Skip to main content

Refocusing on my writing and self-publishing experiment.




Instead of closing the blog, I've decided to focus this blog on my writing and self-publishing experiment. I had this massive plan to self-publish my novel then after going on a editing & pitching course with Curtis Brown Creative school, I decided to query. So before starting go query,  I gave the novel to another reader who wasn't too sure of the commercial market fit. So then I decided to go back to self-publishing. HOWEVER...I didn't really know how to approach it. My story just seemed too big in terms of cost. It would have cost about $1,000 upwards to publish - considering the word count and editorial support.

However Scribophile the writing site had a Q&A by a self-publishing expert, David Kadavy, https://kadavy.net/ who suggested it was best to start small and big towards the goal. At least to learn lessons along the way until one is comfortable. So I did that.  IT AN EYE OPENER!

So even though I was keeping an eye on costs, I still spend a lot more than I planned. Some were set-up costs and others were directly related to publishing the books. I also learnt about the nasty and grey side of self-publishing. But in the end, it's business. It's all about business.

The biggest takeaway was having a support network and MARKETING. And what if people you know don't what to know or you don't want to tell them?  Well.....it's difficult one, and it's something I'm struggling with now.

All I can say is that is you don't have a network who you can inform about your book, or bloggers who will review your book in advance, or even have big marketing campaigns where you offer your book at a discount...while paying a ton of cash. Well, do you get discouraged? Do you plow on? Do you look for that agent and just focus on writing?

ON the other hand, loss making or not, it's been a very positive experience. My family have stopped asking me when I will I publish. I've sold about 7 copies, and a few kindle unlimited reads. I like the kindle Unlimited reads statistics because they give me the rates of 'Did Not Finish' which has been low.

I'm about two months late with the second release, it was due out in September, but October has been very busy so I'm hoping perhaps by the end of next week.

MARKETING? I'm thinking of some campaigns but again it's about having the time and energy. Social media is pretty time consuming.  I tried Twitter and Instagram but I'm not naturally on those platform, so my interest ran out quickly. I'm also not sure how to promote on those site. Though I'm thinking of something...

However it's only one book out. So I'll give myself at least a year in this self-publishing experiment with two more planned and see what happens.

Anyway I'll up date as I go along.

Cheers


-----------------------------------------------------------
 Check out Bigga Day's books on

Smashwords.com
https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/bigga
Apple iBooks
https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/bigga-day/id595585425?mt=11
Barnes and Nobles
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/c/bigga-day
Kobo
http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/Search?query=Bigga%20Day&fcsearchfield=Author
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Had coffee with a fellow writer, went to an exhibition on West Africa: Word, Symbol, Song at the British Library.

There was a massive Disney Christmas tree at St Pancras Station.  I thought I'd start with that picture. Implemented Accounting Guru Genius (AGG)  method this morning. I mentioned yesterdays she showed me her way of planning. Well it's kinda like project management critical path and working back but in AGG's way.  Well the results where what I sort of knew but it's official. I do too much. I've got so much on that I have make very slow progress with anything then end up procrastinating. So I really need to learn and get this planning and time management method under my belt. The only reason is that it's kinda the only thing I actually got. When AGG first did it, I was amazed. It was so impressive. I kinda forgot about it but it's coming up to the end of the year, and I've made great progress with some goals and projects but others are still hanging. Anyway after putting in all my hours I realised I only had a certain amount of free time. Not a...
1 comment
Read more

The Scale (Martha's Way 1) by Mika Jolie

  This is one of the of the best romances I've read in a LONG TIME. I loved it! It's brilliant and even writing a review will not give it justice, but I'll try. Just get it because it's that good, positive and uplifting with a good ending. It’s also funny at times. About the story Most women (or me) can all relate to Minka, the main female character, who like most of us, defines herself by her flaws/issues - a few pounds overweight, insecurity about her body, confidence issues (which thanks goodness doesn't stop her from jumping into bed with Jason) and loves her glass of wine with a nice dessert, and likes to feel sorry for herself at times. And she is supposedly in love with an old college crush - the one she thinks that got away (you’ll need to read the book for more details). So we can all relate to her in one way or another, including her stubbornness in clinging to those issues and using them as an excuse not to get on with her life or even make the way...
Post a Comment
Read more

My Father's Tears and Other Stories by John Updike

Great stories and some really touching. Most were very real so it more a study of human nature and how people grew older. He probably wrote these towards the latter part of his life because the average age of the characters mostly male were about 60 odd years old.
Post a Comment
Read more