Mine was that the only people making money off my books were my cover artist, editor and facebook ads. My first two books I spent probably $5000 on all in (I didn't keep close track) and sold less than 10 copies. When I didn't really have the money to spare in my early twenties. When I came to the realization that the only people making money off my writing were the support people I stopped publishing for a while.

I kept writing though, wrote three novels without publishing them. Not until I had the skills to design my own covers, refused to pay for ads, and self-edited (which is not ideal but I just do not want to spend the money) did I start publishing again.

Now I still make less than ten sales but at least I don't end up in the negative and my work is still out there.

Below is a *rough* idea of the blurb for the back cover of my fantasy book/novel. I stress the rough part. XD Any feedback is welcome. Good or bad. I can take it (i think!). :)

“I am the man that stuck the knife into your daughter’s heart.”

Karlous Kalthorn is a man with two lives, neither of which he chose. With his family dead, he sets out to seek justice, and in so doing enters a bloody conflict twenty years in the making. But as twilight descends upon the land, he begins to realize there are darker forces at work. Forces no mere man should have access too, or can even truly comprehend.

Worse, time is running out, and Karlous realizes that to find justice he may have to give up all he has fought for – and possibly more.

I already know about the standard stuff: build an email list, send out ARCs, get reviews, optimize the Amazon page, maybe run Amazon/Meta ads, etc. etc.

I was wondering about some less obvious tactics that may work for a first book. Have you heard about (or tried!) any more out-of-the-box marketing ideas? If so, what were they... and did they work?

Howdy, I published a 135 page premium color 6x9 inch hardcover book on Amazon and the authors cost is $14.42. I published them mainly to do a donation project to children’s hospitals in honor of my son so hoping to find a better price. Also, Amazon’s quality isn’t always consistent… I’m wondering who other folks have had good experiences with and if you know the printer price compared to what Amazon charges you? Thanks!

What are the reasons? When people say their account had been banned for no reason there had to be some reason right? Terms of service, etc?

I grew up reading paperbacks written by Louis L'Amour in Traditional 4.25 inches wide by 6.75 inches high but understand today the most common format is 6 by 9. Then add the fact that to do Hardcover you really have to stick to 5.5 by 8.5 or larger.

I have a book published in an Amazon with a different isbn for each format, ebook, paperback, and hard cover.

IngramSpark is currently refusing my paperback isbn because it's in extended distribution program on KDP.

However the set up page on IngramSpark only allows for one isbn, and it allows my hardback one. Will I need to come back after I do a title transfer and add the paperback isbn again? I'm just unclear on how IngramSpark handles different formats.

Saw my page reads go down for me. Anyone else?

Am I stupid in ignoring posts on Threads that ask for authors to share the last line they wrote in their WiP? I don't understand why other authors are so interested in what someone has written or am I missing the chance for engagement and connecting with other authors?

Play Number One: The Editor Speaks to Friends & Family

(Characters: The Editor, Assorted Friends & Family)

The Editor: The manuscript is complete! Layout and design are complete! I'm sending out galley proofs to the authors!
Assorted Friends & Family: Is the book done?
TE: Soon! But meanwhile, I'm celebrating these milestones along the way. Also, we've gotten some nice media attention. Check out this story [link] and this tweet [link]. I'm excited!
AF&F: Is the book done?

** time passes **

The Editor: The ebook is coming along! Look at how we've used .css to better align the ebook version with the print version! [screenshot]
Assorted Friends & Family: Is the book done?
TE: Soon! But I wanted to let you know about my progress.

** time passes **

The Editor: The book is done! The ebook is done! They are out in the world! Early reviews are amazing! I'm so proud of my team!
Assorted Friends & Family: Are you going to make another book?

The End

Play Number Two: The Editor Queries Bookstores and Reporters

(Characters: The Editor, Bookstores, Reporters)

** Summertime **

The Editor: We're working on a new book! It's like [title], but with [quirk]. Our target reader is [demographic] who enjoys [activity]. You'll love it. Curious?
Bookstores & Reporters: When does your book come out?
TE: This fall! I already have [sample chapter] and [awesome illustration] that your readers would love. Plus, two of my authors live locally, and they'd be happy to discuss—
Reporters: Thanks! Let us know when the book actually does come out?
Bookstores: Thanks! The sampler does look pretty cool. Let us know when the book is available from [monopoly]?
TE: Will do! Thank you for your interest!

** Autumn **

The Editor: Hello again! The book is coming out! It will be out in two weeks! Remember [awesome illustration] and [sample chapter]?
Bookstores: We've closed our ordering for the holidays, thanks.
TE: Oh.
Reporters: This looks so cool. Let us know when the book is actually out?
TE: Will do!

** Autumn, Two Weeks Later **

The Editor: I'm delighted to announce that the book is out! It came out yesterday! I've got local authors who would be delighted to share their insights into–
Reporters: I mean, if the book already came out yesterday, does it really count as "news" anymore?

The End

Stay strong, folks. You can only control the parts you can control. Laugh at the rest!

Hey yall... just wrapped up a 40 page pdf niche playbook but trying to get this thing live is giving me absolute nightmares. I wanna skip amazon kdp so i can keep my own customer list but every direct option feels like a trap. Half of these sites want me to pay some monthly subscription fee before ive even made any sale. I am looking into platforms that might offer some protection against pirracy so that my work doesnt end up being dumped it into a discord server ... .also do you guys recommend offering products in just US or worldwide?... skeptic about filing for taxes as i am no tax expert.

Hello!

My book got published on the 16th of October so I thought I'd make a post about my ARC experience.

Book: YA contemporary romance (multicultural, black FMC x East Asian MMC, cheerleader x math nerd, ex-friends to reluctant allies to lovers)

I used the following sites:

1. NetGalley

2. BookSirens

3. Booksprout

4. Reddit r/ARCReaders

NetGalley

• Posted: 1st of August (so 2.5 months before publication)
• Impressions: 2983
• Requests: 344
• Declined: 70
• People with access: 271
• Feedback: 59
• Reviews: 57 (some booksellers/librarians don't leave reviews)
• Cover rating 55 upvotes, 34 downvotes (I'd say my cover was very hate it/love it situation, no one was particularly neutral about it lol, i got a cover illustrator for art, but I designed it myself so you could see it was amateur but in a cute way. I'd be getting a cover designer for my next one to make it more professional but still retain that slightly handmade look)
• Average rating: 4 stars (5-17, 4-27, 3-10, 2-2, 1-1)

BookSirens

• Impressions: 6,828
• Requests: 230
• People with access: 18
• Reviews: 7
• Average rating: 4.4 (5-4, 4-2, 3-1)

Booksprout

• One request
• One review

Reddit

• 0 takers

All this translated to:

• Goodreads: 50 rating, 49 reviews, 4.22 average rating
• Storygraph: 12 reviews, 4.29 average rating
• Fable: 11 ratings, 11 reviews, 4.3 average rating
• Pagebound: 2 reviews, 5 star average rating
• Instagram: About five posts I got tagged in

Thoughts:

• I've had a pretty good review rate: 22%. On NetGalley, I was medium-strict about who I declined - I allowed people with low feedback ratios if they had recent reviews (last month). I declined everyone who didn't have a link to a book review site which meant that almost all reviews got posted somewhere else, not only on the ARC website. I checked everyone's recent reviews and their book review sites before I approved them - do they read books in my genre, do they rate them highly etc. This meant that most of my reviews are very positive because they're from people who are used to the genre. I had one heartbreak where a person whose goodreads is literally a BIPOC YA contemporary romance, I mean her taste aligned PERFECTLY with my book, and she hated it, but that was about it. I got one librarian rating it 2 stars because there was alcohol and swearing in a book, but that's the risk of writing a more accurate teenage experience hahahaha
• The reviews were good. I mean, GOOD. It wasn't just "yeah, I liked it", people were writing essays about what they loved, gushed over specific scenes. Like, I'll take 50 of these reviews over 100+ reviews that would just say "this was cool". I believe quality over quantity and my 50 reviews (even the more negative ones) will sell the book with how honest and authentic they were
• This was my first ever book and to hear people loving the scenes that I love, getting what the book was about, saying that they'll be thinking about these characters forever, talking about re-reading it already, it was so motivating while I'm in the trenches trying to write the second book. Even people who hated it (one person said that when she finished the book, her first thought was 'fucking finally'), were rating it three stars.
• I will do NetGalley and BookSirens again. With NetGalley I'd probably be even stricter than the first time around. I might even do booksprout again. Even though it was only one reviewer, she was the first review I ever got, one of my favorite reviews still, so I am now sentimental.
• I think people were interested in my book because of the description. It was good. The cover was super pink (I mean obscenely pink) so it got people's attention but i think it was the description that made people request. I think I was good about telling people exactly what this book was going to be - you will get your rom-com, but it will be about cultural identity trauma, mixed race experience, immigrant experience, so I never got any people who rated negatively because they were only expecting a silly rom-com or racists hahahaha

So far I've had 25 sales (KDP + IngramSparks, 23 paperbacks, 2 ebooks) and I have done next to zero marketing lol. I'm trying to improve on it now via Instagram, but I hate social media so it's not going well. I have 45 followers hhahahahaha.

EDIT #2 - 100% a scam! Thank you to everyone who helped in the comments. I think I'll keep playing along right up to the point where they ask me for money up front.

EDIT #3 - I heard back from the "agent" (whose email is also a single letter different from the real person's) and now it's clear that they're using AI to generate responses. She was "very glad to hear from me" and "excited to work together" but also let me know that we couldn't proceed until I'd submitted a formal query letter along with a manuscript. Of course I'm not giving them my manuscript. But I am thinking about sending over a PDF of War and Peace or the Grapes of Wrath just to see what happens.

Here's my original post:

xxx

Last week I received an email from someone claiming to be Editor in Chief at a well known publishing house. Of course my first thought was "oh it's a vanity press, or some scam" but I verified their credentials and sure enough it's a legit email from the real person. They were expressing interest in a short story collection I self-pubbed almost 10 years ago!

After the initial introductions and verifying each other, they suggested that we should continue our conversation through my agent, which of course I don't have.

To my further surprise they recommended one, suggesting I email this particular agent and name-drop the intial person who contacted me. Naturally, I researched the agent and I am now at the point where I (a) can't believe my luck and (b) still kinda think I'm the mark in a long con.

Anyone here ever convert one of your existing works into trad pub? Would love to hear your experiences.

EDIT - I'm starting to believe this is a scam based on similar examples shared here in the comments. I will say however that my naiive belief that this is real is fueled by the success of the self-pubbed book they're expressing interest in: A ten year old book that still sells well enough to pay my bills with zero marketing, that's been very well reviewed, and even mentioned in the NY Times. I could imagine some world in which a publisher would be interested.

But of course, skeptical until the end. I'll report back.

I took everyone’s advice and got updated book covers and had an editor from Penguin Random House read two of my books and another helped with the book blurbs. I also have a newsletter and professional website, but they haven’t really done anything.

I still have very weak social media interaction and engagement with other readers (aside from scammers) despite posting every week and having six novels.

Aside from writing another novel, or more marketing, is there something else I’m supposed to do?

Can anyone see if I’m missing something?

Some people I have seen on tiktok have these. And a few times I have seen people that say you should have them, but I have no idea how to figure that out. I know the basic emojis, but definitely not an emoji lore person. They use it to denote what they write, but its around 2-3 emojis.

Any advice on picking?

I'm intentionally going with a niche print strategy for my next book because I'm convinced that paying for online ads is just pissing money away.

As the post mentions I need help finding a good manuscript review service dealing with technology.

whenever I search something related to technology and editing, I get a lot of AI technology options as results. the other downside has been services only offering dev/line edit options.

i found some scientific services dealing with journals, and some specialists for dissertations and thesis work - all of which has >20k word limit, and doesn’t work for manuscripts specifically.

Reedsy and the-efa. org are out of the question because they only do more expensive dev and line edit options. reedsy had me quoted in the $2500-3500 range for a dev edit, I want to avoid.

Im unsure about the IET - it’s a membership service. Their pricing structure (membership includes editing?) and services offered are confusing to understand. does anyone have experience with them?

Is there a credible service with manuscript review options that has editors familiar with technology ?

Looking to do a hardcover print run of about 1,000 for some anticipated holiday sales, and having a bit of trouble finding a printer. My book is a bit of an odd size (7x10) with cream pages. One person quoted me literally double what my KDP printing costs are, which is insane.

But wanting to see who you guys use. Need something that I can have by 12/1, and bonus points if I can save money by taking some PTO and driving over to pick up the books myself.

Already tried looking into Booklogix and that won't work out.

It looks completely legit as far as I can tell, but it's asking me for more personal information after I've already logged in. It makes sense that they would be especially careful in authenticating my identity. I haven't filled out anything yet. I just want to make sure.

Also, I'm using a pen name, but I'm supposed to fill out my full government name unless I'm part of a (presumably multi person) organization, so I'm just confused if I should print my pen name (which is the company) or my real name. Partly because I have two different accounts on Amazon (one for my pen name and one for my personal other stuff), and I don't want to confuse things.

I want to build one online shop where people can buy my books, my ebooks, my artwork, and order services like editing, story coaching, and freelance illustration and book design. I want this all in one place. I can't afford Shopify. Has anyone set something like this up? Any suggestions?

BookSirens rejected my book, but I figured it was because I only had a few weeks until the book was scheduled to be published. I didn't realize these sites are booked months out. Anyway, I noticed one of the questions they ask is who edited the book. I edit my books myself and began to wonder if ARC sites automatically reject self-edited books. Why else would they ask who edited it? So, I'm wondering, has anyone been accepted who edits their own books on BookSirens and NetGalley?

I have been buying my ISBN's from Bowker. Use them across the board for wide distribution.
My current setup: I use the free ASIN for my ebooks as they are all in Kindle Unlimited and I have no plans of removing them. For all paperbacks, I upload to Amazon first, then do wide in Ingram with my own ISBN. I have no plans to change any of my processes. I love Ingram Spark.

My question:
Ingram Spark now offers free ISBN's.
Is this a magical money savings then or is there a downside to this?
Would I take this ISBN to Amazon and I no longer have to buy them from Bowker?

I just published my first book and really regret hiring a so-called promotions team. I worked hard for a couple of years to learn as much as possible to make my book as high-quality as possible and I did a ton of research for that, but in terms of marketing, I feel a bit lost.

Basically these people can’t write, make bad visual choices, and I’ve had to redo everything that they’ve done. But they do have the tech expertise that I don’t have. I can come up with ideas and better writing, but I am not very present on social media or very tech savvy. I am very new to this whole world and am not sure how to proceed.

I know a lot of people who advertise marketing and promotional services are a big waste of time and money, but are there any decent options out there?

From the comments that I read on here and the research that I’ve done, it seems like a lot of people do their own marketing, like design their own ads and do their own social media, etc. Is there any other option for somebody who is not very techy, has a demanding full-time job, but really wants to promote their first book? Like are there legit people to hire?

I've been publishing my MG action/adventure series for a little over a year now and have two books to my name with a third coming in February. Several have recommended that I try reaching out to schools for school visits. I thought it would be a great way to inspire kids to be creative. I designed a potential 50-minute program and made a nice 2-page flyer on Canva, then reached out to several middle/elementary school librarians in my area, including my old elementary/middle school.

Absolute crickets. Not sure if maybe I did something wrong or what. Maybe my timing was off? Reached out to the wrong people? Maybe there are too many authors and not enough schools to go around? I'd love to hear some tips and get some advice from authors who have managed to land author visits and how they did it. Thanks in advance!