So, as someone who has finally written a book they feel confident enough about to self publish—(It’s a novella so I’m waiting until I have the full series out before I try and publish the whole thing with a company at a more marketable length.)—I’ve come to realize an important fact.
Writing the book is the easy part, marketing is a costly and more often than not, futile venture. I have tried everything from paid Amazon ads, to posters, to starring on youtube podcasts and soon radio shows, and I’ve honestly sold more copies just talking to people. (I haven’t sold a whole lot of copies just to make that abundantly clear.)
This is not because of flaws in my writing, at least so far I’ve never received below a five star rating from the strangers I do get to read the book. (Like three gave reviews on Amazon.) It’s from the simple fact that books take time to read, and no matter how nice my cover is, or how cheap I’m selling the book for, I’m a new writer without many reviews, so taking a risk on me as an author and possibly wasting your time to read my book isn’t in everyone’s best interest. So, it’s a real fight to get every reader to purchase the book, and I’m then stuck just sort of praying that they enjoy it enough to share it with their friends and give public reviews.
This all said, and as tough as marketing is, it’s still worth it to be an author, because the few people who do read and respond to my writing do seem to enjoy it. They always give detailed accounts of what they liked, and in some instances I’ve even made people become avid readers again after long periods of time where they weren’t entertained by the medium anymore. So, as tough as marketing has been, I’m still very thankful for the experience.
Thank you twfaison for sharing your story. I took the liberty of bolding what I think is a takeaway from it.
As always, don’t hesitate to ask a question or submit a writer problem (however long or short they may be).