Well, I’m closing in on actually publishing my novel. That is, SELF-publishing, which means I didn’t go the traditional route (I’ll explain more about why in a future post).
Anyhoo.
I’ve done the writing, the editing, and now I’m waiting on the final changes for the cover. Then comes the FUN PART: publishing it!
But wait–there’s more to it than just uploading a pdf to Amazon and watching the money roll in (I wish). There’s categories to choose, keywords, a blurb, an author page, whether to select DRM, deciding whether to opt in to Kindle Unlimited (answer: no), deciding whether to expand distribution on Amazon (also: no), and many more.
There’s a whole strategy around where you upload your book formats for maximum reach, maximum control, maximum visibility, etc. The bottom line is, I’ve decided to “go wide” which basically means I’m not going to tie my publication to one distribution (for most self-published authors it’s Amazon), but rather I’m going to put my ebook in a LOT of places (print is a whole other deal).
The thing with Amazon, is that it has the largest customer base by an enormous margin compared to, say, Kobo, Google Books, or Apple Books. Also, if you put your book in Kindle Unlimited, you get higher royalties. Yay!
Oh yeah, but there’s a catch for KU: you have to be exclusive. That is, you can’t sell your book ANYWHERE else. Since I’m not into being tied to one particular choice, I’ve decided to forego the higher royalty rate to make my book more available (plus I don’t like being in thrall to Amazon).
So what that means for what comes next, is that I’ll be going Amazon first, uploading my ebook and print book there and then I’ll be moving on to other channels.
What that means for you, is that I’m trying to bring my book to your favourite bookstore so you can buy the way you want to. After all, I worked really hard on this thing and getting people to read it is kind of the point.
Until next time, read on my friends.