1. It’ll take a lot of willpower and patience! There have been SO many times I wanted to give up and walk away during the self-publishing process, but I’m so glad I hung in there. Make sure you have a good support system and reward time carved out for yourself when you hit different milestones.
2. You will truly become a jack of all trades and learn things you never imagined! One of the gifts/curses of self-publishing is you do it all! Yes, you can and should farm out some specialized tasks like your cover design or editing. But you will still end up finding yourself figuring out things like layout, marketing, SEO optimization and more! The good news is there are plenty of resources out there to help.
3. You WILL need to spend money. Please do not go into this thinking it’s as simple as just loading a manuscript on Kindle Publishing. If you want to do it right- and you should, to pay homage to the legitimate business option it’s becoming in the publishing world, you’ll need to lay out some money and consider it an investment in yourself. Your book needs to be able to stand up against traditionally published books. Therefore, you should budget at least enough for a professional cover designer and editor.
4. You will need to grow a thick skin. Yes, sadly, even in 2022, you will still hear negative comments and naysayers about the choice to self-publish. The stigma about self-publishing does still persist with people believing it is the fall-back option for writers who couldn’t get traditionally published. However, that is changing every day.
5. You will make more per copy than traditionally published authors. The average traditionally published author earns only about 7.5% of their book’s cover price, and those with agents lose a further 15% of that. Self-publishing platforms like Amazon, Apple Books, Google Play and Kobo pay up to 70% of each book sold to authors and there is no agent to take a part of that.
6. It might not be worth your time to get into bookstores. This might come as a surprise, but I no longer focus my efforts on getting into bookstores. I make less on sales from bookstores because I have to give them a warehouse discount and they pay less in royalties than I get from online sales. Plus, there’s the potential for returns. If a bookstore does not move your product in a certain amount of time- they will return it to the warehouse to be destroyed. And YOU get charged the full price balance of the books.
7. You will build a community of other writers and self-publishing contacts. You will learn fast that other authors are NOT your competition, but your marketing partners and support system. Whether you do newsletter swaps, group promos or book bundles, you should find other authors to share your efforts.
8. You will carve your own path. You will be bombarded with advice and resources across the internet with the best marketing or author platform advice. Some will swear by ads or book promo deals, others by social media posting and giveaways. The best thing to keep in mind is what works for others may not necessarily work for you. Give things a try, but do not feel like a failure if something doesn’t work for you or feel like a good fit. This is your journey and you’ll find what fits.
9. You will have competition. If you want to sell your book to more than just your friends and family you will have to figure out some kind of marketing plan. Gone are the days of just posting your book in Kindle Unlimited and having it found and downloaded by the masses. Take a look at these numbers to see what I mean- (All stats found on Alliance of Independent Authors)
a. Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited paid out over a quarter of a billion dollars to indie authors in 2019, apart from regular sales.
b. Kindle Unlimited (KU), Amazon’s e-book subscription program, is estimated to represent about 14% of all e-book reads in the Amazon ecosystem, according to Author Earnings and 85 percent of these are produced by self-published authors.
10. You will feel empowered. You are your own boss. And the biggest gift in self-publishing is being able to maintain full control over the entire process. You decide what the cover should like. You choose the editor or illustrator. You make the deadlines and choose your launch date. It’s an amazing feeling to keep that creative control and is the reason many authors choose to continue with it even after they find success.
So, if you’re ready to take out that manuscript from the drawer and learn about the process, feel free to reach out for some help in getting started! Good luck and happy writing!
An Industrial Historical Fiction Series
Book One
Joyana Peters
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Amaryllis Press
Date of Publication: July 25th, 2022
ISBN: 978-1736937327
ASIN: B0B64DHZFJ
Number of pages: 122 pages
Word Count: 25,482 words
Cover Artist: Domini Dragoone
Tagline: Sacrifice, Starvation and Survival. What will she do to stay alive?
Book Description:
Russia, 1905: Thirteen-year-old Ruth dreams of growing up to marry the boy next door and living peacefully ever after. But when he and her father are forced to flee to America after the Bloody Sunday Massacre, Ruth and the other female members of the family are left behind amid the violence and chaos of revolutionary Russia. Overcoming violence and hunger with a strength she never knew she possessed, Ruth resolves to do what it takes to keep her mother and sister alive—whether it be work, beg or steal.
Then she lands herself in a predicament that threatens to put her own neck in a noose. This time she may not be able to keep them all safe, at least not without sacrificing their love for her and all that makes life worth living.
In this prequel to the award-winning novel, The Girl in the Triangle, author, Joyana Peters, portrays a tight-knit family fighting to endure at a precarious and crucial time in Jewish history. Join the countless readers who can’t get enough of Ruth and her story.
What Readers and Critics are Saying:
★★★★★ "That is what historical fiction does for a reader, a slice of history wrapped up in a compelling story that teaches and makes us reflect on the words and our own lives in the stream of time." - Historical Fiction Press Awards
★★★★★ "An immigration story at the finest level, revealing the depths of tragedy many went through leaving a country of unspeakable suffering." - D.K. Marley
Joyana Peters is the Indie author of the best-selling novel, The Girl in the Triangle. The Girl in the Triangle won the SCBWI's YA Spark Honor Award, the IBPA’s Ben Franklin Award for Historical Fiction, the Book Excellence Award for Multicultural Fiction and was a Top Five Finalist for Shelf Unbound’s Indie Best Book of the Year.
Joyana got her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of New Orleans in 2014. She has taught literature and composition on both the secondary and university levels. She also writes non-fiction and has been published in digital and print publications nationwide.
Joyana currently lives in Northern Virginia where she takes in the sights of DC with her two kids, husband, and goofy Yellow Lab, Gatsby.
You can follow her adventures at:
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