Case (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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fandomsecrets2020-09-29 07:12 pm
case) wrote in fandomsecrets2020-09-29 07:12 pm
[ SECRET POST #5016 ]
⌈ Secret Post #5016 ⌋
Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.
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Notes:
Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 21 secrets from Secret Submission Post #718.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.
Re: Cozy Werewolf Drama Indie Author/AMA
Do you mind sketching it out for me? I'd be interested to know.
If you'd rather reply in a DM or an email, just go to my profile, or email tabaquij at gmail
Ta!
Re: Cozy Werewolf Drama Indie Author/AMA
(Anonymous) 2020-09-30 01:42 am (UTC)(link)The process for Amazon is pretty simple. You can link your amazon account to Kindle Direct Publishing and basically there's a bunch of help files and stuff to get you started. (They merged CreateSpace with KDP a while ago.) Or you can use Smashwords or Draft2Digital who will also publish to Amazon and other ebook sites in what we call "Wide." The caveat being your books can't be in KU if they're wide.
But before you get to that POINT. You really need to decide what you want out of this. For instance, if you want readers and don't care about cash, post to Wattpad. Big readership, better search engine.
Still want to go with Amazon and want to try and make money, you need to choose a budget for how much you're willing to invest in cover design/formatting/editing/marketing versus what you can do yourself. I barter my editing and do everything else myself and social media marketing. (Thus why I'm small.) There are lots of tutorials out there for formatting and cover making! Basically, you are a small business and you will wear lots of hats! (Lots and lots of hats. I worked as Accounts/HR manager for my dad, so yay crash course in profit/loss etc.)
Even if you aren't writing in a genre box, you still need to research the genre to decide how "indie" you want to be. There are a lot of "to market" pulp writers who will write books to genre conventions and publish every three months. (I've seen some every month.) They'll do "loss leaders" or those books you find permanently free to try to get sales of their later books. (Yes, give away 2700 books for 100 sales. Now you're 2600 books in the hole. Go you. sarcasm)
You'll need to learn how to write blurbs aka back copy.(I offer this as a service but no one has taken me up on it yet.) And you'll want to know your age demo (Adult, Young Adult, Middle Grade), genre category (so many mis-catergorized books on Amazon) and your marketing category (commercial, upmarket, literary which is all about the scale of action block busters to art house movies. Think MiB versus Space Cowboys versus Gravity.) I mean marketing a military scifi novel is a lot different than a cozy mystery. (My current marketing conundrum.)
Then, you really should start social media-ing at least a year or two in advance to get interest before popping the books up onto Amazon. Look for reviewers, try to do a book blog tour, maybe invest in some different sites who will "advertise" your book. (Bookbub, FussyLibrian being 2 I know.) Get up a website, make sure your SEO is books in your genre. Your website should be your author name, not the books. Since god knows how many genres you might end up writing! So, better to be YOU than... "Theclubhouse(dot)com." I've seen pro authors make this mistake.
You also might want to make an author account on good reads and I have an author page on Amazon. (Please, if you have more than one book, an author page is essential.)
Then, you might be ready to publish once you get the book all pretty and formatted and squared away. (You also can't do pre-orders of paperbacks on KDP b/c print on demand, go figure.)
Mostly, set your expectations low and keep them low b/c the "to market" people overtake the algorithms and amazon's search function is BAD. I mean really bad.
This is assuming you don't want to try traditional publishing and the one and a million odds first. I tried querying first and ended up being in zone of dead on arrival genres with a too long book.
Sorry for the long answer.
Re: Cozy Werewolf Drama Indie Author/AMA
And it basically validated my thoughts on just how underwhelming any kind of self-publishing can be, and how much Amazon sucks.
I really appreciate all the info. I'm going to do a bit more research and whatnot, of course, but you've give me a great starting place, and I appreciate it.
Thank you so much! :D Good luck!
Re: Cozy Werewolf Drama Indie Author/AMA
(Anonymous) 2020-09-30 02:58 am (UTC)(link)You're welcome. My website has a epub about what happens after you finish a book. It's on my books page near the bottom. "I Finished A Book, Now what?" With a lot more info about comparing contrasting self pub and trad pub and resources too.
Thank you! Good luck on whatever you decide.
Re: Cozy Werewolf Drama Indie Author/AMA