Affiliate Disclosure:<\/strong> This post contains Amazon Associate links, which means if you click on them and make a purchase, I will receive a couple of pennies (at no extra charge to you).<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI wish I had known that before I self-published my book.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a common author lament. Maybe you’ve said it, too.<\/p>\n

Nearly everybody has a story about something they learned after they started the self-publishing process. For many, the discovery came too late to save them time, money, or trouble.<\/p>\n

That doesn’t mean you have to make the same mistakes, though.<\/p>\n

Lessons learned<\/h2>\n

Hoping to help new authors learn from the experiences of others, I asked self-published authors, \u201cWhat do you know now about self-publishing that you wish you had known when you started?\u201d<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what they told me.<\/p>\n

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“YouTube and Google are a self-publisher’s best friend.<\/strong> I learned Adobe Illustrator and InDesign methods because I self-published and had next to no budget. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ashley Sutton, Overtime Is SO Over<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

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\u201cThe one aspect of self-publishing I wish I knew when I started was to not overthink the process.<\/strong> There\u2019s so much overthinking going on because you don\u2019t want to go about it in the wrong way, but that simply complicates and slows down the process. My advice, just do it and put aside any fears you may have.\u201d<\/p>\n

Avni Parekh,\u00a0Be The Bigger Person<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

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<\/a>“I wish I knew more about the business end of selling books<\/strong>. When I first decided to publish my children’s books, I wasn’t sure how to get into a distribution network and actually reach people through all sources, so I created books through an off-set printer and through IngramSpark. However, once I started getting my sales reports, I learned I was only making 7 cents a book through those online channels!<\/p>\n

\u201cThat kind of return was not going to work. Luckily, I was able to get connected to a distributor with a sales team to help run my ads and generate higher returns. But if I had known this sooner, I could’ve saved myself a lot of headache and money.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brooke Van Sickle, Pirates Stuck at “C”<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

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\u201cFinding a reputable\u00a0publishing company is key.<\/strong>\u00a0 There are a lot of options and resources out there, but do your homework.\u00a0 Check out reviews and truly evaluate\u00a0the services they provide. You want to make sure the company you chose is a good fit for your book and your\u00a0brand, and not just after your pockets.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carenda Deonne, Perfect Patty Messed Up Devotional<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

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<\/a>\u201cI wish I had known more about the process of marketing myself<\/strong> as an author. I also wish I had known more about sending out books for review before publishing. I was unaware of the impact of reviews and keywords on search rankings.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cassandra Fay LeClair, Being Whole: Healing from Trauma and Reclaiming My Voice<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

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\u201cI wish I would have known specifics about the financial investment up front<\/strong>. To do it right, you really need to hire a designer for artwork (~$800), establish an LLC (~$125), format\/edit the book (I did this myself, but most people don’t; ~$400), obtain ISBNs and copyrights (~$200). By the time you market the book, you’re out of pocket around $2,000.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jessica Duemig, WARRIOR<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

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\u201cStart the marketing piece much earlier.<\/strong> As a new author, I was taking everything one step at a time, learning as I went. By the time I got to the point where the book was finished, had a cover, and was in proofreading, I started researching the publishing and marketing piece \u2013 only to learn that I was now way behind. It\u2019s not something you can really make up; you just do what you can with the time you have.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joyce Kristiansson,The Last Straw, Change Your Life and the Planet \u2013 for Good<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

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\u201cI wish I knew when I first started how important pre-launches and publicity are<\/strong> in the success of publishing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kathryn Starke, Amy’s Travels<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

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<\/a>\u201cI wish I had been more “realistic” with my expectations<\/strong> with regard to sales of self-published books versus established authors and major publishers.\u00a0It’s far easier to create a best-selling book if you are well-known or very popular.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kevin Darn\u00e9, My Cat Won’t Bark! (A Relationship Epiphany)<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

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\u201cUse IngramSpark for your print books!<\/strong> I just learned this valuable lesson. Bookstores and libraries don’t buy from Amazon \u2013 they use IngramSpark<\/a> to purchase books, and if you don’t publish there, you are missing out on many sales. Also, I have noticed the quality of the print books is higher with IngramSpark.\u201d<\/p>\n

K. J. Gillenwater, Aurora’s Gold<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

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\u201cI wish I had known how important reviews were.<\/strong> Once your book is live on Amazon, it’s harder to give away free copies. Many authors find reviewers<\/a> before their launch, and when the book goes live, they have it listed for free for the first week or two, so the reviewers can \u2018purchase\u2019 the book. When I launch my second book, I will focus more on getting reviews in the first few months rather than sales.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lynn Moore, Solidarity: Finding solidarity in heartbreak, anxiety & depression<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

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<\/a>“Don’t get carried away with yourself.<\/strong> It’s a beginner’s mistake. I self-published my first book decades ago, long before the days of the internet. In my naive self-confidence, I paid to have a local printer make 1,000 copies. Sales were embarrassingly dismal. I resorted to giving them away wherever I could. Decades later, I am selling subsequent books through Amazon and am much more savvy about marketing. I still have 100 copies of my first book as a humbling reminder.<\/p>\n

Marianne Jones, The Serenity Stone Murder<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

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\u201cI wish I had known about Amazon ads<\/strong> and used them right away!\u201d<\/p>\n

Milana Perepyolkina, Gypsy Energy Secrets: Turning a Bad Day into a Good Day No Matter What Life Throws at You<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

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\u201cI know now that we the writers don\u2019t need the exclusivity to one platform.<\/strong> Other platforms such as Amazon, Apple, Kobo, and Scribd and more formats are better for those people who have different types of e-readers.\u201d<\/p>\n

N\u00faria A\u00f1\u00f3, The Salon of Exiled Artists in California<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

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\u201cCreating an enjoyable book is one thing, but attracting an audience<\/a> to your book<\/strong> is something very different. Before you begin to write, you should identify to whom you are writing your book for and what are the benefits the readers will receive from reading your book.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paulette Harper,\u00a0Secret Places Revealed<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

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<\/a>\u201cWhile I knew I would have to do the marketing myself for my self-published novel, I didn’t realize that, with the 24\/7 opportunities of the internet, book marketing could become a full-time job<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Phyllis Zimbler Miller, Mrs. Lieutenant<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n

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\u201cYou will spend 30 percent of your time writing your book and 130 percent marketing your book<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rae Stonehouse, Blow Your Own Horn! Personal Branding for Business Professionals<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

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\u201cWriting the book was the easy part. When you decide to embark on the self-publishing journey, you need to have a marketing plan<\/a><\/strong> zipped up and ready to launch. If you don\u2019t shout it out from the rooftops, no one will find your book.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ren\u00e9e Bauer, PERCY\u2019S IMPERFECTLY PERFECT FAMILY<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

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\u201cI didn’t realize that when you self-published a book that you had to do all of the marketing yourself<\/strong> since you weren’t really hiring anyone to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shelby DeVore, Think ‘Inside’ the Box: An Essential Guide to Edible Container Gardening<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

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\u201cI wish I\u2019d known earlier which tasks it made sense for me to embark on the learning curve for myself, and which ones it made sense to hire people who already knew how to do those things<\/strong>. Because I hadn\u2019t published a book before, I didn\u2019t have a full appreciation, at the outset, for the thousand things I would need to think about and do in order to publish to a professional standard, or for how time-consuming some of those things would be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Siri Carpenter, The Craft of Science Writing<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

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<\/a>\u201cI wish I had known how much time and effort it takes to market a book<\/strong>. Some experts say you can do it in 10 to 30 minutes a day, but for the newbie trying to learn all the intricacies of book marketing, that is simply not realistic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sonia Frontera, Solve the Divorce Dilemma: Do You Keep Your Husband or Do You Post Him on Craiglist?<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

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\u201cThe biggest surprise for me was just how\u00a0time-consuming the promotion side of things can be<\/strong>. I work in online marketing in my day job, so I thought it’d be simple – especially as I had a bit of a following on Twitter and LinkedIn already – but I underestimated how much time it takes to promote it effectively. It’s easy to think only about ‘getting it out there’ and thinking the hard work stops as soon as it appears on Amazon, but that’s not the case. So my advice to other self-published authors would be to make sure you have your promotion strategy in place<\/a> way before you publish if you can.\u201d<\/p>\n

Steve Morgan, Anti-Sell<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

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\u201cAlways order a printed proof<\/strong> before releasing the book.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tara Alemany, Publish with Purpose<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

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\u201cWhen I published my first book of poetry, I wish I had understood two things. One, that there’s no such thing as a perfect manuscript. Two, that your manuscript gets stronger when you recruit talented people for your project<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tenesha Curtis, The Newbie’s Guide to Book Development<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

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<\/a>\u201cReviews are hard to get. This felt like a perpetual revolving door for me: I needed people to buy my book so they could leave a review, but people didn’t want to spend the money on my book if it had no reviews. Had I known about advance review copies<\/strong>, and secured some reviews<\/a> before launch, I think I could’ve saved myself a lot of this hassle in the beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tim Koster, The Probability of Time<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

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What have you learned about self-publishing that might help others? Please tell us in a comment!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI wish I had known that before I self-published my book.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a common author lament. Maybe you’ve said it, too.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Nearly everybody has a story about something they learned after they started the self-publishing process. For many, the discovery came too late to save them time, money, or trouble.<\/p>\n

That doesn’t mean you have to make the same mistakes, though.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":19612,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,11],"tags":[1281,704,247,403],"class_list":["post-13626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fiction","category-tactics","tag-avoid-mistakes","tag-ingramspark","tag-lessons-learned","tag-self-published"],"yoast_head":"\n