about punctuation, how to use all these interesting functions in Word, and image editing. While hard, it was all fun.
Now the book is published. Full steam ahead. I made a bunch of social media posts, posted on some larger Facebook groups I’m in (I think about 7 people who I don’t know personally bought the book). Sold just over 20 to friends and family. I did a friend’s podcast and talked about the book. I’ve been looking into book readings, authors festivals, reaching out to other podcasts..
Even just writing this feels utterly exhausting. I already have a full time job. I wrote and published the book because I honestly love the book and enjoyed every process. Marketing is deferent. I don’t want to just continue bother friends in my circle on social media, the whole thing makes me emotionally tired. Talking about my book on a podcast for an hour felt like running a marathon.
That was my general rant. Here is my question:
Does anybody enjoy marketing their work? Is there a fun side to this that I am missing? If I can find something enjoyable about it, I think I make a real go out of it. And if I can’t, I’ll just continue working on the second book, which I do enjoy lol 😂 😭 🤓 📕
Oh, it's me again. This time, my covers and making me wanna jump into a lake. I used the template that amazon gave to me and still this fucking shit screws up and makes the size of my cover wrong. I'm losing all patience now, idk what to do. 😭😭😭
My current situation: I should preface this by saying i do not read ebooks and have only a basic knowledge of how they work.
I have an ARC list of readers that i want to send the ebook to, and this is the way i hoped my flow would go: i send everyone an email with basic expectations (deadline, feedback im looking for, etc) and a link to a product page on my Shopify store. That page has specific about the book and a free download which triggers the email flow for 2 more emails reminders at 3 days and again at 8 days. All of that performed as expected EXCEPT...
The ebook file is a .epub file and will open in Apple books ( and handles a two page spread - which is ideal for this book's design) but doesnt open on a Kindle even with the buyer's kindle email as the recipient.
Anyone know what i need to do to get Kindle to open it or a file format to use instead? Should i offer it in a .pdf file as well for people on the list who dont read ebooks?
I dont want to send physical copies if i can help it until i have the ARC feedback obviously.
Thanks in advance.
Just to be clear, this is celebrating a revenue milestone. It's not profit. I need to sell waaaaaaaay more books to make up for what I've spent on editing, artwork, advertising and the party I put on to celebrate the launch of book 1. But seeing that number tick over $1000 (with more to come because I'm not counting the royalties from Amazon until I actually receive them) still felt like it was worth celebrating and sharing what it took to get here.
So, first book of a planned trilogy, released Sept 1st. I'd been promoting it pretty heavily through my social networks leading up to the release. No ARCs to speak of, just beta readers. I had about fifty people asking about getting copies before I launched.
Had a mini-launch party Sept 3rd, sold 12 physical copies and 7 ebooks.
Went overseas back to my country of birth for the second half of September. Sold 28 physical copies and got another 9 ebook sales.
Returned to the US and held a more official launch party. Sold 18 physical copies and 5 ebooks.
There have been a few other sales here and there which weren't tied to any particular events.
I set up a small ad campaign on Meta, experimenting with just one type of ad on FB for a month. It has resulted in a handful of additional ebook sales and 6400 KENP read. I'll be trying a campaign on IG and TikTok for one month each moving forward. Not sure if I'll try Amazon.
Total: 101 physical books, 37 ebooks, 6405 KENP (equates to 17 full book reads). All up, that's 155 copies in just over five weeks.
Lessons learned so far. Book sales are great, but those KENP reads excite me the most. To see people actually reading the book is the best part, especially because those reads are more likely to be strangers taking a chance on me.
The Meta ad was initially targeted at 18-35 year olds (the book is YA) and I got some ok click rates on it, but when I expanded to all ages, the number of clicks improved substantially.
Getting reviews is soooooooo hard. Trying to think of how I can gently encourage people to leave an honest rating to get those numbers up.
I'm trying to view the first two books in the trilogy as a giant ARC campaign. When the third part comes out, I'm hoping that there are enough reviews that will allow me to hit the ground with a larger ad campaign for the entire series.
Happy to answer any questions. I know some others have done better than this, so I'm certainly no expert, but just throwing the above into the discussion so you can see what's possible.
What level of spending is advisable on self publishing a debut novel which is part of a series? Where would you spend that money? What spending is genuinely necessary and useful and what is a waste?
I've researched exactly this and come up with a a lot of conflicting opinions. I'd be interested to hear from experienced self publishers.
Hi all! I’m preparing to launch my first full-length MM romance in January and working toward 1,000 newsletter subscribers. I’ve been building the list through reader magnets, BookFunnel group promos, and paid newsletter placements.
For those who’ve launched with an established list, what relationship have you noticed between subscriber count and launch-week sales or KU reads? Did engagement seem to matter more than list size, and did later releases get a stronger response?
I know there’s no magic number—just curious about people’s actual experiences. Happy to share my own numbers and what’s worked for list growth so far!
My latest novel dropped just over a week ago now, and this time around, I've tried to revise my self-promo approach. I gave myself almost three months to build some momentum, dropping frequent short promo reels and teasers, as well as offering ARCs prior to the release. Also, I've been featured on several genre websites, and in my local press. Interest has been slow, but hopefully looks like it might gain more momentum. In the past I've had a problem in that, reviews for my writing have been consistently good, but the stumbling block is in actually getting people to notice it. I'm hoping that I've finally managed to do so at least a bit more effectively.
Should I just put my book on Ingramspark and click the option for it to be put on Amazon or should I put it on both Amazon and Ingram?
I published my first book in August. It is selling, mostly to people I know or are 1-2 degrees away in separation. I have gained around 10, 5 star reviews, again, from my extended circle. Recently I decided to send copies of the book directly to individuals who, if they chose to do so, might endorse my book. This potential endorsement would change everything for my little project. My book is about a young man from the 1980's who discovers the sport of wrestling, develops a close mentorship with a coach, and falls in love with a girl. My book is a typical coming of age novel set in the 1980's. I am not going to mention the name of the book, because I do not want to violate the rules, and I really enjoy this sub-reddit. However, I will tell you who I have decided to mail copies of the book. As many college and high school wrestling coaches are about to receive a little package from yours truly. I marked each as a gift and was able to include a personalized note.
I spent a lot of time in Gemini describing a cover concept for my work in progress and have something pretty close to what I want. I don't want an AI generated cover, I want a true professional one but this draft lays out pretty much what I want it to look like as a professional cover.
Can anyone recommend an artist to make it real (without just re-doing it in another AI tool)?
I'm trying to decide the best release date for a Christmas children's story.
Oct 15th, Oct 31, or Nov 12
Oct 15 because the book is ready
Oct 31 so it's out for a November start.
Nov 12 after Remembrance Day / Veterans Day
Anyone have any feedback or a different suggestion?
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. :)
I think it was called Authors Helping Authors. One guy posted about his almost-ready-to-launch book. He was asking for advice on how to promote the book. There were so many nasty, horrid trolls ripping him up for no good reason. Wtf is the matter with people? Is the amateur book market crowd so desperate that they have to rip somebody a new one? Needless to say, I didn’t join that page.
Finally decided to spend a little money to advertise two of my books on Instagram and just few hours later I get my first comment "just two shit books that are ai"
I know this happens to a lot of people now and finally it happened to me. It's so annoying. I spent a lot of money to get my covers made by REAL people. And the advertisement photo of the books was made by someone too. Instagram tried to say my post might have ai in it and I have no idea how to get that off. It's annoying to pay so much money for everything to be made by people and then told you're using AI. I'm broke but I know how important it is to pay real people for art.
I just wanted to finally advertise my book to try and get more readers. Ugh fuck ai... It's ruining so much.
Just wanted to rant
Thanks for listening.
I posted this 12 days ago on r/writers and got no responses. But the situation has gotten worse.
>I submitted my cover and interior files to IngramSpark for both print and epub and received a response that I needed to fix the .pdf cover file for my print version and upload the revised file. For the life of me I can't find any way to upload that revised file and the title itself sits there with an "awaiting update."
>In their help section, I find this:
>* Click on the title of your book; this takes you to your Title Details page.
>* On the top left-hand side of the page, you will see a button “Upload New File”.
>* A revised file cannot be submitted until the "Upload New File" button is there.
>Can someone explain why the "Upload New File" button wouldn't be there? Is this common or has someone else had this experience?
>Their whole process does seem like more than it should be, though it's my first rodeo, so, I don't have anything to compare it to.
Six days after I wrote this I updated to report the mysterious button had suddenly appeared. So I painstakingly resubmitted, making sure all the i's were dotted and t's crossed. Then re-uploaded the files. Today I get another rejection with the note that no cover file had been received.
And again there is no "Upload New File" button!!
So, I feel a little like...well, who cares how I feel. My question is, has anyone else run into anything like this at the IngramSpark website?
Also, you can submit a support ticket, but it takes them a week to respond??!!