r/selfpublishing

Hi! I'm self-publishing my first book ever and so far only received 4 reviews for it. One was a five star review, the other two were 4 star reviews. I've recently got a 3-star review. The reviewer was completely fair! And they were actually really nice, so I have no resentment toward them.

They sang praises for everything they liked about the book--the character, the worldbuilding, etc. But the thing they didn't enjoy was the plot and how convoluted it was. And we all know how it is to be a writer and have your stuff critiqued--you tend to focus on the negative rather than the positive.

So I guess I'm wondering how others deal with this? I'm just a bit nervous--does it get worse from here? lol

About a week after I uploaded my ebook and paperback to Amazon, I see the "Look Inside" feature has been enabled. 72 pages! Was it always this much (20%)? That's a whole lot of my book up for free! Why does Amazon feel the need to expose so much? (Maybe it helps reduce returns.)

I cannot image anyone slogging for hours through all that, just click "buy now" and for a couple dollars read it at your convenience. Or better yet buy the paperback.

But I digress . . .

Howdy folks, so everyone I talk to (or have talked to for years now) really bigs up Scrivener. I have been using Campfire happily for some time now but decided to download the trial and give it a whirl (yes, I caved in to FOMO).

It seems... Okay?

The splitting by Chapter I already do on Campfire, although it doesn't have the ability to switch scenes around in the same way (but I can use copy and paste for that). The big issue is I have with it is that it isn't cloud based, so I can't write when I'm commuting with my work computer or add a little bit on my phone when inspiration strikes.

Basically, I was curious what the best things about it are, to make sure I am fully getting the most out of my trial before it expires, and to make sure I'm not missing some hidden gem in the dark.

Hi guys, I'm currently writing my first book, which is a mix of memoir and self-help. While I'm still in the writing process, I've started looking into self-publishing and book marketing so I can learn as much as possible ahead of time.

One thing I'm struggling to figure out is how to market a book that's based on a fairly niche topic.

For context, it's centred on the lived experience of health anxiety rather than taking a clinical or therapeutic approach. I know health anxiety itself is already a relatively specific market, and focusing on personal experience narrows it even further.

For those of you with experience in self-publishing or marketing niche books, how do you do it?? I'd really appreciate any advice or insights. Thanks!

Someone pointed me here because im asking for advice

So im almost finished with my first book into a novella series. I suppose thats what i should call it, considering the expected word count. I dont have an audience i am unknown, i am a new author. (Thats why i was directed here) i was thinking of doing a newsletter maybe, tiktok(booktok) and instagram(bookgram???) to post about my book and series for when its ready to be published/released on idk kindle or print on demand amazon. (Could use advice for when that time actually comes.)

To get to the point, i dont want these apps to reach "people i may know" as i work in the oil field and feel embarrassed if my coworkers and bosses would find out im writing stories that "are a waste of time and could be focused on work" so i want anonymity for when i open socials or start posting and promoting. They found my YT and Tiktok and what not, so im being hazed everyday asking if i made my millions yet, and other things like that. If it aint hunting or fishing it aint what im supposed to enoy. Rough neck country

Problem is im completely illiterate to these kind of apps outside of using personal accounts and ive never done promotions before or posted as a entity.

How can i ensure this wont see the light of day to coworkers and other life circles, and how would you go about promoting yourself?

Really just looking for advice. Im not embarrassed of my work or what i do. I just dont want the harassment for enjoying a hobby that isnt for the culture im living in.

Hi everyone, I see in most book or self publish subreddits you are not allowed to self promote. I am curious to know if there are any subreddits that allow self promotion?

Hi everyone! I'm new to the writing community and I'm currently working on a dark romance novel that I hope to publish and sell someday. I have a few questions for more experienced writers, and I'm open to any criticism or advice you may have. Is it worth paying the expensive fees for a professional editor, or is self editing a good option for a first-time author? I'm also planning to make my own cover and found a base on Pinterest that inspired me, but I'm unsure if I can use it. Should I ask the original creator for permission, and could I get into legal trouble if I use it without permission? Also, would it be safe to publish a summary of my story to see if anyone could relate it to any existing books? I want to make sure I don't run into any legal issues or get labeled as a thief for accidentally stealing book concepts or plots. I'd really appreciate any tips, advice, or experiences from other authors! I tried my best not to make this seem as if im self promoting so i apologize if it seems as so.

I was expecting to release my first-ever book this week. I had already set up my KDP account maybe two weeks prior, and just one day after creating my KDP account, it started showing this warning for identity verification. Though I am a resident of India and I have my PAN card and Aadhaar card, I've tried identity verification with the PAN card option and with the national ID option, both failed. I've tried it multiple times a day, and now I've given up. I have already published my new book on Apple and Google Books and am looking for other platforms as well, but as KDP holds the largest market for eBooks, I personally don't want to skip this option. Has anyone faced the same issue and successfully resolved it?

Hi Sub. I'm new to this community and I wanted to ask a question.

Is it allowed to post services such as layout design and cover creation?

Just a reminder that I'm not offering any services in this post. I'm simply asking a sincere question.

I am heading toward the launch of my first novel and keep getting stuck on the newsletter. What is it even supposed to do while there is no book to buy yet? Do you collect addresses from day one, and with what, without it costing a fortune? And what do you actually write in that pre-launch phase beyond spreading anticipation? I would honestly love to hear what worked for you and what was wasted time.

Hello fellow writers! So I published my first book. Im excited because it was literally therapy for me. Its about mental health, bullying, military, toxic leadership, resiliency, hope, childhood trauma. Its a memoir in a sense. But my goal for writing this book was to let others know that they aren't alone in this thing called Life.

Any recommendations for a guy who isnt big on social media but has a story to share?

I recently publish my first novel it knows don't let you know you are reading the biggest challenge was in writing the book it was figuring out how to market it afterward for those who have already gone through the state what do you wish you know before your first launch

My book is a novel set in and around a famous very large truck stop in the US Midwest, actually referred to by name in the book but readily identifiable from context anyway. It went up on KBP as an eBook only a couple of days ago. Needless to say, no sales avalanche! That's OK, no hurry. Here's the issue:

I had asked the truck stop company a week or so ago for permission to use one of the photos available on its website for the cover. I was told by a friendly person that they would need to see the work it was going to be used with. I gladly sent them a pdf copy of the text because I felt my book portrayed the truck stop in a very positive light, because the book is light-hearted and almost absurdist, and because it is clearly a work of fiction making no factual assertions at all (IMHO, silly me). I even suggested they might want to sell the paperback, when it comes out, in their store.

Yesterday I got a very huffy email back from a different and not friendly person to whom the matter had been referred. Without saying she had actually read the text this person said the book was libelous and demanded it be taken down. They said their lawyer had been copied. I wrote back as calmly as I could, but I agreed to "unpublished" the book temporarily and without prejudice, which was very easily. No big loss. I am in no hurry and I wanted to be reasonable, at least until I talked to my lawyer (a good personal friend who is also a top lawyer in a high powered firm, and who coincidentally is big fan of the book.)

I also asked the not-so nice but very demanding person if they could provide me with specifics of the aspects of the book that they think make false and damaging representations of fact about the truck stop. The possibilities, in my opinion, are:

--There is a drug-trafficking operation being conducted, unbeknownst to the truck stop, through the use of lockers in the truck stop where truckers acting as mules exchange packages without meeting one another.

--There are two very nice hooker characters who work the lot.

--One of the main characters, a waitress in the truck stop diner, when it is suggested that maybe she could cook in the diner instead of waiting tables since she is a good cook, says that "they" would never have a "pretty white girl" in the kitchen and move a black guy out front. (This is the most problematic thing I wrote, in my opinion.)

--There is a sub-plot involving unravelling the mystery of how the land where the truck stop sits, in one quadrant of an interstate cloverleaf, came to be acquired decades ago before the route of the highway was known at the expense of a farmer who was maneuvered into foreclosure by the bank. This gets solved in the end in a way that completely absolves the owners of the truck stop from any wrongdoing.

--Another sub-plot involves the son of said farmer bearing a grudge against the truck stop and occasionally and surreptitiously vandalizing innocent truckers. He eventually decides this is wrong, but continues to take revenge on trucks belonging to truckers who mistreat the hookers, being a good hearted soul and being the Godfather of one of them. That part could be problematic in suggesting that the place isn't safe and secure for truckers if it weren't for the fact that it is obviously not intended as a factual claim about the real truck stop.

Anyway, this really got my dander up for a minute or two, but I don't want a fight just for the sake of principle. I don't intend to give up but I don't want to rub it in their face either. I honestly did think I was painting a pretty positive picture of the truck stop. I would happily do a rewrite to genericize the place, though it would be hard since local details play a big part in the scene.

Thank you for reading this and for giving me the benefit of your experience and point of view.

I saw this question a lot but i didn’t really find the right answer, so shortly am i allowed to use quotes from poets or other authors in my book? For example could i use a quote like: “People have beautiful things to say about you, but you must die first.” - Fyodor Dostoevsky, in my book?

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!

Hello! Recently I wrote a little fantasy short story about a deaf boy on a pirate ship when it encounters a pack of sirens. It's a cute little 20 minute read and has some horror-adjacent and found family aspects. I published it on KDP awhile ago, but it hasn't gotten any reads. I was wondering if anyone had any advice on how to promote it?

I don't have much of any budget to spend on advertising and I don't have a following on social media (although I guess I could try to start one?). I mainly published the story so I could have something to point to when people ask me if I've published any of my work to read.

I don't think I'm aloud to post the link, but I'd also love some advice on my blurb, cover, etc! I haven't seen a whole lot about advertising other than "just post a lot on social media" or "pay amazon to advertise it for you" or "make a newsletter" (I have no clue how to even go about doing that or getting people to sign up) so any advice would be super helpful!

So i have this love-work of a book i've been conceptualizing since 2022 and writing since 2024. I finished around mid 2025 and after revisions and reviews from my friends, it has currently 466 pages, and 220196 words. I dont know if you guys think it's too long, but considering i'm wanting to make a whole 5 book saga on this universe, its a lot.

My friends also suggested me to do a short prequel of a relevant character, ive also done it, and it now has 191 pages and 99760 words. After that, i got inspirations for a PREQUEL SERIES SEQUENCE, and the current draft has 44 pages and 21993 words.

Every now and then the glimpses of creativity come to my mind from the havens above regarding the second book on the main series, and i'm basically forced to write it on, so the drafts for the seccond book now has 75 pages and 38027 words.

This universe is really a passion of mine, and besides some of my close friends, i hadn't shared with anyone. The thing is i LOVE writing this universe, i love polishing it, and i love reviewing it, making it better and expanding it. But i haven't done any work yet to actually publish it, not even the first one that's ready. I just write and write and write a history that i love so much but will probably just stay in my circle if i don't do something. Just wanted to know if anyone else struggles with this.

Following up on my previous post — I wanted to share some real data, a few free resources, and one unexpected lesson about writing.

Starting point:

$0 marketing budget

0 audience

completely empty social media

Where I’m at now:

The Social Media Grind:

TikTok — the only platform showing some life (a few videos hit 800+ views)

YouTube Shorts — ~100 total views

Instagram — completely dead

Result: basically zero downloads from social media.

What actually worked (with $0 budget):

I couldn’t use platforms like Freebooksy, Book Cave, Book Doggy, Fussy Librarian, or BookBub (paid promos).

So I tested free options:

*Awesome Gang

*Pretty-Hot

But the real MVP:

Facebook Groups.

Searching “free kindle books amazon” and posting there brought almost ALL my downloads.

I don’t have precise tracking, but this was the only thing that worked consistently with zero budget.

(For context: I also tried posting this journey on LinkedIn — no traction at all.)

Next step:

Sending physical copies to micro-influencers/book reviewers. If you don’t have a big budget, smaller creators seem like the only realistic option.

The unexpected writing lesson:

When I wrote my book, I carefully engineered every emotional peak. I knew exactly where the reader should feel the strongest impact.

Then 5 beta readers finished it.

And ~80% of their “most emotional moments” were NOT the ones I planned.

Scenes I thought were minor hit them the hardest.

My takeaway:

Don’t underestimate any part of your story.

What feels small to you might be the most powerful moment for someone else.

Right now, my whole process still feels like a fish flopping in a glass trying to find the river.

But every failed attempt is at least a data point.

If you’ve been through this — I’d really appreciate any advice.

To be more clear, I'm seeing a trend where a lot of agents are rejecting manuscripts and Query letters because something isn't 'Romantasy.' and I'm an author who has written one Dark Epic Fantasy novel, 111k words and am currently working on book two out of a planned five book series. The issue is I keep getting the This isn't right for my list or it's not right for the market. Never anything about my work or my Query in that of itself. A bit more information on my novel without giving too much away. It has knights and demon's and political intrigues and angels and arch angels and war and bloodshed. It get's dark, almost grimdark. Yet I get the feeling that I'll never get anywhere with where the market is right now, or hence how a lot of these agents say they are open to certain things but then decline when you submit. So, here I am, wondering if Traditional publishing in 2026 has abandoned Dark Epic Fantasy, because those agents that I have found and Queried that looked like good fits, well, so far they haven't been and the question is if I should genuinely try to self pub. I want people to read my work. I even plan to come out with a special edition omnibus for my fans at some point which is a tome that contains all five books in one. Thank you for reading this rant and sorry if it sounds...well you know...childish.

I am still working through line edits, I’m like 98% there. But I needed to see how images would print inside the book (maps, images, etc) so this is a very early proof. So excited. This is becoming real……..I am scared to look too closely when it comes!!

Oh my god!